FitBit Flex

My FitBit Flex arrived today!  I previously owned a FitBit Ultra.  But it no longer holds a charge and isn't supported so much by the company.  I liked the Ultra, but I'm just excited to have a FitBit again.  This one is a wrist device and is lime green.  The FitBit simply makes me aware of my movements and motivates me to do even more.

FitBit Flex color options

My FitBit Flex tracks:

• steps taken
• distance traveled
• calories burned
• very active minutes
• sleep time and quality
• Flex also features a silent wake alarm that gently vibrates at wake-up time.

I set my daily step goals (10,000 steps) and the Flex tells me when I've hit each 20% increments.  And when I reach 100% of my goal, the Flex vibrates and it's lights will illuminate.

The Flex is water resistant, so I can even wear it 24/7.  It syncs when it's within 20 ft of the dongle in my PC.  And if I had a newer phone, I could sync it that was as well.  I only have to charge the Flex once every five days, which is convenient for me.  The only reason I'll have to take it off my wrist is to charge it.

It's unlikely that I'll be walking 10,000 steps each day at first.  But if I get my workouts in, that should boost my step count.  Maybe once it's warmer I'll actually get out there and put feet to pavement to rack up my step numbers.

Nutribears

Nutrisystem sends out Nutribears when you hit milestones in your weight-loss.  The first bear comes with a 10 lb loss.  His name is Pound.  He's the red bear above... with the 10 embroidered in his chest.  It doesn't matter if you lose 10 lbs in a couple of weeks or a dozen weeks.  You'll still receive Pound in your next order.

Guess what?!  I earned my very first Nutribear today!  Down 10.8 lbs since January 19th.  Five weeks and two days.  Pound is on his way to my house!

The purple 20 bear is awarded for a 20 lb loss.  His name is Commitment.  I'm hoping to get him by Easter. That's seven weeks away.  I think I can do it. Wish me luck!

1 Cor 3:16-23

Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

Let no one deceive himself.
If any one among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God,
for it is written:
God catches the wise in their own ruses, 
and again:
The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are vain.

So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, 
Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
or the world or life or death,
or the present or the future:
all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

I can't sleep.

I overslept this morning (technically, yesterday morning).  My alarm clock was originally set for 0500.  I pushed it back to 0630, but I don't remember it going off at that time.  It's possible that I snoozed right through it.  But more likely, I doubt my cell phone recognized that I reset the alarm.  My phone is nearly three years old and gives me trouble regularly.

Anyway, I didn't wake up until closer to 1030 this morning.  I haven't slept a wink since then.  But I cannot get to sleep tonight.

My head has been hurting since around 6 or 7pm.  And even though it's feeling much better now...in that I no longer feel the need to throw up...it's still throbbing.  My stomach is also a bit upset.  Again, it was worse earlier, but is still not quite right.a

I remember that a friend of mine asked about my blood pressure during one of my previous headaches.  So I checked my BP.  Sure enough, it was a bit high at 130/90.  That bottom number gets me every time.  I've since taken it and it's back down to 122/75.  But I wonder if the headache is a BP thing or if something else is the problem.

I've been getting random headaches for about a year now.  They hurt so bad, I feel nauseous.  They seem to come out of nowhere and I can't seem to get rid of them no matter what I try.  I guess they could be migraines; I have a history of migraines.  But I'm accustomed to getting the usual early migraine symptoms:  blind spots, aura, light sensitivity, not being able to find my words.  But these headaches don't start off that way, making me think it's something different.

But eventually they go, as mysteriously as they came.  I can't explain them and am just thankful that they've passed.

I bring this up tonight because perhaps it's the headache and upset stomach that are keeping me awake tonight.  I'm not sure.  But it's 0230, Wednesday.  My alarm is again set to go off at 0500.  And even though I can't stop yawning, I can't seem to settle in enough to fall asleep.  Insomnia is so frustrating.

When you lose fat...

I found this on Facebook today. I like it!

Slacker

Man, I've really been slacking on keeping up with my blog lately.  It's been a full ten days since I posted anything.  I have a blog on the Nutrisystem site as well, that I have been posting to.  So I guess I've been getting my fix there and ignoring this one.  I'll try to redeem myself.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday the 10th.  It was a follow-up concerning the change in meds for my depression.  I was looking forward to it because I haven't felt this good (depression-wise) in A VERY LONG TIME.  But instead of discussing how good I feel, we focused on how bad my test results were.  My sugar is slightly elevated.  My TSH (thyroid hormone) is even higher than three months ago.  My iron isn't going up anymore.  My blood pressure is too high.  And I need to lose more than 100 lbs.

