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Tag Archives: Stairs

State of the Chris

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So life has been good. Today I earned my 15lbs lost badge on Fitbit. This based on from having my Aria scale for about a month now so the amount lost is from my highest weight I hit while having it 153 and I am now 137. Which is great and an all time low for my adult life. I keep repeating this because seriously I have been obese all of my adult life. That is kind of crazy to think about but it is true. The reality is I was obese all of my teenage years and a good portion of my youth. So now at 35 I am making the right changes to make that not the case. I am well on target for a personal goal I want to achieve before the end of this month. Then I have another for my birthday in November.

I was gaining weight or really maintaining weight and not really understanding why. I was doing lots of stairs, doing my 10k of steps and 5 miles a day. I thought I was tracking my calories correctly (no reason to lie to myself about what I was eating). I cut out fruit, I briefly cut out my Chai Lattes and still just standing still or losing then gaining.

So I looked at my intake and realized I was missing some important information. Liquid Calories that were not being recorded. I drink a lot of water but I also drink Almond milk because it is way tastier than water. I was drinking a lot of it. Since it is 80 Calories a cup and I was pounding down more and more a day I was not tracking it well enough to realize I was blowing through extra calories. So I cut out the Almond milk, increased my water, had a chai or two and looked at my portions as a whole and BAM back to a steady weight decrease.

For food I have cut down my breakfast portions slightly. I was doing 2 eggs and 3-4 pieces of bacon for breakfast and then a bunch of fruit for a snack in the morning. I now moved to one egg, 2 pieces of bacon and a banana for breakfast. No more fruit. Lunch is still baby spinach salad and I add raw mushrooms and some grilled chicken strips. Dinner this week has been a small pork chop and some Brussels sprouts and carrots. Keeping the portions reasonable and recorded. I might now be over estimating my calories vs before where I was underestimating but that is ok.

I still try to do 9 flights a stairs at a time but if not I at least do bursts of 4-5 at a time. I am averaging about 40-50 flights of stairs a day. I am steadily doing 10k steps a day with the occasional rest day. Like Saturday I did 500 steps total which was me moving from my bed, to kitchen to couch to bathroom etc. It was a blissful rest day. I watched a lot of episodes of the Vampire Diaries. This week I have been working on going to bed earlier and waking up earlier to fit in some Yoga in the morning. So far it has gone well and have done it 3 days in a row. I started some Yoga in the evening as well right before Bed. We will see if that one lasts but I do like that I am able to add some more healthy habits as I go along. I may get back to Dance Central as a periodic cardio thing to break up the other stuff or as an addition but for now I feel I have made great strides from being sedentary to being more active.

Every day is a change for the better. Any step backwards I analyze and improve upon. I will be the perfect me.

Bitch loves his Fitbit

Fitbit-logo-1024x337So I have to say I love my fitbit. Since I acquired the fitbit I have been trending towards a more active and balanced life. Doing paleo is great and I feel better and eat better but it wasn’t getting me to be more active. Or maybe it was but not to the extreme I have taken things at this point.

I actively strive to hit my daily goals. Over the last few weeks I have been slowly hitting my goals across the board. It makes the experience very personal and something I enjoy. Where I would have just sat on my couch when I get home, I instead look at my fitbit and go for a walk instead. If I see I am near an achievement I will put in some extra time to do it.

This week I hit a number of cool goals. I lost 10 lbs on my aria scale. I did 75 flights of stairs and then the next day I did 100 flights of stairs. I have made it into the top 5 of my friends which is kind of hard since the 10 3 exceed my 7 day totals by a good bit but in time who knows.

I also balance out my eating plan by tracking my daily intake. Not something i have to do but something I do just to get an idea of my eating habits and see when I may stray. I am being honest which is important because when I see fluctuations in my weight I have pretty good idea how it happened and now what to cut out as I go forward.

There is probably a bad habit of checking numbers and my scale. I weigh myself every morning. I may be a little obsessed with it. I am ok with it though because it keeps me on track and don’t get discouraged I get encouraged and determined to better myself.

Where I am at.

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I feel bad for neglecting this space so I will write a few things here.

As I said in an earlier post I got a fitbit. I will post more on that soon. So far I love it.

I was on vacation and was a little bad about eating. However I have gotten back on track. I am very happy with what I am doing.

