Tuesday, November 27, 2012

BodyMedia Fit Data

A few years ago I did a post about the calorie burn based on different exercises.  This post is just about the BodyMedia fit data itself not really based on each activity.  BodyMedia fit is similar to Body Bugg but BodyMedia fit does sleep duration and sleep efficiency. 
The night of 11/25-11/26
I set my own goal to 8 hours but I think that might be the default goal though.  The dark gray is when I was sleeping and the light gray is when I was lying down.  Sometimes when I toss and turn a lot, I will look at my data and it shows it.  Note if you sleep with your arm above your head, the armband won't register that time as sleeping or lying down.  This doesn't seem to affect me unless I wear my armband on my right arm but it affects my husband nightly.  For the most part this is accurate.  Sometimes I am lying down almost asleep watching TV and it registers as sleeping, but that is rare.  



Each day you can view your calorie burn.  You can see when your calorie burn was higher.  Most likely you know what you did during that time so it's no surprise.  Sometimes it's interesting to see the elevated calorie burn when you are socializing, shopping, or cleaning.  Shortly before 4:00 when my calorie burn is the highest that is when I went for a run. Over an hour later I'm elevated again because I went ot the gym. I started with elliptical and then did weights.. 
11.4.12 Run
You can move the slider at the bottom to zoom in on part of the graph.  Above shows when I went running (and a little before and after).  Note there are dips. Those dips are each walk break during my run.  The 3 dips that are down further than the rest are actually when we stopped at water fountains.  Normally walking wouldn't be anywhere near 8 calories an hour but your heart rate is still elevated from the run so you keep burning calories but you get some recovery time so you can run longer.

Also on the website you can see your physical activity. Moderate activity is from 3-6 METs and vigorous is over 6.  I mainly get vigorous exercise when I run.  In the past I've gotten maybe 3 minutes out of a 45 minute spin class as vigorous and maybe 18 minutes of a Body Combat class as vigorous.  A lot of normal activities count as moderate for me. Meetings at work, walking, cleaning, and some socializing are all things that count as moderate activity for me.  METs is not calories per minute but it is very smilar for me since I normally burn 1.0 or 1.1 calories a minute so everything is very similar for me.
 Here's another screen shot of calorie burn.  By default BodyMedia fit only shows me what I told it at one point are my standard waking up and going to sleep times.  They are way off based on my current jobless state.  The increased calorie burn there after 8PM is when I went to the gym.  I ran 1.25 miles. Then I got water and decided to run more. You can see the dip.  Then the next 20 minutes were lifting weights.  Then I increased again at the end because I ran another half mile.  I could probably guess my calorie burn and what the graphs would look like based on what I did because I'm so used to seeing these.
 I love when FIT coach tells me Great work but it barely happens. About a month ago I changed my calorie burn goal to make it lower since I was never meeting it.  Back in March my average calorie burn for the month was ~2400 calories and for October it was under 1900.
FIT coach really does give you some interesting tips.  But as you can see by all these screen shots, I don't listen to any of them.






I don't only get warnings about my poor eating habits but sometimes get warnings on my calories burned for the day. I do notice that it will give me different amount of times to use the exercise bike to meet my calorie burn for the day.  I haven't actually done their suggestions yet but maybe some day.  The other day at the gym, I ran an extra half mile at the end because based on my mental calculations I would be a few calories short of my goal otherwise.  

The following are from 11/27
Look at these FIT coach warnings. No wonder I'm fat.
Fit coach tries to be encouraging. I've gained weight since I set up my weight loss goal.  My goal is higher than I was mid September so don't get any ideas that I'm trying to get too skinny or something.
This is a pie chart that you see daily if you enter your food online.  Today I had a lot of fat because I had dinner at 5 Guys. (This was actually before I ate a S'mores ice cream sandwich.)

