Here’s a little story I’m about to tell you about one fat brother you (may or may not) know so well. It started way back (actually on August 1st) in history with only me…Frankie! Sorry to disappoint so early but there will not be a sick beat to blast on your JL 12s in your car. This is my little story about how technology is helping me lose weight.
You may ask yourself the question of ‘How?’ It came to be when the planets aligned and the timing was just so perfect. My wife and I were due for a new cell phone each. We had the Samsung Galaxy S 3 and they were running on empty. It was the end of July and Best Buy was running a 2 day sale on the Note 3 for $99. We almost jumped on it but I wanted an S 5 and she didn’t like how big that phone was. You know that saying about how good things come to those that wait? It was a week or 2 after that when they ran the S 5 for the same price and only for our carrier. It was also the exact time for contract renewal so no need to got on the phone and argue with the carrier. How perfect! We got in and out of the store and I was in love with my new toy.
After playing with it for a while I came across the built in app called S Health. This is the Samsung health and fitness application. I forgot that this phone had the built in heart rate monitor as well as a pedometer. I set up my account and plugged in all my credentials. Now to paint a bit of a picture for you I’m a 30 year old male and I am 5′ 8″ tall and weigh 206 lbs. (from my last doctors appointment back in June). According to the Body Mass Index scale I’m obese. I don’t self as that but I am definitely overweight. I have some muscle (and a lot of body hair) but I don’t mind my frame. I marked down that I do little to no activity because I don’t. I walk around some at work and when I am at home I have the parent life with a wife a 2 kids (2 yo and 3 mo). That can be exhausting but I don’t count that as actual exercise.
I decided to see what this app can track. I turned on the pedometer and just let it run all the time. You can set goals for yourself. I left the defaults for this. Steps is 10,000 a day which is around 4-5 miles. It set up a recommended calorie intake and calorie burned goal based on my profile as well. There is also a built in coach but I will talk more about that later. So now I have it tracking my steps. I check my heart rate periodically as well as run a stress here and there too. They both use the same sensor. I figure why not. It can track your sleep habits if you have one of their Samsung Gear smart watches but that will come for me down the line. The exercise tracking has not been used by myself yet but you can set up different things for walking, running, cycling and hiking. The biggest part for me is the food portion. They gave me a goal of 2399 calories a day. I wondered how much I was actually eating. I knew I ate A LOT. I was always munching and I ate fast and often. Now to track it. My first couple days were not so good. I ate out at a Texas Roadhouse (steakhouse) one night and after inputting my meal, that was around 2000 calories alone. Not a good day but the meal was fantastic. Some days on large lunches and high calorie breakfasts got me thinking. What can I do that is not so drastic but can help me achieve my goal of losing some weight? Time to make some adjustments.
I was eating a breakfast of a package of Pop Tarts and an energy drink. That was 670 calories right there. Some of you are thinking, duh! Cut the energy drink. The Pop Tarts were 400 calories alone. What did I do? I got a low or no calorie energy drink and a tasty trail mix granola bar. Now I’m down to 140-170 calories on breakfast alone. I did the same for lunch. With me and lunch, it comes down to not eating as much. Now I will eat 1 Hot Pocket instead of the box AND I switched to Lean Pockets. They taste better anyway. Little adjustments. I got the Powerade Zero (no calories) instead of the regular bottles which were a couple hundred. Being diligent and tracking my progress helped me hit my goals day after day. The app does a little medal system and I get gold medals when I hit my goals for steps, calories burned and calories taken in. I was in a rhythm. Using the weight tracker I weighed in once a week. In about 2 and a half weeks I am down 5 pounds and I really didn’t do much except play on my phone.
Being aware of what I was doing like how many steps I was taking in a day or how much I was eating helped me move toward my end goal. Ultimately I would like to get down to 180-185 but it is going to take more than cutting my food intake. I understand that I do need to exercise and do some cardio which I dread. The built in coaching portion called Coach does an initial assessment of some key areas and gives you a lifestyle score. You can accept goals/tasks to achieve on a daily/weekly basis that will help you gain a higher score and ultimately become a healthier person. Anything from goals to help lower stress to getting you on an exercise regimen. I do some basics for now but that can also change.
There are lots of apps out there to help you achieve a goal like mine. My Fitness Pal is a big one. There are also different accessories to add on and achieve more detailed information. I am just starting out with this and I choose to move in baby steps at first. I never thought that buying a new phone would motivate me to lose weight. Weirder things have happened. Like me starting off a technology/health/review article with a mock parody of a Beastie Boys song. As I move on with my progress I might tag onto this article. Feel free to subscribe if interested. For now it’s time to put the kids to bed so I’ll grab two kiddies and a beer that’s cold.
