About Esya

Esya · ‎03-17-2017

A while ago I used to sleep poorly and had nightmares on a regular basis due to my anxiety. I never tried meditation myself before bed, but it might be something to try for you before going to sleep. For me things improved a lot with yoga (you could also do 5 mins of yoga before bed). Try to have as little input for your brain as possible quite some time before bed so it is not active/hyper while asleep. Do you have a routine for going to bed? If you do that it becomes a signal for your brain that it can start to calm down. I mostly had nightmares after an intense day and my brain being active on the subconscious level. Meditation can help you process that before going to sleep. This can be a hard one to tackle, so be patient with yourself. These are just a few ideas based on what I remember from my own experience, hope it helps.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

There are 2 settings you can chose from for your calories burned. You have it like me on "sedentary". This means that you can eat for what you burned so far during that day minus the deficit you put in. So in the morning it will be very low and as the day progresses it increases. It will increase due to calories burned during exercise as well as calories simply burned for being alive and breathing. So indeed, you might be over at 8 p.m. and then end up in the zone at 10 p.m. as you burned calories within those 2 hours that are then credited towards your calories out. The other setting is "personalized". That uses your past activity history to estimate your calorie burn for the entire day and increases or decreases if you are more or less active than usual. So with the first setting you only see what you burned during that day and with the second you get an estimation in the morning that gets updated during the day.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

From what I understood you can link your MFP to FitBit so that it gets done automatically (I think by providing your FitBit account in MFP). I do not use MFP myself, but I know who do have the two apps linked. Hope this helps and if you cannot find it let us know, so someone else can explain how it is done.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

@CRSunrise Why would you want to change it? 1000 calories deficit is large, so if you want to change it then I advice to not go bigger on the deficit. If you feel it is hard to maintain, then a smaller deficit might be better for you. It will slow the weight loss down, but it will be easier to maintain and it is a marathon in the end and not a sprint. Also when you eat too little (around or below your BMR), it will be very hard to lose weight as your body will hang on to it as a survival instinct.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

My average (I get a range as I don't run like @Dominique), has gone up by 2 points since I got the Charge 2 last month. I am quite happy about that, as I already had a tracker from another brand before this one and already changed a lot in my lifestyle during those years. But since I got the FitBit and the community to go with it (I did not get involved with the community when I had the jawbone), I got an extra boost and changed quite a few things recently. It is so motivating when it shows a positive change in my fitness score.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

@Destabilise It surely is a good thing that our dreams and thoughts are not written on our forehead 😉 .

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

@Destabilise That must have been very disturbing to wake up to. Luckily I don't get nightmares all that much anymore since I got a way better hold on my anxiety.

Esya · ‎03-16-2017

Your username in combination with the topic title is just funny 😄 .

Esya · ‎03-15-2017

Congratulations with your weight loss! That is already 9 months of walking. Sounds like you hit a plateau, but don't let it discourage you. Review what you are eating versus what you are burning again and it might be time to increase the intensity of your activities. Your body got used to what you are doing, so it does it more efficiently which results in less calories burned.

Esya · ‎03-15-2017

@lmlt wrote: Haha thank you! The scale looks so cute but the photos are tempting. 🙂 I read that the more expensive it is the more precise the weights will be so I am a bit conflicted. T_T There is no reason to blow money on that for calories tracking. Precise measurements are more important for advanced chefs for baking. Cheap scales should still be accurate (accurate = how correct), but might be less precise (precise = how many digits). No need to weight below a gram for calories tracking.

Esya · ‎03-14-2017

@Amy_Noelle Check out "yoga with Adriene" on youtube. She has great videos.

Esya · ‎03-14-2017

My hobbies are gaming, cooking and I think yoga has become a hobby too.

Esya · ‎03-14-2017

@livethelife I forgot to mention that I also get -- every now and then, but not due to my anxiety. I hope your doctor visit goes well.

Esya · ‎03-14-2017

@Kevin.M Which sensitivity do you have selected? If it is set to sensitive you could set it to normal and see if there is a difference, but from what you tell I get that the graphs reflect your experience. I think it is good if you see your physician about it to see if a sleep study can be done. When in doubt about something related to your health always see your physician, even if it is only to take the doubt away.

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

@shotgun233 What a great internist you got there! I wish more doctors were about preventive measures like that instead of looking at medication so quickly.