Is there anything you'd like me to show or explain about my BodyMedia fit? I have more graphs at the bottom of my weight graph page if you want to see some other stuff I didn't mention here. 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Week of Working Out (11.19-11.25)

Monday: I ran 3.33 miles in the afternoon.  Then later I went to the gym and did 21 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights, abs, and stretching.  My legs were very fatigued after it all. 1:25 and almost all focused on my legs.  I was pretty spent by the end of the workout. For weights I can tell I'm way weaker than I used to be.  I've only been doing 2 sets of each exercise instead of 3. I haven't incorporated all of the stuff I used to do either.  In addition to that, I miss not having leg press, abduction, and adduction machines.

Lately the first 2 miles are fine and then I struggle. The third mile was a real struggle to get 9:22. I know I set out to have my goal be 9:30 but since the first 2 miles were better, I didn't want the third mile being totally slow by comparison.

Tuesday:  I walked to Safeway, shopped, and walked back.  Then later I walked to Target with Dave.

Wednesday:  I ran with Hilary after she worked.  We were considering 6 miles but I suggested we cut it short and run extra if we wanted.  I didn't want.  We ran 2.75 miles then we started doing run:walk intervals at 3:1.  For some reason it was a huge struggle for me.  I think because I was still fighting my cold.

Thursday and Friday:  Rest

Saturday:  In the afternoon I went for a walk with Dave.  We did a little run/walk but since it was the first time Dave's run in months we just did a little running.  We did that for 30 minutes.

Later in the day I went to the gym and ran a mile on the treadmill. I was going to run further but my kindle died so I finished the mile and went to weights.  I ran the first .75 at 6.6 mph then I ran at 7.2 mph until .9 and then I finished at 7.6 mph so I ended up hitting 1 mile at 8:53.  My Kindle died just before .75 which is why I sped it up. I did weights for my upper body and abs. The workout at the gym was 36 minutes.   Even with working out twice, I didn't hit my calorie burn goal for the day because the rest of the day was spent sitting on the couch.

Sunday: I put on workout clothes but didn't end up working out until after dark so I went to the gym.  I ran 2 miles on the treadmill. Then I did weights for my legs and abs.  I felt like I could have done a little more so I decided to do another half mile at the end for a little more mileage.

I ran the entire first 2 miles at 6.6 mph while reading.  During my second time running I ran .25 at 8 mph and .25 at 6.6 mph.   My total run time was 22:27.   My total workout time counting stretching was 53 minutes.

Summary: Overall I'm impressed with my mileage considering I felt like a slacker all week.  I only lifted weights twice but that is better than nothing.  I haven't been dropping any of the weight I gained which is a little shocking to me. I still haven't decided on a race but I've found some that I want to do. I might make a training plan for the soonest one and then revise my plan if I pick a different one.

If I would have realized I was so close to 12 miles, I would have ran another minute on the treadmill just to hit it this week.
I guess not losing any weight makes sense since I documented my calories. I did round up sometimes I guessed but it sure looks like I consumed more than I ate, just barely. My weight was  exactly the same on the 19th and on the 26th (136.9).  (In mid September I was over 10 lbs lighter. That is why I changed my calorie intake to be 500less a day. I figure if I gained weight in 2 months I should lose it before my body gets too used to it. Plus my clothes don't fit me anymore.)
I was pretty close to my goal of 1:30. My 2 total rest days really were rest. I didn't even walk to a store or something.  Next week I will kill my goals because on Saturday and Sunday I will be out and about showing someone around.  My steps will also be a lot higher too.

BodyMedia fit is awesome. I plan to do a separate post about different things that make it awesome. I should also plan to actually hit all my targets in future weeks.  

Saturday, November 24, 2012

White Skinny Jeans (11.20)

Pants: F21, Sweater: Express
Long Necklace: F21 (I think)
Shorter Necklace: Lia Sophia
Earrings: Target
Boots: Famous Footwear (Mudd)
Shoes: Famous Footwear (Natural Soul by Naturalizer)

Same outfit. Different shoes and necklace and gives the entire outfit a different look.

