All the Sweat Pays Off!

 

These are all pictures from the same sites close to the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, I was not able to photograph the Imperial Place itself, because that area was closed to the public.

Although I have enjoyed my Japan experience so far, it has been a sweaty experience! The current temperature is 83 degrees, but the humidity is 81% and the Dew Point is 76 degrees. Ouch! 

 I have been running about 2.5 miles every morning in the Sengenyama Park, a park just a half mile from our house. It is a wonderful run in the woods, with several steep but short hills that lead to the top of the park. I have been timing one of this hills, a short sprint that includes a number of steps. This morning I ran my best time of 61 seconds. Progress!

When I got back from my run, I thought I would put my body to the test with my Tanita scale. This is a cool scale that measures weight, body fat, and a number of other physical characteristics. After turning it on, I raise the handles and then the mechanism uses some kind of magnetic energy to come up with these different statistics. Like many of these gadgets, I do not think these measurements are perfect. However, this tool has its place, especially for comparative purposes. 

I guess I must be doing something right as my measurements this morning were some of the very best since I started using this in December of 2019. For that first measurement in 2019, my weight was 184.5. The weight reading this morning was 163.3, a loss of 21 pounds!

I clearly remember the conversation I had with my wife Setsuko prior to buying the Tanita scale. She said that there are some scales that measure body fat. I told her I had my doubts. However, after doing some research, I realized that the Tanita does give some worthwhile measurements. 

More good news from this morning. My body fat read 16.8%, down from a high of 25.6% back in 2019. Lastly, my metabolic age is currently 31 years old! This measurement closely follows the body fat percentage.  

Prior to this morning, the last time I did this check was December 27th of 2022. My weight was 170 pounds, my body fat was 19.4 percent, and my metabolic age was 38. Good improvement! The walking and running and cycling and strength training are really paying off!