Yipee-ki-yoga M----- F-----! (plus bonus progress pics)

I tried yoga for the first time today.

I have to admit that I always associated yoga with skinny girls who have perfect hair and trust funds.  When I was in law school there was a group of girls who used to do yoga in the back lawn behind the library, and I would watch them occasionally while I was supposed to be studying.  Yoga looked very serene, but not like anything I would ever try or enjoy.  I am much more of a lummox who is more suited to strength sports like shot put than anything graceful. 

I know that I have issues with flexibility and balance however, and as I have become fitter, these are things that I want to work on.  At long last, it was time to try yoga. 

Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I love me some apps.  They are my fitness teaching tool and motivator all in one.  When I wanted to try yoga, it was natural that I would try an app first.  Especially since I didn't know the first thing about yoga.

Today I tried the Yoga Studio app.

This paid app ($2.99 in the Apple App Store) contains detailed instructions and advice regarding how to perform more than 280 different poses, which is a must for a complete non-yoga person like me.  The app also has hours of video with classes of various types, lengths and levels, including Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced classes for Balance, Flexibility, Relaxation, Strength and combination classes in 15, 30 and 60 minute sessions.  The combinations permit quite a bit of customization so that it would be very easy to fit a routine into my schedule no matter how chaotic the week.  And because it is an app, it is perfect for when I travel, because I can do the routines anywhere.  Provided I remember my iPad, of course.

I tried a 15-minute Beginner Combination program.  In a shocking twist, the video has a skinny woman with perfect hair who demonstrates the routine to a soundtrack of relaxing new age music.  The instructions were clear (even for a barbarian like me), and I had very little difficulty following along.

That is not to say that I found it easy to do the routine - - it was actually surprisingly physically challenging, and I even caught myself sweating at points.  For one thing, it turns out that I am even less flexible than I imagined and even basic moves like sitting cross-legged were tough for me - - I had an especially difficult time with moves involving my right side, which has never been as flexible as my left.  Some of the poses I found very physically difficult due to my lack of flexibility (especially downward dog), and I will need to go back and watch how those are properly done to make sure I am not messing them up too badly. 

But I am happy that some of the things that worried me before trying yoga were no big problem - - given my flexibility issues, I was concerned about rolling around on the mat and transitioning from pose to pose, but that was not really an issue.  It only took me losing 136 pounds to be able to handle an introductory 15 minute yoga routine - - yay me.  (!)


The pace of the routine I tried was perfect - - the moves flowed from one pose to another smoothly enough that I never felt rushed, but I always felt that there was enough time in a given pose to get the benefit of the move. 


I have to tell you that at the end of the routine I felt AMAZING.  I felt energized and recharged and vital and all sorts of other positive adjectives.  Although I was checking the clock halfway through (during the downward dog marathon), I was surprised when the routine ended - - the time did fly, and I was a little disappointed when it was over.  And I was especially jazzed that I had completed my first yoga routine - - something I never thought I would ever do in a million years.  Yes, it was only 15 minutes, but I thought it was an accomplishment to be able to work through a whole routine for my first time.

I am sure I will feel the stretches in my joints tomorrow, but for now, I am very happy to have tried yoga.  I loved the Yoga Studio app and I will definitely incorporate it into my workout routine.  Even better, I can see how the different poses will help me to improve my flexibility over time, which is the point of this whole exercise.

On a completely unrelated note, I finally took progress photos for the end of the month:

 Things are definitely coming along.  Comparing to last year at this time:

I really like the way my free weight routine is helping to tone my arms, and I like how everything is tightening up overall.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to look up some cheats for downward dog for the flexibility-challenged.

My Weight Loss So Far - from A to Z

[for those of you outside of the Commonwealth, that's "A to Zed"  ;-)]. 

A - Apps.  Lots of them.  I love using a whole slew of fitness apps to track my progress and to help keep me motivated.  Some of the apps that I use daily are MyFitnessPal (for food tracking and a fantastically supportive online community), DigiFit (for tracking my heart rate zones during workouts), Lolo Beatburn Elliptical (to jazz up the music during my daily elliptical workouts), and TactioHealth (for a health snapshot).  I also use the iFitness app for my free weight workouts every other day.  I love that so many aspects of my health and fitness are quantified, because it permits me to see progress and helps keep me on track.  And progress is motivating. 