I was going to switch it up even more but it gets dark too early and it was already too dark after I got back from Safeway when I changed into the red shoes.  I like the boots better and the long necklace better. Which do you like?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

11.9

I woke up early and got out of bed because my normal routine is to look at my phone quickly before getting my computer but I noticed I had a missed call and a voicemail.  It was from the bank so I got out of bed to handle that.   Dave was still home. He said he was sick of getting to work on Fridays way before everyone else (and leaving at the same time) so he was going to work at home for a little before going in.  (I'm not sure how working at home or going in to work are that much different.) A bit later Timmy called. He never calls.  Then we did facetime for over an hour.

Sometimes I wonder how weird my family is. Today my brother and I used facetime on our iphones so of course one of the things we do is show each other our scales while weighing ourselves. We also both showed each other what was inside our refrigerators.

I was cleaning when my brother called. I was about to vacuum. I never did get to that.   I did dust and put away the dishes while on the phone.

Later my mom called and we ended up talking for 40 minutes.

I worked on my project and barely watched any TV.
I cooked dinner but Dave was late. I mean he didn't tell me when he'd be home. I tried to guess and ask him about it and then ask again. then I told him when it was in the oven.  Then I tried to call him.  15 minutes after it was done he finally called.  It wouldn't be so bad if he was WORKING but he was playing games with his coworkers.  The casserole got dry since I was trying to keep it warm.  To top off all the awfulness, we left the rest of the leftovers on the stove all night so I didn't even get my leftovers!

We watched some TV. We went to sleep early.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

11.8

Necklace: Lia Sophia, Sweater: Express, Pants: VS, Shoes: Famous Footwear
I have no idea what I did all day.  I assume I left the house since I got dressed.  I actually remember taking the picture close to 4pm because Dave was picking me up near 4 pm. But I have no idea why.  I branched out and took my daily picture outside. I should have paid more attention to the dumpster behind me.  Maybe next time I'll do better.

11.7

Pants: VS
Shirt: F21
Sandals: Kohl's
Necklace: Lia Sophia
I was getting ready to go running and Poly got on my lap so I stayed there for hours.  It was very uncomfortable.
After dinner, Dave and I went to karaoke with his coworkers.  Except we got there and the karaoke guy never showed up so we just sat there for hours talking.  There were 7 people total.   I was so tired by the end.  I am not used to so much social interaction in one day.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Yellow Skinny Jeans

I've had yellow skinny jeans for a little over 6 months and have only worn them a few times. Granted in the summer I wore mostly shorts and they were also too big for awhile.  The outfits to the left are actual outfits I've worn with my skinny jeans.  Well the white tank top outfit is actually just  me trying on new clothes I bought at the store that day.  What outfit is your favorite? Mine is the bottom right with the orange and yellow but with the white cardigan so it's not so orange/yellow.

The trouble I have with my skinny jeans isn't so much what top to wear with them but what shoes. (I mean I still have a little trouble with what shirt to wear but not as bad as when I first got them.)

I tried doing a google image search for some ideas but most of them are impractical. I want to wear shoes with my skinny jeans that I can handle walking to and from Target in. The dressy pumps shown below might not be comfortable enough for that.

Below I tried a few different shirts, some different accessories, and different shoes.  What do you think? Would you wear bright yellow jeans in the fall?  I feel like I should be wearing more fall colors like browns and mustard but the only colorful jeans I have are bright yellow so that's what I'm working with.  
I miss being able to go out on my front porch and leave the camera there while I took some pictures.  Each time I came back in the apartment today I felt odd leaving my camera out in the hallway so I brought it back in half the time.  I was uneasy most of the time. Good thing I took a few pictures with each outfit because I was not smiling in half the pictures.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

11.6

I hung out with Poly all day. I did some coding. I watched politics all day.  Poly had a photo-shoot with me.  
Around 11PM I made Ramen. With all the talk of it on facebook, I got 2 other people making Ramen too. It was so odd going on facebook and seeing everyone posting about the election. I was glad so many people were talking about it. It was also interesting to see who favored who.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

11.5

I had to get dressed in a hurry so I threw on a dress.
Dress: Athleta
Necklace: Sears
Shoes: Famous Footwear
Poly wanted to go with Dave to work. She was trying to stowaway on his gym bag.
Later Poly tried to hang out in the boxes we use for recycling.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Week of Working Out (11.5-11.11)

Monday: Rest on purpose because I was still recovering from my long run on Sunday AND still recovering from rock climbing.


