Today I have been a non smoker for two years! 💪
I had been smoking for 31 years, had attempted to stop two times before in the span of a decade or so.
If you’re on the journey to become a non-smoker, I wrote about what helped me to stop smoking.
2022 was the third year in a row after I started exercising daily. Before 2020, I was stubbornly against any form of exercise (I don’t even know why.) This is the review post of my exercising year 2022, following the review I wrote last year.
2022 was a good year. Not as impressive as 2021. I think I overdid it back then!
I covered 2955 km (1,836 miles) walking and running.
I cycled 1315 km (817 miles) in 4 months.
I exercised 688 hours.
I engaged in 625 workouts.
To put in perspective some of these tallies (generated by the excellent and free Fitness Stats iOS app):
I became aware a few years back that I have anemia. I had been giving blood four times a year (following the recommendation for women) until I was advised that however generous I wanted to be, it was better to donate twice per year. I was medicated the first time this was diagnosed but it was just a temporary fix. My body does not absorb iron very well. And since hemoglobins carry the precious oxygen to muscles, anemia leads to fatigue. Meh. I also burned out at work after Summer. So I gradually ramped down exercising to a gentler degree.
I respond very well to the daily coaching of my Apple Watch. I start my “activities” on it, launch from it the music, podcasts or audiobooks that I listen to via my headphones (Apple AirPods Pro or Bose QC35, both of which have noise cancellation.) I heed its reminders, enter the monthly challenges, the limited edition challenges.
In 2022 again I earned all of the monthly challenges. They are determined based on recent activities and are meant to either keep you at the same level or elevate you a bit, so that at the end of the year you have improved.
Notes: The first challenges of each quarter were not easy and required extra effort. In addition to these three (January, May, September), June was also difficult because burning almost 800 kcal everyday of the month on average required intense sessions during the weekends in order to make up for the work week where it’s usually harder to fit longer workouts. The last three of the year were really easy and I welcomed the break!
The January 2023 challenge is to cover at least 4 kilometers a day 14 times.
I got myself a nice pedal assist mountain bike 😍 early September.
Daniel asked me in the Spring if I might like to go biking with him once. To be honest, I wasn’t that chuffed and I said “sure, why not” but I didn’t think of it anymore until he asked again in the Summer. We finally went on the last day of August. It was A BLAST! We biked in the Esterel and I loved it so much that I bought my own e-mountain bike the same evening!
I bike as often as I can. With Daniel or not. To go places.
My longest and furthest cycling was on 13 November: 6 hours, 96 km (60 miles), elevation gain of 1067 meters (3,500 ft). I managed by saving as much battery as I could.
The advertised range of that e-bike is 80 km but in practice in the area it’s more accurate to plan circuits that do not exceed 50 km.
The part that was actual mountain biking was a small 9-kilometer area which I covered in less than 30 minutes! But going there was fun (and challenging) and going back along the coast was really beautiful. Great memory!
Since my teenage boy started high school in Cannes and takes the train I no longer have to drive him. I drove under 2500 km (1,500 miles) in 2022 and refueled only 3 times (180 liters).
I have continued walking, running (and now cycling) to places, to run errands, instead of driving which I do basically for grocery shopping.
One of the perks of being a paying subscriber of the sports tracking app Strava is the yearly report. See below.
In 2022 Guillaume tipped me about this new (paid) app that focuses on gentle and optimal training. It’s not a social network. There are explainers, advice on food or training, and beautiful graphics.
Here are some screenshots from the free app SportsTracker, which is very similar to Strava.
Today is the one-year anniversary of when I chose to become a non-smoker.
A colleague of mine noted the date and asked if I chose Star Wars day on purpose :D Nope, total coincidence! But it was a bit of a tour de force for me :)
For a month or two, it was constantly on my mind and it was a daily challenge not to smoke. Then it waned. I thought about smoking occasionally and then I didn’t. I don’t remember the turning point but there was one after which I had become a non-smoker, not merely one resisting temptation.
The smell doesn’t bother me. Nor does it make me crave the smoking.
koalie’s contemplations in markup 
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