Family and FitBit

I count myself very lucky, I have a big, wonderfully, loving family – the kind who you would choose to be your friends. There are six  special members, who are outside of my immediate family are one of my biggest supporters in everything I wish to do (except for when I ran away from home when I was younger - they sent me back). They are my beloved Uncle Stephen, Aunt Mariam, Chris, Jess, Mylie and Humphrey (the dog).

The Old Couple

Their little terrors

Uncle Stephen has been spoiling me since I can remember – he’d buy me expensive French dresses, porcelain dolls, sweets, teddy bears, toys etc. there was definitely some favouritism going on (though he still claims to love us all equally).  He has been spoiling me ever since, and my lovely Aunt Mariam carried on the tradition when they met and married, which was a huge relief, as I feared he might forget about me (though now I have to share the ‘spoiling’ with their three apples of their eyes).

My FitBit - and loom band that Mylie
and Jess made me for my birthday

So just like the last 24  years, this year for my birthday I was spoilt by them too; they got me a FitBit Flex. I’ve been wanting one for a while, and suspected that I might open one up on my birthday, but if I didn’t I was going to treat myself to one. The FitBit Flex is a device you wear on your wrist (like a bracelet or watch), which tracks your movement 24 hours a day; including sleep patterns. It has a display of 5 LED lights, each light indicates 20% of a goal you want to reach for the day. The default setting is 10,000 steps a day (which is just under 5 miles), and when gentle tapped the lights indicate how far you’ve got towards your goal for the day e.g. 4,500 steps – 2 lights (and the 3^rd one flashes, to show that you’re working towards lighting up the next 20% of your goal). It’s waterproof; so you can wear it in the shower – so it really doesn’t need to be taken off at all, except for when it needs charging – the battery lasts around 6 days, and takes a couple of hours to charge.

I particularly wanted the Fit Bit as it works with My Fitness Pal – as I;m a Monday – Friday calorie counter,  it helps me work out how many calories have gone in (taking data from MFP), and then works out how many calories have gone out. So each day you are left with your deficit for the day – great if your losing weight, as it keeps you on track. It also syncs with your smart phone via Bluetooth, so at any time of the day or night you can open up the app and see exactly how many steps you’ve taken, how many calories burnt, how many active minutes you’d had etc…

I’ve been wearing the FitBit Flex for just over a week now, and I’ve realised that pre-fitbit I was bloody lazy. I wasn’t lazy when I was running or at the gym obviously, but my day-to-day activities were very sedentary.

Getting the lights to shine adds a sense of game-ification (except you are the only one in the game – though you can challenge other friends who have one - I’m yet to know a friend of mine who has one).  You also earn badges along the way, so you get one for the first 5,000 steps you do (that’s an easy one), then for the first 10,00 steps you do in one day, then for the first time you do 15,000 steps in one day etc. You also get badges for the number of miles you walk in total, and last week I earned my 50 mile badge – yes I walked / jog / ran 50 miles in one week (I’d like to thank a weekend in Paris for that). If you’ve read my earlier post you’ll know I like goals, so these badges work as little goals for me to set for myself. These badges work as a great motivator for me, actually just having the flex on my wrist works as a great motivator; as every time I look at my wrist it’s a little reminder that I need to move some more.

The online dashboard is helpful & fun too – as it tracks you every day, and puts things into nice little pie and bar charts. As I’m a bit of a Geek I love seeing all my stats laid out there.  You can set all sorts of different goals, and check in every day to see how close you are to them, and get a weekly view too (I actually think I walked more on Sunday than any other day, but the battery died half way through the day).

As I was planning on buying one myself, I read a lot of reviews on the FitBit Flex and it’s other competitors that are currently in the market place. Most reviewers complained it wasn’t accurate enough, but that seemed to be their complaint about all of them – complaining that it can be too sensitive and tracks brushing your teeth or typing as steps, (due to the wrist movement). Unless they strap something to your legs, you’re probably not going to get much more accurate that this for now, plus just like the calories I count on My Fitness Pal, it’s a rough estimation, which is fine with me.

If you are using one and want to get become my 'fitbit' friend; let me know so we can challenge each other. 

Focus, Focus, Focus

It’s been a bit quiet on here; which either means I’ve given up and failed completely or life has been so busy that I have not had time to update my going-ons. Fortunately it has been the latter.

Last week at work was hellish and super busy, lots of late finishes in the office, lacking in energy, not exercising and making bad unhealthy choices – also known as falling off the wagon.  But now I find myself in the middle of a new week, 2 workouts in and lots of healthy clean eating back on the cards – officially back on the wagon.

‘Falling off the wagon’ comes round a little too easy; there are many triggers that can cause a fall. As I’m starting my health journey, clean eating and training had been one of my main focuses; but as a busy week at work was brought on by  a looming deadline at work, my overall focus for the week was the project I was working on in the office, and not my training plan. This temporary focus then caused me to take a step back from my loving friends and family that are my support system, as I was too stressed to have proper chats with them and reach out to them.

So with one little trigger of work; it became a tumble weed of other excuses. With 5 months to the half marathon I can’t be losing my focus on running too often, so from today I pledge to make healthy eating and half marathon training my main focus in life, finding time and not having lots of excuses. I'll update you later in the week on how I am planning to stay focused in more details. 