Tuesday: Rest (laziness)

Wednesday:  I set out to do 3 miles but just wasn't feeling it.  The run was pretty hard and my heart wasn't in it so I changed my 3 mile run to a 2 mile run.

Thursday: Rest

Friday:  I went to a different place and the run felt pretty good. I thought of going more but decided to keep it right around 3.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: I went to run 9 miles with Hilary.  We accidentally ran too far before turning around. We also made the right turn but thought it was wrong so we doubled back then we realized that was right.  So we hit 10 miles instead of 9.  Overall we both felt so much better on this long run than the one a week prior. We ran better too.  The weather was a lot better but that wasn't the only reason this was better. We didn't start out way too fast so then we weren't dead.

We ran using Gallaway's method of run:walk with 4:1 intervals. At one point my app didn't work and we walked for 2 minutes without realizing. We then ran 4 minutes after that so our intervals were a little off. This was 1:25 into the run.  We skipped the last walk interval because I didn't want to end the 10 miles on a walk.
Thoughts:  I'm happy with my mileage but unhappy with the rest of my working out this week.  I had my highest weekly mileage since the last week of August.  And the second to last time was the first week of May.  Maybe I can keep this up but also keep up with lifting weights.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

11.3

Pants: VS
Shirt: Loft
Necklace: Target
Sandals: Kohl's
Earrings: Gifted from Callie

These pants get annoying because of the seam on the left pant leg. They are also pretty long. I only have a few pairs of shoes to wear with them. I have these sandals or my one pair of boots. The weather is so weird around here that I think I can get away with sandals for a little bit.  Some people wear sandals while others have on winter coats and hats. It's all very confusing.

Dave told me I have a ton of gray hair!
Dave invited Poly in my shoe box and she listened.
We went to Outback for lunch. The cheese fries are only good dipped in Ketchup.  Also I try to get fries from the bottom without cheese or bacon.  The creamy broccoli soup was delicious.  I think this is the first time I didn't eat more than one loaf of the bread.  We went grocery shopping after.
We watched some TV. I forget what else we did.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

11.2 - Rock Climbing

I watched TV and played Solitaire in bed. Then after I got up I watched more TV.
I mailed my ballot.  I actually ran to a mailbox and incorporated that into my workout.
Then I watched more TV.

While getting dressed I banged my elbow off the dresser. It hurt so bad.Hours later it still hurt.
I went rock climbing for about 2 hours. But there was a lot of standing waiting to get my nerve back up.  The first thing I climbed, I made it to the top. My legs really shook from nerves.  Overall I climbed a few different ones labeled V0 but also didn't make it up a few too.    When we went into the main room I was climbing and got one move from the top and said it was too high and quit and climbed back down. I thought maybe it was the same height and it was all in my head that it was higher but then I was told it really was a few feet higher. It's funny how I could tell when I was up there.  Near the end I made us go to my purse so we could get my camera and take a few pictures. (Rock climbing was a huge thing for me because I'm so afraid of heights. I can barely stand on a ladder 1 step from the bottom.)
I got home and watched TV with Dave.

Friday, November 9, 2012

11.1

I woke up at 9:30. I had so many emails; it was exciting.  It took me over an hour to go through them. Man it was fun times.  Then I watched some TV on my laptop.  When my laptop battery got down to 9%, I had to get up to plug it in.  I watched even more TV.

I kept putting off running.  I made a TV dinner for lunch. I really like the Boston Market Chicken, rice, broccoli, and cheese dinner.

I watched even more Ugly Betty.  I watched some lecture for CS too but not that much.  Netflix emailed me saying Season 6 is available for Psych. How exciting. I needed that.  I needed to watch the last 2 minutes of Season 6 episode 10 and I got to do that.  The thing is on netflix a few episodes are extended versions. I want to know what was added.  I didn't spend the time to watch an episode again. The one I watched was 42 minutes. I am almost ready to watch it again just to see if I can tell what was added.

