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Showing posts with label fitbit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitbit. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2018

What Happened When I Tried to Walk 10,000 Steps for a Week



Last week, I told you that I was going to step up on my fitness and start walking at least 10,000 steps a day. Let me tell you, when you're not used to it, it isn't easy. This is what happened.

Day 1

I started walking my kids to school. It's only a couple of blocks away got, but I got into the habit of driving them to there since we were always running late. I had decided that enough was enough and we walked anyways, just barely getting them there in time. Who would have thought that it could take us almost 10 minutes or more to walk just a few short blocks?

Well, if I was going to walk them to school, we were going to walk home as well. A trip to and from school usually gets me about 2,000 steps so if I do it twice, I get in 4,000.

So how did I get the next 6,000? Well, I decided that laundry can't be all that bad and took more breaks from blogging and social networking and did some chores, which gave me about 1000 steps at least.

When the hubby got home, I took the dogs for a walk. Since our husky goes nuts on walks, I like to walk them separately. I got about 1500 from walking her. When I walked our German shepherd mix, I decided to jog with him about every other block. I was surprised that I was practically dragging him from time to time- I guess we're both a little out of shape. I went on a longer walk with him so I got about 2,500.

To finish off the day, I just walked in place while watching tv.



Day 2

I began the day the same as I did with the kids. I got about 4000 from walking them to and from school. My son had his curriculum night that night, so we walked there and back home and got another 2,000 steps. While we were there and waiting, I walked around the gymnasium and probably got an extra 500. On our way home, I raced my son only to find out that he's faster than I am.... what a humbling moment. I actually irritated my tail bone which was injured from a fall down the stairs a few years ago, so walking was beginning to bother me a little.

I marched in place to reach 10,000 steps.

Day 3


I walked the kids to and from the school. I started to use our wagon again, and well was getting about 4000 steps in from walking, I'm also getting a full body workout in my muscles from pulling the wagon.

Walking is getting more difficult to do. My bones and muscles all ache from running and jostling them around. 30 no longer feels like 20.

I went to the store and got about another 1000 steps in as well as doing more chores so add in another 1000.

I marched in place to get to 10,000 steps. This really sucked because the muscles in my left foot are tight, but I do it anyways.

Day 4


Looks exactly like day 2. My daughter had her curriculum night and so did my youngest. I had to go to two different schools. I walked to the first one and drove to the second, but I had to park a couple of blocks away because there was nowhere to park. I marched to get the last 10,000 steps.

My capris are loose and keep falling down. That's a good sign.

Day 5


This day started with promise, but I didn't finish strong. I had gone upstairs to march in place, but took a break because my feet and tailbone were hurting and actually fell asleep sitting up while watching Grey's anatomy. I woke up when my husband came into the room, but getting my 10000 steps wasn't going to happen.

Day 6


I've had some rest and it's the weekend. My daughter and I went shopping with my mother-in-law. If you ever want to get a lot of steps in without it feeling like work, this is the way to do it. After shopping, unsuccessfully, for a tea party dress, we met my husband and the boys at Goodwill and bought our kids their costumes which cost us half of what we would pay for new ones and these looked brand new. I got about 8,000 steps in.

After we got the costumes, my husband and I parted ways. He went with the kids over to Grandma's and I went home to pick up and prepare for our game night. I remember checking my Fitbit and was SOOOO close to 10,000 steps, I didn't march in place. Unfortunately I only got to 9,700 steps by midnight. If the clock didn't restart then, I would have had more than 10,000 because game night didn't get over until 2:30 and I was still up and walking around cleaning up the kitchen and putting snacks away.


Day 7


I did normal household chores things. Probably got about 1000 from that. Then we met my in-laws at McDonalds to let our cranky kids run around without destroying my house. We went to their house after that and I got up and walked in place for a while. (They are used to me doing this anyways because I get restless legs).

By the time it was time to get home, the kids were tired and cranky, so I had to dance off my crankiness that resulted while I cooked dinner, (I threw an actual tantrum when I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner and he said he didn't care. I even stomped my feet- how embarrassing) and got about 3,000 steps. Dancing helped me blow off my steam and I was better until my kids started throwing clean socks around the house. I sat down with them and told them that I needed their help to pick them up and they listened. My anxiety had just started to calm down after that. I went upstairs to to apologize to the hubby for my random tantrum (I blame it on the 5 hours of sleep the night before) and to tell him that we had left over Chinese that I ordered from the night before when my youngest came in with a pillowcase full of clean socks and dumped them all over my bed.

I was done...  and there was no way I was going to walk more. I ate my left over dinner and watched reruns of The Office then went to bed. I ended up with 8,000 steps.



What Did I Learn From This?

  • Exercising now, isn't the same as it was 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. 
  • I'm out of shape, but I already knew that. 
  • It was easier to start then it was to finish, but I tried to push through. 
  • Exercising really does give you energy, but it also wears you out.
  • I need a bigger bath tub so I can soak comfortably.
This is what I used to track my steps: FitBit Flex 2 -It's simple, but it gets the job done.



Tuesday, September 11, 2018

I Want to Get Back In Shape - A Fitness Plan That's Sure to Work?


     How did I let myself get this way? When I look in the mirror, I don't think that I look that bad, but my pictures tell me a different story. My scale says the same thing and my clothes protest a little whenever I get dressed.

I'm the tanned one on the left. 
   

      Does this story feel similar to you? I used to be in very good shape. I was a very outgoing, competitive, hyper child. I would always participate in P.E. and whenever we did races or some sort of game for church activities, I tried to always win. If I weighed more than I was supposed to, it never showed because I was strong and toned.

