Not Quite a Couch Potato

I bought a Fitbit, the Flex 2, about two months ago. First I bought the latest Fitbit that had the heart rate check and all of that, but, to no one's surprise, I reacted to both the band and the device. The electronic pulse from the device made my entire arm go numb, and the band caused a rash.

So I returned that.

I had given up on such devices when I ran across the Flex 2 for a very low price at Walmart. It bothers me to wear it on my wrist but I purchased a doohickey that allows me to slip into my sock. So long as I rotate legs every day, I am doing fine with this. It does not have as many bells and whistles, and I can't use the sleep mode with the doohickey in my sock (plus I don't wear socks to bed), but it counts steps and that was all I wanted anyway.

This is because I have never been able to get a pedometer to work.

Long story short, I expected to find that I walked 1,000 steps or less a day, because I am not a great exerciser and I have health issues.

Imagine my surprise to find that I average about 5,000 steps a day, just wandering around the house. Two miles back and forth from my office to the kitchen to the bathroom and the laundry room. No wonder the hall carpet needs to be replaced.

My best day so far has been 8,000 steps, and considering my health issues my physical therapist was ecstatic about that. Lately, with more physical therapy taking its toll on my pain levels, my best days have been around 6,000 steps, but still not bad for someone who frequently resorts to a cane and who cannot climb steps or hills at all.

Basically I need to increase my activity, and the only way to do this is with doubled-down effort at using the treadmill. I would love to take walks outside but uneven ground is hard on me physically, plus I'm allergic to practically everything in my environment. Achoo!

So far this Fitbit has provided good information but no weight loss. However, I am starting to understand the relationship between calories and activity. Before I have read diet books and none of it made sense - it was like a bad trig class without my wonderful high school teacher guiding me toward the X value. They made no sense to me.

Now if I can just figure out how the calories and activities compute with the junk I shove in my face, I'll make progress.