Dave went out with coworkers after work to celebrate two of his coworkers getting promotions.  I made TV dinners again for my dinner.  I didn't like the alfredo so I made another one that was a broccoli and cheese thing. It was a little too cheesy.  I stopped watching Ugly Betty and started watching lecture. Dave got home close to 9pm and then we started watching TV.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

11.4

Shirt: Old Navy
Pants: VS (they are made wrong or something because the seam on the left foot is always twisted near the front and I can't seem to fix it)
Shoes: Kohl's
Necklace: F21

I started my day off with a run. I really did take advantage of the extra hour of sleep from changing the clocks. I wish when we picked the time to run, we would have taken into account the clock change and gone earlier.  It was so exhausting running in the sun. I even got some sunburn. (You can see it in the pictures.)
After I got home, I showered and looked at running data. Then I watched the Steeler Game.  Dave read the newspaper during the entire game.  I can't believe the bad calls the refs had against the Steelers.

Then I watched some more TV.  I just wanted to rest on the couch.

We went to dinner with Hilary and Wes. We took them to BJs. They hadn't been there.  I was already ready for bed by the time it was dinner time. The run was exhausting to Hilary too.

I barely watched any TV after dinner but I did put in laundry for Dave. He claimed he needed jeans. He gave me no warning. I was actually asleep on the couch and had to wake up to fold laundry.  That sucked.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Week of working out (10.29-11.4)

I have to look up different races to figure out which one I should start training for.

Monday - Wednesday: I was lazy and didn't workout.

Thursday: I set out to run 3 miles with a goal of 9 minutes. It started off easy and then just got soo hard. I had to really push it to make my goal of 9:00.  But at least I didn't cut the run down to 2 miles like I was considering.

Friday:  I ran 1 mile because I had to go mail my ballot.  I only know where one mailbox is so I ran to that. I had to cross 2 streets and wait for the walk signs. That took forever.  The mailbox was only .31 away so I ran a little more to get to a mile.  I was going for a pace of 10:00 since I ran the day before.

I was going to go lift weights but just before I was leaving, I got an email asking if I wanted to go rock climbing that night. So I did not lift weights and I spent a few hours in the evening rock climbing. Man is that hard. Also it is high. I'm terrified of heights so a few times I retreated back down the wall just because it was too high. I wasn't that good. My legs sure shook the first wall I had to climb up.  When we were almost done, I had to go get my camera as proof that I did it because people who really know me wouldn't believe it.  Dave did tell me if I didn't have the pictures to show him after he wouldn't have believed that I did it.
Saturday:  I didn't workout but I did some shopping with Dave and did burn a decent amount of calories according to my BodyMedia fit. Also I was a little sore from rock climbing. (On Sunday I was even more sore from the rock climbing.)

Sunday:  We started out running slightly over 2 miles before our first run segment. We ran 19 minutes then started walking 1 minute and running 4 minutes.   Once we hit 60 minutes we ran for 3 minutes and walked for 1 minute.  We definitely waited too long to switch to 3:1.  We didn't last long and walked for 2 minutes at a walk segment since we had taken too long to back down.  We only did a few at 3:1 then we went to 2:1.   At 8.25 miles we ran the rest of the way.  It was a really  hard run for me.  It was my longest run since May 6 (the Pittsburgh Marathon)

While running during the intervals, we consistently ran at around at 9:30 pace but our mile times were much slower because of the walking.

Right before we ran, we read some parts in Gallaway's book and he said long runs should be 3:30 slower than your desired 5k pace. That meant we should have been running around an 11:30 pace. Clearly that is too slow but it was good to have that in our mind so I wasn't feeling bad about going so slow. I am so out of shape.  I was hoping we'd finish around 10 minute mile pace and we had that for the first 6 miles.  Maybe next time.  I shouldn't have expected so much considering I haven't had long runs in forever and I barely had short runs and I was still pretty sore from rock climbing.

Looking at the BodyMedia fit data you can even tell when we did intervals.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

November Workout Goals

I'm making my November goals the same goals I've had in the recent months. Maybe I'll make more than 1 this time.

