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”:

• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | Flickr Comments
• Daglig promp: Før dottene sammen | brorsadu
• My.Vivid.Visions | Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit – Guy behind the Counter
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | Stephen Chapman
• Friday photo challenge |
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | This, that and the other thing
• Habit (Weekly Photo Challenge) | Icezine
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | The Ambitious Drifter
• Weekly Photo Challenge :Habit | So where’s the snow?
• What is Real? | Broken Light: A Photography Collective
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habits | nancy merrill photography
• AN ORDINARY THING | SERENDIPITY
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | artishorseshit
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | Lucid Gypsy
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | 365 Days of Thank You
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit – Joy and Woe
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | Hamburg und Mee(h)r
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit: Caged Smoker | Fika After Fifty Digital Photography and Art
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit: Cooking Lunch | The Eclectic Eccentric Shopaholic
• Weekly Photo Challenge – Habit | Chittle Chattle
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | Dim Lamp/קנה רצוץ לא ישבור
• The Way It Feels | Galen911
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit | A mom’s blog
• Weekly Photo Challenge – Habit « LargeSelf
• Weekly Photo Challenge: Habits | It’s a wonderful F’N life
• Just Snaps