The past few years, I've actually used my summers as a time to get on track and work to lose the same 10-15 pounds I seems to put on during the school year, when work and volunteer commitments keep me hopping.
You may think, "well, that's just part of adult life." But, yo yo dieting is not good for us. It messes with hormones, which mess with heart disease, which I have to watch due to family history. And after discovering last year I have a blood clotting disorder (on top of my thyroid disease), I don't need to mess with hormones!
Many of you know I've been a long time Weight Watchers member. I started the plan right after graduating college, and made Lifetime in 2004. But I was a good 15 pounds over that mark at the end of spring semester. My highest ever weight stared back at me from the scale. I needed to do something different.
One of the benefits of my work environment is being surrounded by technology and data fans. So after some really positive reviews (thanks Art, Ray and Susan!), I decided to get a Fitbit to help monitor how physically active I am. I wore pedometers before when working for the American Heart Association, and it helped me see how sluggish I was being on certain days. Weight Watchers has a similar device, but it requires another subscription and only speaks in Points data. I wanted more "real" numbers.
I opted for the Flex model, which is worn as a bracelet. I thought I'd be more consistent with this. Little did I realize it's the newest model and hard to come by. I was able to snag one to be delivered about 5 days later to my local Best Buy.
I thought it would simply tell me how active I was, and maybe a little more about how well I sleep (though Sleep Time has been doing a nice job of this).
Little did I realize I would discover more about why I was in the unhealthy boat again, and finally be armed with the data to make a lasting change to a healthier lifestyle.
(Tomorrow: the Fitbit helps me see the burn)
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