Found a Walkable Path to Nearest Grocery Store

5:27 PM

Today has been a very active day. At around 11 AM I joined the group call with my personal trainer and his other clients, and we discussed what we did last week and our progress. I haven't written my entry on it yet, but I signed up for a personal trainer last week because I need to lose weight and get into the best physical shape of my life. I'm tried of being heavy and enjoyed it more when I was lighter. I was the heaviest guy in the group at 214 pounds, while everyone else was 160-170 pounds or even lighter. Everyone else's goals was to get fitter or win some competitions, mine was just to lose weight. I was 240 pounds earlier this year though.

So in these meetings we just go around talking about what we did, what we could improve upon. And doing this does give me motivation to improve, because I can see where everyone else is, and how far I'm lagging behind them. My personal trainer Florian also goes over some lessons every week about different subjects, last week was about how to avoid getting injuries in the back, knees, and shoulders, which were the most common locations for injuries. Back injury is usually caused long term, through bad posture and improper technique of picking things up, whereas I don't remember much about the knees and shoulders. For me though, I know the best way to avoid knee injury is to lose weight so my knees don't have to bare so much. This week's lesson was about longevity and the blue zones, something I already knew about but it was interesting to get a refresher.

The videos are recorded so we can watch it over for many different purposes. It would be nice to look back on for example, when we've improved after a few months. I watched it today and it was so embarrassing for me. I rarely speak out loud, and even though when I write my thoughts on this journal and when I communicate with others online through text, I make good sense. I'm much less coherent when speaking out loud though, I mean I know what I want to communicate, it just doesn't come out as well as I think it should. This is the same for some other people though, like there are people that can barely speak English in real life, but they text English really well like they're fluent. My landlord is a good example, he doesn't speak English that well in real life, but when he texts me it's like he's fluent.

So anyway, I'm watching these videos right now, and I'm extremely embarrassed. I'm the only one walking on a treadmill during the entire meeting, so I'm bouncing up and down and sweating as I talk. The most embarrassing thing is though that I didn't fulfill what my personal trainer asked of me. Very simple request, I just had to eat under 2000 calories a day, and walk at least 7000 steps a day, and then do the physical training exercises he gave me every other day. I was able to do the physical training exercises, but I blew the walking and the calories. I have no excuse for not doing it either. It was so simple and easy to do. I felt like a failure, especially in this group. So for next week, I have to improve for sure.

Another thing I didn't like is that I didn't look good with my webcam with a round face and body. My voice was too high pitched too. At times I spoke way too fast that I can't even understand what I'm saying. My frustration level was pretty high. The meeting lasted around an hour total, and so I walked for an hour on the treadmill there, easy. I ate some brown rice and 16 bean mix after our meeting since that's the only food available for me. Well, that and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I wanted to keep my calorie count under 2000 and one PB&J is already 400 calories. I had 3 yesterday, and 3 the day before, and this is why my calorie count easily exceeded 2000 per day last week. For walking, I have no excuse not completing that, except maybe that I didn't go outside which would've forced me to get more steps in.

I played some Tales of Grindea afterwards. Then I took a nap for a few hours. I am only getting 5 hours of sleep a night on average here. Maybe I am sleeping in the wrong room, because I'm in a room that has windows facing the street, and I always, always hear activity going on outside. I wrote about that one time there was a random siren going on, extremely loud, like, wake up the entire neighborhood loud, at 3 AM and it lasted for over 10 minutes. There was also random times the garbage trucks would come by at 3 AM, and for most people reading they're like oh who cares, but there's some sound buffering in the homes in the US. Here the garbage trucks are SO loud, like a plane taking off loud. There's no way anyone would remain asleep after one drives by. Maybe it's the way my room is shaped and everything echoes in here more easily? But as I type this, I can hear cars going by, dogs barking, birds chirping, wind going by, etc. It is loud all the time, all throughout the day.

