Fitness Technology

Many of us, myself included, get so involved with using fitness technology.  There are so many new, fancy, fun options out there, but what do they really tell us?  Will they really improve our fitness?

My goal is to feel like this at the end of every workout!!!!

Here are my own thoughts on the topic.  One main idea: If you workout and you don't track it/use technology, IT STILL COUNTS!!!!!  I've found myself getting frustrated if my GPS stopped working mid walk, or if I forgot to turn something on, but guess what?  My body still knows it happened, so who cares about the technology!  You don't need to track it to do it and see the results!!!  I just figured out that my miles being logged via GPS were not the actual miles I've been walking, and have since fixed that problem, but took a slight mental beating.  Im over it now!  That being said...

Fitness technology use depends on the kind of person you are and what your goals are.  I know that, for me, keeping a diary of my food really holds me accountable.  There's no use in lying to yourself, so even on a bad day, writing it out makes it reality and gives me an incentive to improve the next day.  

I choose to use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and exercise.  I like the website and the app, it works for me, and it also allows me to connect with friends using the app and provide/receive encouragement and support.  I also like using it to keep track of my weight and measurements, and seeing the graphs of my progress keep me going!  I also find it gives a great calorie estimate for cardio workouts.

As far as exercising, I had been debating a few things for a while.  I use Endomondo to track my distance and times of walking, jogging, kayaking, etc.  After a workout, it gives you a plethora of information- distance, average speed, best speed, lap times, altitude changes, etc.  It estimates calories, too, but I've found that it grossly over-exagerates just how many calories you are really burning.  

 

Endomondo on the left, Polar FT4 on the right, same workout, 333 calorie difference!!!

Get with it, endomondo!

I was going back and forth about getting a FitBit.  I know a lot of people who have them, and I really liked the social aspect of being able to "compete" with your friends to achieve the most steps.  I think that this would really benefit someone who wanted to increase their daily activity.  For me, that's something I already do, and wanted something more specific to use with my "exercise" activities.

I ended up going with the Polar FT4 heart rate monitor.  I LOVE IT!!!!  It gives you a real-time look at just how much you are working yourself, and beeps whenever you are outside of the optimal heart rate zone for activity.  This has made me push myself a lot more during my walks.  I wasn't really getting the most out of them before I got the FT4.  It made me really concentrate on keeping my pace up and moving my arms to keep my heart rate where it should be.  

Do you use fitness technology?  Why?  Why not?  If so, what gadgets do you find most/least helpful? Post in the comments below!

Weigh-In: Week 4

Current Weight: 233lbs

Weekly Loss:  -2lbs    Current Loss:  -8lbs

Doing good, feeling good, looking good!

Slow and steady wins the race, so I'm happy being down 2 more pounds!  

So far, I've walked 33 miles this month!  I'll definitely reach my goal of 40 miles for April!

I also hope to be out of the 230's by May, so we shall see how that goes.  

I feel great!  I have energy, I physically feel great, and I mentally feel awesome!

The secret to what's working for me this time around?  TIME!

The harsh reality of life is that there is no easy fix for losing weight and being healthy.

Pills won't last in the long run, neither will anything that involves extreme fitness or diet.

Those aren't really healthy, either!

What does work?  Taking the time to do what you know you need to do.

I spend AT LEAST 2 hours a day, 

if not more, on my health.

It might be an hour of yoga, 45 minutes walking, time cooking and prepping meals, scheduling exercising, developing recipes, grocery shopping, etc.

Yes, the time might seem like a lot, but it's our lives we are talking about. 

If your life isn't worth the time, what is?  Money?  No.  Making other people happy?  No.

Family?  Family is important.  Get them to be a part of your journey!  
If they can't/won't, realize that in order for you all to enjoy your times together, 
you need to be healthy!

One of the greatest parts of this week was seeing how supportive my husband and friends are with my efforts.  My husband and I both work a lot, and that means we don't have much time to spend together.  This week, we were going to go out to dinner on Friday since we were both free.  I felt bad, but I asked Chris if we could do dinner at 8:15 so I could go for a walk and go to a yoga class.  Without any problems, he said yes, of course!  He knows that in order for me to be successful, it's going to take time.  He's even getting back into cycling, too!  Yesterday morning he went for a ride while I went for my walk.

My friends are also awesome!  We went to dinner at a friend's house on Saturday night.

She kept me in mind and had plenty of healthy options for me to enjoy!  How sweet!

(Note: I was responsible for dessert.  I brought fancy cupcakes.  We had a cupcake tasting.  

It was amazing!  And not healthy.  Amazing nonetheless.  I fail lol.)  

Weekly Weigh In and Chicago

This week, I maintained my weight.  I am guessing that I did lose a little before I went away and then put some on.  My body feels bloated still from eating more salt/fat/sugar than I normally do on a regular basis.  I'm calling this week my detox week!