1 hour is only 4% of your day. 

Tuesday Thoughts

I found this little nugget on an e-newsletter I receive from a nutritionist and seems it fits in very well with my new attitude to healthy and nutrition.  Since starting my new journey to a healthier and fitter me I have felt like a new person and haven't got a cold once, and hay fever doesn't seem to have caught me this season.

More updates to come this week :-).

“Nutrition is to your body, like fuel is to a formula one engine.  Your body is amazing, one of a kind.  There is only one of you and food should be tailored to what makes you feel your best!  Getting your food choices and eating habits right is THE most important thing in your life.  Without it, your body slowly weakens much quicker than it should, you get ill more often and colds and flu’s last longer, you are more prone to attack, you feel lousy and are not focused or productive in your every day life”.

On to the Next RUN!

5:55 am – I’m awake as a lark, with the sun shining through I was looking forward to getting out in the fresh air and stretching my legs, with an easy 5K to start my day. I got dressed, headphones in and headed out the door. It had rained a little bit over night, so the ground was a little damp, but I wasn't too worried as the majority of my route is on pavement. So I warm up with a brisk walk to the start point of my 5K route and started running.

This is where is all went wrong, it started getting a windier and rain was spitting down a little – my first thought was nice, when I get really into the run, the rain will be welcoming and cooling and this wind is fresher than any air conditioning unit. As the run progressed I started getting wetter and colder, and felt like I was just dragging my body through the empty streets of Oxford. I powered through, because I’m determined not to give up easily, but it was tough. When I got back home, I felt disappointed with my run and my immediate thoughts were I best go for another run this evening, to make sure my running mojo is back, and to fall back in love with running after our temporary fall out this morning.

Whilst pondering life in the shower, I was shocked and impressed at myself. The old me would have probably given up running after than run, and not be planning my next one.  I’m not sure if because during the last few weeks my attitude to facing challenges has changed, or the fact that I have signed up for the half marathon and told people about it, so I have to deliver. I’d like it to be the change in attitude, but I fear the latter is my biggest push.

I’m going to put this run down to bad weather fueling a bad attitude,  producing a bad run. But a bad run is still better than no run, and that for me is a victory within itself.

So as Jay-Z Personal Trainers says…on to the next RUN!

New Month – New Challenges

My alarm is set for 5:55am from Monday to Friday – I don’t make it out every morning to go to the gym or for a run, but I manage to make around 3 mornings a week on average, combined with a boxercise class and an outdoor run on the weekend, I’m hitting my 5 workout a week target.

So with the number of workouts sorted and being the 1^st May (New Month – New Challenge), time to start the half marathon training, and to push me along I’ve only gone and signed up for the Oxford Half Marathon on the 12^th October. AHHHH!!!!!!!! 

However I am up for the challenge, and I’m going to do it, and going to ACE IT!

With just under 6 months to go – I have hopefully got enough time to get fit & ready and do it in a decent time. Instead of laying out a 6 month plan, I’m going to split it into a monthly plan. Really long plans do not work for me – I see them as far too daunting, and give up too easily. 

So the May monthly plan:

• Sort out my running technique - as my shins are hurting a little after a run
• Get proper running shoes
• Run outside more (don't be a chicken and get off the treadmill)
• Keep to 4 runs a week

It's not much really - but 4 weeks goes so quickly,  before you know it, its the end of the month and I've only done one run outdoors.

Try Something New Thursday

Getting to the gym for 6:30am is tough, especially when I only have an hour and I have to make the most of it. I usually aim for a 500-600 calorie burn in that hour, but this morning I just wasn’t feeling it. I got on a cross-trainer (the wrong one too – as my favorite one was being used) and I really couldn’t face an hour on it today (as was planned), so I thought I’d do 30 minutes, see how much I burn and go from there. At the end of the 30 minutes I was feeling great – ready to challenge the world (thanks endorphins!), so I thought I’d do something CRAZY and go on the bike.

I HATE the bike, it’s stupid, gives you a sore bum and is just god damn boring. However as it's ‘Try something new Thursday’ (which is something I’ve just completely made up but quiet like), I thought why the heck not, let’s get the next 200 calories burnt on the bike. I didn’t have much time left, or I’d have to forgo straightening my hair today (I just wasn’t in a curly mood), so I ramped up the resistance to get the max calorie burn and went for it – watching the calorie number and not time or speed (bad Mandy :() – but I did it, 20 minutes and 200 calories burnt. Legs felt a big jelly-like but it was fun, challenging and I may even do it tomorrow morning. 

In the theme with “Try Something New Thursday” – I’m also going to double workout today for the first time in my life. In hoping I finish work on time, I shall be spending part of my evening with Zoe at Boxercise, hating my flabby bingo wings with every punch, but enjoying the garage beats the instructor provides and laughing at my lack of co-ordination. Then following that, if energy and time provides I’m going to make The Kitchen Shed’s clean eating Hot Cross Buns – a little after Easter, but when it comes to sweet treats there is never a wrong time of year.

Are you trying anything new today - great day to start!