I thought he was dead...

It was all my fault!  I had become rather complacent, having considered myself far too sensible to do anything as daft as drown the little fella!  Sadly, my complacency was mis-placed, and stupidity took over when I managed to put my Fitbit through a wash cycle.  It was Sunday morning and I got up and went downstairs to have a coffee.  Very rarely, for me, I decided to go down in my nightdress, and, for some reason I still can’t fathom, I attached my Fitbit to the pocket on my nightdress.  WHY on earth would I do such a thing?  It’s not as though I was planning to go for a walk dressed as I was!  Anyway, I had my coffee and went back upstairs to dress, totally forgetting about my Fitbit.  I gathered up a pile of washing, and threw my nightdress into the pile.  I took the pile downstairs and shovelled it into the washing machine without another thought.  It was only later when I as hanging the washing up to dry that I noticed the Fitbit looking very sorry for himself at the bottom of the basket.  I picked him up – his casing looked a bit cracked.  I pressed his button, and, where it should have been giving me numbers of steps, flights, etc, it was giving me words.  Not rude words, thankfully, but it just said things like “Steps”, “Miles” without anything else.  I tried again later and got the same thing.  I was convinced that he was dead, especially as this seems to be a common occurrence if you read the FB forums, and no-one’s FB seems to survive.  I did the only thing I could do – I got on to Amazon and ordered a new one straight away, thinking this was my opportunity to get the new, flashier model, with Bluetooth functionality!! 

I left poor old FB on the charging cradle overnight, and checked him this morning.  When I pressed the button, a little ‘0’ came up – looked promising.  I ran around the room and pressed the button again – a number ‘9’ was displayed!  9 steps!  Rumours of FB’s death were greatly exaggerated!  I quickly got on to Amazon and was, luckily, able to cancel my order. 

Further Fitbitting

I’ve now had the Fitbit for 5 weeks and I have to say that it is still surprisingly motivating trying to meet the daily targets of 10,000 steps and 10 flights of stairs.  I am still a bit obsessive about checking the tally at various points during the day, so have taken to wearing it clipped to my trouser pocket, thus avoiding having to fumble down the front of my top to locate the device in the deep depths of my bosom.  Choosing to take the stairs rather than the lift has become second nature, and this works really well at work where I work on the third floor and have to go to the ground floor a few times a day.  I also choose to walk more when the opportunity arises, such as the just under a mile round trip to the bus stop to pick up my son.  I am quite disappointed when it’s pouring with rain and I have to take the car.  If this happens, I now jog up and down on the spot in the bus stop until the school bus arrives.  I don’t know what the motorists going past must think, and it is a main dual carriageway!   If it gets to bedtime and I am sitting at the 9k mark, I run around the house until I get my count up to the magic 10k. 

The Fitbit is not without its flaws, however.  It does exhibit some inconsistencies and strange counting that can skew the logged results.  The first time I noticed anything odd was on the first week-end I had it when we went out for the day.  This was to a “Truck driving experience” (a Father’s Day gift for DH who strangely prefers the idea of driving large trucks to speeding around a race track in a Ferrari....).  This involved an hour or so in the car, followed by a short walk from the car park, a bit of waiting around, 30 minutes or so in the truck (DS and I were allowed to sit in as passengers), and then returning home.  NO climbing flights of stairs or steep hills.  So, when I got home, I was most surprised to see an email from Fitbit giving me my “50 floors in a day” badge!  When I checked the results, it showed that during the time I had been out, I had climbed 68 floors.  More detailed checking of the times I did all this climbing (the display on the website breaks the activities down into 5 minute slots), showed that all that stair climbing had been done whilst I was sitting as a passenger in my husband’s van.  A bit of research on the Fitbit forums shows that driving can frequently log steps and floors, so to get around it you have to record a log of the driving activity.  A bit of a faff, but once I had done this, it wiped out all the erroneous flights of stairs and a number of steps that had been recorded.  More annoyingly, I have to remember to do this every time I make a trip in my husband’s van. 

Another quirk is that the number of flights of stairs it logs when I go from the ground floor to the third varies between 4 and 6.  There are, as you would imagine, 3 flights of stairs between the ground and the third floor.  The first floor is a mezzine floor, so the first flight of stairs is shorter than the others.  Flight 2 and 3 are split in half by a small landing, so technically each could count as 2 flights.  I would probably expect a consistent count of 5, however I sometimes get 4, sometimes 5 and sometimes 6!  What accounts for the difference?  Does it depend on whether I bounce up the stairs enthusiastically, or whether I drag myself slowly??  A mystery.

