I’ve been saying “Don’t” to myself a lot the last couple of days, as in, “Don’t eat that” or “Don’t reach for it” and “Don’t start compulsively eating”. As a result, I’ve done pretty well yesterday and today. It hasn’t been that much of a struggle either mentally or emotionally. Processing it out here in the last couple of posts really helped. I had a much easier time of it, experiencing much less craving of chocolate and other sugar and eating fewer blah carbs. Strengthening my mindset helps when I need to cancel out a sudden compulsion before I act on it.
Every day I slip on my FitBit. I find if the afternoon rolls around and I know that engaging in even another 12-15 minutes of walking will help me get closer to the 10,000 steps a day goal, I’m more likely to take a break from my desk and move. Today’s the first day that I officially topped 10K steps. I made it past 11K! I know there were other days that I must have reached the goal but the FitBit didn’t measure all of my movement. Some mornings when I wake up earlier, I’ll load in my in-home walking program DVD for 15-30 minutes. This program includes side steps, kicks and knee lifts in addition to walking in place. When hooked onto my bra or shirt collar, the gizmo misses most of the movement except the walking in place. So, there were nights when my daily step count was only in the 7500-8200 range but I knew in my heart I’d exceeded 10K.
Over the weekend a smart friend thought about how the FitBit probably works and suggested that for my in-home walking program, I should clip it onto the leg of my shorts so that it feels more of the leg movements. I tried that this morning when I did the two-mile program and it worked like a charm! The rest of the 11K steps came from two dog walks, and a little above average amount of walking at work. Luckily, there were co-workers I needed to see in other buildings, so I had more opportunity to get out of the office!
FitBit doesn’t track my bike riding either. I’m going to try clipping it to my leg when I go out for a ride tomorrow evening and see if it helps.
One thing that I don’t agree with is the calorie count. I do not believe for a second that I burned almost 4200 calories today, even factoring in my basal metabolism rate. I can live without counting on the count. I’m trying to go by the amount of calories that I actually consume, rather than figuring on the net calories after I’ve subtracted whatever I burned. Make sense?
Back to the “Don’t” concept for a minute. I normally do not react well to saying no or hearing no when it comes to my food and eating. So, when I crave something, am tempted, or simply find myself in the vicinity of food that isn’t on my plan, if someone (or if I) tells me no, I immediately want to dive into the bag of cookies they told me not to open. I have big issues with feeling deprived or being deprived of food and food choices. This is one reason why practicing don’ts and nos more consistently for the last couple of days and being successful is so gratifying. I’m trying to turn the inherent negative action — saying “no” — into something more positive, i.e. I tell myself that avoiding the improper food is a gift to myself. Positive action really can change everything, even if it’s one difficult craving at a time.
Weighty Matters 
Congrats on your 10k!
There are apps for the phone that I use for keeping track of distance and calories burned.
One is Map My Walk and the other is Map my Ride. Check them out and keep up all of your great and inspiring efforts!
I’m glad that you are doing better today.
I read once that negatives such as “don’t” generally don’t work that well overall. Our minds skip over the “don’t” and go right to the “do that”. So saying “don’t forget” is less useful than “remember”.
I think it’s good that you are trying to be more positive. Such as “eat that orange” rather than “don’t eat that chocolate”.
Yay for success!