It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way, but it did. I wasn’t ready for it, but I got used to it. Now I embrace it. So much so that my name on the Tonal and Peloton leaderboards is set to it or a form of it. That’s right, I have become the Glump.
My grandfather moniker was supposed to be Grump or Grumpy, mainly because I can be, but as Portia, our exalted granddaughter, could not pronounce her “Rs” in 2021, she started calling me Glump or Glumpy. So I became the Glump, and I wear that moniker proudly.
Thankfully, 2021 was a good year for the Glump. Given all the good that was going on, it was actually pretty tough, even for me, to generate enough glumpiness to really be glumpy. It turns out glumpy is actually a word in the English language, albeit the archaic English language, but a word nonetheless. It can mean sullen, gloomy, somber, sluggish. And while I do not generally earn those labels, I do embrace my moniker.
So why was I not generally glumpy last year? Mainly because the family was healthy and happy. Work was fun, even if I was too busy, which drove me to form a new business at the end of 2021 to actively pursue in 2022. Pam and I embraced our Covid driven, homebased lifestyle, which included going to Shelby’s every weekend to see her, Portia and Bryan. My sister and I have continued to have a great relationship, and Pam and I were able to visit her in Northern California in the fall. Shelby is expecting another child at the end of March. Kimberly is happy and in a relationship. I have not seen an airport in over two years. I was able to work from home all year. Life, in short, was good.
Importantly, I have continued to embrace exercise and movement, something that is crucial to sustained health as I age. As I sit here writing this on New Year’s Day, I have already finished my first strength workout of the year. I completed the 16th and final workout of a four week program I began in early December. At first I was bummed that I would not finish the program on New Year’s Eve, but it actually feels really good to finish it on New Year’s Day, as it has given me a great sense of accomplishment to start the year.
So how much exercise did I do in 2021? In short, a whole lot. Thanks to modern technology, I actually know what I have done. I mean, my Tonal tracks pretty much every strength movement I do. My Peloton tracks every stationary mile I ride. My Fitbit tracks every step I take, while tracking the miles I have moved and the total beats of my heart. Of course, Fitbit is not super accurate with respect to heartrate so I also wear my Scosche arm band heart rate monitor while I exercise. Frankly, the only thing I do not track is what I eat, mainly because I am happy with what I eat. At least most of the time.
My Fitbit told me I took about 2.5 million steps, either walking or running during 2021. This translates into moving about 1,000 miles. It would have been more, but I stopped running when I suffered a stress fracture in my right foot at the end of January.
My Peloton, which I bought in early March after my stress fracture healed, told me I “rode” 1,000 miles in the 10 months I had it.
My Tonal told me I lifted over 1.1 million pounds in 2021. What it didn’t tell me was how many calisthenic type body weight movements like lunges and regular squats and split squats and burps and burpees and pushups and crunches and planks I did in 2021. Suffice it to say I did many. My Tonal did tell me, though, that I spent over 50 hours under tension during the year, meaning 50 hours doing weighted reps of many different movements, and it told me I lifted the equivalent of an Airbus A380.
I would have been proud of my accomplishments if I had done them in my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, or pre-Medicare 60s. Having done them while on Medicare just makes them more meaningful.
I did a lot last year. I expect to do at least as much this year. And I hope I continue to wear my moniker because I like it. Not because I earn it.