I can't believe the second week of BodyMedia FITness challenge is already over! I'm loving wearing the BodyMedia Fit armband and checking out/mildly obsessing over all the stats it captures.

I probably plug the armband in to my computer way more often than I should to see how many calories I've burned doing really mundane things like typing at my computer or driving my car.

Here's a peek at my stats from this week:

What I Learned This Week:

Even with my regular workouts, I'm not really burning that many calories:
A lot of this is probably because I sit on my butt at a desk for a large portion of the day. Sure I get up to fill my water bottle and go to the bathroom and stuff, but other than that I don't get a lot of movement during the day. I'm lucky that I at least have a short walking commute each day so I get to sneak in a little bit of extra movement. I need to find some creative ways to sneak in a little bit more movement to burn some more calories outside of my regular workouts.

Tracking my food makes me really, really conscious of what I eat:
I'm a snacker by nature. When I'm in the kitchen packing my lunch or making dinner, I'm always munching on some of the ingredients, but ever since I started writing down everything I'm eating I've stopped doing that. It's too hard to figure out how much of a food I've eaten while I munch so I can get it recorded properly. For the most part though, writing everything down is forcing me to make pretty solid food choices.

I eat a pathetically small amount of protein:
I mean check out the breakdown in the charts here.


Only 17 percent of my daily calories on average come from protein. That's definitely something I need to work on.

Alcohol has a lot of calories:
Ok, I know that's sort of a giant "duh", but I just never paid attention because I never had to write it down. I don't drink very often, maybe a drink or two when I'm out with friends at happy hour, but man, having to record the few drinks I had over the weekend killed me. I tend to drown the taste of alcohol in deliciously fruity concoctions (like Malibu bay breezes...don't judge) and I thought it was going to be the fruit juice that killed me here, but no, it was definitely the rum.

How I'm Doing on My Goals So Far:

Last week I set three goals for the remainder of the challenge. Here's a look at how I'm doing.

Average 8 hours of sleep each night: Epic fail. I only averaged 6:24 of sleep this week. I'm going to dial this goal back and make it my goal to get 7 hours of sleep each night.

Track my food: I'm doing awesome on this front!

Lose five pounds: So far so good. I'm down a pound.

If you're curious to learn more about the BodyMedia FITness challenge, you can check out the details on EmpowHER.

About the BodyMedia Fit Band:
BodyMedia FIT automatically tracks the calories burned during your daily activities — from pumping iron to using an iron — and monitors the quality of your sleep, an important factor in weight loss. Add in the easy-to-use food log and you have the information you need to improve your weight loss. The 3 part system includes: 
1. An Armband that automatically captures data 
2. An optional Display device or free downloadable mobile apps that give you up-to-the-minute readings throughout the day 
3. An online Activity Manager* that analyzes raw data, allows you to log food and presents info in an easy-to-understand way (*subscription required)


Standard Legal Disclaimer:
Device and accompanying online Activity Manager subscription was provided by BodyMedia via EmpowHER. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of BodyMedia or EmpowHER.