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

I have never been in that position that I was really overweight or where it caused health issues, so in that respect I cannot say I walked a mile in your shoes. However, I still wanted to live healthier than I did and I am glad I made the changes. As @OddLynn said, 1 or 2 changes at a time until they become a habit and a part of your life where you don't have to think about them anymore. One of the first things I did was cutting out added/refined sugars. Getting a water bottle for work so I could easily drink a lot of water (if it is in front of me I will drink it) to replace the coffee that I no longer drank because of the sugar in it. Then I got a tracker that would vibrate to make me move for a bit every hour (I work a desk job and could easily sit for 3-4 hours straight, thinking to myself I really should get up). Starting yoga class, at first I could not get myself there every week and now I go twice a week most weeks. I have been doing this for a few years now and I am still making changes that improve my health. I never expected that I would stop drinking alcohol and be as active as I am, but by taking a step at a time the next step becomes that much smaller. Try to break it down and start with changes that look reasonable and that you know you can maintain. Once you are comfortable go for the next one.

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

And here I am having 13 degrees Celcius this week and thinking it is warm 🙂 . It is funny how we get so used to climates.

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

@Esya wrote: @Esya wrote: I somehow found my "on" button for walking this week and been over 10K for 6 days in a row now! That is a huge record for me. Still going strong with this streak. That "on" switch stayed on. Judging by my badges that is 15 days now and 16 if you were to include today. I expect it will end this Saturday due to a family visit and I don't want to worry about my steps then. Might even take my tracker off while I am away for it. But I am pretty sure that I will simply pick up again after that. I did it! I managed to keep the streak going despite the family visit. I made sure to get my steps in before I left to visit them. So I had no worries when taking my tracker off for the rest of the day.

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

@TravellingSunny That is awesome! I have considered doing that for a badge (not the 300 one), but so far did not find the mental power. But you might have sparked some motivation in me by doing those 300 yourself, maybe I can get the 50 floors badge 😄 .

Esya · ‎03-13-2017

While I think it is great how much effort you have put in for the challenges, you can really do them however you like. They don't reset during the night until you finished them. You don't even have to make it to the daily destination, it is just a goal to motivate us. So, do them in as many days as suits you.

Esya · ‎03-12-2017

@macknife74 I actually really liked it. We have a supermarket chain that does organic vegetarian cheeses. Luckily I am Dutch, so cheese is a big thing around here.

Esya · ‎03-12-2017

You did awesome, what an achievement!

Esya · ‎03-11-2017

My ideas without knowing what you are eating: Change up your veggies Use spices, it doesn't have to be bland, spice it up and that way you can vary taste a lot too (just try to go easy on the salt) Change up your grains if you eat those: brown rice, quinoa, couscous Use onions, garlic, ginger and/or chili peppers to flavour things Basically, try to create variety in the food groups you eat from and create flavour.

Esya · ‎03-11-2017

@livethelife I have anxiety and my FitBit picks up on that and shows an increased heart rate when it happens. If your heart rate is more irregular (I don't have that happen myself) I think the heart rate will be going up and down in the measurements. When it shows no heart rate it is because your tracker was not in a good position to take a measurement at all. So no need to worry about that.

Esya · ‎03-11-2017

@highflyer It might be scary, but it is best to schedule and admit that you were a bit afraid. A good doctor understands. Otherwise you end up being both afraid to go see a doctor and to work out. I don't feel that is a good road to travel. It might not be easy, but overcoming fears is worth it in the end. I hope you have someone who can go with you for support.

Esya · ‎03-11-2017

When you prepare everything you eat instead of order in or go for produced foods, not only will you eat way more healthy, but also be way more aware of what you are eating. It always pains me to hear when chefs themselves eat less well. Why share all your love with all the people via food and not give it to yourself? Happy to hear you started to do just that!

Esya · ‎03-11-2017

What a coincidence, I had cottage cheese for the first time today 😄 .

Esya · ‎03-10-2017

@Dominique There is a Lidl next to the door of my appartment block 😄 . I have to say that with all the replies I got so far I already was able to make some changes to my diet and meeting the amount that I should in relation to my body weight for 2 days now. Thanks to the input I learned a lot and I already notice I changed the way I think about it and look at the food, so I am confident I will find a diet that works for me and that sticks.

