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

Walking with my Pedometer

This is the longest I've ever gone without posting on this blog.  What's up with that?  Life?  Been busy keeping up Bridge and Beyond, kick starting the Traveling Suitcase for up coming April A-Z Blog Challenge and this one has just gone silent.  I've not been knitting much either, and typically blog about knitting.

These are the wild shoes I got primarily for work to help diminish the swelling I have in my knee, thanks to Arthritis.  They're very supportive.  Got fitted at a running store, Front Runner which was suggested by my physical therapist.  He thought better shoes would be helpful.

Because these puppies were rather expensive, I've been reluctant to wear them anywhere but to work......until lately.  I'm not as active as I used to be.  Aside from gaining a few LB's, my cholesterol has jumped and one of the best ways to bring it down is exercise.  Sooooooo me and my Mizuno's (shoes), and my Feetures (socks) have been putting in some miles.  I LOVE these socks.  There is no seam to rub, they're very stretchy and almost massage your feet while walking and or at work.  They fit so well, there's no extra fabric to cause problems either.

I've had more pedometers then I can count, and they just don't last... so loaded an app on my phone called Pedometer Master.  There's a free version (the one I'm using) and one you have to pay for that does more.  I have a windows phone and there aren't nearly as many apps to choose from.  Hubby like's one on his Droid phone called Cardio Trainer that really does a-lot.

Todays stats:
Distanc:  2.48 miles
Duration: 41 min 38 seconds
Steps: 7,138
Average speed 3.57mph
Calories burned: 162

Wow, not many calories burned, but from what I've read the way to burn more calories is walk faster.  Maybe I'll work up to that?  I don't like to overdo, then the knee hurts and swells.  Arthritis doesn't do well when you over do, but it also doesn't do well when you sit.  The balance of it, apparently is the key.  I'm looking for the key.

I'm also not totally convinced I've got my stride correctly measured and will re-do it a couple of times to see how that goes.  Currently my stride is listed as 22 inches.

I had to take this picture!!!

19,746 steps. I thought you all might have trouble believing me if I just reported that without the picture to prove it. One day at work I walked 19,746 steps. The day was not last week, but the week before. I'm just now getting around to posting it. A bit blurry, but readable in white you can read 10,000 steps a day. That's what one is suppose to strive for to be considered active, healthy and I almost doubled it. I've gone through many of these pedometers at work. I walk alot and just plain wear them out. So this time round I got one that doesn't convert it to miles. Thought maybe there would be less to break? Less to have something go wrong with? Anyway, according to several on line converters 5,000 steps = 2 miles. That means I walked 9.58 miles at work alone. I never put it on until I'm heading out the door, so none of my stuff at home counts.

Remember my post about being as old as dirt (a few back), well this day I can tell you I felt as old as dirt and then some.

Now, I wonder all the time I spent sitting here over the last couple of days loading pictures into the new computer (hope you enjoyed the movie in the previous post with music even), probably shoots whatever I gained with above steps. Dang it. Plus, the really frustrating thing is, I lost thousands of pictures about this time yesterday. I don't know how; but somehow I hit delete and didn't even send them to the re-cycle bin...they are gone!! Hubby even spent time looking through all the directories. Groan...all that time. I was getting super organized. Getting everything loaded here, put into files etc. Tech guy at Staples told me he could look through the actual data on the hard drive, but that it would be real costly...several hundred dollars. He also said he could redo everything if he didn't find it, but to load stuff for me would be $100.00. In addition, I would need to take my CD's, my old computer, my memory card. Heck, in order to tell him what I need, and want, I'd have to look at everything anyway. So....I started the process over again. This time though, I'm only doing things by subject...slowly one at a time.

Tomorrow, I'll on my pedometer again as it's a work day.