So yeah I took a nap for a few hours, I don't know exactly how long, then I started watching some shows on my computer because I was bored. I thought about maybe going out to the Mall? Best Buy? Wal-Mart? One of those stores. I've been to all of them though and was kinda bored of them too. There was nothing I really needed from any of them, but maybe I could buy a camera or a new phone from Best Buy and use that to track my weight loss progress. Best Buy is just so pricey though, but I'm not sure if Wal-Mart would have them. I also wanted a tablet so I could draw on it, I knew Best Buy had one but it was $600. Best Buy is a lot more expensive because an HDMI to USB-C converter cost $23 at Wal-Mart but like $42 at Best Buy, but it's like $7 on Amazon. I would order some package delivery here, but I don't know how that works. What if I order a big package? Will it get stolen? I don't know. Maybe I should order something small just to try out.

That's the problem with my new condo too, I have no idea where the large packages would go. What if I wanted to order another laptop? If it gets left right in front of the mailbox, where everyone goes for mail, a hundred mailboxes, I wouldn't be surprised if it got stolen. Or would the mailman come to the door and knock to leave it there? I don't know.

As I was thinking about whether or not to go to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or the Mall, my parents called and they told me to just go out somewhere. Whatever. I remembered that near the mall there was a KMart, so I just chose KMart on Uber. It turns out there was one nearby, 5 minutes away, so I got an Uber for that, $10. The guy dropped me off at some mall, and I was like, in English, "This is K-Mart?" the guy said "No, K-Mart closed", and then started speaking a bunch in Spanish. He was like "You want to go to other K-Mart?" I said, "This mall is open?" he said "Yes" so I said thanks and just got off there.

So the K-Mart used to be here I guess, but it closed down. I went inside and it was this very small mall. Most of the stores were closed, but the majority of the ones open were women-catering, fashion stores mostly. There were not many other guys here, just women everywhere. I was dropped off at the central entrance of the mall, so I ended up turning right first, then walking to the end, and then turning around and walking through the entirety of the other side. I went inside one of the stores, a 99 cent store called "All Ways 99", I was stupidly looking for some camera electronics or cell phones but obviously they wouldn't have it here. I searched the entire store and found nothing relevant I wanted.

Yeah I walked the entire mall from beginning to end and found nothing. Most stores were closed anyway, like 95% of the stores were closed. I walked out the far left entrance and went down the street.

Outside in the street, there were a bunch of stores there, like an entire street with hundreds of stores. I walked that street up and down which took a while, and I just saw the disarray of local businesses. I can't imagine that most of these stores are thriving. Most of them were closed, and they were built in such a way that they were all touching. Separate buildings and stores, but so close they were literally touching each other. That was an interesting observation. There was only one store that really interested me, near the beginning. It was this store called Condom World, and I stood in front of it for a while, actually wanting to go in. I already browsed through a bit of their store online though, and it was mostly female products, but some products for males too. The problem was the price for some of these products was quite a lot, so I remembered that and skipped going in. Really tempting though.

Then I started walking back home. I walked back home until I encountered a bus stop with seats on the opposite side of the street, and I thought that was a good place to call an Uber. I crossed the street, sat down, and called an Uber. It was $15 to get home, and $30 to get to Wal-Mart or Best Buy. I was like, no way was I going to pay that, so I used the Google Maps app to find me a walking route home. I didn't think there would be a viable route back, but there was. The hardest part was crossing the road. There are none of those pedestrian aids where you press a button and then you can cross when it says you can, and this 4 way intersect I was at was built in a non-matching way. It wasn't an equal 4 way intersection, and I literally couldn't see all the stop lights from where I was standing, as they were built in all different areas.

I could see one stop light though, just one, for one road out of four. The stop lights were built in all different areas, I don't know why, and they only faced one road at a time. So I could only see one of the stop lights. Anyway I eventually crossed the street and got to where I needed to get to. I just kept walking and going where the Google Maps app told me to go, and eventually encountered a locked gate. I walked around it though, and that was a feasible route too. As I was walking there was a bunch of chickens everywhere, just running around. They were so cute with their chicks walking around with them too. I'm surprised anyone kills and eats them.

I eventually found my way to a road I recognized near my apartment, and from there I turned off Google maps and just walked back home. I did find this mango tree though, and above me there were hundreds and hundreds of mangoes. It was on public property, and there were already a bunch of mangoes that had fallen on the ground. There were some hanging right above me in arm's reach, so I reached up, and grabbed one, and grabbed another. It was so easy. I literally just put my hand up, and grabbed, and it was the most natural feeling in the world. Free food. I can't wait for these to ripen to get a taste.

