Fruit and Fitbit, Thank You Darling Daughter

Yummy.  My Mother's Day Edible Arrangement.  It arrived just as I got back from a walk, perfect timing.  The fruit was refreshing, just what I needed as I cooled down from my steps/miles.  THANK YOU DARLING DAUGHTER!  Love you, and so appreciate you're thinking of me.  I was so anxious to dive right in, I had pulled out what I was going to eat right away, before grabbing my camera for a picture.  The vase was a cute red Martini Glass.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good Martini, and I LOVE making them.

This banner is from the fitbit blog.  If you click on the picture it will take you to the fitbit page.  I've worn out countless pedometers and decided to buy a decent one.  These units range in price and style and color from $60-$100.  I got the zip, the cheapest one and am loving it.  It counts your steps, calories burned, miles walked like most pedometers.  But, it synchs with your phone, your ipad, and your computer.  Some units have re-chargeable batteries and monitor your sleep as well, mine will need a new battery, somewhere along 4-6 months.  I'm ok with that, it's getting hard keeping track of all my cords to charge all my stuff as it is...

In my last blog post I indicated I had joined yet another blog challenge.  Well, that fell by the way side.  I find it too hard to write blog posts every day for this blog, as well as my Travel Blog (where I am blogging about my recent trip to Spain), and to keep up with blogging on Bridge and Beyond (my charity blog which normally is also daily).

Since purchasing the fitbit have been trying to sit here on the computer less, and walk and move more.  It's good for my arthritis and hopefully will lower my cholesterol.  You can log your food and know how many calories etc you're taking in vs what you're burning up also on the fitbit page.  I'm finding some days I eat more then I burn and some days I burn more then I eat.  My downfall is cocktails, and wine with dinner.  I do fine through out the day; so starting today going to see if I can trim by pouring smaller glasses of wine and making smaller martini's.  It's a start.

Through fitbit you can join groups, have friends and cheer each other one.  It's fun and takes the drudgery out of "exercising".  You have virtual buddies.  I found a group of fitbit'ers who knit.  A couple actually successfully walk and knit at the same time.  WOW...can see me falling if I tried that.  I've also joined a group for folks 60+.  Exercising as you age takes on a little different note of trying not to hurt your body.  AND through fitbit I found you can walk virtually across the USA.  CLICK HERE
Everyone starts somewhere in Virginia, you log your daily miles and it tells you where you are.  I've logged miles just about 2 wks, and currently it says I'm 12.86 miles from Glendale, Virginia in Charles City County, and have traveled 47.6 miles.  You see a little picture of where you are on the road.  Kinda fun.  The website is a bit slow though to load, so be patient.

And if you want a different type of virtual travel, do join me over on Traveling Suitcase

Why I love Friday

Late to the challenge as I didn't know about this one til after the month started.  I was visiting through my Travel Blog, Traveling Suitcase where I just finished the annual A-Z Blog Challenge for April.  I had so much material from a recent trip to Spain, I decided to continue blogging a-z May with my Travel Blog.

Probably nuts trying to do another one; but this blog has been very quiet of late and so I thought it might help to kick start it again.

Here are the prompts...and though it's Friday...it's evening so am really getting into late.

1. I love that's Friday, that's it's the end of the work week, and hubby and I can spend more time together and things are more relaxed.
2. I love that this Friday, I made my step goal (through fitbit), AND I got my first 50 mile badge on fitbit.
3. We always have Martini's on Friday (glasses are in the freezer and will be nice and chilled.
4. I love that this Friday I had a much needed massage.  Thank you Frank!I
5.  love that I bought a dress for $8.00  at a re-sale shop today on a whim, had a few minutes to spare before the massage and decided to look around, the shop was just a few doors down from Massage Envy.

Click the badge and join in.  Here's the list of prompts.

Day 9, Friday:  5 things you love on a Friday.

Day 10, Saturday: A fashion, beauty or life tip.

