I’m holding my hands up and admitting that over the last few months my health and fitness efforts have majorly dropped off the radar. In between selling a house, renting another, a holiday, one hen do and another I’m about to set off for, I’ve been more focused on easy, convenient food than whipping up salads, and gym trips have been swapped for festivals, nights out and sofa time. It’s fair to say it’s been a rather busy Summer.
Although I have totally stopped logging my food on MyFitnessPal (who wants the shame of having to enter every Deliveroo delivery that comes to their doorstep?), the two things I have been tracking are my steps via my Fitbit Blaze, and my weight and body fat % via my iHealth Core Scales. I find that it makes it so much easier to stay on top of things if I’m using a tracker or something that automates my steps, weight or progress for me, and there really are some amazing accessories out there that will assist with achieiving your goals (and look smart!)
I’m a bit of an obsessive tracker, so having a set of scales that gives me a range of data such as BMI, body water, lean mass and muscle mass and uploads it all to an app on my phone. Everyone is a bit blown away when I show them that my scales connect to the wifi and upload all the stats so I have them on hand and can look back over my past results (and send them to my personal trainer – eek!) The scales themselves are brilliant and I’ve found them incredibly easy and motivating to use – you can set goals and then the tracker will tell you how far you are from your goals and give you trends so you can really keep on top of your tracking. It integrates with the Health app on the iPhone so you really can feed it into everything else you’re monitoring as part of your health and fitness. You can also add different users and it logs their weight so you don’t even need to say who it is that’s using it. (It also helps that they’re a lovely looking set of scales – they look so swish in my bathroom!)
Unfortunately using my scales I’ve seen a steady increase in my weight in the last few months and I’ve put back on all of the weight and body fat that I previously lost through running, personal training, tracking my food and increasing my protein. As I mentioned, I’m off on a hen do in Mallorca later today, so I won’t be watching my weight whilst I’m there, but when I’m back I’m determined to get focused.
Matching running shoes with my friend Charlie |
I’m intending to go to at least two yoga classes a week, and there are some great yoga studios within walking distance of the house. I’ll also be joining a gym that’s only a few minutes’ walk away, so I’m hoping the convenience of these options will spur me on to get my trainers on and yoga mat out. I’m also going to get back on to tracking my food and being more disciplined with my meals and preparation so that I’m not grabbing take-aways or sandwiches at work. I also want to get back into running again and get out a couple of times a week before work (for some reason I’m more of an autumn/winter runner, I hate getting hot and sticky and running when it’s boiling outside!)
How are you doing with your health and fitness goals?