February 2019 update: Emerging from hibernation and some swords
February goes by fast doesn’t it? I feel like it’s only been a few days since I was doing my January update. I like February though. The days are starting to stretch out and get warmer. In fact it turns out that we had the warmest February day since records began in the 1600s. Crumbs. I take the view that it’s lovely that it’s warm, but what does this say about climate change? I guess this is the changeability that climate change lead to. February last year we were under deep snow, while this year we’re in t-shirts. Pretty sure that this was in the back of my mind when I was writing my post about how to save the world.
I’ve felt a little bit like a bear emerging from hibernation this February. I really hunkered down in January but this month I’ve made an effort to get out and see people and do things. More of that below.
Just a heads up that this post has almost no finance-y stuff in it. Like last month it’s going to be very introspective. I’m using it to reflect on what I did in February, why I did it, and what I learned. Hopefully at least a few of you will find it interesting!
As always I’ll cover:
Feel free to jump to whichever bits you’re interested in.
Money update
Not a lot to report on this side. The only material thing that I did was to top up my ISA for the year. As I was looking to clear my mortgage during this tax year I didn’t have as much free cash earlier. Having run through my finances I realise that I can have enough to be able to fill my ISA before April. I have never had enough money to be able to use my full ISA allowance before so that’s great.
Otherwise it was the normal cycle of making sure that direct debits ticked through and renegotiating a renewal on an insurance bill.
But, actually, that’s not all. Let’s all take a moment though to reflect on the magic of February being a short month. That means we all get paid sooner than usual. Whoop, whoop! [Unless you don’t get paid monthly in which case I can only apologise for my insensitivity…]
Health update
Getting my weight under control is my focus for 2019 and I’ve had solid month on that. I’ve dropped to 220 lb. I knew at the time that January was going to be an outlier but I’m happy with February. So long as I can keep it heading in the right direction at one or two pounds a week I’ll get there.
My big challenge last month was the fact that I was socialising a lot, Also that I had a couple of work lunches and trips with work that involved one or two nights away each. The combination of a dinner allowance and a buffet breakfast is a tough temptation. I’ve decided that the easiest thing for me is to not put myself in temptations way. So, even though it was included, I didn’t bother going down for breakfast. I don’t think that I’ve ever done that before!
This goal is definitely one that this blog is helping me stick to. Just that tiny bit of accountability, even though I’m anonymous, is having an effect. Amazing isn’t it?
Update on weight loss as at February 2019 – gotta keep it going
Exercise update
So I gave a little teaser last month about something new that I was thinking of trying on the exercise side. This month I went and did it. You can keep your Crossfit or your Pilates. I give you Medieval Sword Fighting. Yeah. I know.
To be clear this isn’t about enactments it’s about learning how to use the sword properly and safely. Having said which there are a LOT of middle aged men with beards doing this. As far as I can tell, we are going to spend most of the time learning the forms and using weighted nylon/plastic swords and not actually hitting anyone.
I’ve only been to a few classes and I’m not sure how much actual exercise is involved but I’ve had a brilliant time so I’m going to keep going. Obviously, I’ll keep you all updated!
My medieval sword fighting is actually sort of a bit like this
Otherwise I’ve been keeping up my walking and took a total of 437,549 steps in February at an average of 15,727 steps a day. That’s a bit up on my January average of 15,038 and well up on the 12,329 steps per day that I need to hit my goal of 4,500,00 steps in 2019. Given that the weather should only be getting nicer I reckon that this goal should be met comfortably.
February 2019 steps update
Sleep update
It was another solid month on the sleep front. As you can see the average looks solid with the average well over my 6h 30 mins target. What was really clear to me in February was that those nights when I got less than six hours sleep meant that I really struggled the next day. In particular I found that I was short with my family and that isn’t who I want to be. While improving my sleep average is important, the key appears to be to try to get enough sleep every night.
What I, still, haven’t been at all good at is turning off screens before going to bed. While I still read before going to sleep it’s not enough to wipe out the impact of my phone or laptop. One to keep working on.
