Fitbit

40 days and 40 nights

~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Day 40. I think what I was most anxious about when I embarked on this ‘year of health’ was that I would lose any ‘treats’ in my life, anything that was just for me – whether it be ‘grown up stuff’ (wine and a book) or just general, bloody-hard-day-at-work pick me ups like a morning or afternoon tea cake break.

Turns out it is tricksy to find something that feels like a treat when even fruit is not really good for your tummy. Coyo has been revolutionary of course. If however I eat it all at once then I’m doing myself no good either. But of course, half of this is meant to be the other non-food side of the ‘healing’, the de-stressing etc. And I am struggling.

Getting to Yoga on the 3 days I am not at bootcamp is hard. For some reason Yogi’s don’t teach at convenient times. They don’t do 5/6am – 7am classes. They do 6.30am to 7.30am classes – where most people would be driving to work already before it’s finished. Or 4pm which is before most people leave work. Or of course – my favourite – 7pm, where most people are at home feeding their families (or in my case sitting on my ass waiting for the GD to feed me). And, although I have made it to some evening Yoga classes, they are usually the hour and a half classes, so I don’t get home until nearly 9pm and I miss my fam. It’s not all bad. Fuck I sound like a grinch lately. I love the Yin class on the Sunday – and if I can convince the GD to let me have Tuesday mornings I might be able to go from Yoga straight to work, but it’s a big ask really.

What we have been doing this week is walking. Mostly driven by my competitive side; the fact that I need to get to 84,000 fitbit steps this week, but something that we have been trying to put in a regular spot for ages. It is really nice to slowly wander round our lovely neighbourhood, letting Arty wee on stuff, while the lads babble, holding my grumpy man’s hand. Tonight I am 100 steps off my goal – and our walk consisted of walking up and down the street while Master four ‘rode’ his bike (daddy holding it upright for him while he refused to peddle) but to be honest I will do those steps just making my lunch for tomorrow and getting ready for bed.

So my goals this week;

  • I am going to try to get to Yoga at least twice.
  • I am also going to start one of the books I got in the mail.
  • I am going to go hang with my Nana and Grandad respectively.
  • I am going to survive our first full week back at school with actual teaching involved.
  • I am going to try to get to bed at a decent time.
  • I am going to enjoy hanging WITH my boys.

And maybe try to not to dress like an oversized toddler again – all day today all I wanted to do was come home and get changed.

Day 37 – To sleep, perchance to dream

~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ 1 Comment

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Day one of using the fitbit. I got it so I could record my sleep patterns to see exactly how much sleep I was getting –  to see if it’s an area I can improve on somehow – or if it will just improve with the improved diet and approach (yoga and mindfulness and shit). You know, for my health. More sleep = less stress.

If you can decipher the screenshot above you’ll see that I was in bed from 10pm until 5.30 the next morning. And that’s 7.5 hours. BUT I actually slept for 4.5 hours. That is fuck. all. time. Apparently the rest of the time I was restless or awake. Now I don’t by any means think this is an exact science but it was interesting nonetheless, and could explain the utter exhaustion I seem to have been afflicted with today. I even had a Nana nap this afternoon. Accidentally. (Don’t worry neither child was neglected; one was glued to minecraft and the other one was asleep himself).

I was laughing with the GD that I can’t be very rock and roll these days if my idea of a ‘binge’ is eating two nectarines and feeling guilty about it afterwards! It was not very long ago (37 days to be exact) that a food ‘binge’ when I was tired or pre-menstrual would have involved a whole block of Whittakers eaten over the course of the day, or a half a bottle of wine before dinner or better yet wine and cheese for dinner…. ah the two main food groups. Wine and cheese. Mmmmmm.

The fitbit is an interesting experiment though – walked 9,935 steps today – not bad for a first day but considering how much time I sat on my ass, at the movies and in the car, I reckon a day at work will be more. I was a bit put out to see that my heart rate was only elevated for 9 minutes of Bootcamp, but I guess some of the stuff isn’t cardio so much. Anyway for now it in inspiring me to move – convinced the family to go for a walk to the video store because I wanted to up my steps ha ha – and hopefully I won’t lose interest too soon.

I need to do a good recipe post soon, will have a look through my favourites and get back to y’all.

Sweet dreams ❤

Day 36 – tracking progress

~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

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Tracking two ways. On Thursday the 8 week program sends out the shopping list for the following week, the recipe plan, the ‘sunday cook up’ instructions and then handy hints and suggestions for movement and whatever else they can think of. It is good – and quite fun to go through the next week’s plan.

This week their ‘To do’ was the measurement thing. Body cms and weight. And they recommended going to the doc to get all the bloods done – but of course I did that about 25 days ago… I am going to wait until tomorrow morning – I think I ate half my body weight in beef fajitas on delicious coriander salad tonight (and bonus – the boys didn’t want their ‘burned’ – actually ‘charred – corn so I go to eat that too!). Did I mention I am eating my own weight in food every day at the moment? weirdly no snacking between meals – and no really big portions but I feel like I’m eating ALL the time. PMSing so that doesn’t help – gotta fuel up beforehand I guess – keep up my strength.

So in the morning I will take all my measurements – as per the iQS program request – and will weigh myself (dirty word) and put it somewhere safe. Then apparently the iQS will instruct us all to do it again in four weeks – then at the end. they want us to take photos to comapare and contrast but fuck that. I am not photogenic at the best of times – let alone in me knickers.

And, I got a fitbit today. After asking around and seeing what other folks had, and then going in and trying on the seemingly best two – the ‘fitbit’ and the ‘Jawbone’ – I decided on the fitbit because it was sleeker and I didn’t like the way the Jawbone sat up on the underside of my wrist – also yucky pattern on top – bad design. The fitbit I chose is Navy and is sleek on my wrist, I even reckon it will fit under my watch. And I got one not to track my steps although that seems to be its main draw, but to track my SLEEP. Because I am interested in how much I am actually awake at night vs how much I think I am awake at night. So. Who wants to bet I get over it in a week? I hope not.

Oh and I forgot to say that i can sync it up to this blog and have it post my activity once a week. But Nah. this is more of an experiment for myself and it’s totes narcissistic to think people wanna see that shit ha ha

So that’s me today. Very glad it’s a long weekend this weekend – Friday off yeeeah. I love me a good stat holiday. But I do feel sorry for the harassed working parents. You only just got rid of your kids and then we hand them back for you to parenting on a week day. The cheek.