Getting Healthy Part Three: fitbit

Introduction of the fitbit

In March of 2014, my mom and sister came down to Virginia to visit me. I was already on the road to getting healthy and my mom and my sister were trying to exercise and eat right too.  My sister showed us a little gadget that she had gotten through her company for a competition.  This small green thing that she clipped to her belt was called a fitbit. 

She had only been using it a few weeks, but she could not stop talking about it.  She logged her daily calories on her ipad, showing us about how the website works and how the little gadget syncs to her phone and laptop.  After a hike, she told us how many steps we had walked and how many calories we had burned in the past hour.  It was basically a high tech pedometer, but it counted calories burned and doubled as a time keeping device.  It also made silly faces at you: a sleepy face if you hadn’t moved in a while, and various levels of smiles depending on how active you were being at the moment.

After they went back home, I found myself looking at the website and into getting myself one.  It seemed like such a cool concept and what a great way to keep myself on track. That July, I went up for Sara’s birthday and we agreed that I would buy her a new fitbit as a birthday present and she would give me her old one.

Best deal I ever made.  The fitbit flipped my routine upside down.  I started counting calories and realized that even though I was eating “healthier,” I was still eating a lot of calories.

 I started learning more about calories and the math that goes into it.  In order to maintain your weight, you want to take in as many calories as you’ve burned throughout the day.  If you want to lose weight, you need to take in fewer calories than you are burning.  3500 calories equals one pound so, in order to lose one pound a week, you need to have a deficit of 500 (500calX7days=3500).  How many calories you burn depends on your weight and height and gender, so I had to enter all that into the system and then continuously update as I lost weight.  One thing that was really frustrating was that my allotted calories went down as my weight went down.  I wanted to be rewarded for losing weight, but I was burning less calories, so on the same plan I had to eat less.

Obviously, the fitbit is not exact.  There is nothing out there yet (that I know of/ affordable) that can measure your heart rate while calculating muscle mass, metabolism, and all the other factors that determine how many calories you burn.  I took on the philosophy to log more than I ate, and less than I burned.  If I had about half a 10oz bag of chips, I would log 6 or 7 oz, and when I ate the other half I would log 6 or 7 oz again.  And I was religious about counting calories.  If I had a piece of chocolate at work, I would log it.  If I had a couple of chips, I would log them.

Doing this really helped me train my body into knowing how much I actually needed to eat to feel full--not bloated with a food baby full--but that satisfied feeling when you have enough energy to go back and do whatever you need to do.  It made me realize that I don’t need very many calories to get through a day. There are plenty of filling meals that you can eat that are low calorie.  I fell in love with oatmeal, greek yogurt with granola, and breakfast sandwhiches: everything bagel thins with one egg and an ounce of cheese is only 300 calories.  Lunch or dinner was frozen burritos, fish filets with a side of broccoli, veggies and hummus, apple with peanut butter, baked potatoes, and soup! Soup is the best! Pretty much any can of soup is less than 300 calories for the whole can.

Another feature I really liked about the fitbit was that I could earn more calories throughout the day.  I was on the sedentary plan, which starts you out at a really low-calorie meal plan, then lets you earn calories as you walk around and exercise.  So I knew if I wanted Pizza or Chinese, I could eat a low calorie breakfast and lunch, then spend a good hour at the gym, and I would get home and sync my fitbit, and find out i have another 900 calories to eat for the day.  It was a great reward and a great way to motivate myself, while still keeping my diet on track.

I have reached my goal weight, and even though I am just focussed on maintaining now, I still use my fitbit to count my steps and calories. It gives me the structure I need to stay on track while also allowing and motivation to get my exercise in and still eat the foods I love. 

Getting Healthy Part Two: Exercise

If you missed the last blog, I talked about losing weight in 2014 and how my diet changed and I learned how to eat healthier.  But that’s not all it took to lose 45lbs.  I also found a love of exercise.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a love-at-first-workout kind of love.  No, like many loves, it was slow and awkward and painful along the way.  And even now, I still have bad days.  But I stuck it out long enough to learn to love it.

