Week 2 of the Bodymedia Fitness Challenge down, 4 more to go. I love this armband. I’m discovering some random, yet interesting stuff. For instance I typically burn 1.1 calories per minute when I sleep. And a round trip from my bedroom to the bathroom is about 60 steps or, if I were being graded, I’d get a B plus in sleep efficiency (between 85 & 90%). But I find out some useful stuff too, information that I use helps me reach my daily goals. For example, in a half hour I can walk 3,000 or run 6,000 steps. So now on any given day I know what I need to do to hit my goals.
Now what I have I been doing these last 2 weeks you ask? LOTS of walking. I walk along side my clients on the treadmill, I walk to the bank and I walk for the fun of it. All of this is, of course, in addition to the activity I was already doing. Wearing this armband has definitely motivated me to move more. That along with the fact that I know you’re all watching. :) I even found the motivation to go for a walk in 20 degree weather. All of this extra walking has really boosted my activity level, even more so than I thought it would. As you can see I did really well this last week. I averaged 14,482 steps and 3:09 hours of activity per day. I surpassed both of my goals. I guess that makes me an over achiever?
So how did I decide on my goals? If you remember in my week 1 post I announced my goals, 13,000 steps and 2.5 hours of activity a day. Ideally I want to do this without losing weight; or gaining any for that matter. These days I weigh in at 125 pounds, give or take a pound. Quantifying my goal wasn’t easy. My schedule is a bit erratic. There are a couple of days during the week where I’m extremely active (15,000 steps or more). I teach more than 1 class on these days. And then there are days were I’m not doing much at all (6,000 – 7,000 steps). Yes, these are the days when I sit on my butt and blog for hours at a time. With that said, my baseline average was at about 11,000 steps a day. So I jumped to 13,000 based on that information. While on some days I’ll hit my goal without a lot of extra effort just know that on the other days I struggle to get from 6,000 to 13,000 steps. There was a night last week where I resorted to pacing my apartment and yet I still fell 200 steps short of my goal. I started to doze off while walking so I finally gave up and went to bed.
Perhaps the best part of this challenge is the fact that I burn more, and therefore get to eat more calories. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a free for all here. I may be eating more but I’m still eating healthy. Except of course last Thursday when I went for the over-sized oatmeal raisin cookie at Starbucks. But what the heck, you have to treat yourself sometimes. That’s what makes this all worth while.
Much to my surprise I’ve managed to keep my calories in balance without much effort. I eat when I’m hungry. And maybe sometimes when I’m not. Either way at the calories in seem to match the calories out. At the end of each day I log in everything I ate for that day. It’s not an exact match but for the most part the numbers work out. This is what I consider being in-tune with my body and knowing what it needs to stay energized; something that took years for me to master.
Well that’s all for now until next week. But don’t forget you can follow my progress daily on Facebook and Twitter. In fact I would love to hearing from you, my cheerleaders.
What words of encouragement do you have for me this week?
You may be curious about the other 5 women participating in this challenge. And while they say that curiosity killed the cat, it certainly won’t kill you, I promise. So go ahead and read about these 5 amazing women.
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Here is some more detail about the BodyMedia FIT armband, taken straight from the source.
BodyMedia FIT automatically tracks the calories burned during your daily activities — from pumping iron to using an iron — and monitors the quality of your sleep, an important factor in weight loss. Add in the easy-to-use food log and you have the information you need to improve your weight loss.
The 3 part system includes:
Disclosure: Device and accompanying online Activity Manager subscription was provided by BodyMedia via EmpowHER. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of BodyMedia or EmpowHER.