At Goal & Successfully Maintaining. So Why Am I Doing This All Over Again?
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We did a grocery shop today, before BL heads out. Interesting experience. Both of us turning packages over, walking away from most.
Me, because I’m on a mission to increase protein, and am label-looking in lame hopes of finding a magic bullet.
Him, because he’s in the learning stage, and the more nutrition labels you familiarize yourself with, the better your chances of success.
I call that the Wow Stage. As in, “Wow! That (insert thing I used to eat by the bag full) has how many calories?!”
I still experience that, btw. I had a handful of Dunkin Munchkins last weekend, and nearly fell off the sofa when I went to log those suckers. My record Wow moment, though, was logging some wings I ate at a party catered by Hooters. Ye Gods.
He’s still doing well. Declined dessert tonight because he opted to eat his whole half of the homemade pizza. He’s hanging in there, and also picking up some additional steps walking our new dog, Bean.
BTW, he’s making suggestions for the grocery list these days. 😱 That NEVER happened before!
After months of turning his nose up at my wraps, he has decided CarbSmart tortillas are the greatest thing since, uh, sliced bread. 45 calories for a generous sized flour tortilla, and I defy you to taste any difference between it and a “regular” flour tortilla.
So when the package of CarbSmarts dwindles down, he reminds me. He also got mad Kraft discontinued their very good low fat Mayo, and sat down and researched a replacement. I’m ordering some Walden Farms to try at his request, since I need to replenish their honey mustard and honey balsamic dressings anyway, and we can only find them online. BTW, their chocolate syrup is pretty darn good, and he likes their ketchup and pancake syrup. Almost all their products are zero calorie.
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FYI - I found that CarbSmarts spiked my blood glucose suspiciously high, to the point that I wrote to the company about it. I don’t trust their package info. Has your husband been testing after eating them? It may just be a me thing, but take the stated nutritional info with a grain of salt.1
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rheddmobile wrote: »FYI - I found that CarbSmarts spiked my blood glucose suspiciously high, to the point that I wrote to the company about it. I don’t trust their package info. Has your husband been testing after eating them? It may just be a me thing, but take the stated nutritional info with a grain of salt.
He doesn’t check his levels daily. Lets his doctor check his A1C. He says he hasn’t noticed any issues, though, and he has been eating a couple a day.
I do often wonder about labeling, though. I love a particular brand of chicken sausage that was listed at 60 calories each for a couple years and suddenly jumped to 110. And it puzzles me how plain fat free cottage cheese can be 60/serving at one store and 90 at the next for same ingredients and serving size/grams. Ditto fat free yogurt and fat free half and half. There’s a 20% range between brands.4 -
NSV!!!!
BL was in such a rush, he forgot to weigh in before he left, but he did proudly show me he was wearing some jeans he hasn’t gotten into for a while. He preened when I told him,
”Those are baggy!”
What’s an NSV?
NSV = Non Scale Victory
Sometimes, when your weight’s not moving like you think it should, and you’re frustrated as all get out, other changes remind you that progress is still happening. Those are the NSVs.
Clothes getting looser, moving down a belt buckle hole, even shoes fitting looser.
The NSV thread is hands down the best thread on MFP. I’ve read every single post. When I was feeling low, it was great to celebrate and identify with other users’ NSVs. I can’t tell you how many times this thread had kept me motivated and hanging in there when I seriously felt like quitting
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv/p116 -
Thanks @springlering62 for this thread. I've really enjoyed reading through the journey and all the thoughtful advice.
Congrats to your hubby on the NSV! I recently was able to get into some pants that were unwearable 3 months ago. It's a good feeling.4 -
rheddmobile wrote: »FYI - I found that CarbSmarts spiked my blood glucose suspiciously high, to the point that I wrote to the company about it. I don’t trust their package info. Has your husband been testing after eating them? It may just be a me thing, but take the stated nutritional info with a grain of salt.
