Friday, July 12th – FitBit

Enough time has passed since my surgery that I’m not logging each days events, instead blogging about events that seem noteworthy.

I am sure I mentioned that I bought myself a FITBIT Flex, a device that is worn on your wrist and monitors many things, including steps taken in a day, high energy steps, calories burned, calories eaten, water intake and you can add friends and compete with their daily steps and goals.  I LOVE IT! (Bought online at BestBuy.ca and delivered in 3 days!)  Twice since I’ve owned this I found myself climbing out of bed because I had just realized that my daily step goal was so very close to being achieved that I walked the steps or went on the treadmill!  Your first pre-set goals of daily steps are 5000 and once you achieve that, it shoots up to 10,000 and tonight I broke the 15,000 mark!  The device also sets for you a goal of 3.5 hours a week of high energy/activity level exercise am I’m close at achieving that as well!  I believe since Monday, I’ve done purposeful (treadmill or outdoor walking for exercise) every single day except one.  My favourite walking place has been near Erin’s house (best friend), on back quiet country roads complete with wild flowers and creepy old abandoned houses!  Tomorrow my hoped accomplishment is to walk from my home to the town of Odessa.  I’m expecting that the return walk might be too much at this point so I’ve got my “mommy” heading to Odessa to pick me up once I’m in town.

The old me did do purposeful exercise in the past, once with the aid of a dietitian and the YMCA, attending 3 to 4 times a week for about 45mins to an hour each visit and in those 3 months, I could only loose 7lbs.  I don’t think it’s fair to label me with an impatient attitude, but 7lbs in 3 months was far too little gain for the degree of sacrifices I was making (which also included calorie counting/eating healthy too).  The difference now is that with the aid of the surgery, my appetite and my own choices around food is excellent, rarely ever having me eat more than 1000 calories a day, usually 800 even though I’ve set a goal for 1300 daily, I simply can’t get that into me.  I can see results on the scale and now see results on my FITBIT and all the math makes sense.  I’m also motivated by my wedding date quickly approaching and the need for a new or newly altered wedding dress.  I am officially at 60lbs lost and can’t wait for the scale to have the number “3” on it, as in 239!

So, Google FITBIT flex and give it some thought, I can’t say enough about it (so far)!

 Some stats for today’s daily and high energy exercise!

Monday, July 8th – 3 weeks back at work

Thanks to some requests, I’m happy to continue to blog.  Little ole me thought my blogs had lessened in their tiny popularity and there wasn’t much point but it seems there might be 🙂

• I am at 58lbs to 59lbs lost (it wavers between those two numbers)

 Me for Mikey’s Grad, with some ability to notice the weight difference in me (sorry for the no face shot)

• Almost nothing makes me sick any more (vomit sick or any other kind for that matter) with the exception of twice for reasons not quite clear to me.
• My largest (and by largest I mean an incision about 1 1/2 inches long has almost finally healed.  It’s been a bit longer than average but that’s likely due to my *lawn tractor on fire resulting in pulled stitches* and the dissolvable stiches that didn’t.
• I have not heard from the Kingston clinic about a follow up but since I’m feeling well, I’m not too worried yet
• I rarely feel the kind of tired that I had for the first 6 weeks or so.  Given I’m back at work I thought I might but only very rarely am I tired outside of the normal “bedtime”
• I rarely ever miss ZERO pop or carbonated drinks, snuck a 1/4 glass of wine but otherwise don’t miss alcohol, no desire to eat greasy fast food, not missing caffeine, getting a little more used to the drinking rules pre and post meals and do partake in a wee bit of treaty sugar but in very small quantities.
•  I find more often in the last two weeks, I feel (my kind of feeling of full) after only 3 bites of something, especially when it’s a meat protein which is particularly frustrating (since protein is so important).  I’m happy for the ease of control over the quantities I eat with this feeling but it’s a bit more extreme some of the time lately.  Odd is all I can say for now.  If I eat yogurt or salad, the FULL feeling allows me between 1/2 a cup to 1 cup of food but other items only are allowed by my new stomach 3 bites, hmmm.
• I’m slow to get back into the routine of things at work but that’s partly due to a client list that must of grown impatient (fair enough) waiting for my return and whom aren’t returning my calls to engage with them.  Soon I’ll have to bypass some people and move on to a new list of people in order to start filling my schedule.  Add in that I’m not on my Concerta (for my adult ADHD) so focus is a bit of an issue but not in a debilitating way, just little annoying ways.
• I heard (thanks to obesityhelp.com site) about FITBIT and did a lot of research.  Finally decided to buy one and it arrived (from Best Buy Canada) only 3 days later! I LOVE IT! The other night I was 80 steps away from 10,000 steps that day so I was motivated to get up out of bed (after I realized how close I was by checking online) and walked up and down my front steps to make up the difference.  Without my FITBIT, I wouldn’t be aware nor motivated.  It also tracks sleep/restless and awake times and foods (calories and carbs and proteins) which is very helpful when I’m supposed to take in 60g of protein a day!  Since I’m such a visual person, it’s a great match for me.  It syncs every few minutes throughout the day to my smartphone and my laptop.  If I so choose, I can constantly be updated about my progress.  In the first few days I was out choosing purposeful exercises (usually walking) to try to get my 30minutes of higher energy exercise in a day.  You can also add FITBIT friends and see how you’re ranking each week with their steps taken.  Out of 10 friends, I’m ranking 7th!  To be fair, all these friends have had their FITBITS longer and have put in a full weeks walk, I just started on Thursday 4th of July.
• Thanks to FITBIT I do purposeful exercise almost every day which is new in this last week for me!
• On a personal note, I’m finding myself (during these 3 weeks blogged about) very busy with events/parties and gatherings.  All lovely but time consuming, especially when we’re hosting them and most we have.  It looks like the month of July will be a bit slower re. events.

 Kirk’s Family BBQ (with the boys in the pic) and Kirk’s Birthday (his cake)

• Only 89 more days until our wedding and my wedding dress officially won’t tighten any more and I’ve grown disinterested in it.  Kirk wants me to get it altered and hopes I’ll change my mind.  I’m more open to trying to find a new one (new used since it will be my second purchase).  I am open to both options though.  I did try on a brilliant red one (yes, wedding dress in red) but it wasn’t the right red and I wasn’t so sure it would be right for me.  Still some things to get done in this short amount of time, including sewing red bling onto my nieces dress, wood accessories for décor, frames to clean up and paint (for décor), more tissue balls to make, INVITATIONS which need to go out soon! and likely more I’m forgetting.

 Our handmade OUTHOUSE card holder (made by Kirk’s Uncle Roger) and the red wedding dress I tried on (but wasn’t very happy with)

• My boys are home (of course, it’s summer vacation) and since they’re teens, they’re disinterested in any camps or sports so it makes for long summer days policing them around the house, ensuring they do some “off your butt activities” mixed with not too much screen time.  One is about to head into high school so we’re dealing with the “Prince” syndrome where he thinks he’s better than everyone else and myself and Kirk are constant *asses who have no brains, LOVE IT!  (screamed thick with sarcasm)
• SO, thrilled with my success and wondering how much more I can alter my shape and size before the wedding with my new found awareness of steps, exercise and intake each day thanks to my little FITBIT friend!  I’m averaging .64lbs a day since surgery! (since I had already lost 15lbs before my actual surgery date, thanks to the lovely OPTI fast drinks.