Adventures of Wearing a FitBit

At the recommendation of a friend, I’ve been wearing a FitBit over the past- oh, 2 to 3 months. It’s been an interesting experience, and I continue to plan to wear one for the foreseeable future…. Or until I forget it somewhere and/or lose it, much like multiple pairs of sunglasses I seem to have lost over the years.

It’s been interesting to see what kind of data it can provide: I’m not exactly worried about how many steps I’m getting, but I do focus on the data provided regarding heart health and sleep patterns. Basically I want to make sure that I’m getting enough sleep, and I’m not about to give myself a heart attack. The no- heart attack thing is reasonably easy to attain, the adequate sleep thing for me is a little trickier.

I’ve been taking the data that its been providing and making little changes here are there to improve my heart health. I’ve also noticed that when I achieve more deep sleep (about 90 minutes as opposed to my usual average of 60) I feel better/more well rested in the morning, so I’ve been trying out some things in an effort to increase my time in a deep sleep cycle.

If you’re thinking about getting one, first and foremost there is absolutely no reason to buy a brand new one (unless you’re really into getting the latest and greatest of stuff). I bought a refurbished Charge 2 for about 50 bucks, and other than a few light scratches on the screen I would say it’s doing just fine.

Also, one of the primary things to think about is what part(s) of your health you want to focus on, because there are a lot of things it can track for you- steps, heart rate (not all fitbits track heart rate, so if you are interested in getting one for this reason just make sure its one that can actually track your heart rate, fyi), sleep patterns, days that you are active, weight, water intake…. the list goes on and on, trust me.

Also, I don’t wear it during jiu jitsu- I know I’ve seen at least one person post the results of their heart rate monitor while training in jiu jitsu, but frankly the idea of wearing something that could hurt me or a teammate makes me uncomfortable, so I don’t do it.

Just wanted to share with you all- anyone else wearing a fitness tracker? What parts of your health have you focused on, and have you done anything with the data? Let me know, otherwise, have a great day everyone!

 

 

 

The Long Journey of Fitness and Weight Loss

I realized I think so much about where I want to be, that I sometimes forget about how far I have come. In my current shape, I feel better on my worst days than I did on my best before I started jiu jitsu and all this delightful craziness. I think I promised then and now pictures before, but today you are totally getting photos of me in all my pre-jiu jitsu glory.

I untagged myself from a lot of photos my friends posted up from my college years, when I was the heaviest, because in many ways I was embarrassed that I had let myself get that large, telling myself that “it wasn’t that bad”. It wasn’t so much the lack of physical activity, as it was my diet that caused such a dramatic weight gain.

Most of my facebook friends have seen the first photo: it was a graduation party for my friend and right around the time I started jiu jitsu. They second photo is about 5 years later with my dad at Lake Tahoe.

  

 

I have lost a good deal of weight (obviously) and gained a whole bunch of muscle mass in the process from jiu jitsu, kettlebells, and laying off the fried food.

There have been a lot of ups and downs, and I still feel like I have a bit more to go but I think I have come a long way and I need to honor that- as I am sure many others have experienced, I have at times stepped completely out of my comfort zone, traveled, met all sorts of new people, in addition to greatly improving my chances for a long and healthy life.

Just as long as my joints hold out-fingers crossed!

I Don’t Look Like a Fitness Model

A cool article to read for a Sunday Evening:

Why Don’t You Look Like a Fitness Model

This lady seems on the up and up-I might add her to my blog roll