Fitbit
Lately I've been using a fitbit and logging my food, caloric beverages, excercise (fitbit actually logs that for me) fitbit (if I wear it) logs caloric burn, steps taken, flights of stairs climbed (don't know how many steps constitute a 'flight,' though.) It monitors heart rate and distance, but who knows what it thinks my stride length is. It's got my height, but I think I'm shaped a little differently. Short legs. So my guess is that it thinks I go further than I do. It can be changed, I just haven't bothered to do it.
I guess I've learned a few things. Several years ago, I started working out and joined myfitnesspal. I probably still have a dormant account- but did, in fact, learn a few things there. I learned that my diet as it was did not provide nearly enough calories for my activity. I had gone soft. That was no secret. I hadn't 'gained weight,' exactly, but my belt fit a little tighter and I'd gotten 'pudgier.' Why? Probably because the calories I did consume (which were too few anyway) were crap calories. Nothing with a slow burn to it. So while my base metabolic rate would flare a couple times a day, there was no consistency and most of the time it was very low. Here's where I should probably state that I have no science whatsoever behind anything I'm saying. Other than the factual caloric count, I know little about biology. A nutritionist with a degree or something right read this and ask what on earth I'm talking about. But this is how I make sense of things. If someone teaches me better, than maybe I'll think that way instead.
I like fitbit a little better. It relies on calories, make no mistake, but instead of logging activity (which it does automatically) it actually counts the calories I've burned, so if I just sit on the bed all day and eat only chips, but few enough that I'm below my calories- I'm not considered to have 'met my goal.' It doesn't really have a dietary goal, but you need enough activity to meet the goals they set that you end up having to eat something decent.
Maybe that's all a load of crap, but it works for me. I found some meal plans out of Men's Health magazine (fitness issue.) I stole it from a friend (asked to borrow it and never returned it) when we went over to his house to collect a sperm donation. There's a workout in there that I like (there are a few) but what I've actually gotten continued use out of are the meal plans. They're weekly things. And to properly shop you have to do the same plan for some time. Maybe I should do a rotation. The fact that I eat the same things all the time drives Emily nuts. She can't do it, so we have to shop for things other than what's on the meal plan when we do. But I kind of like the routine. I was never a creature of habit until well into my adult life. Late 20s. I had habits and routine, but my routines weren't central to my comfort. And too much routine made me restless. Wonder how or if that will change between now and 60.
Anyway- I haven't done the workout for a few years, now. I had made a 'punching bag,' out of one of the old military sleeping bags (the really fluffy down stuffed ones) wrapped around a 6 foot dowel with a martial arts chest guard put on it. It served the purposes of the particular workout- and did a fair bit for my fitness, I think. But it's very much a circuit workout. The running isn't something I'd be able to do inside my house, and the rest of it I wouldn't be able to do outside. All that aside, I'm thinking of picking up the workout again, minus the running. Do the running or walking some other time. I picked up a real punching bag at a garage sale, and think that will serve a little better than the makeshift one- which I may finally retire- to my wife's pleasure and to my loss. At any rate, I haven't been able to make it to the rec center to work out since Hannah was born- and I have a feeling I will have to prioritize my early early mornings. Until Hannah's a good bit older than she is now, I will need to prioritize Bible study. That gives me 3 wee hour mornings. Excercise is pretty much going to be long distance walking instead of short distance running, because I think I will have to take Noah with me in the stroller. Or, in a couple or 3 months, take Hannah with me- and sometimes both. But that gives me nothing for upper body. So I bought a punching bag at a garage sale.
I've learned that seemingly insignificant stuff can really blow your plan. A couple weeks ago I got a coffee on my way to Bible Study. We were out, so I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts. I forgot it when I recorded my lunch. And I remembered in the evening. I almost didn't record it. It's coffee. Whatever. But- while I usually take it black at home (or with a little creamer in it- which is 35 cal. per tablespoon) I go ahead and get a little sugar in it if I drive through. Something for the road. Imagine my surprise when I logged it and came up with 240 calories! That's nearly as much as a donut! For just the coffee!
So- my goals are as follows. I accepted the default goals standardly set by fitbit. The calories were customized to me, based on average daily burn.
Steps: 10,000
Distance: 5 miles
Floors: 10
Hours active: 9 (meaning you've taken at least 250 steps that hour.)
Calories burned: 2,493 (I just think of it as 25, cause... yeah.)