I realized today we are actually eating the La Banderita Carb Counter tortillas. Changed over when our local Lidl began carrying them dirt cheap. Been very happy with them
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Absolutely love this thread! You an your husband are amazing!2
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I just posted this on another thread and thought I’d share it here. The other OP was concerned because she and her husband have different calorie requirements. Anyway, FWIW, this is how we are coping with a large calorie difference in our household.
I’ve been doing MFP for three years and have been in maintenance for about one. I’m highly active.
My husband started four or five weeks ago and is probably between sedentary and mildly active.
I get about 700 more calories per day than he does. We’re both retired, so spend a lot of time in the house together.
I make a large batch of pancakes for breakfast, enough to eat for two or three days. He simply portions out fewer than me. I like low fat Greek cream cheese and zero cal syrup on mine. He just does the syrup.
Lunch, he’s a deli meat and chips kind of guy, and makes his own reasonable calorie lunch. I generally make massive salads with a ton of meat on the top. I’ve offered, but he side-eyes me and says he can’t even imagine eating something that large without literally busting a gut. There’s no “food jealousy” over my salad. He’s totally disinterested.
I do a lot of snacking in the afternoon when he isn’t around, so it won’t bother or tempt him.
If I think he’s running low (after seeing what he had for lunch and knowing what my dinner plan is), I might offer him his favorite chocolate smoothie. I give him half, and then go back and add an ingredient or two he doesn’t care for in the other half for myself. He’s happy, I’m happy.
Dinner is the same for both of us, although I will generally have a much larger portion of meat than him, and a larger side salad.
If for some reason I’m not home to make dinner for him, it’s deli sandwich again, or a trip to Cookout for the under 600 calorie “Cookout Tray” special.
Dessert is usually the same for both of us, although again, my serving will usually be larger than his unless he has a lot of calories left over.
So for us, it works pretty well eating the same foods, but just adjusting portions to our needs, and doing the heavy snacking either out of his sight, or having it be something he’s totally disinterested in (he’d rather lick the floor than have cottage cheese and fruit. His loss. More for me. )
I struggled with it the first few weeks because I felt bad for him, and because I was used to giving him the “man’s share”, but I’ve come to terms with it, and he’s been awfully good about it himself. He’s very invested in losing some weight.
What I thought might turn into a push me pull you has actually worked out really well. I guess we’re “adulting” our way through this. 😉11 -
Thanks for reminding me about that NSV thread! When I was losing I had it bookmarked and always enjoyed the positive posts, especially on those days that I was struggling. I haven't looked at it for a few years and just took a peek at it now. Yep, it's still the same and I've bookmarked it again3
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👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Just checked BL’s food diary on the sly. He’s doing very very well on his trip. Looks like he’s really trying to choose nutritious choices while eating on the fly- with other guys. Small fries, green beans, eggs, grits, roast beef. Poor guy. One corn muffin. I almost feel sorry for him. My BL loves him some cornbread.
Me? I celebrated some quality Me Time with a package of chocolate chip cookie dough. Old Me rears her head occasionally, and ever since I accidentally discovered dough with a hit of ground salt…… “do not eat raw dough” warnings not withstanding……
It’s all gone now. *burp*
Back to some nutritious choices myself, but it was fun derailing for a couple of days. Derailing is fine when it’s a conscious choice and you’ve built up enough habits that “getting back on the wagon” is a (dare I say it?) piece of cake versus a battle of will.
Anyway, this new dog will walk it off me in a matter of no time. I don’t understand how a dog with six inch legs can pound pavement for miles a day, and go berserk with joy at the thought of yet another walk.
That’s how WE should be about exercise.17 -
springlering62 wrote: »...
Anyway, this new dog will walk it off me in a matter of no time. I don’t understand how a dog with six inch legs can pound pavement for miles a day, and go berserk with joy at the thought of yet another walk.
That’s how WE should be about exercise.
Love that thought! Brought a needed smile to my face. Thank you for the observation.