Esya · ‎03-10-2017

@Bhuvana Thanks for the suggestion, somehow I did not really register that option. I just checked almond milk (Alpro) in the supermarket, but got a bit thrown off by all the additions. Some I could not even pronounce. I might be getting too critical about my food, but I like to know what I eat. I am really sad I cannot get edamame over here. I love it, but looks like I will have to order online.

Esya · ‎03-10-2017

Yesterday was my 1 month anniversary. And I agree, I might be even happier about the community and the motivation I get from that than from the Fitbit itself.

Esya · ‎03-09-2017

@Esya wrote: I somehow found my "on" button for walking this week and been over 10K for 6 days in a row now! That is a huge record for me. Still going strong with this streak. That "on" switch stayed on. Judging by my badges that is 15 days now and 16 if you were to include today. I expect it will end this Saturday due to a family visit and I don't want to worry about my steps then. Might even take my tracker off while I am away for it. But I am pretty sure that I will simply pick up again after that.

Esya · ‎03-09-2017

Thank you @Dominique. That is some really useful insight that I will be using. I checked my data and while it is all over the place (I don't eat the exact same thing every day) it looks the average amount is on the low side in relation to my body weight. So this only confirms that I want to increase the amount of protein I eat.

Esya · ‎03-09-2017

@benvegi When you meet all the goals on your dashboard (the top part in the app, with the steps, floors etc.) it will flash with green stars.

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

@SitStayGoodDog Your calories deficit might actually be too large. When you eat too little your body will hold on to the fat (weight) as a survival instinct. For a medium weight loss a 500 calories deficit is more typical. Try eating more for a few weeks and see if that helps losing weight.

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

@Anniesusie It is not that I am vegan or vegetarian. I actually eat eggs on quite a regular basis and some other animal protein for lunch, I just want to limit the amount of most of them. Still I somehow get low protein %, I think mainly due to my dinner/breakfasts. The link @USAF-Larry provided and you pointing out some obvious choices ones again actually gave me a few good ideas. It seemed I understood what to eat for protein, just did not get my head around how to implement it into my eating pattern. But I feel with this information I am starting to get there. So today I bought lentils. And I learned it is quinoa > couscous when I consider those two if I want the higher protein option. And I rediscovered the health section in my supermarket. I knew it was there and already shopped from it, but never realised it has so many plant based protein products. Seems I have found a few things to try and I am pretty confident some will stick.

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

@TravellingSunny I am not sure we have that in The Netherlands. I can look into other cereals. But what would you pair cereal with if you don't want to do yogurt or milk?

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

Thanks, that already gives some good insights and ideas. Will need to read a few times to fully process.

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

I tracked my food for a week and a half now and while I understand and know how to deal with the calories side of it and am in control of that part, I seem to be struggling with the macronutrients side of it. The breakdown on my Fitbit log shows me that I eat about 11-15% in protein, which I believe is rather low. I would like to try to increase it and see how this affects me, so I can decide if that works better for me or not. So I have a few questions as I seem to struggle with this. When people say they eat 20% or 30% protein, is this the protein % as shown in the breakdown of the food eaten or do they count certain foods as protein? Like how egg and chicken are high in protein, but still not 100%? Am I comparing the same percentages? (I hope you get this question, I find it a bit hard to explain in text.) I try to limit the amount of animal protein that I eat. I hardly eat meat and most animal proteins I eat is during lunch, which is typically some cheese, eggs or fish. For snacks I eat fruit during the day and if I have an evening snack it is likely to be dried fruit, nuts or rice crackers with peanut butter. Can you suggest any protein snacks that are (mostly) unprocessed products (meaning no bars or shakes/powders) to try as an evening snack? Maybe I should consider replacing a fruit snack too, as I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit anyway. So that leaves breakfast and dinner. At the moment I eat a smaller portion of my dinner for breakfast. This I could easily change and then I would cook dinner just less often. For dinner I try to make sure there is protein in the form of beans, soy or typically another plant based form. I used to have yoghurt with muesli for breakfast, but I moved away from that as I tried to limit the amount of animal protein that I eat, but now it seems my intake on protein is rather low. So any breakfast suggestions are welcome too. In the meantime I try to get my hands on hempseed.

Esya · ‎03-08-2017

I would not wear it a few nights and see if you notice any improvement.

Esya · ‎03-07-2017

While those pictures and stories are hilarious, it would be better to dress for how your body is right now. It will look and make you feel a whole lot better. Clothes that don't fit actually have an impact on your mental health as well. But I would not get too many pants, as you will keep losing weight.

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