Me and My Fitbit

Yesterday I walked a total of six miles. The dog, the kid and I went for a two-mile walk.

Since February 3rd, I’ve lost 18 pounds.

I feel like this time, THIS TIME, I got this.

At the end of January, I think I was cleaning my desk when I came across a pedometer in the clutter. It was a cheap little freebie they gave me at my last job, to encourage the people they worked into the ground to “get up and move once in a while!” As if there was any time for that!

Anyway, I started carrying it. I was walking about 2500 steps a day, I found, which is pretty pathetic. For me and my short little legs, that’s a mile. One mile, in an entire day.

I started walking a bit more. I set a reminder on my calendar at work, to get up and just walk down the hall and back a few times a day.

Eventually I figured out little cheap pedometer wasn’t all that accurate (surprise!) so I started using my phone. Samsung S Health was already on there, and it gave me a happy trumpet sound when I made my step goal.

I started walking more. Then I found Lose It! and started logging my steps and what I ate. Then I decided I needed an activity tracker, as my phone is large and I don’t want to carry it everywhere. Also I <3 gadgets.

After some research, I acquired a Fitbit Zip. It’s tiny. It’s cute. It talks to my phone, and it makes faces at me when I don’t walk as much as it thinks I should.

Like magic, the pounds melt away…

Okay, not magic. I’m walking a lot. I’m thinking about what I’m eating. I’m making better choices. I stopped trying to cook for my family, since the girls are 1) picky and 2) seriously averse to any healthy choices.†

And I’m on my way to Rivendell. Just got rescued by Tom Bombadil, actually, on the Barrow-Downs.

So yeah. I feel like this time, I got this. I know what I’m doing to lose the weight–every step, every food choice. No more guessing what’s helping and what’s not. And if I know what I’m doing, then I can control it. Accountability.

I got this. ♪ ♪ Me…and my ~~sha-dow~~ Fiiiit-bit… ♫

†No worries, I am not leaving them to starve! Now they each have a grocery allowance, and they buy frozen dinners and junk food with their allotment, I buy staples and veggies and other stuff. It’s good for them, as they are learning to budget. Hope, for instance, has learned that perhaps spending 20% of her food budget on ice cream was not the wisest choice. And that in just one shopping trip! I expect the learning will continue.

Dianna

April 11, 2015 at 21:43

…the way I read this post is that the girls are in charge of their own meals–if Hope wants to eat $15/pound steak, she can, but she only has so much to spend for the time period, so if she screws up, she goes hungry for a couple of days. And that sounds like really great idea in some ways; less fighting, at least they’re eating, and as you say, it teaches them some lessons like budgeting. I wish my mother had done the same thing.

(I also like to think that I’d have spent less and gotten more than she managed, but that could be the rebellious kid in me!)

KD
April 12, 2015 at 19:43

Exactly! And no one will go too hungry–there IS food in the house. But Hope especially never wants to cook. If she gets hungry enough, though, she will.