July Statistics

The last day of the month : time for a recap and some stats.

My activities

I only started monitoring my steps and walks, when my FitBit was delivered on July 4, 2012.  That's why there are a couple of days missing from the chart.  As for the steps counter, the days where the activity is nearly non-existant, I simply forgot to put it on before leaving for work. I try to reach at least 5.000 steps a day, which is merely half of what the WHO advises, but nonetheless not always easy to achieve (except on days when I go walking).

 

I try to go walking twice a week and usually (weather permitting) I try to come up with routes that are at least 5K long. The little pace graph (left bottom) shows a clear improvement in my walking pace, from 11"28'/km to 9"05'/km.  I haven't tried running or jogging just yet because I didn't have the appropriate shoes until last weekend.  I might give it a try in August but otherwise definitely in September, when I will join the local athletics club and their Start2Run programme.  Start2Run is the Belgian equivalent of C25K, and after 14 weeks I should be able to run a 5K.  Hard to imagine I will ever be able to do that, but many have preceded me and if they could do it, there's no reason I should fail. Right?

 

I established a few records this month. I should be able to break at least one of them in August.

This stat really cheered me up :  despite being obese, I did more Ks than the average women my age. Ha ! :o)

My food

At the moment I keep track of my calories as well as my points according to the weight watchers programme.  I don't know which one I prefer, but I do feel that the kcal counting is more accurate.  Even if going overboard on fruits and vegetables is not as bad as overeating on junkfood or sweets, giving them all a zero points value, can be a bit tricky.  Obviously, you shouldn't be eating one kilo of aples or oranges, just because you don't have to count them.  My daily points allowance is 48 points and it came down from 50 points a day when I first started.  I can count the number of days I used up all my points on one hand. Usually, I end the day with 10 to 15 points remaining to be used.  On a kcal level, I hover on general between 1.400 en 1.700 kcal a day. 

 

My body

On average there is a downward trend on everything.  It'd better be :o)

a. My weight : I lost 4,6 kg since the first of July.

b. My body fat: According to my scales, my fat percentage dropped 2,2%.  More of half my weight is pure fat.  That's gross.  First goal, make it melt to less than 50%.

 

c. My BMI: My Body Mass Index went down by 1.5 .  It is of course still excessive but I see that it is going the right way i.e. down.

Tomorrow is a new day and a new month. I am ready to start fresh and motivated.

Until tomorrow ...

Overview of my day :

Breakfast : 8 pts (20 cl halfskimmed milk 3pts, 45g nestlé fitness chocolate 5pts, apple)

Lunch : 9 pts (Epigramme d'agneau bento: 100g lamb epigramme 7pts, 100g potato 2pts, leek & celeriac 0pts, fruits are 0 pts as well)

Dinner :  16 pts (270g baked chicken 7pts, 190g potato 4pts, salad, tomato and cucumber 0pts, 1 tbs olive oil 3pt, 45g 10% mayo 2pts)

Snacks : 3 pts (Royco minute soup Mushroom supreme)

Unused  : 12 pts

Drinks :   2.5L still water

Calorie counting according to FitBit:  1.672 kcal

Rainy Sunday

Not much to say about this Sunday : it rained almost all day, the weight stayed stationary since yesterday, ...

The only thing worth mentioning is this :

I completely aced all the objectives : I went over the recommended 10.000 steps, climbed 25 floors and walked for 10K.  Great, isn't it?

The biggest part of this activity was done by a uptempo walk of +/- 5,5K just before lunch.  I was a bit surprised about my average speed (5.8K/h) which is way higher than the speed I usually use on a treadmill (5K/h). It seems I might have underestimated my abilities.

Unfortunately the weekend is already over. Only two more weeks before I am home for a week. I can't wait. I need a holiday!

Until tomorrow ...

Overview of my day :

Breakfast : 5 pts (greek yoghurt 5pts, apple)

Lunch : 9 pts (turkey filet 5pts, 200g potatoes 4pts, flat green beans 0pts)

Dinner :  15 pts (150g seafood 3pts, chorizo 10pts, 1 slice of bread 2pts)

Unused :  15 pts

Snacks : 5 pts (one 18g mars bar 2pts, 2 mini WW cheese 1pt, homeroasted chickpeas 2pts) -> I didn't eat anything in between meals for two weeks and this afternoon I have cravings for sweet and savoury alike.  I wonder if the extra exercise might have something to do with it ...

Drinks :   3L still water.

