Question FRIDAY, JANUARY 15TH, CHECK-IN

[Lisa Creane]

Lisa you doing great! And so helpful and supporting here and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate that.

My hubby bought me a Misfit flash which is less expensive activity tracker and I LOVE it. I LOVE it so much I am thinking of upgrading. It really inspires me to get my walks in and even an extra shorter walk if I can. But they aren't known to be so great with accuracy for steps and miles. Do you think the fitbit is good accurate wise?

Tina I actually have a $79 Garmin Vivofit, which give me step and sleep data that is not all that accurate but close enough. For example, if I read at night it thinks I'm in light sleep because my body's not moving (though my hands are). It also seems to take a bit to "catch up" when I go from sitting to moving so steps will stay the same, then jump forward by 15.

I know runners say these are based on GPS so accurate for distance but not for steps; you have to adjust based on your stride, which even this base model allows you to do. I can also edit my sleep hours to fix them.

I link this to the "My Fitness" when I'm doing calorie counts, and to "Connect" (the Garmin app) to track steps and sleep over time. I've found it really helpful as a reality check; even if I didn't sleep well (or walk much) I did sleep for a good number of hours, usually, and I did walk at least 5000 steps, which is a couple of miles. When I first started there were days I had 2000 steps and I can't imagine such a sluggish day anymore. I charge around when I'm moving--sliding across my kitchen, running up and down stairs between writing sprints--all of which makes a big difference in my mood and--I believe--in my overall fitness and health.

My husband has a high-end FitBit because he needs the heart rate tracker. It requires daily charging (mine only needs a yearly battery replacement) so he often forgets it on the charger, or runs out of juice. So he has a lot less data to look at than me. But runners and other exercisers do like to get their heart rate stats and these can be tracked without a chest strap on the $179 FitBit.

I say get whatever will make you happiest because the difference between "high end" and "low end" is so small. It's not like a laptop where you may need to compromise with reality.

 

[Lisa Creane]

I actually love the process also. It is time consuming but it works for me! Especially, when I have feedback as I go-- a bit of added incentive . And for those who might be interested she is an awesome instructor. She is teaching a workshop in March on revision via RWA chapter online. And I believe she is teaching her quilting workshop one time this year but not sure when.

Tina and Kimber,

I think the Monster Revision class is now in March, through Utah RWA.
The Quilting class is scheduled for October again, to plan for NaNo, through the same group it was this past October (which I forget ).

 

[Kathleen McRae]

@ Kimber: PUPPIES????!!!!! What kind, how many? WHAT???

To everyone else, including Kimber the Puppy Lucky: Wow, and yay! What a great week's worth of work. You are all so inspiring and so interesting. Appreciate your sharing your life and struggles and yay's with s!

I'll be reporting in next week; I still need to set official goals. Trying to be S.M.A.R.T. about it, and not overwhelm myself right out of chute. Which, you know, I do quite regularly.

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

I had a good week.
Finished reading one story and sent to my Beta reader on Friday.
Worked on Book quilting 2 of the 3 stories that were on my list.
Mini challenge wrote 2,104
Mini challenge website: made notes and looked through themes and brainstormed 4 article topics

Personal Prep:
Puppies are in the house.
Kid's routine is solid
Did my hip and back exercises

Didn't do much with the house projects will keep them on the list.

Kimber!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREAT work!!!!

You had a fantabulous week!!!!

Keep up the great work!

Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

• Resume finished Thursday night. Yay me!
• Cover letter could use some polishing. But good enough to not hold off submitting. Posted on Friday for opportunity that I would really like. BIG yay me!
• Working on resume and some decluttering/organizing were the only things I did all week. Mentally drained, chilled for the weekend.
• Found a few more opportunities to submit resume to on Monday.
• The hard work (resume) is done. Time to get back to writing and continuing to organize the office.

One thing I did not do was win the Powerball. This would have so helped me do the things I listed in assignment 2.

Hi Alisa,

I am SO glad that you completed your resume! Congratulations!!!!

And I am glad that your Yay Me File has entries now!!!! YAY YOU!!!!!

~ Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Hi all,
I did about 50/50 this week on my goals.
I sent off the correct copy of my novel to Golden Heart as planned with synopsis and partial included.
But I missed the boat on gathering markets for the same novel as well as my non-fiction so I am moving that to the coming week.
I also didn't work on my proposal as I had hoped to. As usual, I didn't foresee the amount of work involved. The proposal is basically written, but it needs to be updated and edited.
Something that was not on my goal list was my blog, but I did work on that. Mainly I am trying to get it resurrected from wherever it went to. My brother is going to help me with that tomorrow.