There's not a precise goal for calorie intake. It varies throughout the day based on how many calories I actually burn. If I don't do anything and only burn 1500 calories all day, I'll only be eating 12-1300. But maybe I'll go swimming or biking or actually get in an early morning workout, and then I'll be eating around 3,000. My average burn is 2,648. But I have a lot of time to walk, so I can get my burn in without actually having what most people would call a real 'workout.' That's the end of the story for now. More thoughts on other things later.
-C
I guess I've learned a few things. Several years ago, I started working out and joined myfitnesspal. I probably still have a dormant account- but did, in fact, learn a few things there. I learned that my diet as it was did not provide nearly enough calories for my activity. I had gone soft. That was no secret. I hadn't 'gained weight,' exactly, but my belt fit a little tighter and I'd gotten 'pudgier.' Why? Probably because the calories I did consume (which were too few anyway) were crap calories. Nothing with a slow burn to it. So while my base metabolic rate would flare a couple times a day, there was no consistency and most of the time it was very low. Here's where I should probably state that I have no science whatsoever behind anything I'm saying. Other than the factual caloric count, I know little about biology. A nutritionist with a degree or something right read this and ask what on earth I'm talking about. But this is how I make sense of things. If someone teaches me better, than maybe I'll think that way instead.
I like fitbit a little better. It relies on calories, make no mistake, but instead of logging activity (which it does automatically) it actually counts the calories I've burned, so if I just sit on the bed all day and eat only chips, but few enough that I'm below my calories- I'm not considered to have 'met my goal.' It doesn't really have a dietary goal, but you need enough activity to meet the goals they set that you end up having to eat something decent.
Maybe that's all a load of crap, but it works for me. I found some meal plans out of Men's Health magazine (fitness issue.) I stole it from a friend (asked to borrow it and never returned it) when we went over to his house to collect a sperm donation. There's a workout in there that I like (there are a few) but what I've actually gotten continued use out of are the meal plans. They're weekly things. And to properly shop you have to do the same plan for some time. Maybe I should do a rotation. The fact that I eat the same things all the time drives Emily nuts. She can't do it, so we have to shop for things other than what's on the meal plan when we do. But I kind of like the routine. I was never a creature of habit until well into my adult life. Late 20s. I had habits and routine, but my routines weren't central to my comfort. And too much routine made me restless. Wonder how or if that will change between now and 60.
Anyway- I haven't done the workout for a few years, now. I had made a 'punching bag,' out of one of the old military sleeping bags (the really fluffy down stuffed ones) wrapped around a 6 foot dowel with a martial arts chest guard put on it. It served the purposes of the particular workout- and did a fair bit for my fitness, I think. But it's very much a circuit workout. The running isn't something I'd be able to do inside my house, and the rest of it I wouldn't be able to do outside. All that aside, I'm thinking of picking up the workout again, minus the running. Do the running or walking some other time. I picked up a real punching bag at a garage sale, and think that will serve a little better than the makeshift one- which I may finally retire- to my wife's pleasure and to my loss. At any rate, I haven't been able to make it to the rec center to work out since Hannah was born- and I have a feeling I will have to prioritize my early early mornings. Until Hannah's a good bit older than she is now, I will need to prioritize Bible study. That gives me 3 wee hour mornings. Excercise is pretty much going to be long distance walking instead of short distance running, because I think I will have to take Noah with me in the stroller. Or, in a couple or 3 months, take Hannah with me- and sometimes both. But that gives me nothing for upper body. So I bought a punching bag at a garage sale.
I've learned that seemingly insignificant stuff can really blow your plan. A couple weeks ago I got a coffee on my way to Bible Study. We were out, so I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts. I forgot it when I recorded my lunch. And I remembered in the evening. I almost didn't record it. It's coffee. Whatever. But- while I usually take it black at home (or with a little creamer in it- which is 35 cal. per tablespoon) I go ahead and get a little sugar in it if I drive through. Something for the road. Imagine my surprise when I logged it and came up with 240 calories! That's nearly as much as a donut! For just the coffee!
So- my goals are as follows. I accepted the default goals standardly set by fitbit. The calories were customized to me, based on average daily burn.
Steps: 10,000
Distance: 5 miles
Floors: 10
Hours active: 9 (meaning you've taken at least 250 steps that hour.)
Calories burned: 2,493 (I just think of it as 25, cause... yeah.)
There's not a precise goal for calorie intake. It varies throughout the day based on how many calories I actually burn. If I don't do anything and only burn 1500 calories all day, I'll only be eating 12-1300. But maybe I'll go swimming or biking or actually get in an early morning workout, and then I'll be eating around 3,000. My average burn is 2,648. But I have a lot of time to walk, so I can get my burn in without actually having what most people would call a real 'workout.' That's the end of the story for now. More thoughts on other things later.
-C