People always used to tell me that exercise gets easier.  And I believed them, but I myself had never gotten to that place before.  I had issues early on with exercise.  My astigmatism and hand/foot-eye coordination made me bad at sports from the start.  In my hometown, everyone played soccer.  I mean everyone.  There were soccer started programs for preschoolers and on.  And if you didn’t play soccer, you were automatically a weird kid.  I played off and on through elementary school, but I sucked! And everyone knew it.  My best memories relating to soccer were the times the coach brought garlic breadstix for everyone and the time my soccer coach taught me how to make pasta while my dad took piano classes with the coach’s landlady in another room.  Even my early sports memories are about FOOD! As you can see, I was doomed from an early age.

When I got to middle school, I was done with sports.  I had tried basketball and tennis and swimming in the summer, and I had given up hope.  I turned to chorus and theatre and got my minimal exercise from the dance numbers throughout middle and high school.  Of course I had the mandatory P.E courses, but I went to an awesome liberal school where we could choose gym courses like badminton, yoga, and fencing.  And you can bet I chose as many low intensity classes as I could get away with.

It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I realized I needed to start exercising.  A few friends and I decided we might want to take advantage of the free gym before we graduate into the “real world” where you have to pay for everything.  And we were pretty good about it for a while.  We went to classes and swam laps and ran on the elliptical almost every night (but I was still eating like a… college kid).  That summer I dieted like crazy and I was on my parents elliptical all the time.  I lost about 20 lbs.  But it didn’t last long.  By my senior year of college I had gone back to my old habits of eating and exercise (or lack there of).  I tried running with my roommates a couple times but that didn’t work out.

The first thing I did when I decided to really get healthy was to research gyms.  I tried running but it hurt my shins too much and I always turned around after half an hour or so.  If you’re not in love with running right away, it’s really easy to give up or make excuses—the weather doesn’t help.  But with a gym, I knew I would be able to make myself go, even if it was just walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes, it was something.  I found an “Anytime Fitness” right across the street from my new job.  Not only was it the perfect location, the brightly lit sign beckoning me every night after work, but it also had classes—and a coworker who was already a member!  I got my 7-day free trial and started working out right away.  The dance class Mondays and Wednesdays were just my style: indulging my musical side with lighter intensity—and the instructor is a crazy free spirited hippie who reminded me of my mom.  Soon I learned that she taught the yoga classes on Friday nights, a great way to end the week.  For a while I went to just those classes and did the elliptical on the off days.

Of course, there were days that seemed like just too much.  Working at a bank, there were days I was on my feet for a full 7 or 8 hours and all I wanted to do was go home and put my feet up.  Some days, I got off work and sat in my car in the parking lot just trying to convince myself to go.  I would text Jim saying “To gym, or to Jim, that is the question”… because I’m a nerd.  But really that was the question: do I want to go to the gym, or do I want to go home to my Jim.  With this, he was very supportive.  He would always tell me to go to the gym, even though it meant I wouldn’t get to see him at all that night—he worked the graveyard shift back then (11pm to 7am) and most nights he would be asleep when I got home and would go to work when I went to sleep, then got home as I was leaving for work.  Eventually, I started forcing myself to drive from the bank parking lot to the gym parking lot, and then I would sit there for a few minutes convincing myself to go in.

I started talking to people in the dance class, and bonded with the instructor a little.  A few months in, I wrote her a thank you note, telling her I had lost weight and that I owe a lot of that to her and her classes and her positive energy.  To my surprise, she told the whole class that I had lost weight.  And even thought it was embarrassing, it was also encouraging.  The whole class turned around and looked at me, smiling, some clapping and congratulating me.  And as I continued to go, people continued to notice.  One of the best feelings in the world is having someone you barely know say that they’ve noticed you’ve lost weight.  It’s like they’re saying “I don’t know you, and I don’t know your name, but I see you once or twice a week and I have definitely noticed a change.”  It may seem strange, but it’s empowering.  Your friends and family and coworkers know that you’re trying and they see you all the time, so they’re kind of almost expected to say something.  But a total stranger doesn’t owe you anything, so for them to compliment me was an amazing motivation.