Photo courtesy Kaudris, licensed CC-BY-SA

B - Back pain.  Something I rarely get any more, now that I have been exercising regularly and working out.  I used to be so physically compromised that I could not walk to the corner, and now I can walk for miles without even a twinge in my back.  My back still goes out occasionally (as it did last month), but on a day to day basis, my back gives me no problems at all.  This is a huge improvement in my quality of life, because a sore back limits you in so many ways.

Photo courtesy Madhero88, licensed CC-BY-SA

C - Cardio.  I started off my workout plan by doing nothing but cardio exercise, because I knew that endurance was my first and biggest problem.  After working out with the recumbent bike and rowing machine for 5 months, I had lost 36.5 pounds, and my stamina had greatly increased.  When I started, I could only manage to do 7 minutes on the recumbent bike 5 days a week and now I do 40 minutes on the elliptical machine 6 days a week.  Along with the stamina increases, my resting heart rate has decreased from 120-130 bpm to around 45-55 bpm.  Cardio is good for me. 

D - Diabetes.  I am not diabetic.  Yet.  But I have an absolutely terrible family history of diabetes, which means that I have an extremely elevated chance of becoming diabetic in the future if I do not take active steps now to prevent it.  I was terrified to check my fasting blood sugar at first in case I was already diabetic, and as it happens, I am pre-diabetic.  This means that although my sugars are elevated, they are not in the diabetic range.  The more weight I lose, and the better I control my carbs, the easier it will be to control my sugars, and the lower the risk that I will develop diabetes.  Still, it's something that I monitor every day, to make sure I am on top of things.  I hope to one day have every reading in the normal zone, with only the occasional blip.  It's the reverse right now (mostly elevated readings with the occasional normal reading).  But in time, this will improve.

E - Elliptical.  I love my elliptical machine.  A present from my parents, this monster has completely replaced the recumbent bike and rowing machine in my affections.  It's just such an effective way to work out - low impact on my joints, smooth action, arms for adding effort, and it's in my apartment.  It is almost impossible to avoid the elliptical machine, and I haven't missed a workout since I got it.  My results have accelerated since starting on the elliptical, as well.  It used to be that I was lucky to lose a pound a week, and sometimes I could go weeks without losing a thing.  Now I am no longer afraid to get on the scale, because I am seeing so much progress in any given week.  Plus, my monthly "water" gain has virtually disappeared since I began using the elliptical - - every week sees at least some loss, which is a huge improvement from B.E. (Before Elliptical).

F - Fitbit.  I love my Fitbit.  I picked up the Fitbit Ultra early this year as a way to track my activity levels, and boy, was I in for a rude shock!  It turns out that I was barely active.  Most days I was hardly walking at all, in large part due to the crippling back pain I suffered with even the shortest of walks.  Fast forward to now, and I am more than 60 pounds lighter, and I am habitually walking 5,000 steps a day, and even, when I add an incremental walk to my routine, walking 7,500 or even 10,000 steps a day.  My goal is to regularly walk 7,500 -10,000 steps every day.  We'll see if I can make it!

Photo courtesy Lar, licensed CC-BY-SA

G - Goals.  I have goals.  Lots of goals.  Short term goals, long term goals, fitness goals, weight goals, measurement goals, lifestyle goals ... you get the picture.  You don't know when you've arrived unless you have an idea of where you are going, and I personally find having goals to be very motivating.  Goals help me stay focused on what I need to do every day. I have so many interim goals in part because focusing on the single long term weight goal is too overwhelming - - after all, who thinks they can lose 168 pounds?  It doesn't even bear consideration.  But I could lose 20 pounds, then 33.9 pounds, then 50 pounds...and on it goes.  Now, having lost more than 60 pounds, I look at my next major goal (to lose 100 pounds) as completely doable, since I only need to lose around 35 pounds.  And I know I can do that, because I've already done that.  Whee!  Bring it on!

Photo courtesy Tax Credits, licensed CC-BY-SA

H - Health.  By any number of metrics, my health has improved since I first began working out at the end of January this year.  I have more energy, I am more mobile, my resting heart rate and fasting blood sugar levels have both decreased, and I have lost more than 60 pounds.  I haven't had problems with my asthma in months.  My body is no longer the limiting factor that it once was - - I am physically able to do things I haven't been able to do in a long time.  And over time, as I increase my workouts and continue to eat healthy foods, my health should continue to improve.

