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!

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!

Overboard!

I went was overboard with eating this weekend!  I didn't track anything!  That feels so strange, since I've been very diligent with everything I consume since December!  I know I ate way too much of really bad foods, but I also know that's okay.


I am going back into this gung-ho!  I'm going to be very strict this week, and have sort of a food detox week, eating all healthy, nutritious foods and getting my exercise back on track.  I felt so gross after eating this weekend, it was really bad. 


I bought all my fruits and veggies for my green smoothies,  and I found ground flax seed for a healthy addition.  My chicken is all ready for lunch, and my carrots and snacks are ready to go! I've worked the gym into my schedule every day this week (except Thursday and Friday)!  


Wish me luck in kick-starting my weight loss again!

Weekend

This weekend was a rough one, food wise.


Friday night we took my parents out for Mother's Day to our favorite Italian restaurant.  I didn't do too much damage here- started with a barley mushroom soup, and then had steak pizzaiola and a small piece of veal parmigiana.  The issue came after, when Chris and I decided to get a treat at Carvel.  I ordered a soft-serve twist, but didn't realize until afterwards that I forgot to get the low-fat versions!  Oh well, you gotta live, right?  I got over it...


On Saturday, we went over to Chris' families house to celebrate his cousins and his birthday.  I bought him his favorite pie to bring along, but he didn't want to share it!  So, we had a piece at the house, and then bought some yummy cookies to bring along.  I ate way too many cookies, they were so good (the long ones with the jelly in the middle and dipped in chocolate).  Food overdose.


I tracked everything, and didn't go over my weekly points, but I still feel guilty and gross.  My eating is back to normal, and hopefully I didn't mess up my progress.  We'll see later in the week!

A Man's View: Meh

Week 10.  2.4 lbs gained.  Obviously, I need to reassess my ways of doing things.  My assumptions are incorrect, my laziness is taking over, and the scale is going up.  FML.

It is time that I grab ahold of the reins of my weight loss and try to hold myself to a higher standard, like my wife.

I'm going to try and be out of the house by 8am to go workout, and I'm going to be more responsible when it comes to logging in my points and keeping track of what I'm eating.  And stop eating so much peanut butter (a little is good for you, but I like to eat it by the cupful!).   That's just gross.

I don't feel like posting a picture from today, so here's one from yesterday before I found out that I gained weight!

A Man's View: Tracking Troubles

This is harder than I thought (that's what she said!).


Hi everyone.  I'm Chris, Lexy's husband.  I started Weight Watchers with her, and so far I have lost 13 lbs (started at 228, now 215) and have gone from a size 38 to almost a size 34.  

                 

One of the things I'm having trouble with is estimating my points without logging them in.  If you don't log them in, then you start to assume the point amounts of food, only to find yourself over by 15 points when you finally sit down and track it all.


On days when I go over, I compensate by eating less than my daily points, but that doesn't really work either!  


I have to try harder to reach my point target each day, not going over or under how I am now.  I'm hoping that this will bring better results as I go on.  


Then I just pet my dogs, and life gets better!