OK, I am not so naïve as to assume that all the fitness apps we have we’ve strapped to our wrists, clipped to our shirts, and filling up our iPhones and Androids — but it’s not far from the truth. Over the last three months I have been so busy with actual work that I have put a pin in the obsessive calorie-counting, the obsessive step-step-stepping, the recording of anything even remotely resembling a workout onto a GPS watch, a fitness tracker, or a smartphone.
I was wondering why I was doing it for all these years now — until I stopped and quickly added 20-pounds over the holidays. So, my obsession with Fitbit, Runkeeper, and MyFitnessPal has been an absolutely essential part of my essential weight management and health maintenance program.
And, after doing that obsessively, the secret to losing weight is painfully simple: calories in versus calories out on one hand; and, I also believe that the body processes different foods differently:
Paleo, vegan, cutting out processed foods and sugars and carbs and gluten. And I have been terrible at such things, always finding a caveat, exception, situation, or opportunity to break the fast.
That said, now that it’s time to act on all of our collective new years resolution, I am looking forward to activating all of the systems I have put into play: Runkeeper, Runtastic, Strava, Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, a Fitbit Surge sleep-, fitness-, and GPS-tracker.
Then, there’s the obvious next step: accountability.
As part of my rich fitness ecosystem of accountability and shame, I have retained a virtual trainer from DailyBurn, Melinda Harvey, and I have connected my fitness apps and my Fitbit to as many friends as possible.
One of the most amazing communities I am part of is the Fitbit Challenge community I highlighted here a year ago in Getting Lithe With a Little help from My FitBit Friends.
Now, this is where I jump back into the bandwagon with both feet — and it’s been going pretty well. I have been running pretty regularly, walking a lot, I have started going to Spin at Biker Barre in DC, and now I am lined up to start CrossFit at CrossFit South Arlington and, and maybe even some workouts at 9Round Fitness if I feel inspired.
And then there’s my daily bread: Concept2 rowing and Concept2 Challenges and the obsessive swinging of kettlebells at home.
But even these are communities, both online and off. Right now, I am rowing with my Team Grotto virtual team in the 2016 Virtual Team Challenge sponsored by Concept2.
And, if you’re trying to get started running, reddit is an endless source of motivation for both Couch to 5k, running, and even general fitness and body weight exercises. And, oddly enough, there’s very little to no fat shaming no matter what you’ve heard about rampant reddit bullying.
My CrossFit god friend, Dan Krueger, is logging a lot of his workouts on an app called the Wendler Log and then sharing it out on Facebook — and that’s one of the biggest component for vigorous accountability with a side order of shaming: sharing your workouts — and lack thereof — on Facebook and Twitter.
I have even started using IFTTT to share every detail or my Fitbit data, including total steps, floors climbed, calories burned, feet elevation gained, miles traveled, sedentary minutes, lightly active minutes, fairly active minutes and very active minutes — and this is published automagically every single night thanks to an IFTTT script.
I have even started a brand-spanking-new health and fitness blog called RNNR – Fake It Till You Make It in an attempt to . . . fake it ’til I make it. And, on that note:
WARNING: you’ll probably spend more time being a hyper-sedentary geek than actually putting a couple hours of activity in every day, at least 10,000 steps onto the Fitbit, and at least 30-minutes of high-intensity activity every single day getting your sweat on (if you can go for more than a day without showering, you’re either really gross or you’re not sweating nearly enough on a daily basis).
OK, let’s bring this back to business: I guarantee you that if you spend at least a demiheure every day really sweating to the oldies you will surely be able scrub some stress from your life, boil out the frustrations, and armor your back against the inevitable Oy! My lumbago!
Become the tiger you are, tiger! Go git ’em!