I - Injury.  Touch wood, but I have not been seriously injured since I began my workout regimen this year.  Sure, my back went out for a couple of weeks last month, but overall, I have been very lucky so far as injuries have gone.  My groin pull from my move two years ago is still a chronic nagging issue, but it is a low intensity problem for the most part.  I have not broken any bones recently, nor have I pulled any muscles that I need to work out.  This has not always been the case - - I have a history of overdoing things to the point of severely injuring myself.  So far, however, so good - - and I intend to keep it that way!  No more overdoing things!  Slow and steady are my new watchwords.

J - Junk food.  Since I have started tracking what I eat (about 3 months ago), my junk food consumption has dwindled to almost nothing.  I love me some fast food - - it's all brown and fried, after all - - but the calories, carbs, fat and sodium in these foods is astonishing.  I am no saint, but I am really reluctant to give up an entire week's worth of eating well and working out just to eat at McDonald's and gain it all back.  Most of the time I am eating home cooked meals (thanks to the Nerd), with plenty of vegetables and protein.  And I find that it makes a huge difference in the results that I am seeing.  Take prepared or fast food out of the equation, and the weight has just been falling off me. I am privileged to have someone at home cooking meals for me, which is a huge benefit.  Left to my own devices, and I am sure prepared foods would begin to creep back into my diet.  But for now, junk food is a thing of the past, and my body thanks me for it.

K - Knees.  Yes, my knees still sound like popcorn when I bend them.  Yes, my knees don't like to bend all that much.  Yes, they are a lot better than before I began working out.  No, I won't stop working out.  No, my knees do not hurt on the elliptical.  Squats, though - - boy are those frightening to listen to!  It's like a bowl of Rice Krispies cereal in there for all the noise my knees make when I do squats.  Although the noisy knees may be here to stay, I am hoping that with time, my mobility will improve as the weight continues to come off.  Eventually I would love to see what all is happening in my knees (via an x-ray or MRI), just to see if I have any cartilage left at all.  My guess: no.

L - Logging food.  I first began to keep a food diary when I signed up with MyFitnessPal almost three months ago, and it was an eye-opening experience.  To that point I had never considered the carbs or calories in beverages, and I never thought about eating too little in a day.  I could not understand why it was so difficult to lose weight, but I never correlated this fact with what I was eating.  Keeping a food diary has changed all of that.  I see now that what I was eating and drinking was unbalanced, and that I was eating too little and putting my body into starvation mode.  Logging my food has been the first step in learning to control what I eat, which is the first step in a true lifestyle change.  I do not have a natural grasp of all of the healthy options yet, but logging my food has gone a long way to helping me understand what healthy choices look like. 

M - Measurements.  Not only do I weigh myself every day, I also measure myself once a month with a tape measure.  In the past I have seen that sometimes the weight just doesn't come off, but I have lost inches from various parts of my body.  Measuring myself is concrete proof that my efforts are having an effect.  So far to date I have lost more than 24" across various parts of my body, and two full clothing sizes.  While my moods may change with the wind and the scale torment me, measurements are real.

N - NSV. Not every win along my path to fitness has come by way of the scale, although there have been many "scale victories" as well.  The non-scale victories include things like dropping two clothing sizes, having more energy to walk places, having people notice that I've lost weight, and fitting easier into seats.  It's the non-scale victories that keep me motivated between milestones on the scale. 

O - One day at a time.  "This is a marathon, not a sprint" is something I have heard over and over during this journey.  And you know what?  It's true.  If I think about the enormity of the task ahead of me, I will get depressed because it's clearly impossible.  No one can expect to lose 168 pounds and keep it off.  So I try not to think about the big picture.  I focus on hitting today's plan, and only today's plan.  I try and keep doing my workouts, keep eating right, and keep drinking enough water, every day.  If I do that, the weeks and months will take care of themselves, eventually.  But I can't push it or hope for shortcuts, because this is a long term play, and one day at a time is the only way that it's going to work.

