AT&T Accessories

I’ve had a Fitbit on my wishlist for 3 Christmas’ now. AT&T then offered me a FitBit One I jumped at the chance. At first I was surprised because I didn’t even realize AT&T sold FitBit products. I went down to the local mall and stepped into the AT&T store for the first time. I found that they carried a lot of accessories for their phones, and since the FitBit One syncs to the newest phones they offer them in their stores. I liked being able to check out the FitBit and a couple other devices in person. I had only seen them online before.

FitBit One

One reason I picked the FitBit One is because not only does it track your activity, it tracks your sleep as well. If you have read my blog before you know that I battle sleep apnea.

Put it On & Keep it On

One reason I haven’t invested in a FitBit was I was concerned that, just like my pedometers, I would be really bad about putting it on. That I would wear it for a few days but then it would be forgotten.

I’m in love with my little FitBit and it goes with me everyday. I don’t know if it’s how accurate it is or if its extra functionality makes it so much better, but I’m in love with it. Also I don’t have to worry about it falling off (like some of my pedometers) and losing it because the silicon case and tight metal clip holds it on so well!

Track It

I think one of the things that I love about the FitBit One is that it tracks everything! You can track:

• Your Steps
• Your Stairs
• Your Distance
• Your Calories Burned
• Your Goal Progress (the growing flower)

You can also track your sleep with a night wristband you can place your FitBit into. When you enter when you went to sleep and when you woke up on their website or app it will show you how well you slept.

Sync It

To Sync your FitBit you have a couple choices your phone or your computer.

Your Phone

If you have an iPhone 4s, iPhone5, iPod Touch (5th Gen), iPad Mini, iPad 3 (Retina), Samsung Galaxy III, or Samsung Galaxy Note II you can sync to your device. Basically you have to have the newest generation in bluetooth to sync to your device.

Your Computer

Download their program to your computer, connect your wireless sync dongle, and anytime your are within 20 fit your FitBit will sync.

Sync it with My Fitness Pal

You can actually sync your FitBit to a few different apps, but if you know me I’m in love with My Fitness Pal. This option is one reason I picked FitBit over a few different devices out on the market. My Fitness Pal has the best food database than any other fitness app, plus you can enter your food with a quick scan of the barcode.

I was really happily surprised when I found the sync works both ways. You can use My Fitness Pal to track your food and when you go to FitBit.com or their app your calories are already entered for you.

I’m In Love

It has been a month since I received my FitBit One and I have not missed one day wearing it. I would say this is one of my favorite tools now to help me monitor my activity and help me lose weight!

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

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Keeping a workout plan that ensures that one remains in shape during a holiday is not an easy task. This is because many people are accustomed to gym workouts such that an exercise plan while travelling sounds impossible. It’s during the holidays that people find it difficult to include an exercise plan in their schedule. Instead of being an additional burden to travel plans, workouts are necessary as they help an individual relieve stress, keep fit and get rid of the extra calories gained as a result of inactivity during such times. Throughout this article, a holiday workout plan for holidays as well as tips to effectively exercise during the holidays will be discussed.

In order to incorporate a successful exercise workout in a travel schedule, you should plan ahead of your travels, prepare for your workout and make maximum utilization of any available opportunity. The following strength-building and cardio plan is a fifteen minutes program that can be put into practice while travelling regardless of the place. It is aimed at keeping the individual physically and mentally fit. The entire workout can be split into the following exercises:

Power Skip

This exercise enables you to warm up. To begin you stand flat on the floor with both legs. The left knee should then be lifted to the waist while thrusting the right arm towards the sky simultaneously as if you are marching. You should then switch sides and alternate your movements for about 32 times. While carrying out this exercise, your chest should be kept proud and back straight. The intensity of this exercise may be boosted by jumping the foot that is standing off the floor surface.

Can-Can Kicks

This exercise is carried out with the aid of either a chair or a low stool. You should stand with feet parallel on the floor and hands on your hips with the chair in front of you. While in this position, you should swing your right foot over the chair from the right to the left side. You should then swing the other leg in the opposite direction. Precaution should be taken not to kick the chair while undertaking this exercise.  Your legs should be alternated and the procedure repeated about eight times.