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BL is back from his reenactment week. He made a real effort to continue logging and to make good choices.
He even looks smaller than when he left.
So why haven’t I nagged him to climb up on the scale?
1.) salty, carby fast foods need a few days to flush. Even with the best available choices, either can cause weight to temporarily appear higher
2.) a very stressful and long drive home (stress compounded by a convertible top that refused to go back up and impending rain). Stress and travel can both lead to temporary water weight gain
3.) Unfamiliar activity. These bad boys not only had to prep a large park for thousands of spectators and reinactors, they had 33 cannons (yep, you read that right) to move - and fire- during reenactment battles. Cannons are not feathers, shall we say. So DOMs (temporary muscle soreness and fatigue) may be in play, too. Your very intelligent body retains water and sends to sore spots for healing.
4.) Fatigue and lack of sleep can also cause temporary water gain. BL is a homebody and doesn’t sleep well without a cat stretched acrost his legs.
We’ll give it a few days and then get him to weigh in.
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Consider the humble rotisserie chicken.
120-170 calories per three ounces (cooked!) depending on your source. A protein goldmine.
Wonderful on its own, but, oh, the leftovers!!!!!
Top a salad, in wraps, chicken salad, BBQ chicken sandwiches. Then plop that carcass into some yummy homemade (and super low cal) chicken soup and let the remaining meat fall right off the bone. Or add it to a 12 bean dried soup mix with a bottle of puréed tomatoes and some liquid smoke.
Save a bite for your four legged friend and revel in Love Eyes. (And then try not to trip over them when they Velcro themselves to you hoping for more.)
And if you’re lucky enough to find a Mexican rotisserie chicken place nearby, well, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner for realz!!!!!
BTW, maybe we’re just lucky, but our Mexican chicken rotisserie has killer potato salad and cole slaw. And the dude with the hatchet is free entertainment. I miss the old school ‘Q places that would chop it up in front of you. And had cornbread with cracklings. (It’s sooo easy to wander to my happy place when thinking about food…..)8 -
BL weighed in this morning and is all *kitten*-a-hoop that he’s down 4 more, for a total of 15 pounds. That’s roughly a pound and a half a week thus far.
“But I ate all fast food and camp food last week. I didn’t think I’d be down this week.”
Yes, but you did it mindfully, made good choices, and kept track. See how that works, folks? 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
One of our daughters will be very pleased when we update her. Our other gets angry and hostile and doesn’t want to hear about it. Neither one has a weight issue, but talk of weight “triggers” that one. (Talk of anything pretty much triggers her, unfortunately. And btw, don’t use the word “trigger”because that triggers her. And to think, I never heard of the word til she sprung it on me. 🙄)
I think of her as keeping us in mental aspic. She sees us very seldom, living on the other side of the country, and doesn’t want her parents to change from what’s in her memory. She finds it very distressing that we have lives outside of her box for some reason. I guess that’s her comfort zone and I get it. And it can be an unholy shock to see someone who was obese last time you saw them, and isn’t any more. I’m just sorta sad she can’t celebrate our better health with us.
There’s some fascinating stories on MFP about how friends, family, others have reacted to users’ weight loss.
And how users themselves have reacted to that reaction.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10735982/things-people-say-when-you-lose-weight/p16 -
Lmao that MFP filters archaic terms involving roosters as profanity.3
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Ha Ha - I read the phrase "kitten-a-hoop" without registering it as a MFP correction, I just assumed it was a strange Americanism that I didn't know about. (I'm a Brit, but my American DIL and I frequently have conversations about the differences in language)3
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haha... I kept trying to replace kitten with various cuss words and none of them seemed correct. Thanks for clarifying! lol
I love hearing about your husband's progress! Sorry about your daughter's reaction.2 -
BL dragged out a sweatshirt. “Got a chill”, he said apologetically. “Can’t seem to shake it.”
And so it begins. The cold!!! The bone numbing cold! Also known as WLAF. Weight Loss *kitten* Freeze.
