It Was A Pretty Good Week

The gym is replacing the floor in the exercise room, so the various classes have been cancelled for about ten days.  I've been walking the track as a substitute cardio session.  I may also put in some time on the elliptical machines for the duration.

I'm still using the fitness trackers.  I'm finding that they do provide motivation to be more active and to get more sleep.  The syncing between the Pebble and the Up app has still been missing steps, but not as many since tried a suggestion that I found in the Pebble forums.  There was another suggestion on how to force a manual sync that I plan on trying.

If the soreness in my upper back, shoulder and chest muscles are any indication, then the swimming classes are going well.  I plan on adding time in the gym's pool to my regular workout schedule.

Speaking of which, the workouts continue to improve.  I think that I've settled into a pretty good groove lately.  The decrease in my caloric intake hasn't seemed to affect my energy levels, like it has in the past.  In fact, I was able to hit some new maxes on a number of exercises.  My current favorite is preacher curls.  I added fifteen additional pounds to that exercise.

I updated my fitness goals in the MyFitnessPal app.  The new calculations reduced my caloric goals by sixty calories per day.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good with my progress.  I may even hop on the dreaded scale after this morning's workout!

Reps and steps!

Adding Swimming to the Exercise Mix

I've been using the Pebble Jawbone Up app for a few weeks now and I've discovered some inaccuracies in the data transfer process between the watch and the companion phone app.  The watch seems to count my steps pretty accurately, but some of the step data is not being recognized by the phone app.  There has usually been a discrepancy of about 400 steps between the two apps, with the phone app showing fewer steps than the watch app.  The worst case was when the phone app missed 7,000 steps!

I've done some research online and found several references to the issue, but no real fix.  The best suggestion was to use the watch app's primary watch face, as to the two secondary ones seemed to produce the largest errors.  It happened that I was using a secondary watch face when the 7,000 steps were missed.

Even with the errors, I think that using the app has been beneficial.  Reviewing my sleep tracking data has encouraged me to get into bed earlier and get more sleep.  I've improved my sleep time from an average of five hours per night to seven.  I hit or surpassed my 10,000 steps per day goal an average of five out of seven days.

I was reading an article recently on creating successful morning routines, when one particular section caught my attention.  It talked about starting the morning with a quick workout.  The author suggested using an app called The 7 Minute Workout as a guide.  I downloaded the app and gave it a try, at the beginner level.  The app guided me through a series of exercises, with video instruction.  It was more difficult than I anticipated, but not hard to do.  It definitely provides a morning boost!

This week, I took my first swim class since high school.  Back then, my swimming teacher was pregnant and couldn't do much in the pool.  The substitute was not very effective, so I never learned to swim properly.  My wife and I are considering taking a Caribbean cruise in the next year or so and would like to feel comfortable in the water, so we're taking the class together.

The class was pretty small, three adults and two teens.  It was held at the local high school.  We started out with the basics, holding on to the side of the pool, learning kicks.  It was after the instructor corrected my kicking technique that my muscle memory kicked in.  While I felt that my initial instruction had been incomplete, apparently I had learned some things.  I found that I was able to swim half the length of the pool.  Of course, my technique was pretty bad, with plenty of wasted motion, but I felt that I did pretty well.  The instructor called me her "over-achiever." LOL!

My gym has a pool that is used mostly for water aerobics, but there are times when its available for open swimming.  Since water aerobics participants need to be able to stand while exercising, the pool is pretty shallow, only 4 - 4 1/2 feet deep, making it  a perfect place for me to practice.

I've been focusing more closely on my caloric intake.  I've been mostly staying under my calorie goal and not touching my exercise calories.  My challenge goal is to do this consistently for 45 days, ending on April 30th, when I'll do a weigh in.

My regular workouts continue at a good pace.  I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so that I can add outdoor walks back into my routine.

That's it for now.

Reps and steps!

