Week 20 Update

There has finally been some positive movement in terms of my weight.  It was stalled at 415 for a few weeks, but I got on the scale and it said 410!  That is a 5 lb. loss and I am happy with it.  That puts me down 48 lbs. so far.

On the movement front I didn't improve on my step average.  Last week I averaged only 4,496 steps per day.  That is below what I was aiming for by a large amount.  This week I will do better.  In terms of calories, I was much better.

Looking ahead it is going to be a busy time as we prepare to move into a new place.  The lease on our current place is expiring the end of July and they are wanting to raise our rent $50 per month.  On top of that we don't need that large of a house so we are looking for a new place and will end up moving in the next 5 weeks.

Week 4 progress

To be honest there isn't a lot of progress this week.  I seem to be on a little plateau as my weight stood at 437 yesterday. Now don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that I have lost 21 lbs. since I challenged myself, but I was hoping that I might have lost a bit more this week.  I was spoiled by the losses so far and was hoping that they would continue apace. No worries, though as I know that if I do the right thing with my diet I will lose weight.  I am planning on adding a bit more exercise as well just to bump up the losses.

I was bummed last night when I got home and looked at my FitBit page to see my total for the day.  It stood at just 44 steps.  It seems I left it sitting on the bed yesterday morning when I got dressed so all of yesterday's steps went uncounted. It was surprising how upsetting that little faux pas was.  Anyway, today I have it with me and I am back to accumulating steps and distance.

Speaking of accumulating distance, I did get an email from FitBit congratulating me on earning the Japan badge for walking more than 1869 miles.  While that seems like a fair distance, I think it has taken quite a while to get there.  I think my next lifetime distance badge comes at 1997 miles and hopefully that won't take too long to achieve.

So, the focus this week is to avoid salty foods and stay within my goals and hopefully next week there will be significant progress to report.

Progress

It's been eight days since I restarted my weight loss journey and I'm happy to see my dedication paying off on the scale. Eight days ago my weight was 458 lbs. This morning the scale read 450 lbs. That is a loss of 8 lbs. in 8 days. It shows that my clean eating, following the Paleo diet and resisting all of the temptations of the weekend is worth it.

I'm sure that actual exercise, like getting back on my bike for a couple of short rides, hasn't hurt either. Sure, I've been tracking my steps and getting in a low number but its been usually many short little trips and no longer walks. Usually I would walk maybe 100-200 steps at a time and no more.  Sure I would do this many times a day, but I don't think it is as effective as a longer walk to get the same number of steps.

As a means of testing my theory, I set out to walk about 2,000 steps in one, single go.  Now, I wasn't going to leave the house to accomplish this.  You see, if I walk from the sliding door to the front door and back it is about 50 steps.  OK, depending on my stride and which foot I pivot on it is between 47 and 50.  Anyway, I determined to walk this 40 times in a row. Now that may not sound like much to a lot of people, but remember, The longest I have been walking is from my car to my desk at work, maybe 750 steps.

I do have to say that there is a difference.  I could definitely feel it in my legs and my back as I got past 20 trips.  I persevered and made it to 40, though.  When I looked at my FitBit once i was done, I saw that I had actually logged 1946 steps during the 15 minutes or so it took me to complete this.  I certainly felt it.  I was breathing harder than normal and there was a bit of burn in my legs.  Now, in the past if I had accomplished the same roughly 2000 steps, it would have been in at least 10 separate little walks and I would not have felt it like I did, so obviously intensity and duration are key.

OK, I know there are some people who are like 'DUH!', but this is something I had to once again experience for my self to get it more than intellectually.  Truthfully I knew this, but had forgotten it.  The interesting thing is that since I never left the house yesterday, I didn't hit my step target but I feel I got better exercise than if I had with all of the short trips.

So, it's a new week, or at least a new work week, and I am happy with my progress so far.

Miss my FitBit

As I've written before I own a FitBit Ultra which served me faithfully for almost 2 years before I ran into issues where I could no longer charge/synch it because the docking station/receiver that plugs into my computer broke.  This wasn't a poor design, rather an unfortunately accident.  I have been without its daily prodding to achieve more for over 6 months now.

I miss my FitBit.

Now I have been looking at the new models of FitBit that you wear on your wrist, the Surge, The Charge HR and the Charge, but I'm reluctant to pull the trigger on one.

I preferred carrying the FitBit on my belt or in my pocket and that worked very well for me.  Sure these new ones introduce additional features like Heart Rate monitoring (The Surge and the Charge HR) and even GPS (The Surge) but Something about wearing it on my wrist 24/7 just bothers me for some reason.  Since they've discontinued my Ultra over a year ago, I need to get one of these newer models but still, I miss my Ultra.

Looking at the three models above, I am leaning towards either the Charge HR or the Surge.  I think the heart rate tracking would be helpful and I like the idea of the GPS, thus being able to replace my Garmin, but there are a few issues that FitBit needs to address.  The major one is that it doesn't seem to have a specific Cycling mode for the GPS.  Second, I wonder about compatibility with sites like Strava and Map My Ride.

Until I see some updates to the Surge, I am really leaning towards the Charge HR.  It tracks activity (steps, floors, active/ very active minutes), heart rate and sleep.  This will give me a better understanding of how much I am burning on a daily basis and more importantly I hope, motivate me to do more and increase my numbers across the board.  I know the Ultra did that.

So, the only thing left to do is work on my budget to free up the funds to pick on up for myself. Of course there appears to be no hurry as the FitBit site says if I order now (Charge HR - Size XL) its a preorder and will ship in 8-10 weeks.  Gives me time to free up the needed funds. :)

In the meantime I need to work on my goals for the year by getting out of my recliner and getting in some walks and rides or I'll never meet my goals.

Get on your bikes and ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!