Photo courtesy Bradley P. Johnson, licensed CC-BY-SA

P - Portion control.  This was something I never did until this year.  Not only is my concept of what is an acceptable portion completely skewed by the typical North American restaurant serving, I always ate until I was full.  Which could take some doing.  Since I started working out, and especially since I began logging my food, I have become increasingly aware of portion sizes and what they mean to my nutrition.  I am ever so slowly coming to terms with typical portion sizes so that I can think on my feet when it comes to ordering and consuming food, but I still depend heavily on measuring much of what goes into my mouth, and packing it ahead of time.  I am still eating everything I love, more or less (after all, last weekend was 'cupcakepalooza' at my house), but I am doing so in sensible portions.  Sometimes a portion is 1/2 of something, and that's ok.  Portion control has been one of the biggest contributors to my success so far, without a doubt.

Photo courtesy the Noodleator, licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

Q - Quitting is not an option.  It's hard to get up early in the morning to work out for 40 minutes on the elliptical.  It's harder still to walk up the stairs to do another 25 minutes of free weights.  It's hard to be constantly monitoring what goes into my mouth.  It's tough to walk places when I could just as easily take a streetcar.  But you know what, I don't have the option to quit.  With my family history of diabetes, and with my pre-diabetic state, if I stop working out and watching what I eat, the weight will come back on.  And if that happens, the health consequences do not even bear consideration.  And can I even consider going back to what my life was like before I began working out?  The constant back pain and asthmatic wheezing, the low energy and feelings of despair?  No thank you.  I can't go back to the life I had, now that I have peeked through the door of an active lifestyle.  I can't quit now, just when it's getting good.

Photo courtesy smartmindfuel, licensed CC-BY-SA

R -Routine.  Routine is my salvation.  I don't need to get all creative and funky for now, I just need to stick to my plan.  I pack my lunch and dinner and bring them to work, and I know what I am eating, in what portions.  I exercise every morning, rain or shine, and my workouts have become such a part of my routine that it's been weeks since I have even considered skipping a day.  And this consistency is paying off - - I am losing weight at a steady rate, and I am feeling good while I am doing it.  Some things break up the routine, but because I have the basic structure down, it's easy for me to make small adjustments to keep everything in the sweet spot.  Routine is the base on which I am building my new lifestyle. 

Photo by Stephan Ohlsen, licensed CC-BY-SA-ND

S - Sweat.  I'm a prodigious sweater.  It's true.  When I do my 40 minutes on the elliptical, I am dripping with sweat after only 10 minutes into things, so much so that I keep a washcloth handy to mop up.  Which I have to do every minute or so.  My sweating doesn't really interfere with my workouts, but it does get socially awkward at times if people see me out on one of my walks, because I am not the queen of glamour, all dripping and pink faced.  At least I know that my body is efficiently ridding itself of excess salts.  I have to say that with my propensity to sweat, I love the workout shirts I got from Go Figure, which have that nice moisture wicking fabric that doesn't cling to me like a wet hanky. 

T -Time.  Working out takes time.  Planning and preparing healthy meals takes time.  Getting enough sleep at night takes - you guessed it - time.  I find that my billable work time is getting compressed by all the demands on my time related to my new healthy lifestyle.  There are only so many hours in the day, and I am finding it a challenge to do the things I need to do to be healthy, and still bill a full day, without staying too late at the office.  Over time, I hope that I will be better able to balance things, but for now, the multiple competing demands on my time are very stressful. 

U - Upper arms.  One day I hope to have definition in my upper arms, which presently look like two giant bags of flour.  I hope also to have ankles, rather than cankles, and collarbones that are visible to the naked eye.  So many dreams of definition, it's why I have started doing weights.  No joy yet, but give it time, I just started last week.

Photo by cobalt123, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA

V - Visualize success.  You can't win if you can't visualize what success looks like.  After all, if you can't visualize success, how do you know when you have succeeded?  I have lots of photos from the last time I worked out and made it down to my goal weight of 165 pounds / size 14, and I keep thinking of those when I really need encouragement.  I know what I look like when I am at my goal weight, and I know I can get there again, with plenty of hard work and discipline.  I want to get there, and I will get there, eventually.

