Two New Items

I recently purchased two things that are helping in the continuing weight loss journey. 

The Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor

Absolutely LOVE this!  It has motivated me to increase my workout efforts, as I now have an accurate, in-your-face number of what I am burning and how hard I am working, staring me in the face during my workouts.  This HRM is a combination of the wrist watch and chest strap.  The chest strap is comfortable and you forget it’s even there once you start working out.  Once you enter all your personal information in the watch (height, weight, age, etc.), you get an accurate accounting, via your heart rate, how many calories you are burning during a workout.  I usually have the watch set to calories burned while I’m working out and have a number in my head before I start of how many calories I hope to burn.  I either keep going, or step up the intensity to make sure I get there.  At the moment, I only allow myself to eat back anything I burn OVER 200 calories.  So if I burn 250, I only get to eat 50 of those.  Therefore, my goals for most workouts are closer to the 350-400 range.

I got mine online for $65.00.  There are tons to choose from.  This one doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as others out there, but it does exactly what I want it to do: give me an accurate count of how many calories I’m burning, rather than estimating, thus pushing me to workout harder than I was doing before.

A ridiculously over-sized water bottle

Okay, this one was much cheaper.  $7.00.  It’s a half gallon water bottle, with the built in straw and the optional frozen mechanism in the middle.  Buying this has most definitely increased my water intake, which hasn’t been too great.  I’m addicted to iced-tea and drink about a gallon of that a day.  I’ve been telling myself it’s AS-IF I’m drinking water, since of course iced-tea is made with water.  Ahem.  Yeah, not the same thing at all.  Calorie-wise, the iced-tea doesn’t “hurt” me at all, since I don’t add sugar, but because caffeine is a diuretic, it is not the same thing as drinking water.  On run days, my goal is to drink two of these, one before noon, and the other before dinner.   Otherwise, I shoot for one and a half.  I’m not giving up my tea yet, but I have definitely noticed I’m not as “snacky” in the afternoon when I’m sipping on this all day.

I’m down another pound, but also down another jean size!  I kept one pair of jeans from back in November when this all started.  I just can’t believe how much more of me there used to be!!!