Welcome to Running: A FEVER. My name is Michael Davis. This is a podcast and a YouTube channel about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, happy, healthy, active life right up to the very end. If that sounds good to you, you’re in the right place. We’ll get there together.

It’s a beautiful day at Lake Fayetteville. I’m back at Lake Fayetteville for the first time in a while. I have been on the Spring Creek trails for a while. Half of that is still blocked off due to construction. It looks like the construction is coming to a close. It’s very strange. The episode where I gave the YouTube viewers a look at the construction is very popular on YouTube. I believe that was a short video. Part of a longer video. But it was always just like a big hole in the ground. They built all kinds of things inside the hole. And then very recently, they have covered it over with dirt. So there’s just a bunch of dirt on top of the hole. It doesn’t look like they are going to build anything on top of that, but I don’t know. They do have a small structure. I don’t know what it’s for. I guess it’s access for some maintenance or control of whatever they have there. It’s been interesting. Someone has said it’s something related to water. Somebody asked somebody else about that. I don’t know. We will see what happens at the weird construction site in my subdivision. Right next to the Spring Creek trail.

But today, I’m at Lake Fayetteville. And it is June 5th of 2025. So we’re getting close to summertime here, and everything is green. There goes somebody who’s going a lot faster than fifteen miles an hour. It’s very green here, very thick foliage. It feels good to be in the shade right now. It’s a hot day today. The forecast said low eighties, I think, 81 or 82. But when I left work, the thermometer in my vehicle said 91. Which, I guess, makes it the hottest day this year. I usually know what the forecast is, if not the actual temperature. And I don’t think it’s been that high. And on the way here, it was 87 degrees. It dropped very quickly. It may have something to do with my vehicle being in the sun all day.

I hydrated before I came out here, I had a BCAA shake. Because why not? I have this powder around that I rarely use, so I might as well use it. It’s berry flavored, and I mix it with that diet Cran-Grape. So we got a super double-berry thing going on, if a grape is a berry. Well, a cranberry is a berry, so we have at least double, possibly triple berry. And I brought along some water for when I get done here. I put some ice cubes in it because I know it’s going to warm up in the car. And I put on my sunscreen today.

There are a few people out here. Traffic was easy coming over here. Rush hour, but not terribly. This area has grown immensely since I moved here in 2006, almost 20 years ago, and the traffic has grown along with it. It wasn’t too bad. I got here at the parking lot in the Botanical Gardens area, and there were only two vehicles here. But I’m sure there are other people parked at different places. But over the weekend, there were a lot of people parked there. It was nice. Nice over the weekend too, especially Saturday, and I think that’s when we drove by here. But it was much cooler than this. It’s ten minutes to five, so definitely rush hour. That guy’s probably going about fifty.

My watch accurately says I’ve been walking for about ten minutes. It always gives me an alert when I’ve been walking for ten minutes for some reason. I’m going to walk two miles today. I already forgot what the starting steps were before I got going. But I said it out loud, really softly, but out loud. So when I produce this episode, I’ll be able to figure out how many steps per mile I’m doing because I’ll have to note that when I get to the end of the road. The end of the walk today. It’s been a while, probably several weeks, since I’ve done any exercise. Even going on the Spring Creek trail, that short side of it. It’s been a while. I wanted to get out of here. I always want to get some exercise in my life because of all the great things that exercise does. It’s a psychological boost. Not just the exercise, but getting out here in this oasis of nature in the middle of our city area. Woods all around.

It would certainly help with my weight management program. I’m still on it. I noticed that I haven’t lost any weight in the last month or so. And I may be having a little bigger meal at supper time than I probably need. So, probably cutting back there would help a little bit. There’s a tendency to say, “Well, I’ve lost a few pounds, I can eat more,” and then the next day I’m back up. So it’s mini-yoyo-dieting—short-term yoyo. But yeah, I haven’t lost much, if any at all. I’ve been as low as, at this point, 214. And today I believe we’re at 216.9 or 216.4 or something like that. Yesterday was 215. I think the day before was 222, which is really — I haven’t been going outside of the teens recently, but I’m probably down quite a bit since the last time I talked about it on this show. So 216 is … 67 pounds. And I reached 281 on July 6, 2024. So that’s the high I’m going from this time. So it’s been almost a year.

And my diet has not changed. For breakfast, I have a protein shake, usually mixed with powder and literally shaken. I’ve been using an Optimal Nutrition Caramel Machiatto flavor. Which is a good flavor, but it seems weak. I’m just putting a minimal amount of, not even a cup of almond milk in there when I mix it. It looks very weak. I think the first time I got that, it was pretty normal. I’ve ordered another jar of it, I guess you’d say—a plastic container, two pounds, I think. And for lunch, I have a protein shake. And I’ve been using the Optimal Nutrition Gold Standard, and the current flavor is — I have seen more motorized vehicles than bicycles on this trip. And we’ve gone about three-quarters of a mile. There’s a bicycle with a baby in tow. The current flavor is coffee. Some coffee flavor. And it’s pretty good. I usually drink it over ice. It tastes like an iced coffee. So that is breakfast and lunch. Last night, the evening supper meal was just a regular meal. I don’t have any fundamental limitations on that. I can eat almost anything I want.