Having a friend and coworker at the gym also really helped the process.  I owe a lot to my friend Brenna for not only convincing me to go to the gym, but also getting me to try new things.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the manager held a boot-camp style intervals class.  The first time I went, I absolutely despised it.  We did 5-minute sets, 1 minute of cardio, then legs, arms, abs, then cardio again.  After one set it felt like my heart was punching both of my lungs in the face.  And Brenna wanted me to do that for a whole hour!  After the first class, I didn’t go back for more than a month.  Most of the time I wasn’t out of work on time or I had gotten out early and didn’t want to spend another hour there.  But I just really didn’t want to go back.  After a while I felt more physically fit and a little more confident.  I tried the class again and found that I could actually do it—without thinking I was gonna pass out.  Don’t get me wrong, it was—and to this day still is—a challenge, but it’s a challenge I am willing to accept.

I think that was a turning point for me.  I think that’s when I started to think of exercise in a different way.  For me, its not about being skinny—it’s about being healthy, being strong.  It’s about being able to go on a hike and actually enjoy the scenery instead of huffing and puffing.  It’s about realizing that your body can accomplish incredible things if you give it the time and patience that it gives you.

A few days ago, a woman at work asked me “do you have to go to the gym tonight?”  And, although I knew what she meant, her choice of words surprised me.

“I don’t have to,” I replied, chuckling a little.  I wanted to go to gym.  I have finally gotten to the point that exercise is not only easy (some days), but sometimes it’s even enjoyable.  I still go to the dance and yoga classes, and the manager’s class, along with another strength training class.

Getting Healthy Part One: Eating Right

In 2014, I lost 45lbs.  I wasn’t really fat.  Nobody looked at me and thought “wow that girl needs to lose some weight.”  I wore my weight well, evenly distributed over my body and a little extra around my belly that I hid nicely under layers and sweaters and such.  But I did need to lose weight.  My doctor informed me my cholesterol was high and I was over the average weight for a woman of my height and age. 

By the time I moved to Virginia in December of 2013, nine months after I graduated college, I weighed 175lbs.  I didn’t look it, but I knew something needed to change.  I realized I needed to get healthy.  Not skinny—healthy.  I had gotten skinny before. But that didn’t work for me for very long.  No one cared how I looked, and I wanted to eat the foods I liked.  This time I knew I needed to make a life change, not just get to a goal weight and then keep bouncing back and fourth between weights.  I wanted to make a change to be a healthier, fitter person.

The first step for me was changing my diet.  For me, food had become an addiction a long time ago.  In High School, I would come home after school and open a bag of potato chips and sit on the couch and watch TV for hours.  This became my daily routine and, although my parents tried to discourage me, I had my own car and my own money, and they had full time jobs. By my senior year, my friends and I went out for lunch almost every day, pizza, fast food, you name it.  I ate because it was there, because it was delicious—not because I was hungry.

In college, this continued.  With people all around me, I was ashamed to eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting, but I was still eating a lot, and unhealthy foods.  My college cafeteria was all you could eat, and there were times that I adopted that philosophy.  I would get a burger and fries, with some mac and cheese on the side, and why not try the new special?  Dessert? Cookies, brownies and ice cream were a daily treat.  After college, I started working at Panera Bread, which gave me easy, cheap access to all the carbs and cheesy warm goodness I could ever desire. And my part time Job at an afterschool center allowed me to eat plenty of snacks, whenever the kids ate.

So when I got serious about getting healthy, I knew this was the first thing that had to change.  I gave myself a limit on my frenemie potato chips: one bag a month.  I started making healthier choices, popcorn instead of chips as a snack—turkey burger instead of beef.  I also started recording my food and exercise in a journal.  I estimated portions and was religious about recording what I ate.  I wasn’t counting calories, just making myself accountable.  Seeing everything I ate on a page really made me realize how much food I was taking in.  And it didn’t start out well.  Here are the first couple pages of my journal in April 2014:

As you can see, I had a tough first couple of days.  I started my journal as I started that time of the month, and all I wanted was salt.  So much for laying off the chips… sure it was tortilla chips—but half a bag?!  That’s a family size bag I’m talking about.

