NaBloPoMo 13. Exercise Habit? #JustKidding

13 Nov 2013

NaBloPoMo 13. Exercise Habit? #JustKidding

NaBloPoMo 13 and Weekly Photo Challenge 8 : Habit

In my efforts to do what my doctor tells me, “exercise more, lose weight, cut the carbs,” I have increased my exercise and improved my eating habits. Sorry, McDonald’s. No more quarter pounders. No more French fries.

I bought a Fitbit (a fancy pedometer) last winter when a friend in Florida showed me hers. It greets me in the morning with a “Hi CUTIE” when I click it on. (Okay, I admit it, I programmed it to say that!)

The Fitbit counts the number of steps I take during the day, much like a regular pedometer. My goal is 10,000 steps a day, but I frequently fall short. Actually, I go in spurts when I am very faithful in walking and go up to 10,000, 12,000, 15,000, and even 20,000 steps (the 20,000 being the least frequent because it takes several hours). Fitbit gives me these cute little awards to keep me motivated. And bonus: it shows me the total number of steps I have taken since I started using the Fitbit, with only a few months missing when I got out of the habit of using it.

Look, only 56,512 steps to reach to reach 1,000,000! That’s only a little more than five good days of walking. Hey, I can do that!

The warmer the weather, but not hot, the more walking I do. The hotter it is, the more swimming/water aerobics I do. (I use this bit of justification for going to Florida in the winter! Of course, I can’t wear the Fitbit in the swimming pool, but surprise of surprises, the Fitbit still works after having gone through the wash!)

It’s cccccooooolllllldddd out now here in NJ, so my outside walking habit has all but disappeared. Instead I go to our 55+ community gym and ride a stationary bike. I can’t claim this as a habit yet because I only manage to do it twice a week, and my days of using the treadmill for an hour at a time seems to be winding down as my not-so-young-anymore knees can’t take that much anymore.

The Fitbit counts the sets of stairs I climb each day. Since my computer is upstairs and my SNACKS are downstairs, I am forced to do the up-down, up-down a number of times. (When you go up and down the stairs so many times, you get hungry. Right?) My goal is ten times up and down on the steps; my average is six, but my not-too-frequent high is 25. Did you see my big 25 badge above?

So, after a few years of “trying” to exercise more and eat less, I have been able to reduce my cholesterol and triglyceride numbers to the normal range. My weight, however, continues to fluctuate, up, down, up, down, up, down, up leaving it somewhat around where I started. What’s a person to do? Personally I think I need to spend more winter months in Florida, don’t you? At least there, without all the distractions of home, I can walk miles and swim for hours and lose those sticky pounds. (Sadly the pounds I lost last winter in Florida I regained when I returned home. See? More justification for Florida in the late fall and winter months!)

The Last Meow
Well, Missy Jan, I guess you’d better get back on that treadmill anyway. After all, if we can do, you can do it. (See our video clip below.) Or do you just want us to outshine you? Hmmm? Just do it! Then you can be like me and sit outside (in Florida) and enjoy the sun.

Meow for now. =<^;^>=

Here are more “habits”:

Posted in Blog Challenges, Health Issues, Photography and tagged BlogHer, counting calories, exercise, Fitbit, losing weight, stationary bike, treadmill, Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge, yeah write

15 thoughts on “NaBloPoMo 13. Exercise Habit? #JustKidding”

frizztext on November 13, 2013 at 11:54 pm said:

kittens on treadmill: that made my day!

Reply ↓
- Janice Heck on November 16, 2013 at 11:19 am said:
  
  Glad you like it. There are all kinds of kittie videos on Internet. So many and so funny. You can waste hours looking at them! Wish I could claim this kittie on the treadmill as my own, but I can’t. Thanks for the visit.
  
  Reply ↓
frizztext on November 14, 2013 at 12:07 am said:

I’ve set a link to you and the youtube the video at
http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/and-we-are-free/#comment-48562

Reply ↓
soesterbror on November 14, 2013 at 2:34 am said:

If cats and grammar mix? 🙂 Well, that may be a matter related to where you live. In Norway it is impossible to talk about “Fit-bits” on posters or such in public training studioes, for the same reason which made it both very embarrassing when our lovely Great-grandmother (1888-1992) from Northern Norway said: “Fetta Komplett”, and maybe believed she spoke French. Actually I am not sure what it is in French, or what she tried to say 🙂 – The trade mill that you are talking about is exactly what I wish that I have at home, because then I could walk myself through all the records, tapes, CDs and DVDs that I still haven’t watched or listened to, because to me it is a waste of time, when there are roads outside (but it is getting so cold outside), and you will have to pay maybe 1,000 NOK to walk in a studio. – But in Florida, we Norwegians do understand that you all are exercising so much, since they have to be able to run fast each time the flood is coming… 🙂 Forgive me, your blog just made me cheerful. I wish you good luck with your exercising. You have come many miles ahead of me. Be proud of yourself.

Reply ↓
- Janice Heck on November 16, 2013 at 11:18 am said:
  
  Thanks for your note. Glad you got some smiles. After all, that is the purpose of this blog. It cheers me up too, especially when I get notes like yours. I think I would have loved your Great-grandmother. “Fetta Komplett” sounds okay in my book! Nice to hear from you. And “Fetta Komplett” might wiggle its way into a blog post one day.
  
  Reply ↓
sue marquis bishop on November 14, 2013 at 6:28 am said:

Janice, believe you have a bent to comedy writing.

Reply ↓
- Janice Heck on November 16, 2013 at 11:15 am said:
  
  HaHaHa. Thanks for the compliment. It’s really those cats those that tickle my funnybone. Thanks for the visit. I’ll tell the Snarkies (the cats). Don’t tell them I called them Snarkies. They’ll like that nickname.
  
