Normalcy again?

So I'm finally back to updating this blog. Basically, I moved, from Wisconsin to California, and though I had been living there in a temporary situation, this was the "full real move."

And, of course, my fitbit zip starting acting weird at the same time.

But I've finally gotten back to daily calorie counting, though I have to sort of find my walking groove within the new lifestyle I have.

Today's cals: 2500. A little high, caused mainly by a trip to San Francisco. It was good.
Steps: 5000, but more on that....

Comments:

So I've given up on fitbit's products. I got one of the better wristband based ones, which I think was 120 retail, for Christmas 2015. This lasted until early summer 2016, not even a year.

So I bought the cheapest fitbit product, the zip, which was about 60 dollars. This doesn't do sleep (though I don't care about that) and is simply a thing you put in your pocket.

The battery life sucked. You use a watch battery that dies in 6 months. Mine died in 4, then died again shortly before the big move I undertook, then died AGAIN weeks later. When I attempted to change the battery that time, the device failed to power on at all.

So screw fitbit.

I have gone to Garmin's product, the VivoFit. This does sleep and steps and is only 40 dollars. I also appreciate that it comes with a spare wristband since those are notorious for falling apart.

The battery life is supposed to be over a year, we'll see. Setup was easy. Getting calorie tracking is a little cumbersome at first, as you make a "myfitnesspal" account, which then links to your vivofit, but once done it is a snap. The vivofit and fitnesspal apps are lightweight and I was able to get them installed on my mediocre android phone, which is good.

However, the one issue with the vivofit so far is that it definitely does not want to register small movements as steps. I didn't have a super active day, but I did walk around Japantown in San Francisco, and to be at only 5k steps at the end of day means that the tracker didn't register some of the lighter movement.

I'm ok with this. A problem with step tracking is overestimating the burn so keeping things conservative is probably fine. So if I have to work a bit harder to hit goals, all the better.

All I ask is that this thing lasts for more than a year.

Finally, measurements: I haven't done weight in a long time, but I did measure myself today. Overall I'm down -3" from my initial chest measurement and down -3" on the waist as well. I measured right before I left for Wisconsin and it was -3 for chest and -4 for waist, so basically a push (which is understandable: moving is *very* active, but I haven't exactly been diligent on calories the past few weeks).

But now I am back and look forward to making more progress.