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.

Long time no post ... sorry.

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up on this blog for the last couple of months, or keeping up with taking care of my body. I haven't had a single day off in a long time (working 7 days per week and up to 12 hours per day for over 6 weeks now) and everything just sort of broke down.

I stopped logging my foods on loseit, and then I started again briefly, and then I stopped again. I have been getting exercise, but not purposefully exercising. My weight is, unfortunately, back up where it started at the beginning of the year.

I was inspired recently to restart my pedometer tracking since I am having trouble setting aside specific time to exercise. It took me a bit to find the thing, and it was out of battery juice, so I've gotten replacement batteries that I need to put in there. I'm going to start that tomorrow, and try to set a modest goal of increasing my weekly steps 5% each week. Several years ago I did a program where I was supposed to increase my steps 10% each week and I just couldn't keep up with the pace. I have a feeling that with everything going on right now, I had better just pick something manageable so I don't have another "failure" on my hands.

So...I've had a setback, but this isn't the end of things. I'm going to keep pushing forward.

My mom (although she lied to the whole family about it) had lap-band surgery about 10 months ago, and has lost about 65 pounds. She'll say something like, "All I had to eat today was a handful of almonds," and actually be genuinely proud of that. I think it's unhealthy... sick even. She keeps finding ways to bring up her weight loss in conversation with me.

I'll be posting more often now, to try and get myself back on track.