Fat Bear Week
04/10/23 22:52
One of the challenges of my adult life has been my tendency to put on too much weight. Although I have a fairly active lifestyle, I have never been one to go to a gym to work out. I prefer either physical labor such as gathering and splitting firewood, or outdoor sports such as biking or paddling. Since late fall in 2019, however, my wife and i have been faithful to walk nearly every day, which is a good regular exercise for us in our 70s. Being overweight, however, stems more from a lifetime of poor eating habits and decisions. I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I am prone to snacking. I have, however, been learning to be more mindful of my food choices and more careful with my eating. At present, I weight a little over 50 pounds less than I did at the heaviest point of my life. I’m not quite to my target weight, but I am avoiding dieting and trying to make lifestyle decisions that fit the other things going on in my life.
I’ve sometimes been called a teddy bear, which seems to fit because my name is Ted and I’m shaped a bit like some teddy bears. The other nickname that I used to hear when I was working as a sheriff’s chaplain and regularly visiting in the jail is “Santa Claus.” Some of the inmates called me Santa, which also fit because I have thinning white hair and a white beard and, once again, my figure is slightly porcine. No one, however, has labeled me a brown bear.
Brown bears go through enormous variations in weight. Because of their long hibernations in northern climates, they consume all of their calories in just six months of the year. They emerge from hibernation as lean creatures and try to pack on as many calories as possible in the short summer season. The biggest brown bears put on 200 to 300 pounds during the summer and can weight up to 1,600 pounds when they go into hibernation, dropping more than 200 pounds during their winter sleep. Observers have recorded a single bear consuming 42 salmon in just 5 hours. That is roughly 189,000 calories - a lot more than my personal goal of 1,900 to 2,100 calories. Then again, I’m not a brown bear. I’ve never had the penchant for hibernation. In fact my poor sleep habits may be a contributor to my tendency to be overweight.
It is officially Fat Bear Week. From October 4 through October 10 people around the world will tune into the livestream cameras at Katmai, Alaska and vote for their favorite brown bear. The first Fat Bear Week in 2014 attracted a couple of thousand votes, but roughly 10 million people tuned into the livestreams in 2022.
You can watch the bears feeding by tuning into explore.org during daylight hours in Alaska. The days are still pretty long in Alaska, but growing shorter each day now that the equinox has passed. The current favorites are bear 480, known as Otis and bear 747, known as Colbert. Personally, I am less interested in the huge males like 480 and 747. I like to watch the females. Bear 435, known as Holly, raises cubs most years and has to put on enough calories to provide milk for her cubs and expend energy to protect them. She was the winner back in 2019. She can sometimes be seen catching fish with one or more cubs and sharing the food with them. She also teaches the young ones how to catch salmon. Her color is much lighter than other bears, which makes her easy to spot on the live camera.
Another bear to watch is known as 806 Jr, the bear named the 2023 Fat Bear Junior Champion. He weighed less than a pound when he was born less than a year ago and now is up to 70 pounds and growing quickly. He is a bit clumsy as a fish catcher, but he is learning fast and growing fast. In terms of percentage, he has far outpaced the largest of the bears. Of course that rapid growth is part of normal development for a first year cub. I suspect he’ll be a contender in another year or two. Brown bears can live into their 30s, so he has time to grow into the role of champion.
It is all in fun and watching the bears on the Internet is, I am sure, much less exciting than watching them in person. I’d love to have that opportunity some day, but in the meantime, I enjoy checking out Fat Bear Week each year.
Maybe reading about the up and down weight fluctuations of the bears gives me some solace in my own tendency to go up and down in my weight. I realize, however, that binge eating followed by fasting isn’t a healthy lifestyle choice for me. I’m much more interested in teaching myself and learning from others about how to develop healthy eating habits that help me maintain a healthy weight while still allowing me to go out for ice cream with my grandchildren and indulge in an occasional lemon bar. I was good last night, limiting myself to half of a lemon bar. And following my grandson around definitely encourages me to get more exercise. Not only do I get exercise by trying to keep up with him, I also have high motivation to care for my own health so I have energy to play with him at his pace. I am working on my flexibility getting up and down, climbing on play structures, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, and swinging “as high as the sky!”
