2019 - a year in numbers

Will 2019 have been my peak year? On every measure, every one has been beaten. Walking more, drinking less, doing more exercise, eating more fresh fruit & veg. Daily walking - I cracked 12,000 paces a day, every day, on average. An hour-and-half to two hours a day, every day. Throughout the entire year.

Six years of daily measurement, augmented in the past three years by the Huawei Health App (according to which, I'm 'better' than 99.99% of users). "Beat yesterday" is Garmin's slogan. "Beat last year" is mine. Long-term rather than short-term metrics count.

So how did I do this year? Pretty good! What's the secret? The key is to never miss a day's 10,000 - with that as a basis, everything else builds up as a bonus. Compared to previous years, this year saw no great walkathons; several 20,000+ days, but nothing spectacular. Not in the table below - was 'moderate to high intensity' walking, of which every day this year I did an average of 24 minutes, according to Huawei Health. This metric was introduced to the app in November 2018. It's made me walk just that little bit faster.

Measurable and manageable
	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Paces/day (average over year)	9.8k	10.7k	10.6k	11.0k	11.4k	12.0k
Alcohol drunk (units/week)	33.4	28.0	25.0	20.8	19.7	18.5
Dry days over course of year	94	123	155	186	196	198
Days with zero physical training	234	266	148	83	27	17
Push-ups/day	N/A	N/A	N/A	25	60	90
Sets of weights exercises/day	N/A	N/A	N/A	2.1	2.2	2.3
Portions fresh fruit'n'veg/day	N/A	4.3	5.0	5.2	5.3	5.4

Bit of product placement here - pretty much every one of those 4.3 million paces I walked outdoors this year was in a pair of Loake shoes. No trainers, no wellies, no hiking boots - just four pairs of Loakes. Two pairs black, for office use, two pairs of ankle boots, for country walking.

Less alcohol consumed - still way off the NHS guidelines of 14 units a week, but a huge reduction from my late 50s, when in my first year of monitoring consumption, I averaged over 33 units a week. Key here is not to drink 'empty' units, purposeless drinking from boredom, keep the units for celebrations, for meet-ups, for dinners with friends, for sparkling chat.

More exercising. Planks - this year I managed less than a day's worth (22 hours), so more to do here. Press-ups are improving, as are weights - pull-ups are not so good. Left elbow gets sore if I overdo it on the exercise bar, so I did fewer (five a day averaged across the year) than in 2018 (seven a day). Overall - less 'lazy days' in which I couldn't find the motivation to exercise.

More fresh fruit and vegetables - just a small improvement, but moving in the right direction.

And blogging - second-highest output in terms of blog posts in since 2014, the year Twitter and Facebook caught up with and distracted me.

You may ask - what is the aim? I will answer: Pascal's Wager. In this case, I'm not betting on the existence of God (or otherwise), I'm betting that a healthy lifestyle will prolong years of active life. If I live to 100 in good form, you'll know why. My father set me a good goal - 96 and half years, 94 of which were 'active' (as in walking unaided, driving a car, mental acuity on form). If I sit back and do nothing, I will atrophy, my body will start winding down.

Ah yes - blood pressure. Today it was 116/80; last year it was 123/82. These are both average of three early-morning readings.

This time last year:
2019 - a year in numbers

This time two years ago:
2017 - a year in numbers

This time three years ago:
2016 - a year in numbers

This time four years ago:
2015 - a year in numbers

This time five years ago:
Economic forecasts for 2014 - and 2015?

This time six years ago:
Economic predictions for 2014

This time seven years ago:
Economic predictions for 2013

This time eight years ago:
Economic predictions for 2012

This time nine years ago:
Classic cars, West Ealing

This time ten years ago:
Jeziorki 2009, another view

This time 11 years ago:
Jeziorki 2008, another view

This time 12 years ago:
Final thoughts for 2007