"Wogging" and heart rate monitor

I have been working out fairly regularly for 6 months+, but I haven't seen much progress. I was using a treadmill and an elliptical machine at the gym. I spoke with a trainer at the gym and he suggested that I buy a HEART RATE MONITOR. This has made a huge impact on my motiviation!! It beeps at me whenever I need to speed up or slow down (drives my husband, who is my walking partner, nuts....but I LOVE it!!).
I signed up for the Memorial Day Fitness Challenge and tomorrow is my first weigh-in day since I started. I'm nervous and excited!! I hope I've lost at least 2 pounds. I've been logging in faithfully every day, but I did have one cheat day (It was a MESS!) I didn't beat myself up though, I just said, "Tomorrow is a new day, and I WILL be successful." And guess what? I was!!
I first joined this site MFP, a week ago when I signed up for the Fitness Challenge. On that day, my husband and I decided to start "wogging" each day around our subdivision's walking path, rather than going to the gym (since the weather had improved finally here in Idaho). Wogging is a made-up term, which means walking until my heart rate monitor starts beeping and then doing a slow jog until it starts beeping at me again. We have done this EVERY day, except for one. I love it!! We go for 3 miles each time, and my heart strength is really improving already. One lap around our walking path is .75 miles and I'm now able to jog about 1/5 of the way around before I have to walk again. This is a HUGE improvement since I started. My goal is to be able to do a whole lap without walking by Memorial Day.
Let me tell you, it's very difficult to stay motivated during the first lap each day. I hurt a little, I'm out of breath, and I have a poor attitude. But the nice thing is, since it's not a treadmill.....there's only one way to get back to the beginning....hoofin' it!! Talk about motivation!

I love this site!!

Hi! Glad to help. I feel like I've been doing all of the taking on this site, with very little giving.....so it's time to give back.
I bought mine at a sports and fitness store. It's a Polar T-31 Coded. It straps around your chest and then you wear a special watch. It cost me about $100. They have cheaper ones, but they warned me that if you are wanting to use them at a gym and other people have monitors on too, then yours might not work as accurately. So I went with the more expensive one. It's definitely been worth it.
You can program everything in. It comes with instructions. You can change them as you increase in fitness level too. You can choose the beep volume (plus you can mute it and just look at it every now and then...which is what I now do when I walk with my husband).

Good luck and stick with it, girl! You can do it!!