Tag: fitness

2025. Health And Wellness

Health

The most important health-related event of 2025 was regaining sight in my left eye. Just to be clear, my vision is not perfect, and my two eyes still see differently and are still not completely synchronized. But I can get around without glasses or contacts most of the time, and that gave me the long-forgotten level of freedom. My only inconvenience is that because of the lasic in my right eye, I can’t wear a multifocal on it anymore, which means that when I wear contacts, I need to put on reading glasses any time I need to read something, not just some of the time. And unfortunately, multifocal glasses do not help. But those are such minor problems compared to the situation two years ago that I can’t complain. I probably should try to get a better multifocal prescription.

Because of the eye surgeries, I missed at least one routine test, even though I promised my GP I would schedule it. Now I need to have three procedures in 2026 :), but I already scheduled everything, so chances are they all will happen.

I definitely feel aging this year; the first area is reduced flexibility, and the second is facial aging. I think I’ve come to terms with the latter and hopefully figured out how to age gracefully, but the first one is a concern. Last year, I noticed for the first time that if I do not practice yoga for more than a week, I lose flexibility, and if I do not practice specific poses for several weeks, I lose them as well. That was an alarm bell for me, and I am trying to be more consistent with yoga than ever before.

I forget words periodically, but it happens with the same frequency as it has been for the past three years – about once a week on average. I am keeping track of it and checking with my doctor. I am glad I asked to take a baseline test two years ago, so now I can compare myself to myself :).

Other than the above, 2025 was rather uneventful healthwise.

Physical Activity

I am reasonably happy with the level of physical activity this year. The biggest achievement was increasing biking distance (both individual rides and total mileage). This year, Bike the Drive was almost not challenging. All my indoor exercisers are on the same level as last year, although I figured out how to increase the intensity of my indoor biking.

I was not consistent with yoga; there were different reasons for that, but all came down to me not trying hard enough to make time, and that’s one of the things I am trying to change in 2026; I do not want to lose my flexibility.

Update: checking the app, I can confirm that most of my active calories came from more biking, and I was hitting higher daily totals during the biking season, especially in July and August. Funny enough, the exercise minutes were almost the same throughout the year.

Food

I have a follow-up appointment with my GP in February, because I need to figure out the reason for my cholesterol still going up, especially with the changes I made last year. Since it is not a one-time spike but a three-year trend, I want to get to the bottom of it.

Sleep

In 2025, I made serious efforts to increase my sleep duration to six hours. I know that my need for sleep increased slightly in comparison to my lifetime minimum, and I do need to switch from 5 – 5.5 hours to six. I am trying with moderate success, and I especially didn’t like the last five weeks of 2025, when I slept an average of just four hours a night. If not for this last stretch, I would feel more successful in this area.

Update: just checked the health app. According to it, my average sleep in 2025 was 5 h 18 min, with December being 4 h 37 min. Some months, the average was over 5h 30 min, reaching 5 h 40 – 5 h 50 min, but this didn’t stick. Also, I looked at the time when the app recorded “time in bed” in addition to sleep, and remembered that when I was trying to get to bed earlier, it resulted in more time in bed than more time sleeping. So I should probably set more realistic goals 🙂

To summarize: not bad, but lots of areas for improvement.

24-hour Fitness, Oregon Style

When I was booking a night at this hotel, I checked whether they had a fitness center. The website said they didn’t have one onsite, but the guests could use a 24-hour fitness center just one block away. With that, I packed my gym clothes and decided to bike instead of working out on Friday morning.

When I arrived and checked into the hotel, I asked about the fitness center, and they said: Well, it’s not really a 24-hour, it’s just the name. I asked when they open in the morning, and they said: 5:30. It was later than I would normally go, but it sort of worked for me, so I planned to go down at 5:20 and get the pass.

After some wandering around, I found the fitness center, but it was locked. There was no sign on the door, but when I peeked inside, I saw that the blackboard said that they are open from 5:30 to 10 PM on weekdays and from 8 AM to 8 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Funny Little Things

When I stood up, getting ready to get off the CTA train at Lake, I saw a face on an Apple Watch of a person standing in front of me. I saw that his watch was drawing a green circle counting 3-2-1. I immediately realized that he did the same thing I always do before exiting the train: turned his “outdoor walk” workout on. You think you are the only one being a little bit workout-crazy, but then, there are more people like you 🙂

TIME Magazine: Exercising For PR

One more “New Year” Time Magazine article – I always loved the idea of competing with myself rather than with others. Keep reading below!

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Exercising For PR” →

Eating Habits And Health

I had this WBEZ piece in my list of opened tabs for a very long time. As much as it sounded reasonable, I internally disagreed with its message. When Lena visited last weekend, we ended up talking a lot about changing eating habits, and I decided to go back to that piece and the research it referred to.

