Category Archives: GoWear fit

GoWear Fit

New week!  A dreary start to the week, too.  I decided to hit up the gym this morning.  I might ride on my birthday tomorrow if the weather is good, so I needed to lift today if that is going to happen.

I did the leg matrix for the finisher today.  I think that is what I will be calling a thigh-fecta now!

I was the only woman in the free weight area (the Iron Den as it is called at my gym).  I really want to just grab some ladies and get them in there!

I came home and since it was a cold morning, I made up pumpkin oats!  I had a pumpkin protein shake before my workout, so I really packed in the pumpkin today.

Good, too.

I have pulled my good buddy GoWear Fit out of the closet and started wearing it again.  This is the same type of device as a BodyBugg or FitBit thing. This is the arm band:

You wear it all the time and take it off to upload data or to recharge it.  You can sleep with it on as well (which I do).  It basically records movement and gives you a calorie burn and METS activity throughout the day.  It also records steps.  I don’t have the fancy other things where I can connect with a Garmin or whatever (I’m cheap and don’t have those toys).  I have the basic.  I got this in 2009 and the battery is still good!  I charged it up and started wearing it.  I really want to get a better handle of calories burned while biking and lifting to make sure I am getting in enough or not too much food.

Here is an example of Friday for me.

I know it may seem like I am very active, but note how when I work it looks like sleep!  That is the sedentary nature of my job and I can’t change that.  Until I get a foot pedal that I can work with my mouth (invention anyone???), this is how it goes.  I’ll periodically post some data from my gizmo for fun.

I do not think it is accurate for biking as the calorie burn is too low, so I am going to actually wear it on my leg for the next cycling ride and see what happens.

I love gadgets and numbers!

I also love lunch (or any meal time, really).

Nomf, nomf!

I did the latte honors this afternoon as work slowed down.

You are getting very sleepy….

I took a walk around the block in the afternoon as well.  Looking at the GoWear fit really makes me want to make sure I move more.  Guess it works!

Dinner time:

Pork chop.  Branching out from the poultry  :mrgreen:

I have a bit more work to do tonight and another walk around the block, plus my Larabar snack.

Yep, it’s been a typical Monday!  Tomorrow I am taking the day off for my birthday because I can – I love being an independent contractor! 😀

Question:  What is your favorite gadget? Or are you gadget free?

6-miler and surprise beauty in fall

(I forgot to hit ‘publish’ last night 😳  )

Today was a run day.  Too cold to go in the upper 20s when I first got up, so I had breakfast first 🙂

cakes1117

I worked for a while until the temp hit 39 degrees and headed out.  Pre run fuel:

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The addiction is still alive and well 😳

It was sunny and beautiful (if cold!)  I did a 3.2 mile loop, came back to the house and drank from my water bottle (and shed my gloves), then did another 3.2 mile loop.  2nd loop was the hill run.  If I had though about it, I would have done the hill loop first…..

Here is my GoWear fit today:

gsf

Can you guess where the run is in the graph??

Had the most wonderful lunch today.  John cooked up some pie pumpkins yesterday, so we have fresh pumpkin!  I mixed some with greek yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, cranberry sauce and some Hemp Plus granola.

lunch1117

Tasty!

When I was outside today, I saw one of my roses actually had a bloom on it!

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Even with the frost and everything lately, and the beauty bloomed!  Very fragrant and I was so happy to see this.  I don’t know if the other 2 buds there will open or not, but it’s possible!

Decided on a burger for dinner.  I don’t bother with the lean ground beef anymore because it’s just too dry.  I don’t eat ground beef very often, so I like to get the good stuff.  The trade off is the tiny burger:

din1117

Where’s the beef???  Good, though.

Last stop on tonight’s agenda was Starbucks!  We went with my mom.  I would have loved a gingerbread latte, but decided on a decaf skim latte.  I actually got almost 8 hours of sleep last night!  I hope to repeat that tonight.

latte1117

This last pic was taken with my mom’s Easy Share by Kodak.  She is actually trusting me with her new digital camera until mine comes back!  😀

Have a super night!

8-miler, running thoughts and ice cream

Well – last night was ice cream at Friendly’s!  I got a happy endings sundae with butter crunch ice cream and peanut butter sauce.

friendly

It was very good and I enjoyed every bite!  Plus it was nice just to get out of the house for a while.