In between all of those activities, I take a few breaks and check out Fat Bear Week. I also dream of one day making the trip to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, visiting Katmai National Park and Preserve, and seeing the Fat Bears from a safe distance. In the meantime, I’ll leave the extremes of weight gain and loss to the bears.
I’ve sometimes been called a teddy bear, which seems to fit because my name is Ted and I’m shaped a bit like some teddy bears. The other nickname that I used to hear when I was working as a sheriff’s chaplain and regularly visiting in the jail is “Santa Claus.” Some of the inmates called me Santa, which also fit because I have thinning white hair and a white beard and, once again, my figure is slightly porcine. No one, however, has labeled me a brown bear.
Brown bears go through enormous variations in weight. Because of their long hibernations in northern climates, they consume all of their calories in just six months of the year. They emerge from hibernation as lean creatures and try to pack on as many calories as possible in the short summer season. The biggest brown bears put on 200 to 300 pounds during the summer and can weight up to 1,600 pounds when they go into hibernation, dropping more than 200 pounds during their winter sleep. Observers have recorded a single bear consuming 42 salmon in just 5 hours. That is roughly 189,000 calories - a lot more than my personal goal of 1,900 to 2,100 calories. Then again, I’m not a brown bear. I’ve never had the penchant for hibernation. In fact my poor sleep habits may be a contributor to my tendency to be overweight.
It is officially Fat Bear Week. From October 4 through October 10 people around the world will tune into the livestream cameras at Katmai, Alaska and vote for their favorite brown bear. The first Fat Bear Week in 2014 attracted a couple of thousand votes, but roughly 10 million people tuned into the livestreams in 2022.
You can watch the bears feeding by tuning into explore.org during daylight hours in Alaska. The days are still pretty long in Alaska, but growing shorter each day now that the equinox has passed. The current favorites are bear 480, known as Otis and bear 747, known as Colbert. Personally, I am less interested in the huge males like 480 and 747. I like to watch the females. Bear 435, known as Holly, raises cubs most years and has to put on enough calories to provide milk for her cubs and expend energy to protect them. She was the winner back in 2019. She can sometimes be seen catching fish with one or more cubs and sharing the food with them. She also teaches the young ones how to catch salmon. Her color is much lighter than other bears, which makes her easy to spot on the live camera.
Another bear to watch is known as 806 Jr, the bear named the 2023 Fat Bear Junior Champion. He weighed less than a pound when he was born less than a year ago and now is up to 70 pounds and growing quickly. He is a bit clumsy as a fish catcher, but he is learning fast and growing fast. In terms of percentage, he has far outpaced the largest of the bears. Of course that rapid growth is part of normal development for a first year cub. I suspect he’ll be a contender in another year or two. Brown bears can live into their 30s, so he has time to grow into the role of champion.
It is all in fun and watching the bears on the Internet is, I am sure, much less exciting than watching them in person. I’d love to have that opportunity some day, but in the meantime, I enjoy checking out Fat Bear Week each year.
Maybe reading about the up and down weight fluctuations of the bears gives me some solace in my own tendency to go up and down in my weight. I realize, however, that binge eating followed by fasting isn’t a healthy lifestyle choice for me. I’m much more interested in teaching myself and learning from others about how to develop healthy eating habits that help me maintain a healthy weight while still allowing me to go out for ice cream with my grandchildren and indulge in an occasional lemon bar. I was good last night, limiting myself to half of a lemon bar. And following my grandson around definitely encourages me to get more exercise. Not only do I get exercise by trying to keep up with him, I also have high motivation to care for my own health so I have energy to play with him at his pace. I am working on my flexibility getting up and down, climbing on play structures, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, and swinging “as high as the sky!”
In between all of those activities, I take a few breaks and check out Fat Bear Week. I also dream of one day making the trip to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, visiting Katmai National Park and Preserve, and seeing the Fat Bears from a safe distance. In the meantime, I’ll leave the extremes of weight gain and loss to the bears.
