Fitness For You.. Mom Review On Fitbit.. Weight Watchers, Map My Walk, Fitness Pal and More..
A few days ago I posted on " Taking Care of YOU" and how I finally found my fitness start after 10 plus years of waking through the night with Zoe, gaining a few pounds a year, and feeling pretty unhealthy. The response has been very cool! So here is the scoop for those of you who asked!
Living the life of a special needs mom, organized classes, gym visits, and bootcamps just won't work. I needed to focus on me, and pretty much do it on my own. I started researching first, and after talking to a friend I started with Weight Watchers online. It was an awesome introduction that helped me start losing weight right away. The online tools, recipes, apps ( bar code food label scanners, trackers and more!) were awesome, and the content on the website was plentiful. Inspiring, interesting and helpful tips and tricks to get started.
Here is where I was coming from..I needed to slow down.
After 8 weeks or so of that , and 10 pounds lost- I wanted to start moving more but do it on my terms. The Active Link by Weight Watchers is what got me looking for a fitness tracking device. I love the app Map My Walk for the iphone , I think its fun to see how far I go when I take the time out of my day to do a 30-40 minute walk or hike. The Active Link converts activities to WW Points, but being a techie I did my research and I wanted more!
The Fitbit One is it! I read all about it online and I was excited to bring it home. It warmed my heart that I could program it to call me Honey, and tell me to hurry it up! I also liked the silent vibrating alarm, because a few times I have overslept in the am, finding myself in Zoe's bed and not my own with the alarm nearby, so that was a bonus feature! The Fitbit not only tracks your steps, activities , floors climbed, and more! but it updates wirelessly to the app in your phone. I quickly found myself sneaking in extra steps, parking far away, doing extra housework, and walking whenever I could to up my activity level. I do like the sleep tracker ( Fitbit comes with a wrist band you wear at night) ( It's awesome to know I got 5.5 hours of sleep and was awakened 6 times! NOT! )but I do want to know because it correlates to my activity the next day. Throughout the day, I wear it nonstop.
So, right after I got the Fitbit, I started branching out beyond Weight Watchers because I wanted to know true caloric values of what I was eating, and also use recipes that were a bit cleaner and greener. I was thrilled to see free tools like My Fitness Pal, Spark, Live Strong and more that have trackers, communities and recipes- all for free. My Fitness Pal can auto connect and update within your Fitbit app, so I used that at first.. but in the end decided Fitbit ( and one entry app) works for me for entering and tracking my food, calories spent and burned are calculated by the app including what you have left remaining , water I drink, hours I sleep and steps I walk. The screen shot above is available in real time to view within your app, to see where you are throughout your day.
So taking care of me, on my terms is going well. It is really fun for me to track my fitness level throughout the day and encourage myself to move more. It's no different really, than the way I manage Zoe's energy levels.. I am just focusing on ME. I am down 15 pounds so far, and I like knowing where I stand calorie wise at the end of the day so I can have an extra splash of wine, a hot chocolate or dessert if I choose! I still haven't let go of my WW online membership, though I have never gone to a meeting. ( TIME? ) I think these tools are working because they are easy. It was the commitment to take the time- to care of myself, and not just be the caretaker- that was the hardest.
Now if only parenting came with all these cool tools!
Until Next Time-
