Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Better Health Through Gadgets and Diet

My life is good and what some people dream of. I live on a boat, my job is challenging, but not too much and pays well, and I’m married to my soulmate. I should be singing Disney songs and dancing with bluebirds every day.

But…

I’m human and I want more. It’s true. My lifelong goal – I don’t say ‘dream’ because Doug says dreams are not real; goals can be accomplished – is to make enough money writing that I don’t have to go into a sterile office every day. I don’t need crazy success like J. K. Rowlings or Stephen King, but enough to write, sail, chase my husband around on the beach, repeat, would be great. And I’ve been working for over twenty years to make this happen. Recently, I took a break from my corporate job and focused on writing, writing, teaching writing, and more writing to make this happen.

Zippo. Nada. Zilch.

No, wait. It wasn’t that NOTHING happened; it’s just that I spent a lot of money, time and effort and received very little in return. And I got depressed. Really depressed. Not quite ‘throw myself off a building’ depressed, but enough so that I cared more about eating and drinking than I did about accomplishing anything. Or looking halfway decent. So, I ate and I drank and I played computer games. And gained weight. A LOT of weight.

I want to be clear about this. I’m not talking about ten extra pounds, eating disorder kind of weight, I’m talking about couch potato, not exercising, eating bad foods, becoming unhealthy kind of weight. My husband became concerned, but he didn’t understand why I was so depressed. This means he dismissed it and focused just on the symptoms, not the root cause. Bless his heart. He said some accurate, but somewhat cruel things, recommended all kinds of diets and supplements that I rejected, but still loves me and doesn’t give me too much of a hard time. I knew turning this around had to be my decision and happen on my time.

Compact Elliptical Trainer
A few weeks ago, I hit rock bottom and realized I had to do something. I hadn’t written anything in a while, so I started slow with blogging (ergo, this post!), tweeting and various other social media outlets that didn’t involve games. And I tackled my health. Since I’m a lover of gadgets, I went shopping!

Compact Elliptical Trainer: living in a tiny space means everything you obtain has to be scaled down. I really like this little trainer. It has a very small footprint and I can hop up and down on it while I binge watch Columbo on Netflix. I add in some dumbbells and I get a full body work out without having to leave my boat. Even work up a sweat sometime.

Exercise Ball - 65 cm


Exercise ball (at work instead of a chair): Claims are that it helps your posture and you burn an extra 350 calories (2 chocolate chip cookies) a day while using it. It was mentioned that it’s fun to bounce on it as well. However, no one told me that it would wreak havoc with my motion sickness. Yes, this lady sailor nearly lost her lunch after an hour on a bouncy ball…





FitBit Flex
FitBit Flex: Simple idea - if you know that you’re leading a sedentary lifestyle, you’ll do something to alleviate it. I wanted to see it before investing, so I traveled to Bed, Bath & Beyond to see one in the flesh. The first one didn't have it in stock (Flex 2 is coming out end of October - inventory is down), which means the sales clerks tried to sell me a different model, which they also didn't have in stock. At which point, they ignored me and began talking amidst themselves. In a huff, I traveled to ANOTHER BB&B and purchased the item. So far, so good… I’m walking more and feeling better. However, the slim band on my wrist is stoking my competitive nature. Every day I want to better the activity from the day before. At the rate I’m going, one day I’ll take my walk at lunch and wind up in Bangor.

Tea: Studies have proven over and over that green tea improves weight loss, particularly if you drink 4-5 cups a day. Also added rooibos tea, which is supposed to improve digestion and overall health. Not sure if the actual ingredients are doing anything, but since I now have to go to the bathroom every ten minutes, it’s definitely upping my exercise quantity. Which feeds the FitBit. See what’s happening here?

Food: Dietitians everywhere will scream to the high heavens about this, but I eat one big meal a day. Anything I want. The rest of the day is grazing on fruit, vegetables and popcorn. Don't tell my husband, but I'm having a weird love affair with an old dude with glasses and a polka dot bow tie.

Results: I feel better and I’ve lost 10 pounds in two weeks. And I have a cool buzzy blinky thing on my wrist that I was able to buy 12 brightly colored bands for.


Living the dream – one step at a time…

No comments:

Post a Comment