W - Weights.  You can't tone without weights.  I knew it last time I worked out, and I know it now, which is why I added free weights into my workout routine last week.  I am now doing 2 sets of 12 reps, with the baby 4 pound dumbbells as a start.  Eventually the reps and weight will increase, and so will the results.  For now, I can feel the impact of the weight routine in my muscles, so I know it's having an impact.  Eventually I will need to invest in still more equipment, but for now, I have a range of weights sufficient to enable me to see some results in the near term.  I have always loved how strong I feel after I work out with weights.

X - Xiphoid process.  This is the bit on the end of the sternum.  I don't have anything particular to say about my xiphoid process, other than to say that I look forward to seeing more of my sternum in general as I lose the subcutaneous fat over time.  For those of you who say "wow, what a lame word", you try and think of a workout related word that begins with the letter "X", I defy you.

Photo by Ged Carroll, licensed CC-BY-SA

Y - Yes I can.  I can do this.  I can change my lifestyle and become the healthy woman I know that I can be.  I can become an active person who is not afraid to do new things.  I can, and I will succeed at this challenge I have set for myself.  I need to consistently keep working my routine, and constantly challenge myself to meet my goals, and I will get to my target weight and size.  Yes. I. Can.

Photo by Chrisinplymouth, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA

Z - Zero.  As in "zero reasons to quit".  I have everything to gain, and nothing to lose by sticking to my current program.  Or everything to lose, depending on whether you consider the glass to be half full or half empty.  Nothing I could say to justify stopping now would overcome the multiplicity of reasons why I should keep going.  And so I will.  Keep going, that is.  Quitting is for suckers. 

Taking a Stroll with the DigiFit and Runkeeper Apps

Tonight my partner and I took a short walk this evening with an eye to comparing how the DigiFit app tracks a walk versus the Runkeeper app.

DigiFit

First, I looked at the DigiFit app.  Starting a walk was just as easy as starting a workout from home with the Quickstart feature.  The app tracked my heart rate using a Garmin ANT+ adapter and chest band, and assigned my heart rate to different workout zones, depending on the intensity of the workout over time.

As you can see from the screen shot, above, the app calculated that I had walked 1.74 miles in 40 minutes, for around 253 calories expended.  Because the app works with my heart rate monitor, it also displays my average and maximum beats per minute. 

The app will also count out the 10 minute intervals walked, but I had the sound off so that I did not hear any of the interval counts or other commentary from the app. 

Although the DigiFit app calculates my average pace and distance and time travelled, it does not calculate the pace/hour. 

Positives:  heart rate monitor integration with heart rate zone graph; quick and easy to use; straightforward; permits notes to be added to walk/run; GPS/map functionality; tracks elevation; part of an overall health tracking app that also includes ability to track blood pressure, sleep, and resting heart rate.

Negatives: does not calculate mph pace speed; DigiFit occasionally drops workouts off my list of completed workouts if the app is not synched with the server immediately after the workout; GPS has been known to drop completely in high scatter environments, like downtown Toronto in the midst of office towers.

Runkeeper
I have to admit that this was the first time that I used the Runkeeper app, and I only downloaded it at all because of its integration with my Gym-Pact app.  Officially starting next week, qualifying walks/runs/cycles tracked using the Runkeeper app will count as workouts for Gym-Pact. 

Initially, the app is much like the DigiFit app.  Runkeeper, too, calculates time, mileage, expended calories, and also has a GPS/mapping function. 

Unlike DigiFit, Runkeeper actually calculates my average speed, which I really like (given my poor math skills). 

However my Garmin ANT+ heart rate monitor does not work with the Runkeeper app, which has its own proprietary partner.  This is a pain in the butt, because I am not going on walks festooned with heart rate monitors over every exposed piece of skin just because my apps do not play well together.  Because DigiFit provides the nice chart showing the heart rate zones, I am staying with the heart monitoring functionality on the DigiFit app, rather than the Runkeeper app for now.

The Runkeeper app also has some sort of commentary, but I had to turn the sound off because the app also triggered by iPod to start playing.  The app permits you to select your playlist (which I did), but it started playing some random song from a different playlist, and I could not figure out how to shut the thing down.  Perhaps I am a Luddite who is unaccustomed to technology, but I hate when apps do things I do not specifically instruct them to do - - like turn on my music full blast. 