At last... progress!

So, I can hear you asking  – is any of this working????  3 weeks in to the new approach, and it is time to get down to the nitty gritty of how it is going.

The first week didn’t include the fasting.  I didn’t have an alcoholic drink all week, which would have saved a considerable amount of calories, and I upped my exercise by going to the gym 3 times and, using my Fitbit to count the steps, upped the amount of walking I did (although I didn’t quite manage the 10k on EVERY day).  Whilst I didn’t write down, or count the calorie value, of everything I ate, I don’t tend to eat much rubbish, and I decided to just try and cut down portion sizes.  I stepped on the scales after a week (well actually, I can’t resist stepping on them every day, even though I know I shouldn’t, but only once a week is the ‘official’ recording) and, to my disappointment, they hadn’t shifted at all!  Not even a measly quarter pound!  It was when I went into work the next day and my colleague told me about the intermittent fasting that I decided to try the 5:2 approach, ie eating normally for 5 days and restricting calories to 500 on 2 days a week.  Well, it is by no means easy to go all day until 6.30pm without eating, but it is quite a bit easier than weighing and measuring and writing down every calorie consumed during each day.  By the time I walk into my house, I am ready to eat the front door! 

I am also continuing with keeping up the walking, managing 10k steps on most days.  I am managing 3 sessions at week at the gym, although I definitely need to get a re-assessment as I need an update to my routines.  Still keeping the alcohol down – just sticking to a glass or two only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  I was very relieved to see at the week 3 weigh-in an overall loss so far of 6 pounds!  Whilst I am very pleased with that, it’s still very early days to know how sustainable the weight loss is – I am pretty sure it is mainly down to the fasting.  I guess a long term solution might be to incorporate some sort of fasting into my week – perhaps one day each week, or perhaps just missing one or two lunches a week will make it easier to keep the weight down whilst still being able to enjoy the occasional indulgence. 

The aim of the changes I am making is to try and put in place a sustainable eating and exercise plan that I am happy to stick to, not just for a few months whilst I try to shed a bit of excess baggage, but for ever more....  I know there will be holidays, Christmases, special occasions, “bad” days, etc, but I want to be able to face these head on – enjoy the overindulgence, then deal with the consequences!    

Fitibit mark 2

Gosh, that last post was rather long...  I can go on a bit once I get started!

I am a bit miffed this week - having owned my lovely little device for under 3 weeks, I was not happy to see the huge announcements on the Fitbit website that they have introduced two new versions of the device - one of which is an upgrade with more functionality!  Grrrrrrrr!!    

My [OLD] model is the Fitbit Ultra (the one on the right) and the new shiny improved one is the Fitbit One, on the left

Before I go sticking mine on eBay and rushing out to get the latest model, let's examine the additional functionality:  Firstly, the new models are waterproof.  This is in response to all those people whose FBs have died following the user's neglect to remove them from the article of clothing it was clipped to before putting it in the washing machine.  There were also, apparently, some who managed to drown their FB devices by sweating too much!!  Not a problem I'm going to have me thinks... Regarding the washing machine problem, I did once manage to wash a mobile phone, but that was because I had chucked in in the basket of washing to carry downstairs and forgot I had done this when piling the washing into the machine.  OK, that was rather dumb, but I never put my bras in the washing machine so hope that I would spot it before hand washing them.  That really just leaves dropping in a puddle (hopefully won't happen due to where it is located about my person) or me falling into deep water.  If the latter occurs, my FB probably won't be the first thing I worry about… Right, I just checked the features again and it isn't TOTALLY waterproof, so in the case of falling in deep water my FB wouldn't survive anyway.  

OK, the next new feature is a little alarm to wake you up.  Apparently you get a gentle vibration at the pre-set time which can avoid waking your partner.  Well, in the unlikely event that I have to get up before him, I am a bit too selfish to care about ensuring that the precious thing doesn't get woken up [offering him the same consideration he has offered me over the years when his alarm has gone of at 5am!!!].

Finally, and this is the killer, it has bluetooth syncing with the iPhone app!!!!   {jumps up and down with apoplectic rage].  Call me odd and geeky (and you wouldn't be the first), but this is a fab feature!  I have my phone with me at all times and it would constantly be receiving little messages from the FB - how kool!  I could check my progress at any time without having to fumble down my top!  Far more dignified.  However, much as I may lament the lack of constant synchronisation, it doesn't really justify ditching the current model, as I will probably eventually tire of checking my progress every half an hour.

