The blizzard of 2013 hit yesterday afternoon and blasted us with snow through this morning. We ended up with something between 22 and 26 inches, depending on where around the house you measure. The snow was somewhat heavy, although not a packable snow. We did not lose power – which was a big fear.

After we got a cup or so of coffee, I headed out to shovel a quick path around the house so I could open the rear sliding door. That was a difficult 20 minute effort. Then, it was time to fire up the snowblower and attempt to plow through the snow in the driveway. The street hadn’t been plowed and there was still a ban on driving on every roadway in the state so no tire tracks or plow marks to actually show where the driveway ends and the street begins. The snowblower has a 22″ clearance – so it will clear 22″ of snow but nothing more. So with over 22″ to clear, I couldn’t get through all of the snow in one path. Back and forth, cutting a few inches at a time allowed the driveway to get cleared in just a couple of hours.

One note is that lugging around the snowblower apparently uses lots of energy since my Nike Fuelband showed that I doubled my daily goal of 2500 points – likely the highest number of points since getting the Fuelband in late December. I think this may be why I was ready to take a nap this afternoon!

It’s been a bit over the month since I’ve had my Nike+ Fuelband. I’ve hit a few lows but mostly some pretty serious high numbers on it. With my goal bumped up to 2500, I needed to have at least moderate activity daily to make the goal.

One thing that will keep the numbers down – sitting on your butt. I was fighting a sinus infection and, what I believe was a mild case of the flu during one of the weeks this month. The gals in my life were on a cruise during that week, so it was easy to not hit the gym considering I really couldn’t breathe and couldn’t walk, let alone run, without hacking. Since no one at the gym would understand that it was a non-infectious sinus infection, I decided to skip the gym and treadmill most days.

I have been averaging around 22,000 points per week, and am currently riding an 8-day streak of reaching my goal. What that doesn’t say is that a few days, my goal has been barely reached – squeaking by at the last minute. What is also doesn’t tell you is that a few days have allowed me to blow away my goal with huge numbers. For example, yesterday, I hit just under 4900 points for the day (best Monday yet) and on January 9th, I blew away my goal with over 5500 points. The weird part is that the 5500 point day was in the middle of my sick week – and I think that this pushed me into the worst of my illness. Pushed just a bit far? Yup.

So for now, I will keep my goal at 2500 points just to see the easy wins day after day. However, in another week or so, unless something drastically changes, I will bump my daily goal to 3000, making it less often but likely pushing me a bit further on my lazy days!

About ten days ago, I received my Nike Fuelband. I’ve been wearing it consistently during each day, other than when I’m showering or sometimes sleeping. It’s been measuring my movement during each minute of the day when I’m moving. The only time it hasn’t been measuring movement is when I’ve taken it off to sleep or to charge it.

So far, I’ve been quite impressed with the measured activity. Running on the treadmill has been measured, walking around the house has been measured, and, today, walking around the office has been measured.
With only two exceptions, I’ve made my daily goal of “fuel points.” the first was on the very first day, when I got the unit and had a mere three hours to test it out. The second exception was on New Year’s Day, when sitting around was called for after a late night and a closed gym.
My daily goal was initially 2,000 points. After the first day, I quickly saw that the number was way too low so bounced it up to 2,500 where it sits today. After today, I have one true data point for an office workday. Since we are moving offices as of late tomorrow afternoon, I should have a much better idea of a valid daily activity goal in the next few weeks.