I spent the entire day looking forward to discussing how GREAT I felt with my doctor.  Instead, I was completely dejected by the time I left.  [sigh]  He increased my Synthroid, increased my iron, and added an ACE inhibitor to my every day.  I'm supposed to take my BP three times a day and record it for him.  After a month, I'm supposed to let him know how things are going, so he can decide if he needs to make adjustments.

He also wants me to walk every day.  Nothing major until we can get my BP under control.  In fact, he only wants to see me lose 2-3 lbs per month.  Ugh!  I weigh so much I should be losing 1-2 lbs per week!  Hopefully I can make progress on all fronts that we're ALL happy.

I also had the Coaches vs Cancer game this week.  For whatever reason, I was really nervous about it.  I know I wasn't as prepared as previous years.  I know we didn't do t-shirts, so we won't have the profit from those sales.  But my stomach was tied in knots.  Ultimately, we finished the week with $800 in donations!  We were really happy with that!

Still, it was either the stress of putting that together, or maybe a bug, or possibly the increase in iron.  At any rate, I didn't eat for more than two days because my stomach just felt full and uncomfortable.  I just didn't feel well at all.  But I think it's finally passing.  I've been eating, just not as much.  And I hope to get back to 100% on my menu and workouts tomorrow.

We got more snow yesterday.  Again with the white-out conditions.  I think we got 2-3" total.  And I understand we could get another couple of inches tonight.  But by the end of the week, we're supposed to have 50 degree temps.  This has been a strange winter to me.  So windy and cold.  More snow than I remember in several years.  Looking forward to the warmth.

Until then, enjoying my three-day weekend! Happy Presidents' Day!

Snow Day

I didn't go to work today due to snow and ice.  I didn't work from home much today either.  I slept in.  I slept a lot.  It was lovely.  But it will likely affect my ability to sleep tonight.  But tomorrow I'll keep reminding myself that I slept GREAT the night before.  It'll get me through.

I'm feeling a bit anxious this evening.  Maybe if I take my anti-anxiety meds, it'll alleviate my anxiety and help me sleep.  Could be a good thing.  Doesn't answer the question as to why I'm anxious in the first place though.

One more day of training.  Thank God!  And we're WAY behind.  Ugh!  I have a couple of students that are struggling.  More accurately, I don't think they're paying attention.  One of them obviously doesn't listen to me.  I swear on three different occasions, he asked a question that I had just answered two minutes before.  One of the other students mentioned that he's been spending more time surfing the net than he has been listening to me.  Oh well, as long as he doesn't call me once he gets back to his desk.  I always want to tell those students that I'll give them as much attention as they gave me.

At any rate, I need to pare down the information that we have left to go over.  Because we'll NEVER be able to get through all of it at the speed we've been going.  I also wonder how many folks won't be there tomorrow due to road conditions...meaning I'll have to go over it yet again with them at a later date.  It's okay though.  I'd rather go over it again at a later date, than be the reason someone got out on the roads when they weren't comfortable doing so.

Can't worry about that today.  Must get some sleep. It's 8:30pm.  Time to turn off the computer and the phone, put in a move, and chill for the night.

Thank You for today, Lord!

Add a Dash of Cardio

[sigh]  Okay, so I totally increased my workouts, but didn't do so well on my diet.  I think it's because I had such great success in the first week without much effort, that I thought I wouldn't be doing much damage when I cheated.  Lesson learned.

I was really pretty good Sunday through Wednesday.  All down hill from there though.  But tomorrow starts a new week and I'm excited to get back on the horse!

My meals this week included Red Beans & Rice, Pasta Fageoli, Cheddar Broccoli Rice, Three Cheese Chicken Pasta, and Mac & Cheese with Beef.  A big problem for me was that I was out of my office on Thursday.  I need to come up with a solution to that as I'm out of the office THREE DAYS this coming week.

On a positive note, I did three T25 workouts and two Les Mills Pump workouts.  I have decided that I'm SOOOO not going to worry about keeping up with the T25 schedule.  I'm simply not fit enough to do a few of those workouts.  But I AM going to do the first couple of workouts every day until I feel coordinated enough to add another one.  I'll continue with the LMP as it's scheduled.  Really feeling good about my workouts.

I also did well with my water early in the week, but drastically trailed off as the week went on.  I can't let that happen.  Between eating fewer calories and working plenty of muscles, I really need to be getting no less than 64 oz of water... and probably closer to 100.  So I'll work on getting that back on track this week.

I'd tell you how much I weigh, but I didn't even weigh myself today.  I knew it wouldn't be pretty.