Walking the Plank

You should start from a prone plank position and hold a weight in the hands and balls on the feet. You should then move your feet and hands to the right simultaneously. Your abs should be kept tight, the core strong and the shoulders kept away from the ears. Making sure that the body remains long and the buttocks down, you should repeat this procedure before changing the direction. The workout should be done four times in each direction.

Bench Hops

This exercise helps to heighten the heart rate. To carry out the exercise, you should get a steady bench or chair. While facing in the direction of the bench, you are supposed to bend over and place your hands on the bench sides. After gripping the edges of the bench, you should hop the right leg laterally outwards and bring the other leg to meet it. This should be repeated on the left side. The procedure should then be repeated alternatively for about 16 times.

The above workout plan can be repeated twice in a cyclic manner to increase the intensity of the program and increase the efficiency of burning the excess fat in the body. This workout is one of the plans that can be used while travelling or while on holiday break away from home to keep fit.

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

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Do you only get a 30 minute lunch at work? Do you use that as an excuse to not use your lunch time to get active?

Well if you missed your morning workout or if you want to get some extra activity in then consider taking a walking lunch.

What’s A Walking Lunch?

Basically the idea is you grab a small meal that you can walk with. Think of something that is healthy, nutrient rich and you can nibble on as you go. Even with a slow walk you are still getting in more activity than if you are sitting at your desk and munching away.

How I Enjoy a Walking Lunch

One of my favorite walking lunches is fresh sliced deli meat. I work right next to a grocery store so I grab a 1/4 lb of freshly cut deli meat and a piece of fruit. I then start walking around the shopping center. I may go into a local store but I try to keep a bounce in my step and keep moving. In my exercise journal I will count this as a 30 minutes of slow walking. But that equals 100 calories burned!

More Meal Ideas:

Some other meals that I like to nibble on on my walks are:

• Protein bars
• Protein shakes
• Frozen yogurt with nuts and fruit
• Cheese stick and deli meat
• Hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit

Don’t Forget Comfy Shoes

Do you think you might try taking your lunch for a walk on your next lunch break?

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

When you make the discision to change your life and start to get healthy one thing you have to combat is lots of excuses. I know I’ve been there. But don’t fall for the one that you can’t get moving because you don’t have the equipment! Here is 8 household items that anyone can find in their house that you can use for a great workout!

Towel

I’ve actually done this work out and I was surprised at how much the towel really does work out your muscles.

Milk Jug

Don’t have kettle bells or large weights? Don’t use that as an excuse. Grab some milk jugs or water jugs and start your workout. If you want more weight fill some empty jugs with sand, gravel, or clean kitty litter to get some more weight.

Socks & Beans

I’m sure you are wondering socks and beans? But you can quickly and easily make your own dumbbells. Here is a tutorial on how to make your own:

Your Kids Ball

Don’t have a full sized balance ball then go outside and grab your child’s ball. Here is an amazing workout with just a small ball.

Stairs

Even if you have just a couple stairs in your house you can use them for a quick step workout. If you have a full flight then start jogging up and down them. You will be surprised at the workout you can get just from going up and down those stairs.

Kitchen Chair

Chairs are great for any workout especially when you are just starting out. They are great to have to help you steady yourself. But you can also do a full workout with a chair.

Running or Walking Shoes

This one is the most obvious, but it is one of the best ways to get in a work out. Grab your tennis shoes and get outside for a walk or a run. Consider trying to do a Couch to 5k System if you have never run before. It’s a great place to get started.

Is the weather bad? Don’t use that as an excuse check out this awesome walking video you can do right in your living room:

Your Child

What do you do at home to get your exercise in?

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Last week you may have seen the fun Summer Bucket List Bingo Printable that I created. While I was creating it I realized I wanted to make one for me also that I could keep track of my fitness goals/bucket list this summer.

I filled in my goals and things I wanted to do this summer that were health/fitness related. On some items I added check boxes because I wanted to try and do them once a week.

Then I decide to create some “prizes” for when I make my goals. I made sure that they were not food prizes as I am really trying not to make food a reward.