Yes. It’s a real thing.
That sensation, from the inside out, that you will never, ever be warm enough again. That, while you’ve slimmed down, the world will never notice because of the extra layers you’re piling on. When socks become your best friend. When you seriously consider wearing gloves to bed. When you catch your SO jealously eyeing your fleece bathrobe.
Fire up the kettle for some hot tea. This may be with you for a few seasons, and still crop up unexpectedly later on.
Get in the habit of carrying a sweater to restaurants, meetings etc.
Stock up on bubble bath for those nights only a hot bath will save you.
The best supposition ‘round these parts is that you’ve lost a layer of insulation. Your metabolism has changed. Something’s up. Many people here report experiencing WLAF.
On the NSV side, it’s proof you’re progressing. And maybe all those shivers burn calories?13 -
Once again, copying from another thread since applicable here. OP there is concerned about his SO’s reaction to his decision to lose weight.
My husband was a bit insecure with my weight loss at first. I just made an effort to stay my same old pig headed sharp tongued bitchy self so that the only thing that changed was my shape.
He did ask to come to the gym one day, just to see what I did with my trainer. My gym is a small, hard core metal gym with serious big-muscles competitive lifters (I’m one of the few there not in that class), and my trainer is an older woman. Once he saw that his nearly 60 year old wife wasn’t surrounded by admirers (I love this man!!!!) and that her trainer was screaming at her to complete sets, he relaxed.
I never pressured him to go with me or eat what I ate, although, since I did the cooking, he had to either come along for that part of the ride or make other arrangements. But since I cooked the same old stuff and just ate smaller portions, he didn’t really notice.
After a while, he began bragging to others about my loss.
And a couple of months ago, he decided to join MFP himself and has already lost a few pounds. Again, on his own, no pressure or nagging from me.
I’ve tried to be supportive as possible in his efforts, although ^^^see bitchy tongue, above.
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Let’s go OT and talk about MFP friends for a minute..
I’m getting a lot of friend requests, presumably because of this thread. (Which I sincerely appreciate y’all reading, since BL refuses to.)
Friends can be great. They can be motivating. Some are wonderful at pulling you along for the ride. Some are breathtakingly entertaining, but I’m only “calling it as I see it”, (and you know who you are).
Friends can be mindnumbing. Friends can be rather anonymously vaguely threatening, particularly to a female. Sorry, I’m old school and besides, I listen to true crime podcasts on my many walks. Those things will make you pretty darn paranoid.
Bad things about friend: pornbots trying to share foreign URLs with you. Users harvesting friends for various reasons- and this applies to gals as well as guys. In this current world, some use MFP as Tinder-Lite. Others are using it to scam you with cyber-currency ripoffs, lonely hearts scams, or worse, to get you to provide email address so they can take you offline. KNOW who you’re giving your email address to.
Friends (again guys and gals) showing sooo much skin in their feeds. Again, I’m a different generation. There’s some users I just grit my teeth and like Playboy readers of old, I read their posts and ignore the photos, because young flaunters sometimes have great info to share, and I know they’re legit users, and am happy for their success.
Want to make friends?
#1 complaint here on the boards: No profile pic. Put in a profile pic so folks know who they’re dealing with. Even if it’s a picture of your insane dog or crazy cat, it shows intent and that you’re (probably) not a bot.
#2 complaint: porny profile pic. I know you’re proud of your pecs, your killer thighs, or your awesome cleavage, but if you really want help and motivation, some potential friends (me) are probably going to assume something else. Btw @AnnPT77 and @sijomial get passes for their profile pics. I find good biceps and shoulders very motivating, plus you can easily search their posting history to see that they’re legit and involved.
#3 complaint : you haven’t taken the time to fill out your profile page. Or if you have, it includes your porn link. Tell us a little about yourself.
