Roseanne's Fitbit Journey

[thequilteddove]

I've decided to journal my Fitbit experience.  I hope fellow fitbiters will follow me, share their experiences with me & encourage me as I go.

Why did I become a Fitbiter?  I'm 56, over weight, but still consider myself reasonably fit.  I exercise 5x a week, either biking/walk/elliptical.  I'm border line everything - cholesterol, sugar, BP.  Up until recently, I've manage to be pharmaceutical free.  Less than two months ago I passed out (nasty stomach virus) and hit my head.  I ended up w/a concussion.  The ER doctor was concerned w/my BP, called my HP and bam I'm on 5mg of Linsinoprol & baby and being run through a battery of test because I had an b EKG.

Personally, I like to blame every thing on peri-mental pause *grins*.  I think I'm fine; but, I will follow through to make sure. 

I've enjoyed the charts & reports that premier provides, so I signed up.  I would have preferred it not be an annual auto renewal.  Maintaining my activity for a year will be easy enough.  Maintaining good eating habits will be the challenge.  I've read conflicting post about how accurate the info that our fitbits provide can be.  I'm not ready to pass judgement just yet... We'll see how it goes over the next few months.

What do I hope to accomplish?

- Improve eating habits

- See if I can eventually eliminate BP meds

- Continue to lower cholesterol and stay off of cholesterol meds. (I've gone down 50 points total since November *smiles*)

- Lower blood sugars and stay off diabities.

- Loose 10#s and eventually bring weight to about 135#s - a total of 50#s plus.  But I'll take ten to start with!

- Find the motivation/drive to increase steps to 15k, 5x a week.  For now I'll take one or two days a week...

Here's what my first week looked like.

[WendyB]

Looks like you have figured things out. Keep us posted

[JohnRi]

I can tell you from experience, I was pretty much where you were.  Last year I was getting headaches.  Bad headaches.  I had a MRI done on my sinuses...  nothing.  MRI on my brain... Nothing...

I was also having memory problems, potentially on onset alzheimer's.  But the same MRI came out clean.

My BP was just just under 160/100. My cholesterol was bad.  I was almost prediabetic.  I was fatigued all the time.  My back ached.  I sweat just walking to my mailbox.  Bottom line I was in VERY VERY BAD shape and my doctor said I was going to be dead in 10 years...

I was 281 lbs, 98 lbs overweight.  I was put on linosipil too.  Then I was put on Atenolol, a beta blocker to lower my heart rate...  I was on cholestorol med too.

I had a echocartigraph done on my heart.  I found out the blood pressure had damaged my heart.  First changer was enlarged, and 3 leaking valves...  All mild stage 1 damage, and I can live with it as long as it doesn't get worse.

I had a nuclear stress test done to clear me for exercise.  I'm glad I passed it.

This was me September 2015...

Do you have the Linosipil cough?  Turns out there is something in the drug that our bodies can't get rid of, except coughing it up!  I didn't have the cough bad, but I had it.

By January, I was down 30 lbs.  I had lost enough that I was taken off the Linosipil.  Last month I had lost 60 lbs, and I was off the Atenolol too.  My cholestorol is normal.  I'll be off the med at my physical in September.  I should have a new echocartigraph to see if I've reversed the damage to my heart at that time.

Today I've lost 65 lbs, and I feel great.  I can walk 6 miles, I can ride my bike 20 miles.  All medical issues are gone.  I feel 20+ years younger. 

I shared my story with you, because I believe if anyone truly wants to change they can.  It was a huge effort on me to do what I've done in the last 8 1/2 months.  But I've added years to my life.

So you can do it.  That's not a question, it's a fact.  But are you willing to do it?  That is the question.  I had to wait until my heath was in serious danger before I did something I knew I had to do for most of my life.

My only regret, why didn't I do this sooner? 

So good luck, and go do it!

[thequilteddove]

Wow JohnRi.  Thank you for sharing your story.  It's very encouraging.  I'm so happy for you!  I understand and appreciate the level of committment it takes to change one's self - and in only 8 months!  Wow! 

I'm gon'na be like you! 

I'm off to a good start.  Exercise is already part of my every day life. My challenge is to increase the activity and logging my food intake.  I've been given a wake up call and I WILL answer it *smiles*.

