One month in and new gizmos!

Yep, it's been one month already and I can hardly believe it. It has been pretty smooth sailing and fairly straight forward so far. There were some expected blips in there - Easter, son's birthday, and a baby shower, but despite that I lost 8.6 pounds for the month according to my old Tanita IronMan scale.

It's funny how this month has just flown by. I haven't felt deprived. I haven't felt consumed with food thoughts - nothing. Yet for MONTHS before this I was nonstop thinking about "tomorrow I'll eat better". "Starting January 1st I'll get on track." "February 1st then." and so on. Yet, now that I am on track, it's easy. Starting to actually do it, took a slap in the face. I just couldn't force myself to just DO IT.

Also, as you may recall, I ordered a Withings Scale and a Withings blood pressure monitor and a larger band for my BodyMedia Fit gizmo that tracks sleep and steps/activity as well as track food (if I wanted to). I track my food elsewhere. Those were my mother's day presents to myself.

It took me forever to figure out how to use the apps today and well, they leave a bit to be desired. Like, I can't see how the Withings and BodyMedia sites really connect on my ipad. They do seem to on my iphone display much better, but since I hadn't worn my band for a few weeks, there's no new info, so it's a zero display.

For a record, I plugged in several weights into the Withings iPhone app so that I can see my starting point and where I've gone from there. I then took a blood pressure reading to add that to the chart and to keep track of.

The app on my ipad looks like this for a display(click to enlarge):

On my iPhone it looks like this below. You can see where the BodyMedia Fit will show it's info as soon as it's gathered it and been paired with it. (Sleep and Calories burned). Right now it's showing as zero as I haven't worn the gadget for 2 weeks. The weight lost is showing as 1.4 for the week as it's averaging the weight I 'probably' lost this week according to the data it has inputted so far.

So, that is that. My two scales were within .2 of a pound from each other too, so I couldn't be upset. Tanita had me at 233.0. Withings had me at 233.2. I didn't look at comparing body fat for both because really for now, it's still all about getting more fit, eating right and just having the trend go in the right direction.

Oh... and another note on pulse or BPM (beats per minute). The scale takes one while standing. That is never, ever the best measure as you all should know. That measure is taken while you are standing, have been walking around, etc. For that measure I got 89 as you can see above. Sure, that number should go down too with fitness level, but it is not a measure of a a resting heart rate. That one is better captured by the blood pressure monitor. And it was 64. As you can see here:

So April 1st was the start of eating right and getting on track. May 1st start the daily tracking of everything. Hopefully that downward trend will continue!

My Mother's day gifts (will arrive early)

Yep, I did it. I ordered BOTH the Withings scale and blood pressure monitor. I got the scale new, but on sale  (as you can't find them used) and got the monitor used. I will check the BP monitor against my mother in law's monitor which was just checked against the doctor's monitor to be sure it's accurate, but for $50 shipped, it's a good deal.

How many people get a scale or even WANT a scale for Mother's Day? I might be one of the very, very few.

Which ironically, came up when I asked the person selling the blood pressure monitor. I asked him the condition and why he was selling it. His response cracked me up:

No damage...works as new. Just don't use it. I'm not really all that health conscious. My wife thought I would like to track my blood pressure. I asked her if I should buy her a scale. Enough said.

Well, here I wanted a scale for a gift, but how would I have reacted if my husband just bought one for me without asking? I probably wouldn't like it. Especially since I wanted a specific one. And I would definitely balk if it was something as a "hint". If you know what I mean.

So... my new gizmos will be arriving soon. As well as the larger strap to the BodyMedia Fit Core. They were having a sale on bands, so for $10 shipped it was worth getting especially since I'm paying membership and should USE it!

Within the week I should be using my new gizmos and sharing my new tracking methods. Now it's just time to stalk the mail carrier and deliverymen.

On actual Mother's Day my husband is giving a talk at our Ethical Society (where I am Sunday School Director) and I'll be organizing things for Mother's Day there. We also NEVER go out to eat on Mother's day as it's a zoo. While I don't like to cook on my birthday or Mother's Day, I also don't like waiting in lines and getting terrible service just because it's a "day" everyone celebrates. So, Mother's Day, as always, will be extremely low key. These gifts to myself will be the bulk of it - and that's perfectly fine!

Time for a new gizmo - Mother's Day gift

My husband and I don't do gifts, so once or twice a year I get myself a 'gift' like item instead (which is what we agreed on). Since mother's day is coming up, I got to thinking about what I would like.

I think I want two things, but both of them are definitely in the "want" not "need" category. And one of them is simply I don't want to share!

OK, first thing I would like is a Withings Scale. I don't 'need' a new scale as our 10 year old Tanita IronMan scale works fine, but it doesn't pair up with anything - no wifi. And I think it is cool to truly keep track with either BodyMedia site or with other similar sites. Now... I find it irksome that these things are not universal. Like I have a Garmin fitness watch, but Garmin Connect only works with Tanita wifi scales (though people have found ways to work around it). I understand competition and such, but most people want to be able to use their various smart gadgets together in a harmonious way.

The Withings Scale will give me weight, body fat, etc, same as the IronMan does. AND for me, though I don't think for my husband, the body fat readings are really accurate - which is surprising as they don't tend to be. I've had BodPod testing twice and they were almost the exact same as what my Tanita scale gave me for results. Of course, I have no idea if Withings will be more or less accurate. I would have to compare them side by side for awhile.

The other thing I am eying is the Withings Blood pressure wifi monitor. Again, I don't "need" this as my mother in law has a very accurate blood pressure monitor, but I don't like having to ask to use it - and like now, daily. I don't like having to share anything of her personal belongings. I would have to go to her room and either ask or wait until she wasn't home. Plus, she gets snoopy and would want to ask about my blood pressure and why I'm taking it, etc. I'm not hiding things from her, but since I don't feel close to her as a person, I don't feel like talking about such things with her. I would rather have my own. My husband will think that is stupid and crazy, but then he also doesn't understand that his relationship with his mother and my relationship with his mother are not the same on either end of it.

The other advantage of the Withings monitor is that I can use it right along with my other fitness gadgets, keeping track of trends. I NEED to keep a constant eye on my blood pressure as it is the #1 indicator if my body is getting out of whack by either diet or thyroid. I should probably watch trends as it would probably help me figure out more of my body's rhythms. As of right now, I don't know how much is the thyroid function. How much is exercise. How much is diet as I tend to do all three or ignore all three (which I hope not to do ever again!).

So... I need to figure out which gizmo I will buy - or if I will buy, for Mother's Day. Fitness gizmo is ALWAYS a good gift idea for me, house cleaning supplies? NEVER. I totally don't get you people who think a new vacuum is a good gift!

Editing to add: I had the blood pressure monitor in my basket at BestBuy as it was on sale for $79.99. Well, I decided to get it as it was on sale and that was a really good price. I came back to it after doing some work and the price jacked up to full price of $129.99. Um... no. Can't swallow that price!