Refresh, Restore, Reflect

"I was going to get you a FitBit for your birthday but you, like, already wear a watch, sohhhhhhh..."

I thanked the gift-givers for a $100 GameStop giftcard as we sat around the table at the pizzaria on the first Sunday of last September. However, the conversation (and the fact that at least most of the birthday cards were cartoon fat jokes) got me thinking...

It was time to get healthier; and no matter how much I walked, swam, or the hours spent on my feet at work just weren't shedding anything. It was time to revisit an old conversation...

Christmas came around and, naturally, the next logical question was what I wanted to find under the tree. I outgrew the easy answers to this two and a half decades ago. I turned to my younger sibling and REQUESTED the FitBit. The sacrifice was to be my watch...

Christmas Eve, my FitBit was the gift that got my eyes opened the widest in adult-like delight; as the only gift that I had expected. Christmas DAY it was time to start setting it up and begin to wear it; several hours after Christmas Eve DINNER and maybe a few hours before a Christmas DAY smorgasbord...

CHRISTMAS DAY: THE STEP-TRACKER

Easily the first thing that you learn to do with a FitBit is to reduce it to a basic Pedometer. Other lessons in technology come gradually. It wasn't long before I learned that "Mr(s.) FitBit [more on this in a later entry]" insisted that I take 250 steps per hour. It sounds simple; unless you're sitting around, visiting FAMILY (and knowing how you're viewed by most of the adults in the room) when all of a sudden, at ten minutes to the next hour, you're the only one who hears (and FEELS) "BZZZZZT!"

I check my wrist for the source of this tingling notion and read "80 Steps needed..."

I didn't comprehend the rest of that message but I excused myself from the couch (or worse yet, the dinner table) and began to do what looked like "pacing" once before sitting back down. The next thing I knew, another hour had passed and my stuffing my face with Pumpkin Pie was disrupted by "Pssst; [literal translation: "BZZZZZZT!] ...20 Steps needed..."

Pace, return, make excuses and amends.

THEN "BZZZZZZT! 120 Steps..."

80, to 20, to 120. I was beginning to be perplexed as to: A). Where I was about to get 120 steps in ten minutes to the constant amusement or disapproval of my family and B). "Where did Mr(s.) FitBit learn to COUNT?"

...THAT was a hard lesson to learn; especially when I checked the app later and found several hours in the middle of the day where I knew that I had walked, darn it!,...unaccounted for.

I have since relearned to read (it's fundamental). The EXACT message, if I'm short a few steps/have only DONE a few steps during "Active Hours" reads

"[Number]...Steps needed THIS HOUR."

"BRB; I'm leaving the room/Stepping outside for just a moment."

(Insert "Lone Ranger" or "Chariots of Fire" themes)...

I've always loved walking (outdoors; in Summer/Fall) and Swimming (these days, when I remember to get to the gym). Oh; and I decided to get the FitBit and start focusing on bettering my body right after Christmas Eve/Christmas Day dinners. Oops...

WATER LOGGED

I feel challenged now to log my water.

ACCEPTED!

This feels great!

I love logging those waters that have mysteriously replaced Pepsis...(For the most part. I might be down to one can of Pepsi every 2-3 Days or so)...

EVERY BREATH I TAKE...

Most of the "Meditations" that I also discovered in short order lead back to "Breathing" exercises. I'm learning.

CHALLENGES

It wasn't until this week that I really discovered challenging other FitBit friends; encouraging them; goading them to competition. It keeps ME moving as well in a sense of competitiveness that I would have otherwise denied...

Okay; this is a start about my FitBit Journey (another, more lighthearted post is in the planning stages). I chose NOW, my 36th year, to invest in a FitBit and actually TRACK activity (and eating). I'm sure that you want to know...

WHY

"...To get thinner; duh!"

What is EVERYONE'S New Year's Resolution, every single year? (The year right after an abysmal 2020 is no exception to this rule...

"I'm gonna get thinner!"

"I'm gonna eat less (sugar/salt)."

"I'm gonna go to THE GYM!"

...I'm focusing on my gut health now. I know what people have said about me for the past 29 years of my life (and that's only because I was viewed "as way too SKINNY" for the FIRST 7 years of my life until corrective measures were taken). Most people were polite enough to not put their opinions of my physical health into words; some were unapologetically honest on the matter. Something could be said for appreciating BOTH types of people.

This is the year after a pandemic; I already have only one functioning kidney, a bad thyroid, and NOT the metabolism that I had when I was growing up. That's what I would call "pretty at risk." So I chose this year to start watching my food and exercise and really MAKING SURE that I was burning off more than I'm taking in.

It is time to REFRESH the message in my mind that "something here CAN BE DONE,"

t0 RESTORE my health, my public perception, and my self-confidence,

and, in the coming days, to REFLECT on how that's going for me.

More to come on my FitBit Journey later; hopefully, from a more lighthearted standpoint.

In the meantime, this year, just as EVERY year, I want to work on getting closer to achieving my hopes/plans/dreams/ambitions. A body that I can be more confident in is just a nice place to start. A license, a car, publishing status, relationship status, and a new community can all come as they may.

Happy New Year to you and yours. ...and after 2020, and the BEGINNING of 2021, I am always proud of people who choose to make Resolutions; but I'm still convinced that, especially THIS year, we are all owed AT LEAST one prayer request/wish/dream to reach fruition.

Thanks for reading.