So I have this wonderful little device on my left tricep called an Exerspy. If you've ever heard of a Bodybugg or those kinds of devices - yep, this is one of those. It tracks my calorie expenditure, and the company says that they are accurate to within 10%.
From what I can see, they are within 1%. Ever since last Saturday, I've been meticulously tracking all of my calories (by logging them into the website that the Exerspy connects to), and it is correctly predicting my current weight within half a pound, and has been every day. It's just plain AMAZING.
The website that goes with it is cool - you give it a start weight, you give it a number of pounds to lose, and you give it an end date, and it gives you the number of calories to eat and the number of calories to burn so that you can get there by the date that you specify.
Paired with the exerspy is the watch that comes with it. It tells you three different things - the number of calories you have burned so far, the number of steps taken, and the amount of "moderate" exercise that you have completed. For example - so far today, I have burned exactly 1204 calories, taken 599 steps, and have 6 minutes of at least moderate activity. Since it's 9:00 AM, and I want to get in a 4,000 calorie burn today, that means that sometime today I'll have to get in some good exercise. Of course, I already have that planned...
I could go on and on about this thing, and if asked, I will, but the point of this blog post isn't to evangelize this device. It's to say that we have tools - I have ALWAYS had tools (albeit not necessarily this COOL) - but any number of tools won't help you if you don't use them.
Why is this on my mind? Well, I got this thing last October. I used it religiously until about halfway through November. And then for some reason, I stopped logging food, or even paying attention to it. Yes, it was on my arm, but I didn't really USE it. And what was my reward?
15 lbs gained over the holidays through Valentine's day.
Idiot. Instead of being 15 lbs heaver, I could have been 15-30 lbs LIGHTER. That's a 30-45 lb swing in weight! I could have been over halfway to my goal!
But what is, is. I am not dwelling on that to beat myself up, I am mentioning it as a reminder to myself, just for today, that I am either going up or down today. And in another three months, will I be happy that I used the tools, or sad that I let yet another opportunity go by?
I have the choice, today. For today, I choose to use the tools at my disposal to my benefit.
Just today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
-Silas
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