Another New Toy

The company I work for has a thing for employee wellness.  They save on insurance, have less absenteeism - I get it.  We have an on-site "mini-gym," complete with lots of ellipticals and treadmills and such, and a fitness classroom where they hold classes like Zumba, Jazzercise, bootcamps, etc.  Guess who does NOT take advantage?  Yep, this girl.  I'm not a fan of working out in front of other people, particularly people I work with.

Anyhoo, this year, my company teamed up with these guys to try to get the employees living a healthier lifestyle.  You get certain points for doing certain things, then get to spend those points in their online "mall."  So when I got the info from work, I logged on, completed an HRA, set some goals and earned some points.

One of the ways to earn points is to do workouts, and use your Polar heart rate monitor to verify it.  This is where I got a little salty.  I spent a decent amount of my own money to purchase a Polar heart rate monitor and use it religiously, but unless I spend an addition $75ish for the gadget to upload data from the monitor to my pc (and thus, their website), my workouts down count for diddly on this program.

Like I said, salty.

Company to the rescue!  For completing my HRA, my company gave me (for free) a glorified pedometer known as a fitbug.  It comes with a little USB cable, so all you have to do is download the tracking software, wear the thing daily, and plug it in to upload your steps for the day.  Easy as pie!  The program gives you 5 points for 5,000 steps in a day and 10 points for 10,000 steps in a day.

Ya know, I try not to be all pessimistic and crappy about things.  I really do.  But 10,000 steps as a goal? REALLY??  The thing is, I have a desk job.  I'm the Queen of Email.  I don't get a chance to get up and rack up steps too often from 8-5. It's only so many steps from my desk to the coffee maker.  I wore the thing for my 45 minutes of my cardio one evening, and only logged 4,000 steps during that time.  Just for kicks, the following night, I did two full workouts wearing the thing and barely made the 10,000 - and that was adding in all the steps from my day.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great my company has taken such an interest in employee wellness, even if they do have an agenda. But, dear Fitbug and nameless company that employees me - maybe you should be a little more realistic about the number of steps a full-time desk jockey can take during the course of the day.

Now.... I'm off to log some steps.

New Toy!

OH BOY!  I got a new toy!

In my review of Burlesque by Jazzercise, I mentioned that I thought maybe I wasn't working quite as hard as I thought I was.  That got me thinking - what if I'm not working as hard as I think I am, like, ever?  Really, how does one tell exactly how hard one is working?  I mean, sure,  I'm sweating like a hoss.  My heart is pounding.  I'm tired when I finish.  But, Skillz... how hard ARE you working?

I went online and did a little research on heart rate monitors and decided on the Polar FT40.  I didn't want to spend a fortune, but I wanted a little more than basics.  I found a great price through Amazon, placed my order, and within a few days, my new toy arrived.

I have to say, it's pretty cool and easy to use.  Some of it's perks:

• It's personalized.  You tell it your sex, height, age (HA), weight (HAHAHA), and it determines your target heart rate zone.
• Based on your info, it also tells you how many calories you've burned.
• It keeps track of your data.  How long have you spent working out this week?  How many calories have you burned this week?  How many of those calories were from fat? What was your average heart rate?  All at the touch of a button.
• Using it is pretty intuitive.  It ain't rocket surgery, y'all.
• The chest strap.  Looks big and cumbersome, but it sits right below your sports bra band.  Once you're moving, you can't tell the difference.
• A very easy to read display lets you know if you are in the fat burning zone, fitness zone, or anaerobic zone, and you can turn on an alarm to let you know when you've gone out of your target zone. 

It's anti-perks:

• Although it is easy to use, the user manual kind of sucks.  That said, I did just find a complete manual on their website.  I'll be printing that puppy out.
• READ the manual before you push a button.  I didn't..... and ended up being asked to input my stats in German.  
• No easy way to reset your personal info, like the fact it thinks you speak German.  I had to take the back off and pop the battery out (which was a real pain in the ass) to get it back to square one.

Bottom line, I'm diggin' it!