#4 your feed is private. Ummmmm you want to be friends yet everything about you is locked up so I can’t see? Honey, that creeps me TF out. I get it that you’re overweight (been there, 100 pounds worth so I have street cred) and don’t want to share certain things but go into your privacy settings and unblock a few crumbs.
red flags:
* profile pic
* new account with a lot of numbers or “MFP” as part of the user ID
*old ID with no activity until the past couple weeks and that’s only X number of days logged in and suddenly harvesting friends
*accounts a couple weeks old with 0 pounds lost. Sure, we all had to start somewhere, or are restarting, but most accounts will have small fluctuations within the first weeks of enthusiasm , as well as indications of diary closed, or exercises accomplished. I often find many of the other red flags associated with 0 pounds lost.
* accounts that send you generic PMs like hey, good morning, or hello dear, especially if they do it several times. Those are copy and paste messages to engage you before hitting you with whatever scam they’re involved in.
I’ve covered everything I can think of. Your suggestions?
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springlering62 wrote: »BL dragged out a sweatshirt. “Got a chill”, he said apologetically. “Can’t seem to shake it.”
And so it begins. The cold!!! The bone numbing cold! Also known as WLAF. Weight Loss *kitten* Freeze.
Yes. It’s a real thing.
That sensation, from the inside out, that you will never, ever be warm enough again. That, while you’ve slimmed down, the world will never notice because of the extra layers you’re piling on. When socks become your best friend. When you seriously consider wearing gloves to bed. When you catch your SO jealously eyeing your fleece bathrobe.
Fire up the kettle for some hot tea. This may be with you for a few seasons, and still crop up unexpectedly later on.
Get in the habit of carrying a sweater to restaurants, meetings etc.
Stock up on bubble bath for those nights only a hot bath will save you.
The best supposition ‘round these parts is that you’ve lost a layer of insulation. Your metabolism has changed. Something’s up. Many people here report experiencing WLAF.
On the NSV side, it’s proof you’re progressing. And maybe all those shivers burn calories?
My work partner, who is a fellow about two months older than me, lost somewhere around 100 - 120 lbs maybe 10 years ago and is NEVER warm.
Since I am a menopausal female who is never not-warm, this has led to many amusing conversations.
Him: "Is it cold in here or is it just me?"
Me: "Dude, I'm not the best person to ask...."
Him (wearing jacket indoors): "I'm not going anywhere, I'm just cold."
Me (two fans running in cubicle): * glares silently *
He's convinced that weight loss permanently messed up his body's thermostat.7 -
My new Apple Watch came in this weekend. Yay for new toys!
BL reluctantly but very curiously agreed to wear the old one. He wants to see why I’m so rabidly attached to fitness trackers.
The first day he was interested in the rings. What are they? What’s the purpose? How do you read them? “What do you mean I only got 2200 steps?” I could see the wheels behind his eyes click click clicking.
Wow!!! Yesterday evening he showed me his watch. Ye gods. Talk about motivational!
He went early to the gym yesterday and walked nearly three miles on the track there before his class. By dinner time he’d closed his stand ring, closed the exercise minutes ring twice and his move ring was pretty close to closing a second time, too. He’d recorded 9400 steps. “Mind if I walk with you and Bean tonight?” with the unspoken reason being that he wanted that 10,000 really bad.
I knew fitness trackers were motivating, but I had no idea he’d be launched like that.
Do you have a fitness tracker? Are you utilizing it to the best of your ability? What can it do that you have you haven’t taken advantage of?
(BTW, if if you get a new 7 series be SURE to check for iPhone -yes,iPhone- updates before you try to pair the new watch, otherwise you will be caught in an hours long support purgatory and find yourself exchanging all kinds of awkward personal stories with the tech to avoid those empty silences while you wait for stuff to download. Cheers, Eric the Senior Technician! I talked more to you than I have to anyone in ages.)9 -
I don't have a fitness tracker. My husband uses one and likes it/finds it motivating and helps him make sure he meets reasonable levels of activities.