We dressed up for Halloween at our Fall Retreat. I'm in the middle. 
   


 Somewhere in time, I stopped moving so much. I calmed down. I really didn't eat any different, because, well, ice cream. I know how to diet because I've dieted my whole life. My mom has done every diet and so my sisters and I did every diet with her. (within normalcy for a teenager- no diet pills or extreme food loss.) My biggest problem has been inactivity.

      Did you know that when you have a low metabolism, your body temperature is lower than the average? My body temperature stays around 95 or 96 degrees. I've told my doctor that, so she did a thyroid test on me. It came back normal. I have no other health issues that cause me to be heavier, so it comes down to inactivity. There are all sorts of websites you can check out regarding this. Just type in, "Why is my body temperature low" and first you'll see, "Are you outside in the winter with no coat?" and then you'll see something about low metabolism.

     Do you know what helps raise metabolism? Exercise. Movement. Muscles. In the very first article I found when I typed in, "How to raise your metabolism", they give 10 different ways to increase it. This is what it says:


Here are 10 easy ways to increase your metabolism.
  1. Eat Plenty of Protein at Every Meal...
  2. Drink More Cold Water. ...
  3. Do a High-Intensity Workout. ...
  4. Lift Heavy Things. ...
  5. Stand up More. ...
  6. Drink Green Tea or Oolong Tea. ...
  7. Eat Spicy Foods. ...
  8. Get a Good Night's Sleep....
  9. Drink Coffee...
  10. Replace Cooking Fats With Coconut Oil...
If you read the article that's highlighted above, it will give you more explanation to why these work. In case you want to see more proof- although, who's to say that it's really proof if found on the Internet? I found this article from the Men's Journal, but many of the points are similar from the first list I showed you.

The 17 Best Ways to Fire up Your Metabolism

1. Pump iron
2. Move around more
3. Eat a variety of whole foods
4. Don’t go too low in calories or carbs
5. Use cheat meals strategically
6. Make sure you're not starving yourself
7. Do the right kind of cardio
8. Load up on water
9. Maintain lean muscle mass
10. Utilize HIIT training
11. Eat protein, especially at breakfast
12. Consider supplements
13. Eat, then sweat
14. Eat frequently
15. Consider drinking coffee
16. Spice things up
17. Get quality sleep
There's obviously more to these points, so please, click the link above to read through all of them. I know that when they say to eat more, they really mean to eat about six smaller calorie meals a day. I've done one diet that it seemed like most of my town had been doing. The idea is to eat one small 100 or 200 calorie meal in the morning. Three hours later, eat a 400 calorie meal, then alternate. The diet would change based on your height, weight, build, and gender because regardless of what the world is saying today, there is still a HUGE difference between men and women's anatomy so things are a little different.

      One of the easiest diets that I've ever done has been the macro diet. If you want to figure out how figure out your macros, I wrote a blog post all about it, but one of the bloggers from the support group I'm in talks about all of the time! I'm going to do a shout out here. If you're interested, visit her page at https://patienceconsistency.com/ . She has different recipes that are macro friendly and delicious listed out and she can help you go farther than I can. The only reason why I didn't stick with this one is because I vacationed and just sort of stopped doing it, but I will restart again, someday. If you want a life style change where you can eat pretty much anything, this is a good one for you.

     So what does all of this have to do with me? I'm not a fitness or diet writer, I write about mom things and what is going on with me. I've noticed that my attention isn't what it should be. I've also noticed that I'm not as strong as I was before. My eight and four year old are getting harder to wrestle with when we play so I know that I'm getting weaker. I need to get back into shape so that one day, my kids won't discover my weakness and tie me to the chair and run the house like they're the boss. I want to be able to play with them without getting tired out or losing interest.

My husband took some pictures of me and the kids 
for mother's day and I hated every single one of them. 
I tried my hardest to hide behind them,but that didn't
 cover up my arms or my double chin. 
      My  daughter, who is only six, is really starting to notice body image. She asked me one day if she was going to get fat. Then the next day, she asked me if I used to be small like her. That is a HUGE eye opener. I want to be able to model to her that with hard work and dedication, she doesn't have to worry about getting overweight. We can't keep telling ourselves that it's ok if someone is heavier, because it's not. There are so many people with health problems related to obesity and it CAN negatively affect your family. If I take any pictures with my kids, I want it with just our faces. Anything below the neck reminds me of how big I've gotten. I don't feel bad about myself and don't have pity parties, I've just accepted my weight as who I am, but that's where I'm wrong.

       It's time for me to take action, again. I made that promise to myself last year, but this year is different. This year, I have you. Accountability is so important when it comes to maintaining a healthy body and more importantly when trying to start up a healthier life style. Can you help me with that? It's out in the open now, I can't not do what I said I will do without looking stupid.

      This is my plan: For now, I'm going to try walking at least 10,000 steps a day and add a little bit of strength training. Nothing too drastic because if I start out with too much to do, I'm going to get burned out quickly. I'm not going to post about my results every day, but I will make a quick update at the end of the week to tell you how I'm doing. This is the year that I get back on track-even if the year is already more than half over.

     So what do you say? Will you help keep me accountable? Would anyone else like to join in?


About Me

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Hello! My name is Brittany and I'm a writer, obviously. As a stay-at-home mom, there are many things that I have to figure out in order to run a house that appears to be more sane than insane. It's not easy to be a parent and I hope that this blog is able to encourage other moms out there to live life happily and to understand that there can be mishaps along the way, but those mishaps don't define you and anything can be overcome with perseverance and will.

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