steps | Keeping up with Kate

Challenge Results

Posted on February 1, 2014 by keepingupwithkate91

I’m sure you’ve been waiting by your computer for my Step Challenge Results (using my FitBit Flex) – HA! 🙂

I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to come out. I knew I had some opportunities to get some good steps in while traveling for work in NYC (although it did rain so I did cab it to and from the train station – normally I would’ve walked). I was also doing some personal travel – so I knew I would have good days on my airport day (my return trip was after my challenge). However, I wasn’t sure about the weekend – I was staying in a hotel but I didn’t know the schedule as I was in town for a baptism.

My goal was to average 8,190 steps per day and end the week with a running total of 57,330 – achieving this was a 30% increase in my prior week.

From Sunday to Saturday – I was able to get 72,421 – I blew out my 7 day total by 15K steps and increased my activity by 64%!! Here is a view of my numbers a couple of different ways:

Total Steps: 72,241
Average: 10,345 (almost 4K steps above my prior average)
Highest Day: 11,734 (NYC)
Lowest Day: 7,037 (work from home day)
Average (when I drop the High / Low numbers): 10,730

I loved my results – very happy with them. However, I definitely had some anomalies – extra steps due to work events, travel and access to cardio machines. I don’t have a cardio machine in my house anymore. My current 7 day total is lower than the 44K. The cold weather has been a factor and so has my current work schedule – just haven’t been able to step away from my desk. I’m really glad I did this comparison when I was traveling. It showed me I can do it and it reinforces I need to schedule breaks during my work day to step away from the desk and move around. Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit of a warm-up so I can go back to doing my 1:1s with my team by walking.

Have a great weekend!

Tailgating with my Jawbone

Posted on November 11, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

When I got my Jawbone back in August, I was really excited to see how many steps I could get while at a Penn State home game. Well the battery life of my UP got in the way. So the first time I had an opportunity to wear my UP for a game was last weekend.

I knew I walked a lot during Penn State weekends – particularly on game day. A bulk to the walking is to and from the game. If I had only parked a little further away – I probably would’ve hit 16,000 steps. 🙂

This helps explain why during the Fall – I still eat and drink what I want while I tailgate and really don’t gain any weight – lots of activity! 🙂

UP = Insightful

Posted on August 15, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’ve been wearing my UP band on my wrist now for about a week. I LOVE it!

I’m monitoring my sleep and my steps (and you can add workouts). I tried logging my food for a day and I just didn’t feel like monitoring more – maybe I’ll look into it at a later date. You can connect with friends who are using the UP band. There are settings so you can include only your steps (which is what I’m doing ). I don’t think my co-workers need to know my sleep patterns! 🙂

You monitor you activity by plugging the band in the earbud spot of your iPhone (or for you Android) – so it isn’t bluetooth enabled. You can see pretty quickly how you are doing. The charge on the band lasts about 10 days – a little less when you plug in more than twice a day (I know from experience)! You can see how your are doing against your daily goals. And you can add in your workouts too. One of the things I love is you can set an idle reminder when you haven’t moved for awhile – mine is set to vibrate every 30 minutes I don’t move from 8 am – 6 pm. I get quite a few reminders – even during yoga – not a lot of steps.

Sleep

You can set your personal goal of how much sleep you want (you are provided the ideal amount of time based on your age, height and weight). I believe mine was 7 1/2 hours – I set this as my goal.

I’m doing pretty well on my sleep – last night was one of my least amount of sleep and I’m feeling it this morning. I think what is great about this app is that is shows you your light sleep and deep sleep.

Here is a view of the best night of deep sleep (where you restore your mind and body)

Reach 94% of my sleep goal. Nice amount of deep sleep!

Walking

You can set your personal goal for steps. The recommended is 10,000 steps and the average person does about 5,000. I’ve hit 10,000 steps or more only twice – yesterday I just made it over 10,000 and on Sunday I hit 15,000 steps (6.93 miles). Sunday is definately an anomaly-it was our PSU Annual Freshman Sendoff – so it was a super busy day.

My work day consists of computer work and conference calls. Major wake-up call that even though I try to move around during conference calls – it just isn’t enough. I need to supplement my daily conference call walks with other activity. The last two days I’ve been able to get 45 – 60 minutes of walking in so that has helped. Going to also experiment with 10 minute walks during the day as well.

Typcial Workday steps – too much computer time not enough walking time.

Yesterday with a 50 minute or so walk

Annual Freshman Sendoff on Sunday – Wahoo – almost 7 miles.

Daily Insights

Today my daily insights included some of the following:

You’ve walked a total of 53,347 steps-covering 23.1 miles with an average of 7,621 steps per day.
A regular bedtime means regular sleep. When you hit the pillow at teh same time every night, you’re supporting your body’s natural rhythms and helping battle daytime fatigue.

Thank you KGK for encouraging me to try this out!