[thequilteddove]

Holy crap it's hot out there! I love it! My fitbit journey is going well so far. 102 degrees, but I made it! I really need to get my butt out earlier lol

My Dr's appointment went reasonable well. I lost 2#s. The doctor said she's seeing some unusual flat lines in the results of my stress test. She doesn't seem very concerned, but is going to have me do a nuclear stress test next. *shrugs* We must do, what we must do. In the meantime, she wants me to monitor my BP every day for the next three weeks and she said it's ok for me to keep exercising - thank God!

[thequilteddove]

Look at me!  15k three days in a row!  I'm very happy w/a couple days a week like this and 10k the rest of the time.

[USAF-Larry]

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@thequilteddove wrote:

Look at me!  15k three days in a row!  I'm very happy w/a couple days a week like this and 10k the rest of the time. 

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That is great!  And, look at those Active Minutes numbers!  Keep on stepping!

[WendyB]

Woot doing awesome! Congrats!

[divedragon]

you're doing great!  18 months ago I was 240 lbs and 57 years old.  I'm now 58 and 190 lbs.  I'm sure I had a host of health problems other than high pulse rate (avg 82), bowel issues and acid reflux, but never went to a doctor to have everything checked.  I began the typical, eat less, move more method of weight loss and it worked - for a while.  At 214 I plateaued and couldn't off it, so in October I began Intermittent fasting (IF) using the 16:8 protocol and quickly went down to 194.  Then due to holidays, travel and just lack of will, my intermittent fasting became intermittent itself.  My scotch drinking became less disiplined as well and I found myself bouncing from 184 to 197.  I'm back on track as of almost two weeks when I started a 7 day water fast to reset my body.

An interesting thing happens each time I fast for multiple days.  My pulse rate drops.  So does my blood pressure, but I don't have a chart for that, but if you look at the chart below, that long drop was during my 7 day fast.  The up and down at the end are alternate day fasting numbers (eat one day, not the next), with the low points the non eating days.

Once again, I think you've gotten off to a good start.  Consider looking into IF to help with your blood pressure.  I'd be happy to forward you on my research on the subject of IF for both weight loss and general health.,

[emili]

Fantastic work!! Just please please please take care of yourself in the heat!!

[thequilteddove]

Ok, it's been a while... the week of June 20-26, I had a fabulous week! I went on a four day sew-in where I met a ton of lovely ladies. We sewed & sewed & sewed. The food was fabulous. Mostly I ate super healthy, but I did allow myself to indulge in some absolutely scrumptious deserts. Several of the ladies helped me maintain my steps the entire time I was there. I even had a few 15k days! I love the reports. I see that I need to up my protein & decrease my fats *grins*

I wish I could do that wonderfully every day! By the time I got home, I was EXHAUSTED and I fell off the wagon a few days. Nothing real terrible, but that's another post *giggles*

[USAF-Larry]

Looking Good!  Not a bad week for having fallen off the wagon a few times....  

[thequilteddove]

Progress is being made!

[thequilteddove]

It's been a while... My motivation and success has come to what I hope is only a temporary setback.  My weight is increasing. I can come up w/some rationalization about how I under went a colonoscopy and lost 5#s because of that and now it's back... Although it is the truth, I know the reason it is back is because I stopped logging my intake and I've been over endulging.  I'm disappointed in myself.  I was feeling so gung-ho but as usual, it didn't last. 

So here I write, not to beat myself up but to put it out there in the hopes that this set back will come to an end and I will get back on track.  I've added more friends to my fitbit board. Maybe seeing my name at the bottom of the list will encourage me to work harder *smiles*.

My biking is reasonably consistant.  I did take a 4 day break and there were a couple days that I didn't have my fitbit on.  Some times it doesn't want to charge...  For those days I manually added a walk entry so that I could get credit for the steps I would have normally gotten for riding.  And on at least one occassion I didn't even do that.    For the most part all I do is ride... I can really feel the tightness in my leg muscles and I know I need to add stretches to my daily routine. 

I need to find a way to convince myself that I want to do the things I know are good for me and to make them part of my life habits... I have improved a great deal over the past few years, but I need to step up my game.  God I miss the days when I didn't have to try so hard. *sighs*. 

[thequilteddove]

The kids are back in school... Yes, I miss them AND I discovered having them around was worth an extra 2 to 3 thousand steps!  Dang! 

[CallieM]

@thequilteddove! How are you getting along now that your kids have been in school for a few months? Just checking in - let us know!