I'm keeping all the goals the same as I did in August even though I didn't meet a bunch in August  (and I didn't meet any in September).
  1. Complete 16 cardio workouts (running, exercise bike, elliptical, or workout video)  
  2. Complete 13 core workouts 
  3. Frequency: Run 12 times. 
  4. Distance: Run 60 total miles 
  5. Workout with Dave 5 times. 
  6. Lift weights 10 times. 
  7. Exercise 5 times that aren't considered cardio above (mainly thinking about walks here that don't fit in anywhere) 
  8. Have 3 double workout days (morning + evening, lunch + evening, etc) 
  9. Stretch for 10 consecutive minutes 2 times  
  10. Do foam roller exercises 3 times 
  11. Do yoga 1 time.
I have a few other goals that are related to exercise but aren't me working out.
  1. Have a photo shoot to get some athletic pictures for at the top of this post.
  2. No more than 12 rest days all month 
  3. No more than 3 consecutive rest days.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

October Workout Goals - How I did

Here's how I did
  1. Complete 16 cardio workouts = 13
  2. Complete 13 core workouts  = 7
  3. Frequency: Run 12 times = 10
  4. Distance: Run 60 total miles = 25.02 
  5. Workout with Dave 5 times. = 2
  6. Lift weights 10 times. = 9 
  7. Exercise 5 times that aren't considered cardio above (mainly thinking about walks here that don't fit in anywhere) = 2
  8. Have 3 double workout days (morning + evening, lunch + evening, etc) = 5
  9. Stretch for 10 consecutive minutes 2 times  = 1
  10. Do foam roller exercises 3 times = 2
  11. Do yoga 1 time = 0
I have a few other goals that are related to exercise but aren't me working out.
  1. Have a photo shoot to get some athletic pictures for at the top of this post. = 0
  2. No more than 12 rest days all month (stretching or doing foam roller exercises means it is not a rest day)  = 15
  3. No more than 3 consecutive rest days. = Happened 2 times
I'm actually surprised my mileage is so low because I thought I was running more.  I was so close to so many goals. I know I worked out more than a lot lately but really I only made 1 goal.  I'm most proud of how many times I lifted weights. 

10.25

Tank: F21, Jeans: Express, Workout shorts: Dicks Sporting Goods, Blazer: NY&Co.

I did not sleep well at all.

I woke up and played on my computer in bed until 10am. (that means I played on it for 1.5 hours) Then I watched 1 episode of Psych on my iPad (while still in bed).
I finally got up and got dressed and headed to Trader Joe's to buy some bread to go with my leftover soup.  I was impressed by Trader Joe's bread selection. They have so much. Yet they don't have any regular bread. After I got back I immediately changed into my workout clothes. I sat at the table eating soup and watching Psych on my iPad. Then I sat on the couch to watch the rest of the episode. Poly climbed on my lap so I ended up watching 4 episodes. I couldn't even reach my computer.  I did reach Dave's and watch some of the CS101 lecture on Udacity. I could do that on his computer so that is what I did.  I did that for over an hour and then went back to watching Psych. Dave got home before I was done with the episode.
We watched 2 episodes of Community. I finally booted kitty off of me because I had to eat dinner. I was going to make something but I ended up just eating the rest of the baguette with butter then some pretzel crisps with pub cheese. I had an ice cream sandwich for dessert.  (Dave voted while we were watching TV.)

We watched NBC Nightly News, Rachel Maddow, and The Last Word. BTW Poly got on my lap again so I couldn't move so we ended up doing more CS101.  Finally at 8:25 Poly got up and I immediately said it was time to go to the gym AND I went.

I worked out a few minutes over an hour. I did 22 minutes on the elliptical. That is how long it took me to read 2 chapters.  Then I did weights for my upper body. Then I ran 1 mile. I was going to run a half mile but then figured what's another 4ish minutes. I started at 6.6 mph and increased the speed by .2 each minute. I ended at 8:13.

After working out, I updated my running file. There are many days worth not in there and I still didn't get caught up.  I showered, emailed,  watched Psych, and went to bed.