One thing I struggled with was that even if you eat healthy foods, you can still eat too much of them.  Sure, peanut butter has protein in it and that’s good for you, but it also has oils and fats and a whole bunch of calories, and if you don’t have the “recommended portion size,” it’s really not that good for you.  I fell in love with hummus, but I needed the salty factor that carrots and celery just didn’t give me.  I would allow myself pretzels or tortilla chips after eating some veggies first, but by then I had eating plenty more than the 2tbs serving.

But I didn’t give up the foods I loved—I think that’s what makes people quit their diets.  I ate the foods I loved, just smaller portions and less frequently.  I would give myself a treat after a good workout—but if I didn’t exercise one day, I took that into consideration and would have a light dinner.

The biggest challenge for me was stopping myself from eating when I wasn’t hungry.  The women at work would have snacks all the time, leftover chips and dip from a party, or just someone felt like baking over the weekend.  As good as those cookies looked, I would try and take a second to check in with my stomach.  Was I really hungry? Or did I just want some warm gooey deliciousness?  If this were a plate of celery, would I still want to eat it?  Taking the time to make sure I was really hungry gave me the willpower to refuse a snack, or to take just a little bit to tide me over, or take a few bites home for when I did get hungry.  Not only did I save myself in those instances, but I also strengthened my willpower.  And it didn’t always work.  But I knew that if I wanted a brownie that bad, I could have one, but I had to amp up my workout later or have a light dinner.  I made sure to keep myself accountable with each and every thing I put in my mouth.  Here is an entry from when someone at work made popcorn and I gave in.  But that night I went to the gym and kept my dinner light.

I also got serious about liquid calories.  I’ve never been much of a drinker in terms of alcohol, but I would have a margarita here or there.  I liked soda, but wasn’t addicted to it.  But what I really loved was fruit juice.  I could drink a jug of white-cranberry juice in one weekend.  I cut out or cut back on all of these.  Water was my drink of choice.  I gave myself my morning coffee (black, only about 6 calories a cup), but other than I only drank water.  And I tried to drink the recommended 64 oz a day.  This helped me stay full.  If people around me were snacking, I would take a drink of water.  If I felt like I was starting to get hungry, a couple sips and the feeling would subside.

But it wasn’t always easy.  There were days when Jim would text me and ask if we could get pizza or Chinese food, and I had already eaten a lot that day, so I had to say no.  And then usually he would just order for himself and I would get jealous.  Having a boyfriend is a struggle on any woman’s diet plan.  Men just eat and gain differently from women.  Jim is definitely no small man, but I really had to try not to eat the same things he was eating.  He tried to be supportive, but when all I was having for dinner was a yogurt or a baked potato, he needed something more (understandably).  I think it was really hard on both of us at first, but we found middle-ground eventually and we both learned to do our own thing when it came to food.

Here’s a journal entry from a weekend I went home to Massachusetts.  I was on vacation, and I ate like I was on vacation:

Back in my hometown, I wanted to go everywhere I hadn’t gotten to go since moving to Virginia.  They don’t have Papa Ginos (one of my favorite pizza joints) down here.  The Green line is a sandwich from the Whistle Stop (my favorite sub shop) and I met some friends at the Cheeseckae Factory—where everything comes supersized and they always offer extra parmesan for your pasta.

I started planning ahead.  If I knew I wanted to get pizza, I would have a granola bar for breakfast and soup for lunch: filling, but low-cal and healthy.  And eventually, it started to get easier.  I started liking the healthier foods more, and I started to feel fuller faster after having richer foods, making it easier to say “just one.” And the best motivation of all was when people started to notice.  The women at work were the first to say something, and then people at the gym.  This positive reinforcement was a great feeling and made me that much more motivated to keep plugging away.  By July, I had lost 20 lbs.  But it wasn’t just eating right that got me where I am today.  Stay tuned to read about getting off the couch and to the gym.