Using Twitter To Log Fitness and Wellness Trends

There are only three main things to do to achieve awesome finess:

1. Eat well
2. Exercise hard
3. Rest plenty

I don’t do any of those with much proficiency these days. However, I have plans to improve. However, my challenge is always getting into the flow of things. I like numbers and metrics and recently I started using Twitter on my iPhone (Tweetie app) to record what I eat.

The records have been hodge-podge with random tags like, #breakfast, #lunch, #snack, etc. This method doesn’t suit the goal of running these through a program to generate some useful trend data. So I sat down tonight and hashed out (pun intended, you’ll get it) a standardized system of tags to keep track of specific metrics in my fitness and wellness.

The system has to simple and quick otherwise it will be too tedious to use. For those that don’t know, tags start with a hash (#) symbol. This is a practice that many people have begun to adopting on Twitter so I’m going with the flow.

Here are the tags:

1. #exc or #exercise, to mark the update describing an exercise session.
2. #eat, #eat+, #eat-. Records something I ate, the +,- symbols record the rating. For example pizza would be #eat–. This is better than #lunch, #dinner, etc. since it will allow recording things like snacks, drinks, randoms, etc.
3. #rest, #rest+,#rest-. I have a hard time getting to sleep, so this records how rested I am. A little subjective, but #rest++ would be me feeling fully completely energized and rested. #rest– would be like 3 hours of sleep, feel tired and need coffee!
4. #stretch. Marks that you stretched your muscles. I think this is an important one.
5. #18:48, #9:30p, #8:30a, etc. These record time. This is a dynamic set of tags that accepts either the 24-hour format or the 12-hour clock format. The 12-hour format requires a  “p” or “a” at the end. Using this overrides the tweet’s timestamp, which is used by default.
6. #w189lbs, #w83kg. This is to record weight. In this format: #w{weight}{units}. The {unit} can either be “lb” or “kg”.
7. #bf18, #bf15.5, #bf14.7. This is to record body fat percentages. Decimals are ok to record parts.
8. #emo,#emo+,#emo-. For tracking emotional state. A real awesome day would be #emo++, a real shitty day would be #emo—. Can be tweeted like this: “Wow, I had such an #emo+ experience today!” … or … “When it rains it pours. Had such an #emo—- day today. *weeps*“
9. The +/- modifiers: These are for ratings. Add as many to the end as you want, but don’t go too nuts. I recommend using more more than 5. Using it in a tweet: Ate a whole large deep dish meat lovers pizza for dinner by myself at #18:30. #eat—-, I feel so #emo—– about it.

That is a pretty good set of tags that are very easy to remember. Here are some sample tweets:

#eat– #7:30p spaghetti and a salad. glass of milk. http:// twitpic.com/12nw3

#eat+ #8:00a spinach salad with egg and avocado

#rest—-  couldn’t sleep a wink, still have to go to work! *shit* #emo—–

Just won the lottery! #emo++++++++++ see ya in Hawaii!!

So very easy to keep track of things. Of course, you’re not limited to my hash tags. You can use / create your own, for example:

Going to #sleep now!

Creating your own tags is no problem since additional functionality can be coded to handle them at a later point. Pretty soon I’ll write a public parser that generates some pretty graphs for these so you can run your timeline through it and get a trend analysis of how you are doing.

Comments welcome!

Jan 12, 2009 – Crossfit and Back Update

This was today’s workout:

• 50 D-Ball slams
• 75 Wall Balls
• Navy Seal: 1000M Row, 50 thrusters, 30 pull ups
• My time: 16:37 (terrible)

I really gassed on the thrusters and the pull ups. However, the sub-par performance is the result of a couple of months of poor diet and de-conditioning.

I was happy to note that my back wasn’t sore throughout the work out. I still had some stiffness in my hips in getting down low enough on the wall balls and probably the thrusters. I should stretch more. My back right is feeling a little sore, probalby because I’ve been sitting in front of the computer all day.

When I was at my desk my posture needs to be much more improved. I slouch forward and I cross my right leg over because it is more comfortable. Still much back work needs to be done.

Back Update

Slept on my back again with the pillow under my knees. That was only comfortable for a little while. I wound up sleeping most of the night (only slept about 5 hrs in total) on my right side again. Back still has a bit of soreness and stiffness:

• soreness: 2/10
• stiffness 2/10

But I really wonder how accurate these ratings are. I mean, maybe I’m at a 5/10 right now it is just that I am so used to the discomfort.