So, this morning was the 8-mile jog!  Here is me fresh as a daisy before going out.

lori

Well, maybe not so fresh 😀

I fueled up with the other Odwalla bar that John got me before I went out.  This was tasty.  I packed along a POM juice, a bottle of water, and a few dates with cashew butter to have during my run.

odcc

Went down to the track to do 32 laps (snore!!!).  Luckily, it was cloudy for 1/2 the run.  I did 4 miles straight, then stopped and drank the POM juice.  I got an instant rush from that (it is straight juice, after all!).  Then I continued on.  The sun came out after that and it started to feel really humid.  I felt like I was running even slower, which wasn’t true, it just felt like it.  Did 2 more miles (6 at this point), then stopped for a date and some water.  I had to really charge myself up for the last 8 laps.  There were maintenance people there working on the football field inside the track and on the school roof – they probably were getting a kick out of hearing me talk to myself.  The last mile was fairly hard, more from the point that I just wanted to be done.  Finished in 1:35:15.  Just about a 12 minute mile pace (or 5 mph). I was so soaked in sweat when I was done, I literally could wring out my trisuit (yuck!!).

Check out the GoWear fit  – it gave a calorie burn of about 1000 for this run.  Even if I knock 10% off of that just for fudging sake (mmmm….. fudge…) that is still 900!  You can see where I took the 2 stops.

gwfAnd yes, I do eat more on days like this.

It got me really thinking about whether I want to do a 1/2 marathon or not.  I know I could probably finish it, but I don’t know if the desire is there to, and that is very important.  When I was training for the triathlon, I wanted to do it and I was excited for it, even though I was kind of scared.  The 1/2 doesn’t feel that way.  I need to mull it over.  I told myself I would decide when I had done an 8 mile, but maybe I need more time.

Had a fabulously refreshing shower and made a late breakfast of chocolate banana oats!

brekkie4

  • 40 grams of oat bran
  • 1 small banana
  • 4 grams of dark cocoa powder
  • spoonful of cashew butter.

Work is really slow today. That’s the downside of doing transcription.  No files = no work.

Lunch today is a tuna/hummus wrap (last of the hummus) and the last pear.  We really need to go grocery shopping!

lunch7

Neat online giveaway!

Run to the finish -It’s Amanda’s birthday and she is giving away a ton of stuff to a lucky reader!

(Teaser, look for a giveaway on my site next week!)

Lucky me that John fired up the grill and got some chicken going.   He used some Emeril’s seasoning that I got to sample for being a Food Buzz publisher.  The afternoon got busy!

dinner6

The last of the blueberries, and this was a frozen veggie mix.  Down to the dregs now of everything!

Preseason football tonight.  Are you ready??

Question:  Do you watch football, and if so, what team?  Go Broncos!

Brick and GoWear fit

Well, the weather wasn’t promising when I got up, but I decided to go for the brick anyway.  John actually decided to join me for the bike leg, which just about made my jaw fall on the floor.  He is usually sleeping when I get up and leave the house for the Y.

First, I fueled with this (half before the bike and half after the bike).

smoothie

We then biked for 6.7 miles in about 1/2 hour.  That was with a couple stoplights in there.  John went home and I continued to the school and ran 3.25 miles around the track.  It took about 37 minutes.  I am definitely slower after the bike, but that’s okay.  At least I ran the whole thing!

Here is what the brick looks like on my GoWear fit:

brickThen you can see me sitting on my butt working.

After watching Alton Brown last night and his blueberry episode, I knew what I wanted for brekkie.  Num!

cakes

I love this plate – just got it last week!

Lunch was the old standby:

lunch

For snacks, I had the same as yesterday, only the cinnamon chips were mixed with some dark chocolate ones.  The cinnamon chips are made by Hershey and you can find them in the baking aisle with the other chocolate chips.  They are good!

lattechips1

For dinner I was in the mood for eggs  again (for the 3rd dinner in a row!).  I made a giant salad with some of the POM vinaigrette, hardboiled eggs, toasted pecans, and provolone cheese.  Kind of a chef salad without the meat.

salad

Today was the end of my work week!  Yay!   No work until Sunday.   Exciting girl that I am, I might go to the library tonight LOL!

Challenge Day 11

Here is a picture of my run this morning on the GoWear fit:

gwf

Note how the rest of my workday is quiet.

I did very well on the challenge today!  Yay!  Lots of calories burned and stayed within calories (even with the bagel).  1 more day of challenge to go!

Rest Day!

