Week 1

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” ~Maya Angelou

In Week 0, I wore a BodyMedia armband.  It's an armband that tracks my activity and it's been making waves in the press more recently. Most of the time, I didn't notice wearing it. Other times, I was excited for the end of the day when I got to take it off. I don't like wearing a watch so that's not a big surprise.  However, I think I could handle it if I get assigned into the group that has to wear the armbands.  I won't find that out for 6 months. In the first 6 month period, all groups get the same intervention method.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Right now, it's Week 1 and today was the first "Intervention" meeting. The intervention meetings will be once a week for 6 months. After that, it's reduced to once a month.  For this meeting, it was just an intro session.  We were given food logs and a copy of the Calorie King book, a book with calories and fat listings.  I'd never make it in this program if I had to pen and paper in everything I ate or drank. Luckily, they said we can also use MyFitnessPal, an app I already used and have on my phone. (It's free. go get it.)

The good doc set my food intake to 1500 calories a day and 100 minutes of walking (or greater) a week. The calorie intake is a deficit, but the exercise level is just the beginning of a ramp up to 300 minutes.  She recommends breaking up the time into any increment of 10 minutes that works.  I think it's about time I start taking those 10 minute breaks from the computer in the morning and afternoon.  It will make my legs, heart, and OSHA happy. Plus, it gets me 100 easy minutes in every day without even thinking what I'd be doing on the weekend.

The doc said recording starts tomorrow and to enjoy our last meal.  Fiancee and I had a good meal from Pho Kim 88, a cupcake (wedding planning is causing a cupcake addiction), and a good beer.

Weigh-in weight: 210.8


UPDATE: It's been a long time since I used MyFitnessPal.  The bar code scanner on the app has improved by leaps and bounds.  It found everything I scanned today. I also logged into my account at www.myfitnesspal.com and noticed that they added a Quick Add feature to allow you to repeat meal entries from the prior day, a specific date, or even save it as a specific meal.  I really like the last option.  It's annoying to enter 2 pieces of bread, 2 T. of peanut butter, and 1 T. of jelly every time I make a PBJ. Now I can save that as My PBJ and I can call it up every time.