Also there was a fruit vendor I found, but as soon as I spoke English, I think they bumped up their prices. $3 for avocado? Cash only too? Come on, Wal-Mart sells those for $2. Still, it's a very convenient store.

Anyway I eventually got back home, nice and safe. I found a nice and easy route to the grocery store and mall that was only 15-20 minutes away walking. I wonder what kind of things they have for sale at the mall though? Do they sell bikes? That would be cool. Again most stores were closed, and the ones that were open mainly catered to women, so I couldn't really visit that many. I also found that street with a bunch of stores and restaurants.

So here I am at home now. I have to do the strength training exercises Florian gave me, it won't take that long though. Maybe 10-20 minutes. After that I don't have much else to do. I can go to sleep probably. Anyway I'll be back, gonna do the strength exercises first. I have taken over 17,000 steps today and it barely feels like I took any. Seriously. Also when I'm on the treadmill, if I rest my hands on my laptop then my fitbit on my wrist doesn't detect that I'm taking any steps at all. So sometimes I'm on there for an hour, well this only happened one time that I observed, but I was there for an hour, and my fitbit only tracked 300 or so steps even though I was walking at 3.0 MPH pace for an hour, but I was playing this game on my laptop while walking.

Anyway I'll be back.

7:17 PM

Just finished the workouts. I did goblet squats, elevated push ups, elevated planks, and crunches. Just some simple strength exercises for me. This is far better than doing none. I also took some body pictures today.

I forgot to mention that I played Beat Saber for probably over an hour today this morning, before the meeting with my personal trainer and the group. Also this morning I reset the Habitica challenges.

I also lied about spending only $10 a week on my food. I just calculated it today, for the 2000 calories of 16 bean mix and brown rice I ate today, I spent about $2.50 for it. With the previous portions I would have 2700 calories, so that's more like $3.50 to $5 a day because of the PB&J sandwiches. So minimally I spend $15 a week on food, maximally it's $35. Probably averaging $20 - $25 a week. Still not that much. I'm trying to limit myself to just 2000 calories a day though so I lose weight, so I will average $2.50 a day if I keep it up.

According to my Fitbit my resting heart rate is 64 bpm and my current bpm is at 84 after doing the workouts. That's pretty good for an obese person. I've also taken over 18,207 steps now.and I'm feeling pretty good, as if I didn't take any steps at all today. Feeling so good I say, as I type this lying down on this barren concrete floor in a dimly lit room with no furniture except a sleeping bag and some blankets. I've read that living on concrete floors long term can lead to lower leg pain due to it being so hard and leaving all shock absorption to the body. This is why I wear sandals indoors when I can, though often times I don't, and I don't think sandals do much so absorb shock either.

There are also a bunch of tiny ants in my room all around me right now. Sometimes they get on my laptop, but right now they're just walking all around, on the walls. I don't know what they're looking for in here, but there's not any food or anything. I just leave them alone. They're not really bothering me at all, so I just leave them alone. It's the same with fruit flies, I just let them be. They eventually die out. Mosquitos though, they attack me and have left me with like 50 to 100 bites all over. I have so many bites on both my legs, my arms, my feet.

The worst bite I ever received was on my left hand pinky. It's the worst bite because how inattentive do I have to be to miss such an obvious attack? Like, on my hand. I've seen pictures of people having a bunch of mosquito bites on their hand, and I'm like, how? Were you just sleeping the entire time, or did you just let them? How inattentive do you have to be to get bitten on the hand and they get away? Anyway it's the worst bite I have because it's the most embarrassing one.

It's almost 8 PM here. I'm not sure what else to do with the rest of the day. I'm feeling very good, and what I want to do is just go to sleep. It's really hard to go to sleep though. There are neighbors talking inside their homes, but where I am, I am hearing them as if they're right outside. It's really way worse when there actually are people who are right outside the building talking, because then it feels like they're in the next room over and I have to get up and make sure they're not actually inside.

I'm probably gonna continue playing Tales of Grindea, because I have almost beaten the game. It's really good, though very linear. The game claims you can do any sort of build, but due to some builds being far more viable than others, there are specific good paths to go down. It's the same with the armor and gear. There are no unique or special drops or anything, and you get all the same gear by just playing through the story and finding treasure chests. So I would say that I would have both the same gear and the same exact skills, if I played this a second time.

Anyway that was my day today.