What I can’t do is what I used to do on my cheat days. And this is what you do if you want to gain a lot of weight: Call it a binge. It started with two candy bars, usually Butterfingers. A bag of chips. Not that I would eat the whole thing. But this was before I’d get into the main meal. Then it would be something big like my giant loaded baked potato, with lots of cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon, pepperoni, and olives. It’s enormous, it’s not just like a little baked potato you have as a side with dinner. That would be something. It could be pizza. It could be tacos. Lots of tacos. Lasagna.

I’d probably eat enough lasagna for four people, maybe five. And then dessert was usually ice cream, and a lot of ice cream—usually two big bowls. So anyway, that’s where I was a year ago. Again, bicycles have no respect for anything else but themselves, weaving in and out of people at fifty miles an hour. Not very good. Don’t do that, folks, please. Anyway, so what am I doing now that’s different from the big binge? I’m going to turn around here. It’s almost a mile, but it’s over twenty minutes. A mile equals twenty minutes in my book.

Some people don’t want to interact; they don’t make eye contact. I’d rather be a little more friendly. It’s like that at work. Sitting in a whole row of cubicles, and they are short cubicles, and somebody comes in, and you exchange no words all day. You may exchange a chat message, maybe an email. Most of our communication is done through chat, Microsoft Teams. Anyway, social interaction is part of my plan. And it takes some effort on my part to make that happen, but I’m doing the best I can. It’s part of the happy part. Okay, 4500 steps today. I think I’m probably seventeen hundred when I started here, I guess. So, a couple thousand per mile. So about two thousand steps per mile. Well, maybe three. Live math, here, folks. Live math.

I’m sorry. I’m thinking of imaginary scenarios. Sometimes you see something in someone’s eyes that makes you think. Well, I worked up a good sweat in this eighty-seven-degree weather, that’s for sure. I’ll go home, cool down, and take a shower.

I guess I’ve got a little medical report I can give you. Medical department. As you know, I’ve had braces since last year. I have braces on my bottom teeth, and I’ve been wearing Invisalign trays on the top. I don’t have to wear the top ones anymore, but they made me a retainer that I have to wear at night. And I’m scheduled to get my braces removed on August 7 now. I’ve got one more visit before then, and then it’s off with the braces. Something I’m looking forward to. I see a lot of cut-up branches here, probably from the storms we’ve had recently. Anyway, I guess my teeth are getting better. It’s kind of hard to tell, because you can move your jaw forward and backward, it’s not just in one place. Maybe I’m just invisible. I’m wearing a black shirt and black sweats. So yeah. Chips, popcorn. I can eat granola or a granola bar. Things that are chewy, sticky, and crunchy. Crackers! And I’ve had some of that stuff during the last year. I have to be careful, maybe eat it on my back teeth, where there are no brackets.

We’ve had a lot of rain lately. I hope you liked that episode I did from Mt. Nebo. There was a terrible storm. I recently released an episode from Mt. Magazine that was affected by the windstorm. Recently for me, ancient history for you. But there was an even worse storm at Mt. Nebo, the worst storm I’ve ever been in. But I still was able to hit the trails, so it wasn’t too bad. I did see another cracked tree along the trail. That’s all in the episode, so no need to rehash it here. But I’m seeing the same sort of carnage here at Lake Fayetteville, but it’s all taken care of now. Unless they are going to haul this stuff off, they may just let them rot there. Probably the best thing to do. That tree on my cabin, they hauled that away. But we weren’t in the woods. There were woods nearby, but we were in a nice mowed area around the cabin, so you wouldn’t want to leave it there. Here, we’re in the woods. And in nature, there are no naturally existing chainsaws. When something falls, it just falls and stays there. Dies, and disintegrates, and fertilizes the soil for those that are still living. The cycle of life. The cycle of a tree’s life. By the way, the whole time it’s disintegrating, it’s releasing all the carbon it soaked up in its lifetime. So that’s how effective it is to plant a tree for carbon credits.

I’m a slow walker, but slow and steady wins the race. It’s only essential that I keep trudging forward. I hope that the water is slightly cool by the time I get back to my vehicle. It’s hot. The hottest day of the year. So far. I’m sure it will get hotter later in the summer. I’m starting to see my way out of the woods. I ‘m grateful there are no mosquitoes here. There were quite a few at Mt. Nebo. And I guess that may be the last time I’ve done any real exercise. I am hiking at Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo State Park. A great place to visit. Some people actually live there. It took me a little longer to get back. Well, it’s still a beautiful day at Lake Fayetteville. My watch says eighty-five. And 6300 steps. And it’s taken me forty-five minutes to do the whole roughly two miles. A little less than two miles. But it’s been good to get some exercise. It’s been great having you along. Remember, if you’ve got the fever, keep it burning, and if you don’t, catch the fever. And I will talk to you or see you next time on Running: A FEVER.