fitbook

Fit with Fitbook: Week 2

/ foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

Another week, another dollar.  Only it’s been a week and a day, and I’ve only spent dollars (you know, on important stuff like wine tastings and half-pints of beer). So, in truth, that phrase doesn’t apply, whatsoever.

Another 8 days, no dollars.  BUT I can chalk another week off in my fitbook endeavors.  I’ll be honest, this one wasn’t quite as successful as the first.  Then again, when you have two days where entire daily food entries read “Didn’t eat much other than brie… but there was a lot of brie”, a one pound gain isn’t really worrisome.  In fact it’s somewhat impressive.

I only eat carbs when they're paired with wheels of brie. #healthy

Luckily, the half-pound of soft cow’s cheese that I inhaled over the weekend and the massive quantities of beer and chocolate from Wednesday at Big Boss did not actually translate to the gain that I feared when approaching the scale.  And I’m gonna give a lot of credit to this little guy:

I haven't come up with an official name, but it feels like a fellow

Looking back at my weekly wrap up, here’s a little summary:

  • The Good: Worked out before my glass night on Thursday, avoided my standard fare of pickle chips with my beer buddies, burned 4,140 calories during the week (over a quarter of that was just from Monday’s INSANE workout), and despite a few minor/major bumps on the road, I never fully “gave up” on a day by succumbing to fully eating awful from start to finish
  • The Bad: 2 days where “Brie” was a major food group, skipped dinner on Saturday, missed my workout on Sunday due to kind of feeling sorry for myself (I know rest days are great, but this was just laziness).
  • Notes: Unless I’m like… on an epic vacation, there’s really no need for an entire day of indulgence, it’s nice to treat treats like what they are: special. Meal skipping makes me cranky and hungry and lame. My weekend eats need more structure.
Other updates:
  • This “no soda” thing is really easy now that I’ve stopped, you know, buying soda.  I think it’s one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things.
  • Grapes are nature’s candy.  Seriously. They’ve totally owned my sweet tooth.  Gotta stop at Target to pick up more.

    Grapes should always be eaten out of wine glasses. New life rule.

  • I did my first official “Meatless Monday” last night and it was a SMASHING success!! More on that later.
  • I love the calm post-sweat session where I just sit down in the gym and write up my workout and my daily eats in the fitbook (if you’re interested in getting one, and don’t wanna click through to the last post, here’s a link to the fitbook store!)
  • I forget how amazing wearing a HRM during a workout is. Remind me to never forget that again, thanks.
So yes, abbreviated update:  Weekend spent eating brie by the chunks + overindulgence on Wednesday – two rest days = 1 lb gain
However, I felt so much stronger in BodyCombat and CX30 on Monday, and the moves are getting easier, so I’ll say progress is progress.
UNRELATED: Anyone have a favorite method of cooking 4 lbs of country style ribs/pork butt?  Because when I see it on sale for $6, I can’t resist.  And now I have 4 lbs of meat.  And I live alone. And ate vegetarian last night.
Smooth, Jordan.

 

 

Getting Fit with a fitbook

/ foodsweatandbeers / 9 Comments

Long ago (March 2010, to be more specific), I started Weight Watchers with the help of my mom, aunts, and cousins. I’m the only one of us that really stuck to it, long term (I know that they gradually dropped off the plan one by one), with busy things like children, jobs, running households, etc. I was lucky enough to have a fairly empty plate, though (not literally!) which allowed me plenty of time to focus on meal planning and the like.  It was a fantastic method, for me.  However, after about 6 months, with a weight loss of about 40 lbs, I was working out 3-5 times a week and was much more active in my life. Ryan and I were living together, I started playing volleyball, I met new friends, and started getting interested in craft beer.  The idea of tracking my points was getting a little boring, and there were too many things I wanted to try without adding up points and doing math all the time. Plus, tracking all the craft beers I was drinking was getting a little shameful.

450 calories for 12 oz? I'll take two!

Well, new year, new you, all that jazz. Only it took me a week or two of the new year to really kick into high gear.  After a busy first weekend with all sorts of St. Anthony Hall fun times followed by a crippling sickness (ok, I’m being a baby, it was just a nasty flu), Martin Luther King Day was the start of my new year.  And, since I fare better with a plan, I had a handy tool to help me out.

Presenting the FITBOOK!

My fitbook was sent to me after participating in a little Twitter chat, and it’s been waiting for me to open it up for quite some time, now. When I opened it, there was a WEALTH of information to fill out including weekly goals, daily logs, and spots for inspiration!

Week 1 Wrap Up

The fitbook has room for 12 weeks of recording and normally costs $22.95, with a 4 pack going for $79.95.  The focus is both on nutrition AND fitness, which I like (instead of just tracking my food). There’s not a specific focus on calories, but a more general attitude relative to food (and SMILEY FACES!)

Easy peasy

The left side is for fitness.

Shakey arms are the sign of a good workout, right?

I think this section would probably make more sense if most of my workouts weren’t group fitness classes, but would be great to record weight-lifting sessions.  It’s nice to have somewhere to record my fitness workouts other than just on Garmin Connect, though.

Can't really tote this JPEG along with me

Anyway, I think I just needed a handy, portable way to track my eating and exercise in one location. And, since I can basically palm the fitbook, it works out perfectly.

Note of progress?

At my doctor’s appointment a little less than 2 weeks ago, I weighed in at 178 lbs.  Today’s weigh in? 173 lbs!!  I also tested my body fat percentage, and am happy to report 24.8%.  Making progress, folks.

And, don’t worry, calories or not, there’ll always be room for craft beer…