I, however, know my psychology. First of all, I already play sports, and have physically active hobbies. More importantly I'd use it in a way that would basically be self-harm. There's 'increase your goal and build up' and there's 'become increased with your step number, nothing is ever enough, let it take over your life entirely'.
And, well, no. Absolutely not. So, for me I utilize them by NOT going near them.10 -
When I started my weight loss journey in August 2019 (feels like light-years ago) I started by using the Pacer app. The big downside being that I had to keep my phone on me at all times, which annoyed me. So I dug up an old Polar fitness tracker I had bought a few years earlier, but never really used. Tracking my steps was eye opening, especially realising I was barely reaching 3000 steps on weekends - a true couch potato. The second realisation was to see my allowed intake go up when I took more steps. I really LOVED that! So I started walking more, in daily life as well as on the treadmill. And the walking progressed to running as I got fitter.
I rewarded myself with a fancy Garmin when I went from obese to overweight. In the beginning, my step goal was automatic, which meant that every time I reached my step goal, my goal was higher the next day. This was untenable for me, consuming too much of my time and causing me to neglect non step-based activities like strength training and rowing. So I set a manual goal of 6500 steps a day. I still average 12-14k steps a day, but it's not compulsive anymore, I have high days and low days.
I have become a LOT more active than I used to be, exercising probably 5 to 7 times a week and sitting down less. My Garmin gives me an exercise goal, 150 intensity minutes (150 minutes of moderate activity per week/75 minutes of vigorous activity, as per WHO guidelines) which I reach 99% of the time.
Another metric that spurs me on is the VO2max estimate that Garmin gives me. I doubt the number itself is reliable, but the slow and steady increase of the VO2max estimate really motivates me as it 'proves' I'm getting fitter and my exercise is paying off.
Finally, I also use Garmin's estimates for my TDEE to determine my calorie goal, it underestimates a little bit but the calorie adjustments it sends to MFP really drive home the fact that I can eat more when I'm more active and eat less when I'm less active.
Basically, I love my fitness tracker and it has been the single best investment I've made in my health!8 -
@springlering62, fitness trackers are great motivators!
I have a similar story to yours, @Lietchi .
I started my weight loss journey in July 2020. I have a Garmin 6x Pro, which was expensive but nevertheless a good investment in my personal health. When I started, I had to rely on swimming and stationary cycling, because walking was just too hard for me. This past October, I managed for the first time to hit 300,000 steps for the month (I actually exceeded that my a good margin)!
I love the challenges and badges Garmin give me. They provide me with a little extra motivation, and that's something I need apparently. This past week, I reached level 4.
Unfortunately, my VO2max is fairly poor and hasn't changed much at all. It was only 23 last December, and it's only 28 now. That, despite the fact that I've been swimming 1 mile+ 5-6 days/week for 6 months now.
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springlering62 wrote: »
Do you have a fitness tracker? Are you utilizing it to the best of your ability? What can it do that you have you haven’t taken advantage of?
Yes, no, I don't know. I know it does quite a bit of stuff that I *shouldn't* take advantage of, because it's clearly not very accurate. (Sleep tracking is *hilarious*. Stress tracking, for me, is completely incomprehensible, though others say it has meaningful patterns for them.)
I don't find my tracker particularly motivational, but I'm pretty sure that makes me a weirdo. I do sometimes find it affirming, which to me is a different thing from motivation: What I mean is that I enjoy seeing the after-stats for some things, like how many exercise calories I've burned in the past month/year, or what its wild guess at my VO2max is, how fast we rowed with a particular lineup in the boat. Sometimes it's guiding, as in helping me make a workout hit the benchmarks I'm going for in terms of speed, HR zones, distance, or whatever.
I like it the device lot, but mainly because I'm a data geek. Before fitness trackers were the common thing, I was using a GPS-based device (early Garmin Forerunner, not a 24/7 wearable) plus a Polar chest belt & watch (HR stats, not steps), plus a specialized rowing strokes-per-minute counter, to track workouts, monitoring performance and fitness stats (speed, distance, pace, resting HR, HR recovery, etc.). It's nice to have those data better time-correlated, and get some other stats in that mix besides.
