Strange lack of body awareness

The other day I went for a hike, at a trail that I often use. It's hilly, public trail out on a ranch near town. Mountain bikers use it, too. I've done this trail about 10 or 12 times total probably. The first time, when I went with family, it probably took the whole group of us 2 hours or more to get around the whole thing. My fitbit rates it at about 10,000 steps and about 32 flights of stairs worth. So, it's a good, challenging workout for me at this point in my fitness.

One of the last times I went, though, I had the odd sensation that it was just OH SO MUCH HARDER than usual. It was warm out, sure, in the 80s, but not any warmer than the last time I had done the trail. Was it the week I had had previously, I wondered? Or because I was listening to an audiobook on my ipod that I had already heard before, rather than one of my nursing school lectures that I really had to concentrate on....yes, perhaps it was distraction that was key? Or maybe I hadn't slept as well or as long the night before? I even started wondering if maybe I had accidentally taken the 'long loop' instead of the 'short loop'.

It was only when I got to the end, back in my car, and peeked at my clock that I realized why. I had gone around about 20 minutes faster than the last time I did it, without even realizing it.

1.5 pounds down in the last week!

I'm pretty happy with that loss (349.2 to 347.8). I haven't been perfect with my diet this week, but I've been pretty active, and am still feeling very motivated by my fitbit.

I don't have a lot of time to write just at the moment but I wanted to check in at least. I'm going to join a new "challenge" group that will run the day after thanksgiving until I think new years.

Today at work, while I was doing our daily mandatory walk of the grounds to do a safety check, I consciously walked faster to try to get more "very active" minutes logged to my fitbit.

It is thanksgiving this week. I honestly don't think it's going to be that big a blip on my health radar. I don't eat turkey, and I don't really see overdoing it too much on any one item. I'm planning to make a pumpkin pie and some cranberry salad, and my family is going to bring the rest (it's at my house). I do adore pumpkin pie, but I'm only making one, and there will be 4 adults and one child...so there shouldn't be *too* many leftovers.

Tomorrow I'm starting an internship relative to a class I'm taking right now, and I'm going to probably be on my feet for 5 hours straight. I hope I do alright.

So far, so good!

What I've found so far, with the fitbit, is:

-It's motivating me to get more exercise in little ways throughout the day. Take the stairs, inject bouts of activity between sitting at the computer or whatever.

-When I get home after work, and up until bedtime, I'm constantly checking to see if I've reached my steps goal or not. If I haven't, I'm motivated to do more to try to get there before bedtime.

-Other than this morning, I've seen steady, gradual weight loss every day since I started wearing it. (this morning I was up 2 pounds, likely a water fluctuation)

-I'm doing more house cleaning, because it's one way to get active without making the effort to go somewhere new for the purpose of exercising. Double bonus!

-I feel like I'm getting a more accurate picture of how many calories I'm burning and how many I should be eating. I take my calorie limit more seriously when it's based on my actual activity rather than a weight based estimation.

-The combination of changing to a new online record system, and having a new gizmo to monitor my activity, has gotten me back to recording all my food intake again, where I was really struggling to keep it up with my old system, not because it was inferior, just because it was familiar.

-Ranked against other folks my age, my activity level is similar to someone who is normal weight. That means, eventually, I'll get to where I want to be if I can keep it up!

Trying something new...

I've been contemplating getting some sort of bio-logging device for a while now. I have one of those nike gizmos that you stick in your shoe and it tells your ipod your distance traveled, but I haven't really used it much. You have to have your ipod with you, and it has to be specific time that you are saying "I'm exercising now" rather than incorporating it throughout your day.

I looked at getting a fitbit or maybe a heart rate monitor many months ago, but I've been not getting by financially, and couldn't justify the purchase. This month, after making headway in my finances due to a 2nd job, and deciding to take a break from my YMCA membership, I finally settled on buying a fitbit. They have just recently come out with a new one, that tracks stair cases climbed, as well as steps and distance.

I've worn it every day since it came in the mail, and have found it really motivating so far. Each day I've taken more steps. I broke the 10,000 steps goal today, as well as the 10 staircases goal. You earn badges for intervals like that when you accomplish them. There's also a leaderboard where you can compare your stats to your friends or people in a group you belong to, that can be motivating through competition.

It's easy to conceal by clipping it to my bra (I hated those old pedometers that you had to clip to your pocket...they always fell off). I can check it discretely throughout the day, say when I use the restroom. And it updates wirelessly to my online account when I am using my laptop. So far, so good.

I was torn at first about what to do with food logging. I have been using the loseit system for the last yaer...and fitbit *will* update to my loseit, but only if I go over a certain calorie burn, and then it's as a "fitbit adjustment". For now, I've been logging all my foods into fitbit, but I log my weight updates in both places. I like that loseit allows you to export reports (like the last several weeks of my weight logs) where fitbit at this point doesn't. It makes it easier for me to update my records.

I have lost 2.8 pounds since Nov 2nd when I started wearing my fitbit. Yay!

I also went for a walk with my girlfriends today for the first time in months. We walked on a path that runs alongside the railroad track in town. It was chilly, but the sun was out.

I haven't been feeling great this weekend. I had to nebulize for the first time in months (for my asthma). But it was good to get outside.