So, in conclusion, I'm probably going to hang on to the little fella a good while longer.  Given where it lives most of the time I feel a bit odd about selling it on eBay anyway...

WTF is THAT???

So part of the plan is to increase my activity levels.  For me, no new plan is complete without the purchase of at least one shiny, new gadget.  In this case, the gadget is the Fitbit (see picture).  The Fitbit is a very posh pedometer.  It counts your steps (duh!), but does quite a bit more: see the website for more info - Fitbit.  It has a built in accelerometer, which is similar to the Wii remote, in that in can detect movement.  As well as counting steps, it also counts the number of flights of stairs you climb and monitors your sleep (worn in a wrist band overnight).  It has a little base station that is connected to a computer.  You clip the device to the base station for charging, but it also acts as a syncing device either when the device is attached or, through wireless technology, when you are within 15 feet of your computer.  Data syncs to a website giving you a record of the number of steps and flights of stairs you have climbed, how active you have been and details of how long you slept for and how many times you woke up.  You can also log other information, such as additional activities (gym, cycling, swimming, etc), weights and measurements, and you can also keep a log of the food you eat if you wish (I don't wish!).  

Unlike previous pedometers that I have tried, this one is easier to remember to wear all the time, and less likely to (a) be seen and (b) fall off.  This is because the suggested place to wear it for a woman is clipped to your bra.  Pretty handy, but I have to resist the urge to keep checking my daily step total when I'm out and about because you get some pretty strange looks fumbling down your top to try and press the button to see the results! 

I'm now on the third week of wearing the Fitbit, and I have to say it has changed my behaviour.  I left my daily targets at the suggested 10,000 steps and 10 floors and started wearing the Fitbit (or FB) the day after it arrived.  Before I started to wear the FB, I would have said that the days I would find hardest to hit my 10k would be work days, as I have to sit at a desk for the best part of 8 hours a day staring at a computer and tapping away on a keyboard.  However, I was quite shocked to realise just how little I move around when I am NOT at work.  My first day wearing the FB was a Friday - the one week-day I don't work.  I didn't really pay much attention to how many steps I was doing during the day, so I was horrified at the end of the day when I realised I had only clocked up just over 5k.  Over the week-end I fared a little better, but still didn't manage to clock up the magic 10k, nor did I even manage the 10 flights of stairs.  

 

I decided I had better actually try and DO something to get the total steps closer to the target, so I started looking for more walking opportunities to fit in to my day.  Flights of stairs were easy on work days as I work on the 3rd floor, but the 2nd and 3rd flights of stairs are in 2 blocks, so each time I go from the ground to my floor I clock up 5 floors!  I have completely stopped using the lift, and now climb the stairs quite a few times each day - there is a café area on the ground floor with very posh coffee machines, so I get my coffees from there, meaning extra steps and floors each time I go for a coffee.  I have always gone out for a walk at lunchtimes, as I have to get away from my desk (and some of my colleagues...).  My usual walk is up to the shopping centre, around the centre and back, so I was pleased to discover that this clocked up around 4500 steps - almost half my daily target!  By the time I had walked around the office a few times with trips to the coffee machine, the toilet and to speak to people in the building (I am allowed to do that sometimes...), my total by the time I left work was usually around 7k.  Some days I go to the gym at lunchtime instead of a walk, and that usually takes my total to around 8-9k, depending on how long I spend on the treadmill.  Shortly after getting home, I have to go and pick up my son from the bus stop - a round trip in the car of about 3 miles.  However, there is a lovely walk across the village green and over the canal which is under half a mile, so, unless it is pouring with rain, I walk over.  My son complains bitterly about having to walk back, especially when he has his very large and heavy sports bag (although I always end up carrying it!), however that trip clocks up another 2k, so gets me pretty well on or over my target (with the general walking around at home whilst I am cooking, etc). 

 

So far so good!  The week-ends don't offer so many opportunities for walking with a purpose.  Since we have been dogless, I no longer simply go for a walk.  I don't mind walking when there is somewhere to go and I don't need to carry anything heavy, such as a load of shopping, however I have a strange reluctance to just open the front door and walk around the block with nowhere to go and no doggy companion.  Much as I would love to have another dog, it is a drastic and impractical solution - I will just have to get out and do it!  Maybe I could imagine I have a dog with me that is running on ahead... some real benefits as I won't have to follow behind with my plastic bags and gloves, or have to hose down a stinky wet doggie when I get back!!  Might be a bit embarrassing when I start to call for the invisible dog, or throw sticks for him tho'...