You guys, I finally did it! I bought myself a watch to track my fitness-- a Vivosmart HR to be precise.
After JK was born, I went from 182 to 142 pounds in about 6 months without really trying. I ate a LOT, but most of it was healthy (lots of fresh green salads;) I breastfed (still do, honestly;) and I took her on walks in the stroller whenever the weather was nice enough. I also did a little mom and baby yoga for the first few months after she was born, but half the class we'd usually sit around discussing the joys and challenges of new motherhood while snuggling our sweet angels. The other half was very light, gentle yoga-- no pushing beyond our limits or exacerbating any abdominus rectii.
Considering I was about 130-135 pounds before I got pregnant, I was quite pleased too get down to 142 so quickly. I thought I was on my way back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and that I might even drop some extra pounds! That's when life kicked in.
Flash forward to 8 months postpartum, when I got a part-time job, started studying for my teacher certification, and my mother moved in with me. Little by little, these stressors started to weigh heavily on me (and I mean that literally!) By around JK's 16-month birthday, I had gained back a full 10 pounds setting me back to about 152 pounds.
Over 150 pounds for a 5'5 woman is technically overweight, and I was absolutely devastated. I got on the scale every day and I tried to walk more and be more active and eat healthier, but that just wasn't working for me. I needed more concrete goals and a better way to view my progress.
I've wanted a fitness watch forever, but nothing seemed quite right for me. I like my electronics waterproof, at least to some degree. So the idea of a fitness tracker that I couldn't get wet never sat right with me. Certain brands seemed a little pricy considering I couldn't swim or even shower with them.
Enter the Garmin Vivosmart HR. To be honest, I didn't really do much research other than show up at stores randomly and look at what they had. But when I saw this watch at Best Buy I just went for it. It is swimproof, connects to your smart phone, tracks steps, stairs, heart rate, calories burned and more. Plus it was less expensive than the big name trackers.
So I took it out of the package and put it on and here's what has happened since...
1. I Walked More!
Once I saw how little steps I was getting, I decided to mix up my daily schedule. Instead of going to the library to study after work and then watching movies in the evening after putting JK to bed, I started going to the trails to walk after work and moved my studying to the evening when I had less energy. I also started taking the dog on a longer evening walk. I'm still trying to add in 20 minutes to an hour of yoga in the evening, but so far I haven't been able to get myself to do it. (Wish me luck!)
2. I Hit My Goal (and almost fell off a cliff!)
Setting up goals was super easy. There is a feature that lets the watch automatically pick goals for you, so I let it do all the work. It started me off with a goal of around 7000 steps and 10 flights of stairs.
I was walking out at one of my favorite trails when my watch buzzed at me for the first time to tell me I'd reached a goal. Little fireworks were going off, and I was so excited that I almost fell off the steep slope I was climbing! Ack! The next time it buzzed, to tell me I'd hit my stairs goal, I did much better and even stayed on the trail path!
3. I Reconnected with MyFitnessPal.
The last time I used MyFitnessPal, I don't even think it was an app for phones yet (this was a while ago!) I liked the idea, but I ended up spending too much time in front of my laptop looking up foods I had eaten and workouts that I'd done. I figured my time would be better spent just getting up and working out, or at least doing something! Obviously it's much more convenient as an app- you can even add your foods while walking! I can even set alerts to reminds me to enter my breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. Plus hooking it up with the Vivosmart HR takes away half of the input you have to do. Your steps from activities sync automatically and add to your calorie budget.
4. I Skipped Drinks, Twice!
Reconnecting with MyFitnessPal made me think more than once about what I decided to put in my body. Twice in the first week of having my new fitness watch, I've decided to forgo my evening alcoholic beverage. The first time, I was entering my foods for the day and I was about to splurge on a double tequila soda, until I entered that and it put me over my calorie limit for the day. I deleted it and went for tea instead. Today it happened again- I was putting in my foods and I was going to have a Henry's hard sparkling soda for "dessert", but realizing that the pineapple juice I had this morning put me way over my limit, I skipped the alcohol and took the dog on a longer walk than usual.
5. I Have Developed a "Relationship" with the Move Bar
The Move Bar. It fills up the longer you go without moving until it buzzes at you and tells you "Move!" I got the flu a few days after I got my watch (obviously unrelated) and it kept telling me to move. I wanted to throw it across the room, but I was far too exhausted for that. Now that I'm healthy again, I have a personal vendetta against it. "Tell me to move when I'm sick huh? I'll show you movement!" And then I make it a point to get up and run around until the bar is empty. "Haha! Death to the bar! Muahaha!" Sometimes I find myself checking to see if the bar is filling up so I can move enough to bring it back down before it buzzes at me. It's a bit of a love/hate relationship, but it motivates me.
6. I've Gotten (mostly) Better Sleep
I love the sleep tracking function! It's actually one of the big reasons I wanted a fitness watch in the first place. I have weird sleep issues, so I wanted to be able to know how well I was sleeping. First, I set my sleep times for 11pm-7am. I had been going to bed closer to midnight, but for whatever reason, whether it's that I started getting more exercise or that I knew the watch was tracking, I started going to bed closer to 11. The days I had the flu the sleep was pretty erratic, but all the other days have been pretty good, and I love checking my app to see how much deep sleep and light sleep I got.
7. I Started Paying Attention to My Heart Rate.
I realized that I wasn't getting my heart rate up into an intense zone nearly enough. I've started to do jumping jacks and other more intense cardio to get my heart rate up. Even just jumping for a minute or two in the morning wakes me up and really gets me going.
8. JK is Obsessed with It.
The girl loves this watch. She noticed it right away because I hadn't been wearing a watch since before she was born. Then she discovered that it would buzz and light up if she touched it. Then she learned how to swipe it by watching me, and now it's hard to keep her away from it!
9. I lost 10 pounds.
So far I've lost a little over 10 pounds! It's now been almost 2 months, and I have to say that getting this watch has really changed things for me. I think it has helped me to be more active, look honestly at what I eat, and get more sleep, which is so important to health and weight loss.
10. I've become more competitive and won some challenges!
I'm not super competitive about everything, but something about the Garmin Connect app sparked the competitive side of me. I had originally wanted to walk about 10,000 steps a day and the original goal of 10 floors seemed fine. But once I checked the charts showing how many steps and floors other people walked, I decided to change my goals to put me at the top of the bell curve. So now my goal is around 15,000 steps and 30 flights of stairs daily. Granted, I haven't gotten there yet, but we all need goals!
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