I don't try to get any particular number of steps (my main exercise is not steps based, and I have cr*p knees), so steps can vary from under 3000 to well over 15000. It's academically interesting, but not motivating.
I feel some motivation to create a "bias toward movement" in my life and habits, but the tracker doesn't reflect that terribly well. There are various kinds of movement it doesn't really see, and my reasons for some of that movement are not calorie burn, but rather life-improvement in other ways (flexibility or balance, for example).
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springlering62 wrote: »
Do you have a fitness tracker? Are you utilizing it to the best of your ability? What can it do that you have you haven’t taken advantage of?
I love my Apple Watch. I track my steps, exercise, etc., and try to close those rings every day.
What I THOUGHT I'd use it for was the above items. What I REALLY end up using it for most often is to ping my phone because I can't find it.14 -
Y’all’s feedback is truly interesting. BL is a retired analyst and spreadsheet master for an international beverage company. I don’t know why I didn’t expect him to glom onto the watch data. He’s been so disinterested until he got one on his wrist.
In two days it’s already unleashing his inner statistician, which is good and bad. He’s already increased his steps pretty dramatically, but is downright angry that Tai Chi doesn’t get more activity points. (Dude, first of all, you have to “start” the workout. Second of all, you’ve got to find a similar workout category. Third of all, his supportive wife has been in this Tai Chi class many times and very nearly poked my eyeballs out from boredom. I don’t expect many calories burned although I can see how it helps with balance and joint movement.)
It does become easy to obsess over digital rewards and challenges. I had to stop doing Apple Watch group challenges for months because I’d find myself heatedly screaming at anonymous teammates “put the damn watch on your wrist!!!!” And the individual challenge turned into floods of tears when I came down with Covid the last few days of one and dropped
to a much lower score.
I sincerely wish Apple, in their zeal to prod me to improve my health, would recognize the need to build in rest days.
And their algorithms to encourage you to improve
are laughable. They snowball with success.
This is my challenge for November:
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springlering62 wrote: »
Do you have a fitness tracker? Are you utilizing it to the best of your ability? What can it do that you have you haven’t taken advantage of?
I love my Apple Watch. I track my steps, exercise, etc., and try to close those rings every day.
What I THOUGHT I'd use it for was the above items. What I REALLY end up using it for most often is to ping my phone because I can't find it.
Find-my-phone and speech-to-text were the two main things I used my Pebble Round for. I'm still mad that Fitbit bought Pebble and, rather than continue to support existing Pebble users, told us all to pound sand with our $200 devices and cannibalized the firmware for their latest offerings.
I don't even WANT a fitness tracker, I just want wrist-mounted texting, find-my-phone, and audio controls that looks just a tiny bit fashionable or professional. Apple watches are ugly and everything on the market for non-iPhones is uglier. There, I said it.4 -
I used to use the Samsung Health app on my old phone and/or mapmywalk to track my steps, but like someone else said, it compelled you to always carry your phone, which was inconvenient for movement around the house or office. I spent most of my working day on a computer and I found that wearing a watch of any kind bothered my wrist so I had no desire for a fitness tracker.
But then I retired. And my daughter bought me the most basic of Fitbit models for my birthday. I wear it all the time. Like I said, it's the most basic model so doesn't have all the capabilities that your fancy ones have, but it tracks my steps like a champ. Just about every day I reach my goal of 10,000 steps. Lots of days I hit closer to 20,000 (the days I walk my dogs AND walk with my friends). I like having confirmation that I'm doing something right. Especially on those days when I feel like my eating was a big fat fail. I can look at my watch at bedtime and despite consuming half a bottle of wine, an entire Ritter chocolate bar, and a plate of some kind of sticky wings, I can tell myself "Well at least you got 12,000 steps.......".4
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