After printing it off I will be placing it in a dollar store frame so that I can mark off each item with a dry or wet erase pen. What do you think? A fun way to display your goals? A fun encouragement?

#2weekchallenge

I can already cross off joining a challenge as I have joined the #mamavation #2weekchallenge!

Your Turn! Your FREE Blank Version!

I created a free pdf for you to be able to fill in your goals and rewards for your summer, too! I hope you enjoy if you do please share!

Printable Summer Bucket List

What’s on your summer fitness bucket list?

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

My Fitness Pal

One of my all time favorite apps and websites! My Fitness Pal is a social site all about losing weight and being healthy. You set up your account and it gives you a nutrition plan (or you can modify it like I did for my doctors requirements). You then can use the app to enter the food you eat for the day, see how you are doing on calories, fat, protein or any other nutrition you may be tracking.

You can also enter your exercise for the day, water intake or make notes. You can even use the barcode scanner to get your food in your diary which is awesome!

One of the things I love the most about this site though is the community. If you get this app definitely take the time to get on the site make some friends or even get your friends to join you. You then will have a simple feed where you can share how things are going for you today. You can get encouragement when you need some help. Or when you make a goal or lose weight your friends can cheer you on! If you get on the site you have to friend me.

C25K Lite (Couch to 5K)

I haven’t gotten to use this app yet, but I’m super excited about finding it! I was just thinking to myself that I wanted to start jogging, but getting myself to start was going to be the hard part. Then I found this app.

This app will help you go through a 9 week plan to help you starting jogging. This is the lite version which lets you have all 9 weeks on the plan, you just have to make sure the program is the front running to use it. If you are a real music person you may want to invest in the Pro Version.

Squats, Sit Ups, Push Ups, & Pull Up Series

This is actually a series of apps that you can get for your devices. Each one focusing on a different exercise. This is basically an app to help you build your endurance on each exercise. You tell the app how many squats you can do and how many squats you wish you could do. The app will then work with you each day to keep raising the number of reps you can do.

Daily Abs, Daily Butt, Daily Arms, Daily Cardio Workout Series

I have the arms version of this app and now that I know they have a cardio I’m going to have to download that one also. I love these they are very simple. They give you about 10 exercises and you run through them in about 5 minutes. This is a quick and easy way to get your exercise in when you are on a time crunch.  They show you a video of each exercise, which helps me as I don’t know the names of all the exercises.

I do need to get heavier weights now though as the arm one is getting too easy with my current weights.

Workout Trainer

This app offers you a long list of workout videos to workout with on your device. The free version has a large selection, but you can also see that there is even more with the paid version.

Okay I’ve done one workout with this app and I have to say that this is not a beginner app. I did a low intensity workout and could only make it half way through. But I’m still working on my endurance.

If you are just starting out working I would maybe not choose this as your first workout app, but if you are in shape or working on it like me definitely get it!

Grocery IQ

As I have mentioned before one of the things I struggle with the most is menu planning and grocery shopping. This is a big deal when you are trying to eat healthy. If I don’t get to the grocery store we either end up eating out too much or get frustrated with my diet and start making bad choices.

This is a great grocery shopping app. You can put food in by typing or by voice. You can make a favorites list which is where I keep my master grocery list to easily add things to the list. You can also enter how much each item is and this can help you stay on your budget or help you remember what a good price on an item might be.

For iPhone Users: Nike Training Club

On twitter I got a great app suggestion from @CatBTan: Nike Training Club. Too bad this app is for iPhone users only because it looks awesome. I wanted to suggest for those of you with iPhones but also maybe we can let Nike know that they should create a Android version of this app also.

Conclusion

If you are on the way to getting healthy or just trying to keep yourself healthy these apps are great tools. They have really helped me along the way and I hope that they will help you too.

Do you have a favorite app not listed here I would love to hear about it and try it out?

Pepper Ferguson

Healthy Mom = Healthy Family - That is my life motto and I hope to encourage it to be yours too. January 2011 I made the decision to lose weight and lost 80+ pounds. I saw my boys start getting active with me and I realized I wasn't only changing my life but also my boys.

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