I’m warming up my lower extremities and stretching my back. My back is the part that gives me the most trouble when I’m walking. I don’t expect to get much trouble from it today, but I’m already sore. And the cat has gone upside-down. Welcome to Running: A FEVER. It’s a podcast about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. And if that’s your goal, you’re in the right place. We can share information to help us do that. And I want to love my life enough to make it last as long as possible. Those two go hand-in-hand, I think. Most people would rather not have an unloved longer life.

I’m inside, in my house, on my stationary bike. It’s not a common occurrence, but I do not want to go out in the cold these days. I just recorded an episode reviewing episode 101, a video filmed with me on the stationary bike, doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This episode is 354, but we’ve been returning to some of those older episodes. I was talking about the show (Running: A FEVER 101).

When we think about taking our body to extremes, it’s like intermittent fasting. It’s interesting. We go to extremes alternately, and it ends up being good for us. That makes sense. You’ve got to stretch in different directions, just like warming up. Intermittent fasting means there are many different ways to do it, but it means eating during a certain period and fasting during a specific period. On a daily basis, you can fit all your eating in an eight-hour period and fast during the other sixteen hours. You could also do it not within a day but during a more extended period. In that case, you’d do something like eating for five days and fasting for the other two each week. I’m trying to do that, not just for my health but for my faith as well. I am Catholic, and we believe in fasting in a much milder way than I’m doing now. And it is mandatory for only two days each year. But during the period of lent in which we are right now, it is recommended to fast and pray and give alms. So fasting is one of those things. It might do my body good as well as my soul, so I’ll try to do that. Last Friday, I started feeling ill, so I ended up eating. I’m not going to compromise my health.

So this morning I am riding a stationary bike for twenty minutes. The last time I did it, it made me feel good all day. I’m not doing anything strenuous; I’m just moving. I could have gone for a walk. It is getting to where there are less cold days. Yesterday started in the 30s and wound up in the 70s later in the day. So, it’s warming up and getting ready for spring. But I just haven’t been getting up early enough to get to work when I want to get to work. Today, I’m working from home because I have a delivery coming. So I don’t need to get dressed for work and all the things I have to do normally, and there’s time for a twenty-minute workout. One of my forty-minute walks would get me to work at 7 am.

I’m trying to set good habits for myself, and it’s been difficult. I haven’t been walking, getting on the bike or going to the gym. My eating may be a little better, but I am not going to the extremes I used to. Weight is stable but still needs to go down more. And I need to do what I did so successfully last year: counting my calories and checking my weight. So, I need to start doing that again to get moving. It’s not that difficult once you start doing it. I still have the handwritten page on my fridge with all the calories of various foods. And I still have many of those numbers in my head from using them so often. And if they are not in my head, it’s easy to look them up. So why don’t I start doing that today?

To check in: My well-rounded life is going pretty well. I’ve had a lot of social activity, having people over to my house and eating at other people’s houses. I’m practicing my faith more. I stay busy at work. I always feel better when I’m being more productive. And today’s going to be a challenge since I’m working from home. I used to be good at that during COVID, but it’s been very difficult lately. It helps to schedule my work. I’m doing things now that have to be scheduled for a particular period of time, and all of this has to be approved. So, if I don’t get it done, I have to cancel and go through the same process. It’s an incentive to work more. Fortunately, I have some work scheduled for today.

So now I’m going to jump in the shower, then make the thirty-second commute from one bedroom to the other. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. If you’ve got the fever, keep it, and if you don’t, catch the fever! And I will talk to you next time on Running: A FEVER.