Right now besides eating Paleo I am counting calories and watching my intake. The great thing is I really dont have to but to give myself a better idea of how I eat and how it affects me I am logging it on fitbit.

I realized contrary to my earlier belief dairy does have an effect on me. So I am cutting out my chai latte. I may have one once in a while but I was lying to myself that I could have one every day. Besides being 320 calories I also wasnt feeling great after drinking them. Now that I listen to my body more I am making sure to listen. So chai latte out.

Walking to work and home from work everyday now. The walk is getting better back home. I still feel like I want to die a little but I get something like 25 flights of stairs on my fitbit from doing it. So win.

I stopped stairs at work up from the bottom floor but decided to try it after lunch today. It wasnt awesome but it wasnt awful. We didnt end up moving to the 5th floor so  I am still on the 9th floor. That walk is a beast but it is good for me. I will work harder to sneak it in.

Still no Yoga. Need to work on that.

Buying a fitbit scale this weekend so I can actually track my weight and not guess.

That is all.

Fitbit

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I was on vacation last week and decided to pick up a fitbit since a good number of my friends have been doing it. So far I really enjoy it. It lets me see how active or inactive I am. I can set a goal for weight loss and I can keep track of my calories eaten and those burned. With the weight loss tracking it sets a limit on my calories in which is great. I like when I burn more by being more active I can take in more calories to balance it all out or not. For the game designer in me I really like all of the gamification aspects of this product.

It tracks my number of steps and gives me a daily goal of 10000. I have yet to reach that but get pretty close each day and I am sure I can do it once I actively put myself towards that goal. I have 10 floors of step goal which is easy for me to hit. I have water intake goal which I fail at. Calorie goals, miles walked goals and all of it just helps motivate me to do more.

I can add in more activities I might do like Dance Central or Yoga. I like that a lot.

Really the Fitbit is just one more thing to help me stay on track and be a healthier me. I will report more on it as I go but first week with it and I love it so far.

You can add me as a friend on fit bit at cmmifsud at gmail dot com.

Don’t Call It A Comeback

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I wanted to check in because I haven’t posted as often as I started and need to get back at it. I have been going strong living Paleo. I have cut down on the number of snacks I need to eat during the day. I eat a solid breakfast with lots of protein. I have a few pieces of fruit once I am at work. For lunch I usually have a baby spinach salad with some protein. Dinner is a small portion of meat and vegetables. The last week was a little bad of indulging in Chai Lattes, I had a tiny tiny bag of popcorn one day and a couple of regular french fries. The Chai really wasn’t so bad I just can’t have one every day. I need to make it more of an occasional treat. My body doesn’t freak out from the whole milk so I know it isn’t that bad but it isn’t that good either. The popcorn and fries however felt like bricks in my belly and just made me feel sluggish and blah. It was good to see that though and really listen to my body.

I started in February and now it is June. That makes 4 full months of awesome. I posted a picture to some friends from about 3 weeks or so ago and got some really great comments which is always inspiring. I went back to doing some Dance Central in the morning for some light cardio. I admit since moving to the 9th floor and having the plague I have stopped taking the stairs as much at work. 9 floors is kind of over kill for me. Good news is I move to the 5th floor this week so I will recommence with my stair walking then. I do continue to walk to work and will start looking at walking home now that the weather is super beautiful here. Plan is keep on eating like I do, increase cardio activity, and look into some strength training. That is all for now. Keep on being Awesome.

Stairs Part 2

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So I take the stairs at my office. Like I said before we are are 4 floors spread out in a 9 story building. Floors 4,5,7, and 9 to be specific. I was on the 4th floor but a recent change in positions and reorganization of the floors and now I am on the 9th. I remain committed to taking the stairs even if that means a 9 floor trek up every morning. Also discourages me from eating out at lunch even more. Today was my first morning on the 9th and I thought I might die but I survived to write this. So we will see.

Stairs

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Going from lazy to remotely active comes in baby steps. So for me I started taking the stairs at work instead of the the elevator the same time I switched to Paleo. My company is located in a 9 story building. We have floors 4, 5, 7, and 9. I am currently located on the 4th floor so switching to the stairs was easy. Of course I have a few meetings on the 9th floor. I tried to avoid those meetings at first but now I kind of look forward to them. On a busy day and one full of meetings I travel up and down those stairs quite a bit. It isn’t a lot but I can feel the difference. That is all that really matters to me.