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The saying goes that “time fly’s when you’re having fun” so it’s not surprising that I look back and struggle to believe that a month has gone by since I started using the Fitbit Charge HR. If you’ve been following my updates then you’ll know that the first couple of weeks it was all solid progress with not a backward step (excuse the pun) taken. A month in I’ve now experienced the high’s and low’s of attempting to become fit and how that process is affected by using a high quality wearable like the Fitbit Charge HR.
When I first started using Fitbit Charge HR I used the food planner to set my ideal target weight and told Fitbit how hard I wanted to work to reach that goal. Fitbit went about its business calculating the calorie deficit I needed to achieve (along with exercise) in order to reach that goal. My plan was to work as hard as possible to drop 9 KG’s, Fitbit calculated I should reach that goal by the second week of July so I’m now about half way down that weight loss path.
After the first two weeks I was amazing myself with the results. I had shed 5 KG’s in 12 days and was out there and getting more active than I had been in about a year. Taking the stairs at work and getting out at lunch time was a common occurrence. I even walked continuously around the house one night when the weather was bad just so that I could reach that 10,000 step milestone.
The next couple of weeks has seen my activity wane. It’s not do to being unmotivated, more due to circumstances. My Wedding Anniversary came along and I had a trip to Singapore for the website as well. Anniversaries and trips away for me at least, are usually times of excess food, drinks and a lack of serious exercise. That has definitely been me this last couple of weeks, the calorie restrictions have been thrown out the window and knowing that I was likely to go over I did what a lot of people probably do, that is, I stopped counting calories because I didn’t want Fitbit to see how naughty I had been. I have always continued to wear the Fitbit but by not counting calories it meant that I couldn’t see how excessive I was being.
Throughout the last two weeks I have managed to get past that 10,000 step goal, even doing so while overseas. It remains immensely satisfying to be wandering along and get that celebratory vibration signifying a milestone has been reached. I continually check my steps to make sure I am still getting through a decent amount of activity a day but during that busy period it was easy to give myself some leeway.
The result has seen the weight jump back up to 101KG. Not ideal but still in a good position to reach my weight loss goal within the original time period I set a month ago. Looking back on the past couple of weeks one thing above all else has become obvious. I was very foolish to stop counting the calories. Getting the steps going is one thing but adding in that data for calories is hugely beneficial and provides that complete picture of wellness. Admittedly, even if I had of tracked the calories I still would have gone over but I always feel more guilty when I know I am getting close to the calorie goal for a day so I usually head out and boost the steps in order to give myself a bigger barrier or failing that, I try and keep the excess to a minimum so that the damage isn’t that bad. Now that I am back to normality (for this week at least) I am right back into counting calories and closely monitoring steps to ensure I stick to my goal. Next week I am off to Los Angeles for the E3 expo so being in America will be dangerous as everything is done in excess in the US, one thing I am certain of though, this time I will not stop counting calories, this time I will be watching myself like a hawk and making sure that any excess is kept to a minimum by using Fitbit to keep me on track on ensure I work harder to get that step count up.
Take it from me, no matter how hard you want to exercise there are always going to be times where a backslide is inevitable. The trick is to not hide from it just because you know the data is not going to look good. The biggest lesson I have learnt this past month is that the Fitbit Charge HR is there to help improve your fitness and that it can only really help if you are honest about the data you input. Steps will always be counted but if you’re using the calorie counter then everything needs to go in there so that the complete daily picture is accurate. It has become patently obvious to me that the best results come from using Fitbit everyday and being honest with it, when I anticipated breaking my goals and didn’t use it to it’s full potential then it wasn’t able to help me and that’s really when I went backwards. The goal for the coming weeks is to get right back on track and smash the weight goal, check back next week for another update (from E3!).
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