Solutions (Update #1)

Remember how I said I wanted to lose 40 pounds by my next birthday? Well, progress has been... progressing.

Tell me more.

Let's review the past few weeks, shall we?

Now that the boy and I are all moved in to our new place and I've gotten used to commuting two hours a day, I have been trying to focus more on my new fitness goals. It's difficult, but not quite as difficult as I thought it might be. Reason number one for that might be that I decided to give myself some rewards to work toward. More about these later.

My wonderful mother also sent me a FitBit Ultra! This little device is an amazing resource. Wear it during the day and it tracks how many steps you take, how many flights of stairs you walk up, how many calories you've burned, and how many miles you've walked. Wear it at night and it will tell you how long you slept and how many times you woke up during the night (a.k.a. how much you really slept). The Ultra model even gives you personalized messages (No donut!) as well as working as a clock and giving you a progress bar during the day to let you know how active you've been.It keeps all of this information so you can review it by day, by week, and by month. The FitBit has been a great motivator for walking a bit more than normal... Taking stairs instead of escalators... Get to bed earlier... I love it and can't recommend it more, although it is a tad bit pricey.



I've been keeping a food journal as well. Writing down every bite I eat, and as much of what I can drink that I remember. (Honestly, it's harder than you think to remember every glass of water.) I started out doing this on my phone with the FitBit app and the MyFitnessPal app - both of which will count the calories of food you enter. This has proved a bit too cumbersome for my tastes however and I have switched to using my aforementioned Star Wars moleskine. Another great motivator for leaving food on my plate and not reaching for the cookies I know are in the cupboard. It's also been a good place to keep track of my various moods, headaches, and work outs. I'm starting to see a serious relationship between how active I am and how good I feel. And I've noticed that starting my day with protein usually goes a lot smoother than starting it with carbs. Innnnnnteressting.

Today I discovered a local rail trail. Since it rained like the dickens this morning (and work got canceled) I went to check it out and ended up walking three miles through beautiful woods both rural and urban. Even shared a few nice words with a cute elderly couple. It was glorious! I think I'll start walking it every day. Maybe bring my bike down. Eventually start running on it. Tomorrow I'll go check out the other half and see if it's just as good.

If my scale can be believed, I've lost at least one pound so far. That's one down and many to go. My first reward comes when my scale reliably puts me below 170 every time. I'm going to post a separate page to keep track of my progress and rewards. Feel free to drop by with any input and/or encouragement!

So happy with myself today!