As you can see from the screen shot, above, the map and summary readout is very similar to the DigiFit app, although it provides the information in a slightly different format.  For some reason, even though I was taking the same walk at the same time, where the DigiFit had me walking 1.74 miles in 40 minutes, Runkeeper had me walking 1.85 miles in almost 43 minutes.  I can understand a minute's difference, since I started the apps running sequentially, but 3 minutes?  and a tenth of a mile difference?  The calorie count is also much higher (390 versus 253), but that is likely due to an estimate based on weight, rather than DigiFit's estimate which is based on weight + heart rate.

Positives: easy to use; permits heart rate tracker integration (although I did not use it); integrated with Gym-Pact; GPS/map functionality; calculates pace in mph; permits the user to set goals (e.g. miles walked or length of walk); tracks elevation.

Negatives: turned on my music unexpectedly; you can expect the GPS to drop in high scatter environments, just like the DigiFit GPS; heart rate monitor functionality requires special equipment; dedicated app only tracks walks/runs/cycles.

Overall, the DigiFit does more things, but I suspect the Runkeeper is better at the one thing that it does.  Everything in the Runkeeper app is designed around that single aspect, namely, tracking  workouts.  DigiFit tracks much more than merely workouts, but it tracks workouts well. 

I will continue to try both for now, to see if I can work out that "playing music unintentionally" thing that happened last night.  I will continue to defer to DigiFit's calorie counts (they are more accurate because of the heart rate monitor) and will use whichever mileage calculation is more conservative. 

I have been walking quite a bit lately, and am beginning to feel it in my left knee and right groin, so I am going to take a break from walking until Friday or Saturday, to give my body a chance to recover. 

Customer Service Challenges

Those of you who read this blog may have noticed that I have a deep and abiding love of fitness apps.  I love love love tracking all the various trackable things, since each time I track something it's an opportunity to improve on at least one metric.  Because so many of my metrics are, simply put, terrible, progress on any one metric is good progress.

This week, interestingly, I had issues with two of my apps that required customer service intervention.  The first was with MyFitnessPal, which has entirely replaced LoseIt! in my affections.  I tried to log in to my MyFitnessPal account on Monday morning, and poof! my account was gone.  I tried on the mobile apps, and on the web interface, and each time saw a message that my account had been deleted.  Since I had not deleted the account, this was troubling. 

I penned a quick note to MyFitnessPal customer service, and sat back to await the inevitable 48 hour delay.  I was extremely pleasantly surprised when they got back to me the same day with a response.  As it turns out, I received the message that my account had been deleted because MyFitnessPal had upgraded its systems and ... inadvertently deleted my account.  It was entirely their fault, the customer service rep explained, and apologized profusely. 

Now I had only begun using the MyFitnessPal app the weekend prior, so there was not that much data in the account.  I had some menus and food records in there, and my weekly weight history from last November, but none of that was a huge loss, or irreplaceable.  I was most impressed with how quickly customer service responded to my inquiry, and how apologetic they were for deleting my account.  I have no problem when mistakes like this happen, since they cost me nothing, and are readily owned by the person who made the mistake.  Overall, yes, my account was gone forever, but customer service made it easy for me to set up my replacement account, and gave me all the information I needed to know how the issue happened in the first place.  I was very pleased with my experience, and even more of a fan of MyFitnessPal than before they (inadvertently) wiped out my account.

My second customer service issue was with Gym-Pact.  Gym-Pact is the app that allows the user to put a dollar value to their workouts, and to pay that money when they miss a workout, whilst earning money for making workouts.  It feels like a bit of a pyramid scheme, but it's a motivational pyramid scheme. 

Since joining Gym-Pact, I have not missed a workout.  I have to admit that on a couple of occasions, the thought of having to make up a missed workout to make my "Pact" did come into play and motivate me into getting out of bed.  Each week since joining, I have received a status email telling me that I had made my Pact, owed nothing, and earned $x (usually around $3 each week).  So far, so motivating.

Until I looked at my credit card statement and saw that Gym-Pact had billed me US$330.00 for "attendance fees", which is a charge of $50 for 6 weeks and $30 for one week.  Not good.  Not motivational. 

