Fitness 2014

I was a regular runner for about 7 years. Nothing major but enough so that I could always go out and run 10 km and feel good. I wasn't fast and I only ran every other day, but it was a good and easy way for me to stay fit. In the fall of 2011, I started working in a building that didn't have a shower facility and as I usually run at lunch time, this became a bit of a problem. I walked a bit but for various reasons, I didn't keep up with my running. Finally in the spring of last year, I decided to get back into a regular fitness routine. So, I drove to another building during lunch where I exercised and then showered and then headed back to work. It felt good to be exercising regularly again. In the summer our office moved into a new building with it's own gym and shower facilities. Yeah. It's a bit more convenient to work out and I try to run 4 out of 5 days a week. I don't worry too much about the weekends. I would love to, but it's usually too much stress on myself to exercise on Saturday or Sunday. There is too much else going on.

I'm still doing fine, but I decided to use some Christmas money and buy myself a gadget. It's really a glorified pedometer, but I decided this was as much as I wanted. I wear the fitbit zip all day and it measures my activity. It can tell when I am exerting more energy and I when I am just walking. I'm aiming for 10,000 steps a day. It automatically syncs to my computer and as you can see from the screenshot, there are all kinds of fun graphics and reports. Last spring when I started running again, I also started using the fitness pal app on my iPad. I love it and was faithful through until the fall. Then I took a break. I enter the food that I'm eating and the exercise that I do, and it monitors my progress. Now my fitbit and fitness pal app are connected and I'm back on track monitoring my eating and my exercise. Actually I'm only on my first full day, because it took me a while to break down and buy myself a pedometer, but I'm glad I did.

This wasn't a goal of mine for the new year. Just one of those fine tuneup things I want to do periodically. I'm comfortable with where I am at physically, but I just want to be a bit more consistent with my exercise and eating. For me, it just helps when I keep track.