Running with Stephanie: Every Step Counts

Our weekend was spent cleaning closets!!! Yes, your read that correctly... I made my husband clean the closet on his last free weekend before trauma starts (yes we start trauma in just 11 short days). That being said it's DONE and my house looks FANTASTIC. Now lets see if we can keep it like this until the "hell" rotations are over (March 1 baby, March 1). So why did I tell you that? Well, I've mentioned before that I'm doing Weight Watchers and by doing so I bought their activity monitor. It's basically like any other of the monitors (fitbit, jawbone, nikefuel...), it monitors what you do EVERY DAY!!! And with every step you take the activity monitor actually motivates you. The Weight Watcher activity monitor takes it a bit further. It differs from most because it is 100% water proof!!! YAY for TRI training!!! It also will automatically transform my physical activity into what weight watchers calls "activity points". These are BONUS points. You can either eat them or forget about them. I would LOVE to say that I forget about them, but to be completely honest I probably eat 2/3rds of them. The other great thing about this monitor is that it has a VERY basic challenge mode. Basically, when you unwrap the monitor you wear it straight for the first 7 days. They say to only do what you normally do. At the end of the week the monitor will determine your "base line" activity points and then offer you a challenge. The challenge lasts 12 weeks and will give you a bonus number of activity points to hit everyday in addition to your base line points. To my surprise I was categorized in the very top physical fitness level and I was challenged to earn 8 extra points daily. To my surprise it's wayyyyyy harder than I thought. Some days I don't quite make it and some days I blow it out of the water. In evaluating my workouts, that's probably not entirely bad. It does mean I'm taking the appropriate amount of rest days (ahhhh maybe a few too many). The monitor is made by Philips and is called the ActiveLink. It does cost $5 a month, which many don't cost anything monthly, however it only cost $49.99, while many cost way more than that up front. With the $5/monthly charge you get full access to the ActiveLink website, which does all the work for you. Basically, you plug in the USB activity monitor to your computer at the end of the day and it calculates the number of activity points you've earned and automatically updates your tracker, so that when you go back to your app or computer through the Weight Watchers site you have your points already added into your day!! YAY for simplicity!!! It also calculates all the stats you could possibly want (how fast you meet your baseline, how many days you hit your goal, your longest streak...). You can also name your activities. For example swimming is done at a much slower pace than running and the monitor may deem the activity as not as intense (which would clearly not be the case). Once you re-name the activity online it will adjust your points. And you can make a schedule for the activities that you do on a regular basis (i.e.; bootcamp).

All that said... I'm totally on track and I TOTALLY LOVE this device!! But some days I'm like every other mom, every other wife, every other 29 year old and just CANNOT figure out how to squeeze a workout in and those are the day I DO NOT make my goal. But Saturday I learned something. Saturday we spent every waking hour working on closets and the garage and the attic (oh and signing up toddlers for dance classes). And guess what?! I hit 11 activity points OVER my baseline of 6!!! Ummmmm all I did was clean a few closets, make a dozen trips to get organizing items, and have a lovely dinner with my husband. 11 points is typically what I burn after a day of chasing the kids and an hour workout at bootcamp!!

The moral of my very long story is that you don't have to make it to the gym everyday. Every step counts. And as long as you're moving you ARE making a difference!!!

Second moral of the story..... buy an activity monitor of some type. They really can be motivating and they are good at showing you what you are "really" doing with your workouts and with your days.

Pictures (because I'm a fan of "seeing" what I'm talking about):