I spent 3 days in Chicago for a mini-vacation with my best friend.  She was there working, so I was on my own for the most part.  I had a great time!  The weather was beautiful, so I spent most of my days walking around.  The first day I forgot to track my miles, but I used my free Endomondo app the rest of the time (a really great app if you want to track any sort of outside activity!).  It tracks how far, how long, average speed, and more!  Here are a few examples of the feedback from the app:

I walked over 30 miles while i was there!  My legs are exhausted, but I'm proud of myself!  There were a few times when I really wanted to hop on a bus or in a cab, but I didn't!!!  

I'm not going to lie, I ate a bunch of stuff that isn't on the weight-loss wagon, but that's part of travel for me.  I did discover some delicious, healthy meals along the way!

Crepes filled with spinach and mushrooms at the farmers market (above)
Grilled fish tacos at Howells & Hood (below)

The rest of my meals weren't horrible, health-wise (except the deep dish pizza- which, in retrospect, I shouldn't have eaten- I was so disappointed in the taste!  I'll stick to NY style pizza, thank you!), but they weren't healthy, either.  

I'm glad to be home, back in my routine and my kitchen!

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Dirty Girl Mud Run and Weekly Weigh In

So far, being back on track, I'm down 3 lbs!

Before and After

This weekend was the Dirty Girl Mud Run, and I did it!!!  I did all but 2 of the obstacles, and I was very proud of myself!  I've found that I have very good balance, and rock cargo nets!!!  There was one inclined log obstacle that I almost got over, but it was very slippery, and I had a vision of my foot slipping and hitting my knee or head on the log.  So, I decided to go around it after I was almost at the halfway point.

The one obstacle that killed my legs?  There was this one section towards the end that was (or at least felt like) at least a half mile of thick, thick mud a few inches deep.  Like, the kind of mud that you could easily lose a shoe in.  It reminded me of the scene where Artax drowns in the swamps in the Neverending Story.

If this scene means nothing to you, your childhood was lacking!

Like, seriously, my body just couldn't deal with having to pull my legs out of the mud after every single step of this section.  My fellow Dirty Girl, Katie (who is awesome and amazing for staying with my slow butt even though she is currently training for her marathon- you should check her blog out!), almost lost me in the mud!!!  I did survive, but my body is not happy about it today!  

For anyone considering doing a 5K or a mud run- do it!!!  If I could do it, you can do it!  It's completely non-competitive, I walked 90% of it, plenty of others walked, too!  Chances are that you will do better than you think!  I plan on doing more in the future, hopefully my body will be less sore as I get back in shape!!!

My Game Plan

I've decided not to join Weight Watchers this time around.  While the program worked for me, I don't want to spend the money and dread the meetings.  I loved going to my meetings for a very long time, and then eventually some new people joined who, quite frankly, annoyed me.  Think what you will, I speak the truth!

What I did learn the most from WW is that I need to track what I eat.  I'm going to use myfitnesspal in order to keep track of what I eat as well as my exercise.  There is also a social part of myfitnesspal, so if you want to give it a try, my username is Gogasa.  I'm not quite sure about the social part of it since I've never used it, but it can't hurt!  Feel free to add me as a friend on there!  The reason I chose myfitnesspal is that has a free app as well as a website.  A few other apps only exist as apps.  I like being able to access my information on my phone as well as on my computer.  

While I am focusing on my calories, I am also trying to eat the least amount of processed foods as possible.  I'm not talking about buying only organic foods or anything like that.  I (luckily) enjoy cooking, so I try to keep my shopping to at least 75% produce and fresh proteins (fish, poultry, etc.).  This step alone keeps my food intake much healthier.  I find that on days where I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner from scratch, I end up way below my recommended daily calorie intake.

I am a "normal" human being, though, so I do have convenience foods stocked up in my house for times when I don't want to cook or when I just don't have the time.  I also have my share of artificial sweeteners and the like, because sometimes you just need the fake stuff.  

I'm also getting my butt to the gym at least 3 times a week, usually more than that!  Right now, I'm limiting myself to the elliptical.  I'm doing the Dirty Girl 5K Mudrun (woohoo!) this weekend, and I don't want to be unable to complete it if my body is too sore from starting a new routine!  After that, I'll start weight training and going back to yoga as well.

I've also gone to another doctor to see if there's anything that can be done to make my knee "normal" again.  It's never been the same since I tore my ACL and meniscus, and it really limits me.  It doesn't hurt, but it gets tired, achy and swells up very easily.  I pretty much wear sneakers all of the time since any other shoe just makes it worse.  

So far, so good.  I will be posting more pictures, recipes and weekly weigh-ins as I go along.  Thanks everyone for your support, it means more than you know!

I Survived My First 5K

I did it!  I survived the 5K!  And I even ran a little bit of it!


It wasn't a timed race, but I estimated it took me about 45 minutes to complete.  My knee was fine, but my breathing was more of a problem.  It was crazy humid out.  I have to say it didn't feel as far of a distance as I thought it would.  And, about 10 minutes after finishing, I got a second wind and wanted to get going again!


I've decided that I'm going to start walking/running outside more often, in addition to everything I'm doing at the gym.  I really liked it, I just have to work up my stamina.  My knee feels fine today, my hip is a little off because it isn't used to impact like that since the elliptical has no impact.


I have many more 5K's in my future.  I'm hoping to be able to run most, if not all, of a 5K by next summer.