I have a few things I would like to achieve this year. There is one major goal, though – and it is –
Eat Less, Move More.
This is a pretty simple goal. It needs to happen. My weight has been quietly creeping up to a place I am not a fan of. At the start of January, I weighed in at 95.2kg – (209.88 pounds) – if I let things continue this way, I’d soon be over 100kgs.
The Other Half and I bought ourselves the Fitbit Charge HR for Christmas. We got them on special for $124 each. This little gadget has changed my life in a good way – I will do a post all about it later this month once I have been using it a little longer. Here is a quick look at the dashboard, which you will see in more detail in my upcoming post. :)
As a part of the Fitbit thing, I’m also tracking my food intake. I was doing it with the inbuilt Fitbit food logging software, but I have now switched to MyFitnessPal. You can find me here – MyFitnessPal & Fitbit.
We bought the Fitbits on Tuesday, so I weigh in on Tuesday mornings and in the first week I lost 1.3kg (2.86 pounds).
Of course one of the very first things we did was go out for a long walk, during which I managed to pinch a nerve in my foot, making it difficult to get my 10,000 steps a day for that first week. In fact for two days I had to rest and limp about – then I injured it again and had to take another rest day. That has been quite frustrating. However even on a rest day I managed 6468 steps which is pretty decent.
I know I have a couple of readers who have set themselves the same goal and at least one thinking about buying themselves a Fitbit, so here are my lessons learned after one week.
Start Out Slow.
As soon as you get that Fitbit, you’ll want to get moving. However if you do that, you will not have a baseline to know how many steps you would usually do in a day. So my advice the first day is – do what you would do on a regular day.
Be Careful
An injury will hinder your progress and frustrate you, so rather than go all out, ramp up your exercise slowly. If you are not doing 10,000 steps to begin with, aim to add a thousand steps each day.
Work It Out
It is useful to figure out how many steps you get from things you do regularly. For example, if I need to run to the shops, it will be 2,000 steps or so. A shower is usually 200-300 steps – I keep mine on, you don’t have to, of course. Why is this important?
Step Budget
If you know that you have to do grocery shopping tomorrow, and you know that is going to be around 2,000 steps, you might want to cut back on your other activities.
For example – I like to get on the treadmill and do a walk but I will always stop around 8,000 steps because I know the rest of my daily doings (dinner, cleaning, etc) will be around 2,000 steps. On the day you see pictured above, we discovered we did not have an essential dinner ingredient, so off to the shops we went – and I went way over on my steps for that day.
Not that going over 10,000 steps is a major problem, but at this stage with the injury I really want to try and stick to 10,000 -11,000 a day.
Sleep Is Interesting
Sleep stats, that is. Above you see one of my best nights of sleep since getting the Fitbit. Interestingly, I had stayed up late reading a truly great book. When I did go to sleep, I was out solidly for 4 hours. I woke up so refreshed the next morning.
This sleep was less good but it seems like this is a more normal sleep for me.
Fitbit Thoughts
Why does it seem like this is going to work well for me? Putting this little tracking band on my wrist has inspired me to get moving and watch my food intake. Is it because, in a world where everything can be tracked, tracking the human body tells us more about ourselves? I haven’t logged food to this extent before and I am finding it to suit my Aspie, slightly OCD nature.
Saying It Out Loud
The major reason I am posting this here is to hold myself accountable. There is always the danger I could become complacent and fall off the eat less, move more wagon. I’ll update here once a month.
Over To You
Did you make any goals for 2016? Do you fitbit or myfitnesspal? :)
I don’t have any gadgets to track my fitness etc but they do sound like they are good things. This year my goals regarding fitness and wellbeing is to continue with my exercising- jogging, workout dvds and yoga. Trying to become more flexible. A few kilos off wouldn’t be bad either. Good luck with your goals for 2016.
When I started to track what I actually eat, I can see where the problems are.. :) I’ve started trying some more healthy versions of the things we like, and it seems to be going ok so far.. :) For example, my Friday night pizza would usually cost me over 1,000 calories. I’ve changed it a little this week but we’ll have to look for a different base option because the base is very calorific! :/
I didn’t know they could track you sleep. It would be very interesting to know how you normally sleep.
It know when you are sleeping, it knows when you’re awake.. Somewhat hilariously, Andrew, my sleep is pretty deep at times. I am a sleepwalker, and I have been known to sleep on the toilet from time to time – I manage to wake up enough to get there but once I am there, I fall asleep again..
On a trip to Hawaii once, The Other Half was awakened by me opening the door to the room. I have no idea where I was going – probably to the shops because I was so excited about the shopping, lol. :)
I don’t have any gadgets and don’t plan to buy any. I also have no idea how many steps I take each day, I know it is far, far, less than when I was working. I think I walk more at night because I get up to let the cat out, get up to let the cat in, get up again to…and so on all night. But not every night, thank goodness. I might count how many steps I take getting to and from the shop, see how many that is.
That is the thing I love the most about the Fitbit – I don’t have to think about it. I can just do, and it does the measuring for me. It recognises when I am doing exercise and logs it for me. It is awesome and I am loving it. :)
I think this is a great and realistic goal. But, that Fitbit sounds like cooking to me! And I hate cooking.
The fitbit, or the food logging? :) The fitbit is nothing like cooking, lol!
Right now I’m using my phone’s Health app as a step counter. It’s really motivated me to move more. Sometimes it’s inconvenient to carry a phone around, though, so I asked for a Fitbit for Christmas. Didn’t get it, but may end up buying one for myself.
I did use my phone for a while but I found it to be a little inaccurate, so I am really glad we bought the fitbit. It has only been off my wrist for charging and washing since I got it. I do highly recommend buying one! ;)
I’ve been using My Fitness Pal (on and off!) for some years and had never had a significant weight loss until I used it. I don’t have a Fitbit but after reading your post I think I might invest in one.
Have you watched ‘That Sugar Film’? I watched it recently and it has changed my outlook on food completely and I’m now on a mission to remove as much sugar as possible from my diet. My weigh-in is tomorrow so I’m hoping the scales will reflect my efforts of the last two weeks!
Good luck with your goal Snoskred – a great way to start the new year.
I generally don’t add sugar to anything and I do try to limit foods which contain it.. I have not seen the film but I am a Paleo believer from way back and went through the process of trying other, lower GI sweeteners. My favourites are maple syrup and coconut sugar which has a lovely caramel flavour to it. :)
I tracked my sleep for a while, but I didn’t really understand what I could do to make it better, so I gave up. I’ve been contemplating a fit bit, although I’m already pretty active. I’m afraid it would make me obsessive because I tend to get that way.
I certainly get where you are coming from – I can get quite obsessive too – in this case I think I need to! ;) I deeply love my Fitbit..
I’m anxiously awaiting a more detailed post about your FitBit, as I’ve been thinking about getting one. I need to get moving a lot more and be accountable. I don’t want to gain back all the weight I lost!