  Reply ↓
Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist on November 14, 2013 at 6:48 am said:

Well done with the cholesterol and triglycerides. I struggle with my new weight as well. Summer has just arrived here so maybe this year…..

Reply ↓
- Janice Heck on November 16, 2013 at 11:13 am said:
  
  Ah, that’s my favorite line, too…maybe next year…maybe next week…maybe tomorrow… Oh well, what can we do?
  
  Reply ↓
soesterbror on November 22, 2013 at 9:22 am said:

That was nice of you, to answer me. I couldn´t find it the first time, so I was sure I had insulted you, which it seems as if I always do with English speaking people on this WordPress site (blog), the few times I bother leaving a comment*. I think my Great granmother tried to say “fait accompli”, something that is completed. Yes, I am sure you would have liked her. We all loved her, because she was generous in every way, very loving and very funny. – *If I write in a blog post that I like Bob Dylan because in the interviews I have watched (related to being real, and not pretend to achieve something; “favour”) it seems to me as if he will not let any reporter push or force him to say something he does not feel like saying/telling; or smile if he doesn´t feel like it – even if it takes “two weeks” until he does (meaning he is very real), they will never post my comment. But what does it matter, when I like real people? If they don´t like me/my comments/blog and show it in that way, they are just being real; which I said I liked in the first place. “I love your unfriendly behavior, good luck with your blog that I will never read again, since you don´t want me here…” 🙂 Then everybody are pleased, and it is a “fetta komplett”. Deal is closed. Nurture your favorite readers (fanclub). I think I will skip reading the Huffington Post article today which wants to tell us 10 mistakes we are doing when we meet new people. I don´t need to read about all the things I am doing wrong every day already, but how can they be so sure that they are “meeting” people the correct way? – I wish you good luck with your nice blog, and have a nice day.

Reply ↓
- Janice Heck on November 22, 2013 at 12:16 pm said:
  
  I LOVE your grandma. Now I say “fetta komplett” every time I finish and publish a blog post! That just makes me chuckle. She reminds me of my own sweet little French Granny bustling around in her kitchen with her old-fashioned iron wood stove. We were all “kiddoes” to her. I go by that old farm every once in a while, and the last time I took a few pictures. The old farmhouse is gone, but someone is farming the ground. It makes me happy to see that. You are beautiful.
  
  Reply ↓
  - soesterbror on November 26, 2013 at 3:37 am said:
    
    She wasn’t my grandma, but my Great-grandma, even though I had both in my neigborhood. She died when she was 104. When I was a child I would sing for her, sometimes under the table (if there were guests, and I felt shy), and once her son threw some money to me, which I enjoyed. She would always or very often give me money or candy when I visited her. She always prayed for us children and grand- or great-grandchildren. When I was ten I started bringing my guitar with me to her, and sing psalms for her, which was her favorite music. – I liked them too, but of course left out the most boring ones. So, she was like the loving “pastor” I could always visit and have a great time with, and I was the “organist” or in the “worship team” 🙂 Even though she did not like that I played the Beatles for her, and her niese told me that pop and rock was the music of the Devil, I continued playing all kinds of styles, because I believe a music style is just a tool for a person (soul), faith/belief or spiritual power, based in the one playing it or to for instance the god it is “entertaining”. A style is neutral (the American rock-group Petra plays “rough” music). But I don’t blame them. They didn’t understand English, and from singing Amazing Grace to continue with “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” must have been a bridge too hard to cross, even though it may not be a song about Satan (I think it’s not).
    
    Have a nice day.
  - Janice Heck on November 30, 2013 at 9:40 pm said:
    
    I love your notes. They are so friendly and tell me so much about your life. I love your little stories about your Great-grandmother. She sounds like such a wonderful and caring grandmother who was happy to spend lots of time with you. How special to have that kind of relationship with her. I think my little French grandmother would have thought that some of our music as teens was from the devil, but she never said anything. My DADA (grandfather) kept us busy out in the fields picking vegetables for market. He spoiled us by buying fudgesicles (ice cream) and fruit juice frozen popsicles when he took us home from a morning of farm work. We kids always complained about having to work on the farm, but now we have loads of stories to tell and laugh about. Nice to hear from you again.
  - soesterbror on December 1, 2013 at 8:58 am said:
    
    Do you understand or speak French? Actually she never said that the music I played was from the Devil, but I was just very disappointed that she didn’t like the Beatles. It was her religious niese who told me so… But, if you don’t understand the music it isn’t so easy to be sure if you like it either. For instance, Arabic music can be very nice, I am sure, but if the lyric goes: “Kill the infidels”, and I understand that I am in that group, actually I prefer understanding what it’s all about… 🙂
  - soesterbror on December 8, 2013 at 3:43 am said:
    
    Hi again, Janice. I just wanted to thank you for your friendly words and jokes, and say goodbye at the same time. You see, I had a blog at “Blogger”, but wanted to go through the thousand blogposts once more, since some of the photoes were gone, remove the grey spots (shadows) after them and correct the spelling errors in Norwegian. But during these weeks while I have been doing this, here at WordPress, my old laptop collapsed completely… I started using my husband’s new laptop, but now every wordpress-blog was in htlm-codes… which is a nightmare to me. Nothing looks the same, and it takes a whole lot of time just to find that spot where that youtube-video was supposed to be… so after some days now with trouble, I have deceided I’ll just keep the Blogger-blog 🙂 and delete this crazy wordpress-mess, even though I liked the way it looked (before) better. I wish you luck with your beautiful blog, where it is even snowing upon the cats. Yours is advanced! Have a very merry Christmas, with or without snow in Florida, and God bless you always. “May you stay forever young” (Bob Dylan).
    
    Goodbye

Janice Hall Heck

Finding hope in a chaotic world…