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Walk A Mile. Check My phone.

W

I recently purchased a Fitbit, a wristband computer that records your steps, heart rate, etc. If records a ridiculous amount of information and displays it all in these cool graphics on your phone. Nothing like a little mild OCD to help motivate you to lose weight.

Walk a mile. Check your phone. Climb the stairs. Check your phone.

It records how you sleep. How many steps you take throughout the day. How many flights of stairs you climb. Your heart rate, both resting and active. It also keeps track of your calorie intake (it’s not magic you have to enter what you’re eating) and your calories burned. It uses your phone’s GPS to map your exercise routes. It lets you set goals, and even lets you compete with friends online.

In effect, it’s built for a modern society of maniacs who check their messages, status updates, fantasy football stats, and followers every 3-5 minutes. People like me.

The good thing is that I hope it will motivate me to exercise everyday. You don’t want to let up and screw up your whole week. You have to get your numbers in.

I’ve given myself a goal of 7,000 steps per day. I walked three miles today, which I did in just under an hour and that accounted for just over 6,000 steps. Yesterday I did five miles and ended up over 12.6k steps. That might be fine for the weekend, but 7k seems like a reasonable weekday goal for me as I can do that over lunch. If I can drink at least 32 ounces of water on top of that and keep my calories below 1700/day, I should lose 2-3 pounds a week.

If I could maintain that, I should be down to 220lbs by March.

That seems like an unreasonably long period of time to me after having done juice fasts where I lost 2-3 pounds per day, but that never lasted, so I’m hoping this has longer lasting effects.

Really, if I stop exercising and/or eating well, I’ll just gain the weight back anyway. I have to try something.

I really don’t enjoy exercising. Well, maybe that’s not necessarily true. I hate the gym. And I plan on walking outside as often as possible, but if I’m going to do this everyday, I’ll have to hit the gym on inclement weather days. Once I get going, and it’s reasonably nice out, I don’t mind the walk. It’s pulling yourself away from whatever else you’re doing that’s the hard part.

But until I got hurt, I was pretty damn good about getting to CrossFit, and that was a lot harder than going out and walking 3-4 miles.

So since my scare at the doctor a week ago, things are looking up. My weight is, in fact, only 253 pounds instead of the 270 they told me. I checked my blood pressure today and it’s 134/92 which is considerably better than the 160/100 that they recorded in the office. Maybe I was more stressed by the doctor’s visit than I thought. 134/92 is not great, but I’m confident that I’ll get that down in short order.

So I feel pretty good.

I’m not quitting drinking, although I’ll avoid cider, beer, wine and rum for the most part. No alcohol during the day. Just a few vodkas at night. But that seems like something I can maintain.

And I’m not doing anything crazy with my diet. Just eating smart. Small portions. Light breakfast and lunch. Healthy dinner. All foods I like. Just not pizza, hoagies and cheesesteaks. That’s okay. And it’s not like I can’t occasionally have any of those things. Just not a regular diet of them.

I’m infamous for trying things and not sticking with them. Juicing. CrossFit. But I have to try something and stick to it. I’d prefer not to die young.

So, wish me luck.

About the author

David Todd McCarty

David Todd McCarty is a writer, director, photographer and cinematographer. He writes fiction and nonfiction essays as well as journalism. You can see his commercial work at http://www.hoppingfrogstudios.com

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