Fitbit- Week Four

Despite my good intentions to track my food/sleep and keep up with the exercise, I found myself waylaid again this week. I know that I should rise above my excuses, but I really think that life has been abnormally hectic. This week, I've worked lots of late shifts, made a run to Tustin to help relatives and we had a house guest. Routine has not been part of my vocabulary. Things are going to get a lot more routine. I turned in my notice at my job and after November 13th, I will have a lot more free time, which will make eating healthy meals at home a breeze. Currently, I work so many closing shifts that Dan and I rarely have dinner together. I usually end the night with a bowl of cereal at ten-thirty, exhausted. I am really looking forward to preparing healthy, home cooked meals.

When we do eat together, we tend to opt to dine out, pretty much always and this is going to change.  So far, we do not have any travel plans or plans for family to travel to us. As much as I love traveling and hosting company, I am looking forward to settling in and enjoying our home for a while. I am sure that travel plans will not evade us for long!

Once I leave my job, I will need to really focus to getting to the gym. Due to my wonky days off and helping family, I didn't get to the gym this week. However, we did take Steve (Dan's Brother-In-Law) to Santa Monica and Venice, which included a long walk back and forth. Dan and I hit a record log with our steps on that day, close to 20,000! On most days this past week, I did hit my 10,000 step goal and was active.

Eating a lot, wasn't so much the problem as what I chose to eat. We had fondue for the second week in a row. I'm not complaining and I feel spoiled about it. It's yummy and a treat, but also a big, heavy multi-course meal. Twice. I also filled up on burgers, fries and chocolate. Steve came bearing an early Christmas present of English treats, including a 2.2 pound bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk. It's 1/3 gone. I didn't track anything again and went way off course.

I still lost a pound.

The plan for the coming week is to make it to the gym and try to stay in check. I still have an insane work schedule, particularly with a giant sale happening at the store this weekend. I will keep using the fitbit to track my steps, but I am going to leave tracking alone until I am done with my job. The count down has begun!

Fitbit- Weeks Two and Three

Due to a crazy schedule and traveling to Canada, my second and third week of using the Fitbit did not yield great results. First, food. Midway through the second week, I stopped tracking. This was a dumb move on my part. We were eating out a lot and it just became difficult to calculate all of the calories and keep track of the portions. When dining out, tracking becomes more of a guesstimate and it's hard to really know what you are getting nutritionally. I think the biggest obstacle that I have to weight loss will be curbing the dining out. Yes, healthy options can be found in restaurants, but it is impossible to know if an item that should be healthy has been doused in butter and oil. Unless you are preparing it yourself, it's just too hard to know. Soon, I will be leaving my job and we don't have any upcoming travel plans, so it should be easy to focus on cooking healthy meals at home. I don't feel guilty about the fabulous meals that I had in Canada, most of which contained an absurd volume of cheese. My focus is going to be on keeping it in check while at home, so that I can eat whatever I want when out with friends or on vacation. It's about the day-to-day, not the occasions.

My exercise was actually great. On all of my work days, I exceeded my 10,000 step fitbit goal. On my two days off (excluding Canada), I went to the gym and I tried two classes, Hatha Yoga and Core Fusion ( a Pilates fusion course). After each class, I hit the treadmill. In Canada, Dan and I walked everywhere. I didn't always have my fitbit on, so I have no idea how much we actually walked, but both Vancouver and Whistler were great places to explore and much of the exploring was done on foot.

I didn't wear it most of the time to track sleep. In Canada, I turned into a cat and slept over ten hours on most nights. I think that it was a combo of the travel and cold weather. Overcast days make me want to sleep!

This morning, I discovered that I had gained two pounds since I last weighed myself, which is more like four pounds since my last Fitbit blog post. I felt good about it though. I was off track before Canada and I ate very, very well while on vacation. It will be easy to get back on course. I can very easily lose those pounds gained and keep dropping.

Since, I didn't consistently wear my Fitbit, all of the data is off. I am going to start fresh today and week four will give me more usable data. I am still enjoying using the device, but still getting used to it and figuring out ways to have it fit in to my life, especially when busy and traveling.

Fitbit- Week One

Dan and I have embarked on a life style change and this new focus on health and fitness includes some very cool gadgets. Dan bought us each a Fitbit ultra and a new Aria Scale.

fitbit

ariascale

Prior to using the fitbit, I found the Nike-Ipod Plus to be a very motivating tool for fitness. It's simple and cheap. You just tie it to your shoe laces or if you have Nike running shoes, insert the pod in your sneaker and synch it to your Ipod. This great during workouts. It would show miles, pace and calories burned. I often found myself running or walking a little further to beat my previous day's mileage. It was a huge motivator and for about a year, I used it nearly every night going on long walks/runs with my now ex husband. We both had office jobs and this routine kept us fit.

The Fitbit is the next level up from a Nike Ipod Plus. The biggest difference, is the Fitbit is for more than just workouts. It acts as a pedometer, so is worn all of the time. It's small and hardly noticable, so I clip it on my jeans or skirt. It can also be tucked in a pocket or worn as a necklace. It's versatile. During daytime use, it calculates steps taken and flights of stairs climbed. Unlike the Ipod Plus, it doesn't calculate pace, which is a shortcoming if you are really into running. If I get back into running, I think that I would wear both during the workouts.

At night, I wear my Fitbit to calculate my sleep. It gives me a not only how many hours I slept, but how long it took me to fall asleep and a graph ( viewable on the Fitbit site that the device synchs to) showing each time that I woke up during the night. It calculates a percentage of sleep efficiency. At first, I wasn't sure how accurate this could be, but when I have remembered waking up, I've noticed it on the charts. I wear the device on a wrist band and it's so light and comfy, that I don't notice wearing it.

I like lists, statistics and facts. The fitbit calculates all types of food and activity information and puts it into graphs. I love it. I list my food and nutritional information on my mobile app or the website and it tracks everything for me. I definitely know that when I take the time to list my eating habits, I tend to eat healthier. There is also a section to track water intake, another thing that I know that I get more of when I pay attention to tracking it. The site has a spot to list physical activity outside of the steps already being tracked, which is another reason to get over to the gym.

So how did I do this week?

I lost 1.8 pounds. When I did Weight Watchers prior to my wedding, I would lose 1.8 pounds nearly every week. I am consistent.

I'm not sure how accurate the scale is at measuring Body Fat, but I am 36.8%. Yikes!!! My weight is actually pretty decent and I have a healthy BMI, but that body fat percentage is way out of control. I think that I need to combat it by adding weight training to my regime. This will come soon, as I made a promise to Dan that if I didn't go to the gym a minimum of eight times a month, that I would cancel my membership. It's currently unused and a money drain, but if I use it, then it's worth it. That's a dose of motivation!

My sleep was really good, mostly. My diet and sleep was wrecked late Friday-Saturday, when Dan and I drove to Vegas and back. However, on normal days, all was really good.

With the exception of the Vegas trip (fried food, burgers, candy bars and enough coffee to kill a horse) I ate really well. Most days, I was under my caloric intake and filled up with veggies, fruit and whole grains. This part is easy for me, as I actually love healthy food.

I walked 30.38 miles in the week! This includes two days that were below expectations. I am happy with this week, but next week will be better!

I am learning new things about this gadget everyday, but so far, I am loving it and seeing results.