Fitbit Fan-Antics

I posted this as a journal today, but I thought it might make a good post here as well. Quite a few of my friends of FS have just gotten Fitbits. Some of us are ready to jump right in and challenge ourselves to reach higher every day. I found yesterday, that some of us, like me, need to take it a little slower.

When you start a diet, you are supposed to keep a journal for a week or two, of just the way you are eating before you start, to give yourself a baseline of why you are gaining, or perhaps not losing if you have already started to modify the way you eat.

After my first try with Fitbit yesterday, I realized I am even more sedentary than I had thought, and I already thought I was a total slug. I've decided to do exactly what I have been doing for the last few years for at least a week. I want to see if I have been moving AT ALL. Next Wednesday, I will start to slowly bump up my activity level. I realized that the little bit I did yesterday, and the fact that my right leg went numb, is a indicator that I need to be careful. I'm almost 70 and about as out of shape as a woman can get. 10 years ago, this wouldn't have been an issue. It is now.

I plan to use this fun little toy sensibly, just as I used diet sensibly when I started almost 2 years ago. I want to succeed. I don't want to damage myself doing it.

I don't think there's any shame in admitting we're not super humans. Like anything else, we need to assess where WE are and where WE want to go. In order to get there, we need to move at our own pace, not someone else's.

I love my Fitbit and I know it is one more wonderful tool to get me to my goal of better health.

WTG on being more sensible. Getting one of the FitBit's doesn't mean you become a marathoner overnight. LOL! Good luck with that!

Johanne - ABSOLUTELY AGREE! Having a baseline.. and an average of your normal is key. Then the experts agree... challenge yourself to add 5% or 10% depending on your fitness level.

So if your average over a week is 2,500 steps... then the next week challenge yourself to consistently add 250 or 125 steps. Everyday. Then the following week... do the same. Try to ultimately double your normal.

This could take awhile, obviously... but so what! I love the way this tool helps to track things, and gives you good feedback thruout the day while you are doing things. Even if it just gets you to walk down the driveway to get the mail, instead of having someone else do it... then it's worth it. (or something like that!)

Take your time..it's your journey!
Much Love.