Today is rest day after 6 days of physical workouts. My legs actually feel fine after yesterday’s ride, but my lower back is a touch sore. That isn’t really new, though.
Anyway, here is what my ride looked like with the GoWear fit! Click on the image to make it bigger.

All those spikes are the big hills. It was sort of like an extended HIIT workout. Notice how lazy I was the rest of the evening LOL!

Wish my eating were a bit better today than it has been.

A day in the life of

Here is another shot of a typical day for me activity wise. Click on the image to see it up close.

Today’s workout at the gym. Note how I actually get up earlier than I had set up the GoWear fit for initially. So, it doesn’t have the calorie burn from that earlier time in the window. I am just too lazy to change it, so it has me getting up at 7, when I am usually up by 6:30 and working out by 7! Note how you can tell when I get up and down during the from working at the computer.

Today’s strength training was moderate in activity, and the run was BPM sequenced with a podcast from jogtunes.com. Going around the track. Much better than the treadmill. I like the treadmill for intervals, though. 13000 steps today.

Doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women. I actually am fairly more advanced than the start of this program is, so going with fewer exercises is a change up for me. However, they are different than ones I normally do and it has been my first experience in the squat cage. I realized that I am way stronger than I thought.
Strength:
Deadlifts: 1 x 15 with 10 bar for warmup
1 x 15 with 45 pound barbell
1 x 15 with 55 pound barbell

Superset:
Wide grip lat pulldown: 1 x 15 40 pounds, 1 x 15 50 pounds
Dumbbell shoulder press: 1 x 15 12 pounds dumbbells, 1 x 15 15 pound dumbbells.

Superset:
Dumbbell lunges: 2 x 15 20 pound dumbbells
Stability ball crunches: 2 x 15

Friday and Monday will be better tests of how much I can do with the barbell, now that I have the hang of it!

GoWear fit fun


Snapshot of one of my more active days.

Started out at the Y, and you can see the dead zone where I did swimming, since I can’t wear it in the pool.
Then was a 40 minute pace jog. High intensity stuff, running is. Then 30 minutes on the recumbent. The jog and bike alone burned 600 calories!

Later this afternoon, walked to and from the post office. I have done 17000 steps today and it’s only around 5pm.
You can click on the image for a larger view.

More GoWear fit stuff

I am liking the GoWear fit. I was at the Y the last 2 days, and here are what the workouts look like.

Yesterday was jogging, upper body strength training, jogging – then the swim, where I wasn’t wearing it.

Today was on the precor bike and then lower body strength training.

Interesting how the intensity is very different on each day. Running, for me, is much more intense and high intensity than biking. You can see the big spikes. And you can also see how the lower body strength workouts are more intense than the upper body ones.
I really wish that I could wear this while swimming – that would be interesting to see. This band is a very good tool for me to evaluate what I need to do.

I have a lot of work to do on the swimming for the triathlon. I am slow and get tired fast. Might have to invest in some lessons, too!

Here are a couple of sites for training programs
Beginner triathlete
Trinewbies (PDF file)
Trinewbie programs

I am still going to do 4 days a week of split strength training. The hardest thing for me is going to be the rest day. I need at least 1 a week, if not 2.

Is the icy grip of winter over?

Today was in the 30s, above freezing, and tomorrow it might actually rain! On top of feet of snow, that should be fun.
Anyway, it really feels like we might have turned a corner on the death grip of winter. I love the change in seasons, but this winter seemed harder than usual. A winter home in New Orleans is more than tempting.

So anyway, I went out for a nice jog today. The sun came out for a bit, so I tried to soak up some vitamin D before it went behind clouds. I also got up this morning and did an exercise DVD – I have a whole hour of cardio already under my belt for the day.

I notice with my GoWear fit that there are a lot of flat lines in it. Some of that I can’t help, as I do computer work and can’t up and move around during that time. I do, however, need to quit with the computer games at night and do something. Although until it gets warm enough, it has to be something inside – but I can only do so much in the way of DVDs, as I try to do 60 minutes a day – and squeeze in strength training on 4 of those days, so I’m not really inclined to do much more than that.
I also note with the GoWear fit that I need to try to get more sleep. Or better sleep. It shows the restlessness that I have sometimes, and tells me how efficient my sleep is. Last night it was 91% and a little less than 7 hours.

I don’t feel lazy, but maybe I am.

Oh, and stay tuned early next week – Finding Radiance will have its first Giveaway!! Woo Hoo!!