Back update

Slept on my back with a big pillow under my knees. Surprisingly I actually fell asleep on my back, which is uncommon because this is usually a very uncomfortable position for me. Woke up and slept on my side for a little bit, with pillow between legs.

This morning, it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. Maybe yesterday was a 5/10 today:

• soreness: 3/10
• stiffness: 3/10

Trial Workout, push ups, squats, sit ups

I tried doing a bit of work to see how it would affect my back:

3 sets of

1. 20 push ups
2. 20 squats
3. 20 sit ups

Results:

• Push ups, no problems.
• Air Squats, hips are tight, legs are tight. Loosened up after the second set. Don’t feel like my hips are making a straight up/down motion. Seems like there is a slight wave (to the left/right) on decent. Maybe this is a result of tightness?
• Sit ups – no problems. No pain.

Making Healty Eating Easier

The challenge: making healthy food always available. Which also reduces the reach for junk food.

1. Healthy food requires some preparation / cooking
2. Fast / junk food is more readily available.
3. Junk food taste good. Healthy food does, but it takes work.

So this is what I’m thinking…to approach this:

1. Make some healthy food recipes. Find the ones that I like and wouldn’t mind eating often
2. Then make it more efficient to make these recipes. Do the prep work before hand. Have it in the fridge so in the morning it is a matter of assembly and not cooking.

Back sore after sleep

Yesterday the massage therapist said to sleep on my back with a pillow under my legs. When I sleep I favour my right side and often I wake up with a cow lick on the rear, right side of my head. Funny how back back problems can cause problems like bad hair days.

Anyways, I woke up today and I was on my side again. This is an indication that my body is shifting to the most comfortable position while I’m sleeping. In terms of soreness my lower back was the the usual, it was tight and sore. Probably from have all my weight distributed on my right side for most of the night.

• Soreness: 3/10
• Stiffness: 3/10

Fixing my back, First post.

Last Tuesday I really hurt my back doing something that usually is a breeze for me, back squats. The fragility of my back has been getting worse lately and Crossfit doesn’t seem to be helping much. So today I visited a massage therapist recommended to me by a friend. The difference with David Dressler (RMT) is that he really focuses on looking at the root cause of the problem.

Anyways this is a summary of the things we found out:

1. My back is all twisted up, there are various places (will get more information on what section next week) that are curved
2. My lower back has a big twist in it, which is the reason why I can’t do a deadlift. My trainer says my lower back looks like it is seized, that’s why I can’t dead lift safely. Turns out it is because of of the disks is twisted and it doesn’t bend there. Hmm…
3. There is a twist in my hip so my left leg is shorter by about a quarter to half an inch than my right leg. This apparently is the root cause of the problems in my back. Since my hips are not level, when I lift, my back is not straight. The body naturally tries to keep the head level so in order to do that the spine forms into an S.
4. The muscles are now unbalanced so one side is stronger / weaker than the other. This further worsens the imbalance.

So what to do…

1. I need to deadlift less weight, and if I do deadlift, switch my grip. I usually have an left underhand, right overhand grip. I should change that, and do double on the other side to work on the imbalance.
2. Keep a journal of all work outs to see how they are affecting my back. Keep a record of all massage therapy sessions to see what kind of progress we’re making. I’ll use this blog, recording the work out, and observations of any pain or back aggrevation I felt.
3. Stretch and be more aware of the pain I’m feeling
4. Do exercises that strengthen the symmetry, watch out for imbalances.

What was interesting:

1. At one point the massage therapist put wedges at different locations under my hips. This realigned and straightened them correctly. I can’t even describe the feeling, it was like low pain for 20 years just went away, and there was clarity… like getting glasses.
2. Take care of yourself. It has been extremely frustrating not being able to make advances and even losing some gains at Crossfit. I hate making excuses, but sometimes a different approach and opinion helps. Listen to your body. There is a certain amount of pain, but not chronic pain. Ultimately you have to be your own best guide to what your body can take and what you need. Take expert opinions with some skepticism.

Even though today’s massage session was agonizing and not enjoyable it was very helpful. My massage session is on Friday and I’ll have a week of Crossfit before that. That’ll give me some time to find workouts that helps improve symmetry.