Let's Talk Healthy Me

January 2014

The Baseline Stats
220,482 steps
90.56 miles (not a long distance when you consider this includes 2:00 am trips to pee!  :-)
7112 average daily steps
5 exercise sessions

To help me stay focused on this basic goal I'll check in at the beginning of the month just to see what is up (and hopefully "up" will be the right word!)  LOL

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I have a Fitbit Flex pedometer from last Mother's Day thanks to my lovely daughter.  I wear it religiously - even when I have been a total slug.  I know that sometimes people are disinclined to use a pedometer when they are not actively walking.  I believe it is important to have a baseline, to know the actual realities of your activity even if those realities are dismal.

Sometimes "dismal" is the only thing that gets me off the couch.

Fitbit has an outstanding support web site.  It is free and since the Fitbit pedometer automatically syncs to the web site when you are near your computer or phone or iPad, there is no extra effort to log your progress.  No extra effort translates to me as no excuses!  They also have a food tracking segment and it automatically adjusts your allowed calorie intake based on your activity level without losing sight of your weight loss goals - which is an awesome feature!  My focus is activity.  Weight loss is nice but when that is my focus I fail.  But that is just me.

No lie.  Walking last month was a struggle.

First of all it was darn cold - like around 0 to 10 degrees many days.  With the added wind and icy conditions, it was dangerous.  Then I managed to injure a muscle in my groin and leg area.  I lifted a 37 lb French Bull Dog (one of my dear grand dogs) twice in one day, carrying him across overly salty stretches of public streets and up my salty steps to save his little feet (what else would a good grandmother do.)  Little did I know that it was too much for one of my muscles.  That darn 2 week old injury still haunts me, but I am pushing through it gently.

Cold weather conditions aside, for some reason, my body wasn't bouncing positively into walking like it has always done in the past.  My legs felt heavy, I was winded, energy levels were low.  When I did go for a walk it wasn't the positive energizing experience I always had in the past.  Am I just too out of shape?  Has my age made "bouncing into exercise" less do-able?  Is January just a hibernation month?  I decided that whatever the reason, my body would eventually catch up with the demands of my brain.  I did slow the walk down in deference to my injury.  I focused on just taking the steps and movement.

Even with all those limitations, I was totally surprised to find my daily average for January to be as good as 7,000+ steps a day.  Wow, I would have guessed around 5,000.  I guess I had some very good days among the lousy ones.

I can certainly do better on my strength training and stretching routine as well.  Five times in one month is pretty poor.  But the routine has shown that I haven't yet lost any gains in my stretching extensions.

So that is my Healthy Me update for January.