February 2019 sleep update
Books update
As a consequence of socialising more I’ve only ‘read’ three books. They were The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson, Mr Stink by David Walliams, and Blood Feud by Rosemary Sutcliffe. There is definitely a bit of a half term effect going on as well as both Mr Stink and Blood Feud are firmly kids books!
In fact, I say ‘read’ but Mr Stink was an audio book that we listened to on a long drive to and from seeing friends.
Overall, while I can argue that I’m still on track to read 26 books in 2019, I think that I’m going to give myself an amber warning on this one. Must do better Caveman.
Film and Theatre update
With four films in the books it was another excellent month on the film front. This month I enjoyed The Martian, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, and Enders Game.
I’m a big Harry Potter fan so I’m delighted that I’ve finally managed to see the first Fantastic Beast film.
Half term meant that we were able to get to the cinema and the local film house was showing Spiderman as its cheap kids club film. Doubly delighted that I went to see it as it then won the Oscar for best animated feature a few days later. Thoroughly deserved in my opinion (not that I’ve seen any of the other nominees for animated feature this year…).
It’s good that I’m doing so well as I’m sure that I’m going to watch a lot less TV as the weather gets better.
Also this month I managed to get to the theatre twice – so I’m almost there with my goal of going three times this year! I managed to catch a RSC production of Macbeth set in a dystopian future – to be honest it was clever but a bit patchy in terms of performances. I also went with the family to see a fun live performance of The Worst Witch. Again there was half term element to this – the simple pleasure of being able to go to the theatre on a Monday afternoon.
So the Macbeth I saw wasn’t like this…but how cool if it was?
Friends and family update
Seeing people was my most successful achievement this month. I had dinner with my best mate, stayed with my godson and his family, visited family, and met up for lunch, or dinner with a couple of other friends.
Phew!
While it’s not been great for the waistline I’ve loved it. Although I’m essentially an introvert (albeit one that has learnt how to fake not being one) I get energised when I see old friends (new people, or people I don’t know so well is a different matter). The more I do it, the more I want to do it. All it takes is a text or a WhatsApp message.
Blog and social media update
As you may have seen I put up three posts this month. In addition to my January update they were a post on how I almost lost everything when I was a teenager in India, and a mini-rant on why I think that ethical investing is pointless (if you’re looking at ethical impact at least).
While it’s still, just about, one a week I’m going to have to pick up the pace if I want to get to 50 posts for the year. While I tend to post on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday I’m not organised enough to post on the same day every week. That’s something to work on.
Despite all that I managed to get 1,502 pageviews this month. My highest total yet – so thank you all – and I met my goal of more than 1,000 pageviews a month again. Having said that, I’m aware that this was largely due to the significant tailwind that came from taking part in SavingNinja’s Thought Experiment. I reckon that over a third of my pageviews must have been due to that post. Given that his Thought Experiments only happen every other month I’m expecting the March total to be lower.
Also, I’ve always wondered how you can set things up so that you jump to a specific place on a webpage. So, as part of my ongoing education in things blog-like, I taught myself how to do it for this post. Cool huh?!?!
Twitter has seen some solid progress as well. I ended February with exactly 399 followers up from 299 followers at the end of January. What is it about just missing those round numbers? I don’t think that getting to 500 followers by the end of the year is going to be too challenging. But, more importantly, I’m increasingly having fun on the platform.
I’m still sporadic on Twitter but I’m enjoying engaging with people and conversations on it more and more. I’m not massively interested in someone’s feed if they only thing they do is tweet links to their blog posts. In fact those often go out automatically so they may not even be on Twitter. But, when it’s a conversation with one or more people that you dive in and out of, that’s Twitter at its micro-blogging best.
Conclusion
Reading this back I realise that half term had a disproportionate effect on what I did this month. Not only did it mean that we caught up with more friends but, without it I’m not sure that I would have gone to the cinema or to the theatre.
In effect we were having one of those staycations I was talking about so I shouldn’t be surprised I guess. What writing it down makes me realise is that I would like to do this every day. Unfortunately going to work every day makes it much harder for me to do this during a working week. All the more reason to try to get to Financial Independence!