Day 11, Sunday:  Go for a photo walk.  (It’s a walk where you take lots of great photos and share them.)
Day 12, Monday:  Tell us how your blog got its name (and tagline).
Day 13, Tuesday: Write a poem or piece of creative prose.
Day 14, Wednesday: Make us laugh.  Share a funny story or picture.
Day 15, Thursday: Create or share a poster, card or artwork that shares a message that inspires you.
Day 16, Friday: Blogging is about sharing the love.  Tell us about 5 blogs that you love reading regularly.
Day 17, Saturday: A day in the life.  Photo journal your day today.
Day 18, Sunday: 10 things that make you happy.
Day 19, Monday: Dream job?
Day 20, Tuesday: Who inspires you?
Day 21, Wednesday: What’s on your plate?
Day 22, Thursday: Share a video clip that you are loving at the moment.  It could be as simple as a song on YouTube or an inspirational speaker on TED Talks.
Day 23, Friday: Write a post about a particularly good or controversial comment someone left you.
Day 24, Saturday: If you could have 3 people to dinner tonight, who would you invite?
Day 25, Sunday: A list for the week ahead.
Day 26, Monday: Invite someone to guest post for you.
Day 27, Tuesday: Share a project you’ve been working on.
Day 28, Wednesday: Family.  What do you love?  Best traits? What crazy genetics do you have in common?  Fave photo?
Day 29, Thursday: What have you said ‘yes’ to today?
Day 30, Friday: Best advice you’ve received lately.
Day 31, Saturday: Gratitude.

So, will you join me? Go on, you wouldn’t …

PS. There will also a grab button available for you to display on your blog to tell everyone that you are trying to complete the challenge.  (Better still, at the end of the challenge, I’ll give you a button that tells everyone that you’re awesome and you did it. High five!)

Steps, Miles, and Calories...Fitbit

Ok, this got my attention the other day on Facebook, so thought it was worth reposting.  Thought it's been almost 2 months since my last post.........probably the longest ever I've gone without updating (life's been busy).  In my last post I posted my tennis shoes and talked about trying out apps on my phone to track my walks/steps/mileage etc.  That was a complete bust.  I tried 3 different apps.

Firstly, Windows phones don't support the most popular apps you hear people talking about and the ones I tried (only free ones), didn't work all that well, weren't user friendly, and many of items you needed on the app were ONLY available if you upgraded to a paid app.  Errrrrrr.  I so dislike false advertising.  If it's not free, don't state it does x y z.  And, who wants to pay for app before you try it out and know if it will meet your needs...not me!

I've killed far too many cheap pedometers over time, which is why I thought I'd try the apps.  Several problems with that, if you really want to track all your activity throughout the day, the phone is not the way to go.

So, I bought a Fitbit.  It's a wireless unit that replaces the mechanical pedometers I've had in the past.  It's battery is suppose to last 4-6 months.  You can synch it with your ipad, your iphone, and most droids...not windows phones (should never have  listen to the salesman who pushed the windows phone).  You also get a free webpage connected to a forum where fitbit folks support each other.  Similar to Facebook, you can friend someone.  You can even challenge each other, though I've not yet done that.  The unit I purchased was their cheapest one, $60.00, several others units are around $100.00.  Didn't quite want to do that; but they do track a bit more including your sleep habits which I think could prove to be very helpful to some folks.

You get a weekly email with your stats, plus there are all kinds of graphs on the webpage and some with app.  Most I'm not yet up to speed on how to read, lol.  It's a process.  You can set goals of steps, weight loss, food...whatever it is that's important to you.  I'm trying to lose a few pounds, but mostly I'm interested in eating a bit healthier (possibly high cholesterol), and increasing my exercise to aid with the arthritis and the cholesterol.  Tracking food and steps etc makes you so much more aware.

Got my first email of weekly stats yesterday (wk 4-28 through 5-4...not sure I really recorded everything or even had it on the whole time as I was still learning)...possibly not a real accurate weekly reading.

52,026 steps, 21.93 miles, burned 11,347 calories, 0.5 pounds weight loss, #362 calories in vs out....I think that means I ate too much?

And you get cute little badges to make you smile...different colors for different things you did good.  Who doesn't like a pat on the back.  I have a couple, not sure what one is for though, lol.