simplerich

Eat Less Move More

I’ve been on a diet for about a month now and lost 10 lbs. I think my general fitness level has increased as well. My priorities have certainly changed. I’ve unsubscribed from my online games. I hardly game at all now, and my reading has been cut way back.

I used to believe I’d exercise more if there were enough time to do that and everything else. The first week or so the exercising was of the make myself do it sort of thing. I didn’t enjoy it so much as endure it. Somewhere in there though it changed to the point that I walk and jog in place while watching Survivor now to make sure I get some cardio in. I won’t lie. I’m not doing crap for strength training and I need to. That’s my weakness right now. I haven’t any room to do it and I don’t want to buy equipment. I did the 30 day shred for a week and then stopped and never picked it up again. I should start again, but the walking & cardio is going strong for me right now so I’m going to stick with it for now.

I’ve found a good walking tracking site. I’m a fan of the pedometer, using a good pedometer, the Omron HJ-112 instead of a cheapo model cut my steps way down… partly because the cheap ones were measuring a thousand steps on the drive to work when I didn’t walk at all. So, using WalkerTracker I’m keeping up with my steps. Using SparkPeople I’m keeping up with my vegetables, water, and other goals, including minutes of cardio per day/week/month. I’ve been using Weight Watchers Online for Men to track my points, that is mostly a low fat, high fiber diet and portion control. I’m better disciplined with that than I was/am with SparkPeople.

Shopping List:

1. Nintendo Wii
2. Wii Fit
3. Pokemon Platinum

There you go. That’s what I spent my money on. Now, I had the Nintendo Wii. I got it back around Thanksgiving when they were rare and kept it back in case I needed a great Christmas present at the last minute. The Wii Fit though I just got today and have set it up, input my height and let it weigh me and figure my BMI (too high but I think it’s doing it wrong) and then set a weight loss goal.

I also got Pokemon Platinum which has nothing to do with fitness, but everything to do with a really fun game. Now, if you’ve played Diamond or Pearl Platinum’s going to look really familiar and maybe I wouldn’t buy it new unless you were addicted, but if you played neither Diamond or Pearl then Platinum‘s a great way to get back into Pokemon.

The Wii and Wii Fit can both be hard to get out in the world. We went to two Best Buy’s and three Game Stops before finally finding it in a little Mom & Pop game store in Ames today so if you want either the Wii or the Wii Fit make your life easier and order it from Amazon. Show me some love and buy it through those links and help get me some affiliate lovin’ too if you want.

This isn’t a paid ad, both are GREAT fun. (Boom Blox is my favorite Wii game so far, but a close second is Rayman Raving Rabbids).

The hard part is I work on the road a lot so some weeks I won’t have access to the wii for exercise etc. While gone I’ll do the exercises that are in Sparkpeople (free remember?) and walk but I’ll miss the wii!

PS: Weekends will tend toward more personal posts than others. I won’t say there will be no management type posts on the weekend and I won’t say there won’t be any personal types in the week, but I’m going to try and focus them that way. Work in work week, and personal on weekends. If I bore you as a person, feel free to Mark all as Read on Mondays. My feelings won’t be hurt in the least.

PPS: Very excited about the Wii Fit. About to exercise on it now. I’ll be gone for much of this next week and the following one, but I’ll get back to you all on how I keep up with it. I know you’re glued to your collective seats!

I’ve talked about SparkPeople.com before, but for some reason I stopped using it. I’ve got a focus problem sometimes. I wander off and then never come back to things. It’s why I’m addicted to the Moleskine Cahiers to keep my brain on task at work. See, I just did it again! Sparkpeople.com is not a diet site. OK. It is a diet site, but it’s a diet site in the same way google is a company that does search. Sparkpeople.com is much more than diet.

One of the things that helps me with focus was recently mentioned by Walletpop.com here where they talk about sparkpeople.com believe it or not. It’s the Seinfeld calendar. The idea is you get a big honking calendar and every day you work to your goal you put a big X through the day. Soon you’ll have a small chain and you won’t to break the chain. It’s a constant visual cue to get going on the goal, and anything can be done if you do a little every day. At least that’s what the folks said who built the pyramids, dug the Panama Canal, and got men on the moon.

But back to fitness! When you’re done with this article go check out walletpop’s five mostly free fitness tips to jumpstart your fitness mission.

I’m forty at the time that I write this and being fit isn’t as easy as it used to be. It takes some effort on my part. Not a supreme amount of work honestly, but it isn’t something that just happens. I’m not the most disciplined person you’re likely to meet and I need reminders. I need something that keeps my focus on task. It’s like the Moleskine cahiers I was talking about earlier that I use for work. They’re low-tech, but they’re fast, easy, and cheap. All things I need in a system for me to stick with it. Sparkpeople is a good system for tracking fitness and things that impact fitness.

I’m not that hung up on weight. I’m technically overweight for my height (10 lbs), but I see me in a mirror and I’m far from a house. I could stand to lose a few pounds. There’s no way I’m in need of a diet site. I’m in need of a reminder that vegetables are edible, exercise won’t kill me, water is free and I don’t drink enough, and all sorts of things I’m willing to do ARE exercise. I don’t have to own elaborate weight machines, and walking, which I love, counts. Not as much as jogging or running, but it counts!

If you’re of a mind to try and get some fitness focus give Sparkpeople.com a look. It’s got a heck of a lot of information on there which is both nice, and supremely distracting at times. Use it for a week or two and see if you don’t like it too. If you don’t, and have a better site you use that’s free please, let me know in the comments! I’d love to try it.