Thoughts?
How was your February?
Did you start a new hobby or learn anything new this month?
8 Comments
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I found February much tougher than January, for some reason. Looking at your month though, it looks like it’s been good! I am loving the graphs for visual representation of your goals 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying the graphs! Just a bit of Excel. I’m a believer in the idea that you get what you measure – if I do the graphs it keeps me accountable. Hopefully that will help me hit my targets…if not at least they will look pretty!
I had a mixed February. I started by losing a couple of pounds then — presumably thanks to a new medication because nothing else about my diet/exercise changed — I went up a couple of pounds. That depressed me, which threw me off my diet. So… March is about getting back on track diet and exercise-wise. And getting off these last 10 lbs (I should be able to lose 6-8 this month).
Congrats on doing so well on so many of your goals, even if not all of them were great for your diet. But you have more willpower than I do. I’d never resist a breakfast buffet!
Oh I hate the yo-yo-ing as well. Must be frustrating for a change in medication to have had that effect.
You sound like you’ve got a great goal for March. I’ll be rooting for you! I’ve had a terrible first 10 days of March and I have a stag do at the end of month so I’m not feeling hopeful…
Great update, Caveman – love your new sword-fighting hobby, brilliant! I’ve learnt fencing before (with epee – in fact, might still have all the gear in my garage). and I enjoyed it – was great exercise.. I went to the Royal Armouries in Leeds recently and wondered at the real swords they had in there – no way I could be swinging any of those, some of which were almost as big as I was!
Well done on the goals, particularly the weight goal and nice bit of willpower on skipping that breakfast! Not sure I could have done it myself!
I’ve read Mistborn #1 but The Well of Ascension is on my to read list – perhaps I’ll get round to it sometime this year.
“I’m not massively interested in someone’s feed if the only thing they do is tweet links to their blog posts.” Hah, this is the main reason why I set up my twitter account! But I do only tweet once my latest post has published and I don’t retweet links to old posts. Occasionally, I will engage but like other social media, I just find it all too much of a time suck.
Oh it’s no where near the level of ability that fencers have. I’ve seen a few competitions and it’s a different level in terms of speed and skill. So much fun though!
I preferred the first book to Well of Ascension but I still enjoyed it. I will read the final one at some point but I’m not going to rush to it.
I didn’t mean to have a dig at anyone on the Twitter thing. I think that using it to promote a website is a perfectly legitimate and effective thing to do. I absolutely use it to do that. Interestingly I’ve also stopped using it to retweet out old links so, like you, I just use it to inform about new posts. What I’ve found it that when I do have an hour or so free I actively enjoy the time suck of jumping into the conversations. Part of why I started this blog was to engage more with the community and Twitter is another way to do that.
Sword fighting!! Man, that is cool. Looking forward to reading more about it in future updates!
I’ve seen you post a lot more on twitter, and I think what you’re doing is the best way to form new connections and get the most out of it. Unfortunately, like Weenie, I find it too much of a time sink (and often, can’t think of anything interesting to add anyway) to get properly involved, so I end up just occasionally retweeting an interesting blog post I’ve read, or advertising my own!
I need to learn how to add those in-post hyperlinks like you did, that’s pretty nifty…
I saw Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse last month (or the month before?) and thought it was excellent! But very few people that I’ve spoken to seem to believe me!? Hands down the best Spiderman film, and one of my favourite films that was released last year.
Great job on doing so well with all your goals! My February was extremely quiet, so I need to take a leaf out of your book and start engaging with friends again. No excuse now as the days get longer and the weather warms up!
Once I actually know what I’m doing with the sword fighting I’ll plan to put some pictures up.
That’s what my thinking was as well. I’ll still post out links to my own posts or other I find interesting, but actually it’s mostly a way to get more engaged in the community and have fun which is the real point.
I think that Into The Spiderverse is massively underrated. So clever both in concept and execution. I’m with you in terms of one of the best Spiderman Films (although I do like Toby Maguire).
I’ve always found with seeing friends that I don’t really want to go beforehand but I always have a great time and then I’m really pleased that I did went!