Tuesday 25 February 2014

Soyummi Chocolate Non-Dairy Whipped Pudding


Curiosity influenced me to pick this up from the health food section of my local grocery store. Not only is this product vegan but it is also gluten-free. Although the texture of this pudding was more jelly-like, the flavour was good and it satisfied the chocolate craving Hubby and I had!

Monday 24 February 2014

The FitBit Zip!

About 3 weeks ago I realized I had been procrastinating and made a commitment to myself to begin working out again. My in-laws have a treadmill so we began working out a schedule where I could use their machine a few times a week and do the rest of my workouts at home. 

A week later, my father-in-law surprised me with a FitBit Zip. The Zip is a tiny device that you can easily clip on to your clothing. It's lightweight, comes in a variety of colours and tracks your daily steps.

FitBit Zip
Much more than a pedometer, the FitBit Zip will also track the amount of calories your intaking as well as the amount of calories you burn making it an excellent tool for weight loss. One of the most difficult challenges I face is portion control. Everything nowadays comes super sized, including dish ware! In the past I would find that even though I was eating healthier meals and exercising regularly the number on the scale wasn't decreasing.

The Zip makes that easy! FitBit.com offers a weight loss dashboard tool in which you can set your current weight, your goal weight and the amount that you wish to lose every week (with a healthy maximum of 2lbs). It uses this along with your daly activities to automatically create a daily caloric deficit to reach your weekly goal. As long as you are logging your food portions it will monitor your calories in/calories out. I love that by dinner time I know exactly how many calories I have left for the day so I can choose what I want to eat wisely! As you move more during the day this will of course fluctuate - so if you had a high intensity cardio workout in the afternoon you will of course be given a larger amount of consumable calories afterwards then if you sat on the couch. 

FitBit Computer Dashboard
The log contains thousands of pre-programmed foods so you can quickly look up an item and add in your serving size. It will then calculate your calories. Unfortunately as it is a US based system, many of the products available in Canada aren't in the log. This hasn't been a major issue though, you can also log your own foods, saving them in the history so you don't need to provide the nutritional information multiple times.

Logging the type and length of your workouts on the dashboard as well as the time and calories burned will also adjust your caloric burn. Logging the time ensures it doesn't double count your steps.

FitBit also offers a free downloadable app that is great when you're out and about! That way there's no excuse not to be logging your food and watching your steps. 

FitBit Dashboard On iPhone
I have been using the Zip for about 2 weeks now and am so happy with the results I'm seeing! I have lost 5lbs with it's help and find that using it has really motivated me to keep moving. It challenges you to walk at least 10,000 steps per day and I often find myself taking an extra quick walk around the block or around my house to reach this daily goal! Logging my food has given me a new appreciation for the meals that I eat as well as controlling my portions. It seems to be the little extra oomph I needed to fuel my weight loss!

FitBit also offers devices that will monitor things like your sleep and heart rate. If you are interested in learning more I suggest checking out their website: http://www.fitbit.com/home