I did finish the bathroom. Stuck to my diet and workouts and lost 1 1/2 pounds this week. Blew it on the weightlifting and my kitchen goal, though.

Just glad I have a place to be accountable. Thank you Irene and fellow comrades.

Hi Caren!

You did very well on all of your goals!!! GREAT job!

Talk to you soon!

Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Drafted/revamped 8 (eight) chapters; therefore, I accomplished drafting at least 1 chapter per day (on average).

For personal goals, I reacted badly to one of the suggested health foods (bone broth), so was sick the first of the week. I did get a second computer set up on the treadmill desk, so I did walk and write at the end of the week. (Slow going, but still... ;-)

Hi Kathy,

GREAT goals!!! And congratulations for completing them!!!! YAY YOU!!!!

~ Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

I did good -- I wrote as planned, did research. My food was on point. I could have drank more water. I rocked my PT exercises but took off a day from Hammer & Chisel due to a wicked cold. sigh.

You did very well! Congratulations!!!!

~ Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

My goals have been the same all month. I'm trying not to slack off. But I am, a little bit. That's okay, as long as I get back on track soon. It seems when I focus on 1 or 2 I miss the 3rd. They're not equally important, but when I'm behind on one I feel imbalanced. So I'll keep trying and tracking and see where I'm at in another week.

My tracking is attached. The shaded days are my husband's days off. He works 12 hour days, 4 on, 2 off. When he's home I can hole up somewhere and write but I don't walk as much (today I had to because I felt sluggish).


On my "green days" of writing I often write much more than 1k. I can spend up to 9 hours revising. But my goal is a daily practice, not a weekly word count or even revision goal because those haven't gotten me where I need to be (so far). So this week I want all "yes" in the first category, I have no planned days off so that's my main goal.

I'm proud that I haven't gone more than 2 days without meeting any one goal. I think it's important to arrest bad trends quickly . And since I got my FitBit in August I've walked 2 million steps! Just got that news flash yesterday and that made me feel good. My weight isn't completely managed by that, sadly, but it's good nonetheless.

Lisa!

You did very well. Do some reflecting on your goals....that is all good!

Keep up the great work! I love your spreadsheet! Wow!!!!

~ Irene

 

[Tina Canon]

Tina I actually have a $79 Garmin Vivofit, which give me step and sleep data that is not all that accurate but close enough. For example, if I read at night it thinks I'm in light sleep because my body's not moving (though my hands are). It also seems to take a bit to "catch up" when I go from sitting to moving so steps will stay the same, then jump forward by 15.

I know runners say these are based on GPS so accurate for distance but not for steps; you have to adjust based on your stride, which even this base model allows you to do. I can also edit my sleep hours to fix them.

I link this to the "My Fitness" when I'm doing calorie counts, and to "Connect" (the Garmin app) to track steps and sleep over time. I've found it really helpful as a reality check; even if I didn't sleep well (or walk much) I did sleep for a good number of hours, usually, and I did walk at least 5000 steps, which is a couple of miles. When I first started there were days I had 2000 steps and I can't imagine such a sluggish day anymore. I charge around when I'm moving--sliding across my kitchen, running up and down stairs between writing sprints--all of which makes a big difference in my mood and--I believe--in my overall fitness and health.

My husband has a high-end FitBit because he needs the heart rate tracker. It requires daily charging (mine only needs a yearly battery replacement) so he often forgets it on the charger, or runs out of juice. So he has a lot less data to look at than me. But runners and other exercisers do like to get their heart rate stats and these can be tracked without a chest strap on the $179 FitBit.

I say get whatever will make you happiest because the difference between "high end" and "low end" is so small. It's not like a laptop where you may need to compromise with reality.

Hi Lisa-- You're fittness tracker sounds very similar to mine. Mine tracks sleep time (and does the same thing with the reading issue LOL), steps, miles walked and you can also track other activities by tagging them on the app. It also has calories burned but my thought about that is it is way off. Like as in saying I burn way more calories than I do. I look at it say -- yeah I wish I burned that many calories. LOL But that's okay b/c I'm not really interested in calories at this point. Mine does not have the GPS but it runs on battery like yours so I don't have to worry about charging just like my hubby does as yours.

Thanks so much for the info. Once I'm cleared to actually work out more than just walking but really work out, I would like to start with walk running and get back into running. I'll probably want something with GPS then.

 

[AnneP]

I'm playing catch-up since I'm feeling better. I'm doing well with my writing journal and YayMe File, and I fixed a problem area in my website this week. I will be posting my first blog of the new year this evening.

I'm still behind, but I'm feeling as if I finally have a handle on what needs to be done.