Calorie counting according to FitBit:  1.478 kcal

Fitness gadgets

So happy when the mailwoman stopped by the office today : my little amazon order with my heart rate monitor and activity tracker came in. I know I should have waited until I got home to fiddle with the fitbit but I just couldn't help myself.  Let's just say, I am of a curious nature :o)

The fitbit is smaller than I thought it would be, which is great because that means it will even be more discrete.  First little disappointment: its battery was completely drained, but connecting it to the PC with the supplied USB cable remedied that quickly.  Also, no a manual inside, but thanks to Apple, that's something we don't find peculiar anymore.  First guess was "check out the website" which proved to be correct.

Source: iheartinspiration.com via Scott on Pinterest

A small software install later, my little girlfriend was ready to go (she's black and plum coloured, so I'll just assume she's a girl). I clipped her to my bra and proceeded with my daily routine.  The only difference to an ordinary day, is that I was compulsively checking my total number of steps.  I'm sure this OCD type behaviour will improve once the novelty wears off, but right now, I see if as a huge motivational tool.  Want proof?  Guess who went up and down the stairs just before lunch, just to check whether this "floors climbed" feature worked appropriately?  Yes, me !  I climbed 13 flights of stairs at noon (which btw is as high as the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio!).  Ha !

Our building is rather small with only 3 floors and as our office is located on the ground floor, I never have to take stairs anyway. Another way to measure my motivation! So I went up twice to the third floor and down again (going down obviously isn't considered climbing stairs).  But because people were starting to leave their respective workplaces for lunch and I wanted to avoid strange looks (think : why is that fat girl continuously going up and down the stairs?), I ended up hiding from sight, going down to the downstairs garage and back up again for the remainder of the time.  Do I need to say how pleased I am with myself? :o)

I wanted to put the fitbit to the test with a long speedwalk tonight, but by the time I got home it was raining cats and dogs. Welcome to the Belgian summer :o(  Instead of going out, I climbed the stairs a couple of times more and completely aced the stairs objective by climbing a whopping 28! flights today.  I also completed my objective of 5.000 daily steps (which is only half of the 10.000 steps recommended by the WHO though).

Tonight I am going to test out the sleep activity tracker as well, to see how much I toss and turn during the night.  If it will be anything like last night, I'll see a lot of peaks showing up on the graph.  Hopefully it will just be a nice flat line, meaning I slept like a baby.  I'll keep you posted.

Until tomorrow,

Overview of my day :

Breakfast : 10 pts (half skimmed milk 3pts, 45g nestle fitness cereals 5pts, a glass of apple juice 2pts and an apple) - same as every day

Lunch : 7 pts (Tomate Crevettes Bento 100g rice 3pts, 100g shrimp 3pts, fat free petit suisse 1pt, veggies and fruits 0pt)

Dinner :  12 pts (200g chicken filet 5pts, 200g potatoes 4pts, carrots 0pts, cooking oil 1pt, 35g of camembert cheese 2pts)

Unused :  21 pts

Drinks :   3L still water.

Calorie counting : just for reference I am now adding everything I eat into the Fitbit dashboard and today I consumed 1.453 kcal and burned 2.753 kcal.

Fitbit activity tracker

First pleasant surprise this morning: Miss Scales told me that I lost a bit of weight again.  Obviously I am very happy about every downward move, but at the same time the longer the trend continues, the more I am expecting a sudden rise.  Time will tell I guess, but right now, my mood couldn't be better.

I have been looking at activity trackers for over a week now, but couldn't make up my mind on which one to buy.  I hesitated between the fitbit, the jawbone up and the Nike fuel band which all had pros and cons.  In the end I picked the fitbit ultra plum and ordered it today on amazon.  It should arrive before the end of the week and then I'll have the whole weekend to fiddle with it.  What eventually made up my mind was its discret size, meaning I would be able to wear it every day.  Obviously at a certain moment, the weight loss will show (from experience, people only start noticing something is up once I lose at least 20kg) but I don't want to advertise what I am up to.  Moreover, wearing a rubbery wristband would definitely clash with my office outfit and draw more attention to it. 

I can't wait for my little gadget to arrive :o)

Until tomorrow ...

Overview of my day :

Breakfast : 10 pts (half skimmed milk 3pts, 45g nestle fitness cereals 5pts, a glass of fruitjuice 2pts and an apple) - same as every day

Lunch : 11 pts (Tian Provençal Bento 100g rice 3pts, veal/pork meatballs 6pts, olive oil 2pts, fruits and veggies 0pts)

Dinner : 12 pts (140g steak 4pts, unweighed portion of potatoes 7pts, olive oil 1pt, brocoli 0pts)

Unused : 17 pts

Drinks : 2.5L still water.