Getting Stronger

I sort of eliminated Rest days. Maybe it's a function of wearing the bodybugg, but I find a body at rest tends to stay at rest. And eat cookies. Yet if I commit to doing an at-home workout ("it's only 20 minutes!") I'll strap on the bodybugg and get some positive reinforcement in terms of calories burned, steps taken, and minutes of physical activity. And that spurs me on to head out for a long walk or do something else to get to 10,000 steps, 2400 calories, and at least an hour of physical activity. And not eat cookies.

So it's not that I don't mix it up for my body, like I rarely run on consecutive days, but I'm no longer taking a day of Sloth. It's more like intense workout days and less intense (or active rest) days. Today, for instance, I'm meeting a friend for a run, then we're headed to a yoga class.

A note to Ishmael: I was going to post a more elaborate view of my bodybugg contraption, but had all sorts of trouble trying to get the screenshots I wanted to show. So in typical FitFunk fashion, I abandoned the whole effort. And had a cookie. (Just kidding there.) For me, the bodybugg keeps me accountable, appeals to my geeky/analytical side (32% of my calories came from protein yesterday, fascinating!), and motivates me to move, as indicated above.

When I first got it (as a gift, it is pricey, I probably would have gotten one myself eventually, but it was an awesome gift!), I felt a little overwhelmed with all the screens and set up and was therefore a little overzealous. There's a screen where you set your shorter-term goals, say, 10 pounds in X weeks, and you just move this little cursor to how many pounds you'd like to lose per week and the dates and calorie deficit required. It all looks so easy when it's numbers on a pull-down menu...sure, let's aim for 2 pounds per week...burn 2900 calories per day and take in 1900 calories per day, that's a deficit of 1000 calories per day, or 7000 per week and voila! 2 pounds.

Yeah. Except. I have had days where I burn 2900 or even more calories in a day, but it's so not sustainable for me to achieve every day. After much trial and error (mostly error) I had to go back to the control panel and lower my expectations to one pound per week. So now I aim for a 500 calorie deficit per day. I like how my little 'bugg beeps it's little messages of "Activity Target Met!" (one hour), "Step Count Met!" (10,000), and usually bringing up the rear, "Calorie Burn Target Met!" (2400).

Something I've been refocusing on lately is actually meeting that 2400 calorie burn target daily versus on most days. It's a reasonable target. That's why I ended up doing The Shred on 3 days this week. I did my 30-minute run for One Hour Runner at the gym due to rain, but was happy to do the whole thing at 5.2 mph. I also took the run outside once the sun reappeared and did 5 miles in Central Park (though that was on a 4 min run / 1 min walk that allows me to get some faster - higher calorie burn - segments in), and I'll get yoga in as well. Woot! Woot!

Unfortunately I also had about a vat of wine last night (that was fun to plug into the bodybugg) Trying to seriously rehydrate/caffeinate before this run. 10,000 steps forward, 10,001 steps back? Oh the struggle is eternal I tells ya! These are the moments when I have to console myself with the knowledge that I'm learning what maintenance will require of me.