Do I what?
OK, let me start from the beginning. Seven years ago, I was super active, my working day started in the gym, I had corporate membership at what was called Holmes Place and then Virgin gym and I used it. Somewhere along the way I gave it all up and things went down hill from there until I was jolted out of “this thing” ( I don’t even have a name for it) by an associate about a month ago now.
We had not seen each other for a few months and to cut a long story short he thought I was pregnant and I thought that is it. I have to do something. I had for sometime been feeling rather sluggish unable to walk for a few minutes without feeling really tired and wanting to sit down just after 5five minutes of walking. If I am honest, although I knew that I had to do something about this state of affairs, I also knew I had no will power whatever and one thing I was certain about, I would not join a gym as that would be a waste of money. I lacked the motivation to justify a gym membership and nothing would change that.
I told my fellow Birds about my predicament and interestingly a few felt just like me, so we resolved to get fit together, well through Facebook anyway. My good friend Sally Church kicked us off by acquiring a swanky gadget called the FitBit and even started a group called Fit Birds added us all to the group. Sally posted her daily FitBit Stats and at last I could see something that would help me overcome my motivation problems and I would get fit in the process. So I resolved to acquire a FitBit too
So what is a FitBit
Put simply it is a pedometer that measures the steps you take daily. But this is not any odd pedometer, as you can record your sleep pattern, calories, water in take, daily activity etc. The best bit is that you have a daily report by syncing your FitBit with your computer via Wifi or a USB cable. You have a chance to tweet this out to your friends and there is an App for your phone too that enables you to input food and water intake, activities etc and all this works out your calorie in take and burn off. I could not believe that for instance 2 hours of ironing burns 404 calories.
Motivation
I really like the FitBit because it has done wonders for my motivation as far as exercising goes and this arises from that end of day report. The basic number of steps that one should take a day is set at 10,000 and I always work towards this number although most Saturdays I don’t achieve this number. I don’t know what it is about Saturdays.
You also get a few badges for certain milestones, like climbing 25 floors, 50 floors etc, these badges are put in such a fun way too, like “you climbed the Eiffel Tower” etc, which serves to motivate me to work towards another badge and of course get fit in the process.
I am now more likely to take the stairs than a lift so I can achieve the “10 floors climbed” as the very minimum daily. I almost walk everywhere within reason and even venture out on public transport something I used to dread and this is so I can make up those steps and floors. Most days, bar Saturday, I walk two miles first thing in the morning (10-15 minutes), another two to three at 1pm (20-30minutes)and another one or two (10-15minutes)late afternoon.
OK, I am sure you get the picture and if you are really good at reading between the lines , you have worked out by now that I am becoming obsessed with this stuff
But with reason!
I am feeling fab within me, that feeling of sluggishness is almost gone. I have lost 3.5 Kgs in weight in 5 weeks. I have not changed my diet but I have become more aware of the size of the portions of food on my plate.
The downside
The FitBit costs nearly £80 which might be out of the reach of some folk but for me I could not have paid enough for the motivation to exercise and if you can’t find the time to exercise this is the best thing to own. As you can fit in the walking at work by walking to colleagues’ desks instead of sending email or picking up the phone, you can take the stairs instead of the lift, walk to the kitchen to make tea for others etc
I am yet to put the Sleep monitor facility to use, as when I tried it, I was awake for the best part of the night!
Go on, get yourself a FitBit if like me you lack the motivation to get your bottom to the gym!
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