So I contacted customer service with a strongly worded email, demanding a refund and requesting an explanation.  After several days, I finally heard back from Gym-Pact customer service, who explained that I had apparently set up a partial account, but had never worked out under that account, which is why they billed me each week.  They deleted the duplicate account, and refunded the money.  On the face of it, they met my demands and did all they needed to do, albeit after several days' delay.

What makes me a little skeptical of Gym-Pact's explanation, however, is that the amount charged varied - - one week they billed me $30, rather than the $50 that should have been billed if the system legitimately thought I had missed my Pact.  After all, the Pact did not change, and if that partial user account had never worked out, the company should have billed me $50 each week.  So I think there was a system glitch, and one that slipped through the cracks until I brought it to Gym-Pact's attention.  But how often do these kind of "glitches" happen, and how many people do not notice?  Potentially shady. 

So I am considering leaving Gym-Pact, because my sense of trust in their accounting practices is somewhat shaken.  For now I will keep on, but I will watch 'em like a hawk. 

New App...

We had family over to the Palatial Estate last evening for dinner, and the Nerd's sister mentioned that she was loving MyFitnessPal, which had both a web interface and an app for her to track her exercise and food consumed. 

It all sounds very much like the LoseIt! app I have been enjoying so much, except that MyFitnessPal offers one massive, significant advantage - - it allows you to input the ingredients for a recipe, and then calculates the calories in a meal for you, for those meals that we create from scratch rather than buy off the shelf.

Now I don't know about you, but I have found that my consumption of pre-packaged foods has dramatically decreased in the 27 weeks since I have been actively working out.  Now, instead of eating an entire box of Kraft Dinner (still one of my all-time favourite foods), I am eating a serving from a leftover home cooked meal.  A home cooked meal from a cookbook that is not necessarily found in the standard food database. 

So far I have put 4 recipes into the program, and have been shocked and delighted by the results.  Shocked because of how many calories we are actually eating at times (I won't even tell you how many calories SPAM luncheon meat has per serving), and delighted at how simple the program has been to use.  Both the iPad app and the web-interface have been great, and I recommend them to anyone who is serious about tracking their food.

Now the problem is that both LoseIt! and MyFitnessPal both talk to my Fitbit, and provide me with summary reports etc.  That's not an issue, but each seems to want to be my "one and only" - I suspect that these two apps do not play well with each other. 

I will keep tracking on both apps during the upcoming week, to see how they stack up and which I prefer.  Details to follow.

Still a loser...

Photo Courtesy Amelia Reising, Licensed CC BY NC SA

... of weight and inches, that is.

So, another month down, more inches lost.  And I managed to lose 2.1 pounds last week, bringing me back below my previous low mark, for a total of 36.5 pounds lost. 

Since I've started working out, I've lost 4.4" on my bust, 3" off my waist, and 3.1" off my hips.  My hips are really frustrating me, because they are the part of me that is keeping me from dropping down to a size 22 - I need to cut a further 2" of those bad boys, which is not happening.  Yet.  I am confident that the elliptical will help me make big strides in that direction this month, since the butt and legs are the parts of me that feel the burn the most on that machine. 

Just for kicks I tried to do 10 minutes on the elliptical yesterday on the manual setting (because all the other settings were far too difficult to do more than 2 minutes at a time...), and it seemed to work.  I still had to take a couple of pauses in there, and my left leg was really shaky after getting off the machine, but I could do the full 10 minutes relatively comfortably, which is good.

I have so far "earned" $6.30 with the Gym-Pact app, because I have hit my 5x/week workout Pact each of the last two weeks.  Apparently one can withdraw money to one's Paypal account once there is a balance of $10 or more, which should happen in a couple of weeks, assuming I leave the target as 5 workouts per week, and assuming that I hit the target each week (and assuming, of course, that the organization behind the app does not abscond with all the funds after becoming over-leveraged, Ponzi-like). 

I have also downloaded a new app, DigiFit, which has a heart rate tracking mechanism that is intriguing to me.  I do not have a heart rate monitor that speaks to the app yet, but it is on the way, and this will hopefully give me additional metrics I can use to analyse my workouts.  The app is particularly designed for hikers, walkers, cyclists, walkers and people taking a spin class - elliptical machines are not specifically mentioned, but I suppose they fall under the general category of "cardio".  I plan on giving this app a try once the new heart rate monitor arrives, and I will let you know how I like the app then.