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Weekly Updates (2/9/2018)

Week one of BUD/S training is going OK. I can do everything but all the sit-ups (and of course the swimming, due to the lack of pool). The best I could bang out with sit-ups were 2 sets of 20, 1 of 15 and 1 of 10. But, at least I haven't experienced any soreness yet.

Just the little bit of additional activity has me losing even slightly more weight. I'm holding my weight under the 40 pound loss benchmark on the scale every day now, and I'm feeling really good. I've almost forgotten how much I enjoyed running, which I'm sure has a lot to do with how much less of a strain it is on my body. I'm not going to lie - it was nothing short of exhilarating holding down the weight button on the treadmill for as long as it took to reduce the weight setting from 198 to 157- my weight from the last time I set it. It was definitely a bizarre experience.

After the PowerWatch bust, I decided to try out another activity tracker watch. So, I ordered a Garmin Fenix 5X. It's expensive - about $540 shipped (and that's used!), but, it's a do-everything Superwatch with pretty solid battery life. I realize that this isn't in any way cheapo, but I look at this as an investment: if it improves my fitness routine, it'll be a well-spent, one-time body control center upgrade cost. If it's a bust, I can turn around and sell it again and get about all of my money back.

And, it looks super sweet - at least conceptually. Who knows how it's going to look on my wrist, but I'm used to wearing big watches.

I've been wearing a solar powered Casio ProTrek watch that will tell you some cool things like temperature (once you take it off your wrist for an accurate reading), barometer (sometimes useful) and altitude (all over the place). But, it syncs with atomic clocks, keeps world time, has a countdown timer and stopwatch.

The countdown timer and world time is particularly useful when traveling to far away places, which I do with some frequency. It makes me a little less miserable to know exactly how much time is left on a long flight and to quickly glance at my watch to see both my local and home time. But, it doesn't track steps or any of the other cool fitness stuff that my Fitbit does and more. However, it never requires a charging cable, and if my Fitbit goes dead, my watch does not.

So, I'm going to experiment with the Garmin. If it doesn't work out, I'll sell it. I've experimented with other smartwatches before - namely Android Wear. I sold that thing within a week since the battery life was so horrendous. Of course, I knew that ahead of time, but I guess I had to see for myself if the benefits would outweigh the costs of needing to charge it EVERY DAY. They don't. They kind of remind me of how my grandfather described seeing German ME-109 jet fighters from the window of his B-17 (less the existential risk to your life, of course) - he was in awe for about 5 minutes before they needed to land and refuel. Maybe someday all smartwatch makers will get the fuel consumption thing worked out, but until then, they're not going to have widespread adoption rates.

I think the Garmin will last a full week or more on a charge, depending on how it's used. If it ends up replacing my Fitbit, it'll be worth it. But, at least with my Fitbit I can wear it discretely, leaving me the option of not having to wear this hulking black and metal watch for dressier events. But, it's not like that's ever stopped me with the Casio before.

Also, I have a little sentimental attachment to the Fitbit ecosystem since it's what helped get me to where I am today, but technology is a tool and you should always be willing to evaluate new tools to see if they can deliver better results. We shall see.

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