To be precise, I agree with the opening statement that there is no “one best diet.” Also, I understand that the new immigrants might feel lonely in many ways, including missing familiar foods. However, many traditional foods of most cultures, including American traditional food, are objectively not the healthiest.

There are many historical and economic reasons for eating habits to be formed a certain way, but it does not mean we should keep following them out of the force of habit. The conditions of life have changed; most of our lives have changed compared to how people lived a hundred years ago, not even talking about the earlier times. Maybe something is wrong with me, but I don’t understand the “food nostalgia” many people born in Russia mention, like missing the condensed sweetened milk or some types of ice cream or sodas. I am not saying I am rejecting my heritage food entirely. There are tons of great foods that I not only use but also frequently advertise, such as multiple vegetable soups or buckwheat, but definitely not the fried fish or soups for which you would sautee the vegetables before adding them to the broth.

I often hear these ideas about “it’s better to eat what you are used to eat,” and i discgree with it categorically. When I chatted with Lena during the weekend, she told me how difficult it was for her to break the eating habits that were engraved in her brain by her mother and her grandmother and how long it took her to learn to listen to her body and to eat only when she wants and what her body really wants. And now, it makes some sense, I am coming back to the statement that was made on this WBEZ show – there is, indeed, no “one size fits all” in what, when, and how we eat. The same as one shouldn’t blindly follow “what everybody says is healthy” patterns, they probably should not follow “traditional” means “better pattern.

All of this was to say that I am really happy and proud of Lena for breaking her old habits and making positive changes in her lifestyle. Now, she does not say that “she does not like strength training,” and I am sure that very soon, she will be faster than me on her bike!

TIME Magazine: The Least Amount Of Exercise

Very long but useful article. I never know how to reply to the “no time to exercise” statements, so what they say, makes sense. I can second the paragraph about “exercise which does not feel like exercise.” It’s actually the best when you can do some real thing instead of working out in a gym. But again, as the article mentions, you still need to incorporate some strength training.

What’s the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: The Least Amount Of Exercise” →

TIME Magazine: How To Measure Your Workout

Several workout-related articles appeared in recent Time issues, even though it’s not the beginning of the year. This one is about “the magic numbers” and why there is no “best single way” for wellness.

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: How To Measure Your Workout” →

Our Building Gym …

.. is still not photogenic (i.e., still not repaired after the flood), traditional birthday gym pictures were taken in the living room.

Still, No Gym, But…

Our building gym which was flooded in September looks pretty much the same. It is completely dry, but the carpet is torn, and the lower parts of the walls, the electric outlets, and the heating elements are removed. We were informed that the Association is waiting for the insurance to approve the repairs.

Meanwhile, some of the equipment is moved to the adjacent part of the basement, including the stationary bike. For the first several days, I felt guilty going down to the basement and using the stationary bike in the dark corner surrounded by some random stuff, as if I am committing a crime (or at a minimum, some violation :)). Then, full of guilt, I also started to use some equipment (and I bought two 10 lb weights to use in my apartment, so I can exercise there as well).

Then one day when I mounted on a stationary bike, I noticed that it was set to a different intensity level than I set it . That meant that somebody else was also using it in the dark corner!

And finally, this week, I noticed that the equipment was in use by somebody else as well – I saw different weights and different attachments than the ones I used. That made me smile, because officially everybody is waiting for the gym to be reopen and nobody is using it.

To be honest, I have no idea why we all are so shy of admitting that we use it they way we can :). For me, there is no other exercising option at the moment, and it is too dark in the morning to bike.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Or How I Donated a Mirror

I had a small gym in my Palatine home, and in it, I had a wall mirror from IKEA, which consisted of twelve separate pieces. You might remember my previous pictures from there.

Since I already knew I would have a gym in the new building, I gave away a lot of equipment, but there were several pieces I wanted to bring with me to the new building. Among these items, there were a wall clock and a mirror. You won’t usually think of them as gym equipment, but you notice when they are not present.

I asked the association whether I can install both on them on the gym wall (I was not sure whether I am allowed to make holes in the walls :)). They replied that they would ask a maintenance person who was in charge of these things. The wall clock was easy to install, and also I needed it, so I installed it myself. As for the mirror, it required multiple holes, and I thought that it should be installed by a professional.

A very long email chain followed. Periodically, I asked “where we are” and when the morrow will be installed. I placed the parts and the hardware by the TV so that they would be visible. Twice, I was told “the next week,” and I had to ask again in a week. Finally, I was told that the mirror was installed and that the maintenance person” won’t charge for it.” I went to the gym to check it out.

You won’t believe what I found out!!!

There was a small mirror that somebody brought in a long time before I moved in, and this mirror was standing by a wall. And that was the mirror he installed!!!

I laughed, took the pictures, and emailed the board :).

Finally, ten days later, the correct mirror was installed!