My First Week with Pebble's Fitness Trackers

Well, I'm still chugging along.  We've had some above freezing days, which helps with the motivation factor.  The week was pretty routine.  No major cheats on meals and I got most of my workouts in.

I'm enjoying using the Jawbone Up fitness tracker on my new Pebble smartphone.  It's always on, tracking my steps, so I don't have to think about it.  The Pebble doesn't have heart rate sensors built in, unlike many other smart watches, but I've read that there are plans to support third party sensors that would be built into interchangeable watch straps.

I've only been using the Pebble for about a week, but I like the experience.  The watch appears to be pretty durable.  I've been wearing it while I'm working out with the weights and machines and while in the Zumba and kickboxing classes.  It's pretty light, so I usually forget that I have it on (until I get a notification.).

I've connected the Pebble Jawbone Up app to the Up app on my Samsung Note 4.  This gives me more options and trend displays.  It also gives me the option of linking my Up data to the MyFitnessPal site, which I use daily.  I'll have to investigate this further before I take advantage of this feature.  I have other fitness information going to MyFitnessPal already and I don't want the data totals to double.

I've also downloaded the Endomondo app for Pebble.  I'd been using Endomondo on my phone for when I went walking outdoors (not an option in this weather.) and for tracking my workouts on the elliptical machine.  The  Pebble app will allow me to monitor my progress from the watch face, instead holding or picking up my phone.

Pebble's library of apps also include Misfit, Runtastic and Runkeeper.  I don't use any of these apps myself, but I've seen them linked to several accounts on the MyFitnessPal website.

I've seen some sleep monitoring apps in Pebble's library, but I haven't tried any of them.  The Up app will also track my sleep patterns.  I'm just not sure that I want to sleep with a device on my arm, but I may give it a shot sometime in the future.

Now that I have several fitness trackers in place, I think my next job will be to evaluate them and then start paring them down.  Here's hoping that they actually help me to reach my fitness goals.

Reps and steps!

Once More Unto the Breach

It's still cold and snow covered around here, but I got all of my scheduled workout sessions in, except one.  I pushed myself a little more than usual this week, which led to some of the best sleep that I've had in a while.

I've also decreased the weight that I've been using on my squats.  I've opted to go lighter and focus more on the technique.  This has helped me to go deeper into the squat, really working the muscles.  I'm careful not to drop below parallel, that is, keeping my thighs parallel to the ground.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but, I'm kind of a tech guy.  I like trying out various gadgets and gizmos.  I recently bought a Pebble smart watch.  I went for the original black and white e-Ink display model, not the new color one.  I read that all of the Pebble watches would eventually be upgraded to the new operating system, so I settled on the less expensive model.  One of the things of interest to me was that the watch came with a Jawbone app called Up for Pebble.  It functions independent from the phone, so I can wear the watch when I workout, just like I would a fitness band.  I haven't used it long enough to form an opinion about it, but I'll pass along my observations as I go.

The Delicious Debacle

I was mostly on track with my diet up until Friday.  We had an early morning celebration at work which involved baked goods.  I went to lunch with a colleague and enjoyed a plate of bu'n thit nuong, a Vietnamese dish that has become one of my favorites.  For dinner, we met with friends over St. Louis style spareribs.  The evening was capped off with vanilla ice cream over a warm brownie, topped with whipped cream.

I attempted to offset Friday's excesses by keeping below my calorie goals and not eating back any of the 2400 exercise calories that I'd burned on Saturday and Sunday.

Non Scale Victories

I was told that in addition to my lost weight, it looked like I'd lost 10 years, too.

One person told me that it seemed like I'd lost more weight, while another remarked that my arms looked bigger.

Goals

I'm still dealing with the belly issue.  It's smaller, but still not gone (Yeah, I know that brownies and ice cream don't help!).  I haven't really set any mini goals lately.  I still don't have one in mind, but I'm sure that something will come to me soon.

Reps and steps.