My Weight Loss Toolbox: Walking App

Food/Calorie Journal
Scale
Walking App
Meal Calendar
Digital Food Scale that Weighs in Grams
Weekly, Detailed, Shopping List
Walking Buddy (My Daughter & My Dogs)
Yeti 36oz Rambler
Walking Shoes and Walking Socks

Let’s explore these one at a time.

Pokémon was a thing when I was growing up.  The point of spending money on cards for an imaginary battle was lost on me.  I patiently waited until the excitement died down and people would stop playing a card game at recess and get back to playing football.  But it did not go away so I succumbed and purchased just enough cards to make a deck that would ultimately lose each battle, but it would allow me to socialize with my classmates during lunch.  I hated it.  Wisconsin winter finally came around and no one could play cards on the ground, so football was back, and it stayed that way until RC cars came around, but that is a different story.

When the internet was a buzz with Pokémon, this time on your phone, in real world, exactly what everyone wanted, well, I was less than excited.  However, my husband and his friends eagerly downloaded the game and were playing it.  (My phone could not support the game, so no need to try and download it).  I already had experience driving my husband, Lucas, around so that he could play his phone games in real world so I knew what my role in this Pokémon game was going to be – driver.  It was kind of fun.  I was able to be a part of a game that I would otherwise not care about, by being support and it made my husband happy.

My phone was not functioning correctly, so Lucas purchased me a new one for Yule.  The new phone was capable of running Pokémon, so my husband downloaded it and explained the game.  I did not really care too much, but Lucas wanted me to have fun with it, so I gave it a shot.  It was cute catching the little critters and leveling them up.  But I quickly became disappointed that I was memorizing useless Pokémon types while playing the game when I could be memorizing useful facts by doing something else.  I continued to play because Lucas and I made this our “date-night” go-to.  We had our young daughter and we did not utilize babysitters – still do not; thus, our date-night options were limited.  However, thinking creatively, we were able to load up the car with the three of us after dinner, stop at Kwik Trip (best gas station chain ever – based out of Wisconsin) to grab a Mega Buddy Diet Coke, drive out to a playground, and hang out as a family.  We spung the Pokémon spins and pushed our daughter on the swing at the same time.  We went down the slides together and then took a break for a sip of Diet Coke and to catch a Pokémon.  This worked out great as a family activity.  Lucas explained the ins and outs of the game to me during one of our date-nights and he showed me that the game kept track of how much I walked.  This sparked my interest right away.  What if I could walk 1,000 kilometers in the first year of downloading the app?  I only played with Lucas or while I was walking the dogs. 

At the time you had to be actively playing the game for your steps to be logged.  Essentially, I would be testing myself to see if I would walk my dogs, with a young child, 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) in one year.  And I am pleased to say that I did it! 

I originally tried to play the game and walk the dogs, but it was not enjoyable for me.  I was invited to start geocaching and I declined, stating that I enjoyed looking at my surroundings and being a part of nature.  I enjoy walking.  I did not want to be looking at a device to see if I was getting close to a point to then have to stop and find an object.  I did not need a reward for walking, hiking, and exploring – the exploration was the reward all its own!  And I found myself staring at a device to see if a new Pokémon – that made up thing who’s name I memorized for no reason – would pop up so I could slow down or stop and try to catch it.  So I stopped catching Pokémon.  I spun stops so that I could collect eggs to walk and hatch.  And then I ran out of space, which forced me to have to fiddle with the game, which interfered with my walking time, so I stopped hatching eggs, but ran the game so I could keep track of my walks, which ate up my batteries quickly…  My husband saw me messing around with all of this.  He took my phone, downloaded Google Fit, explained the ins and outs of all of it, ending with the part of the app that kept track of my walks.  And that is the part that I understand – keeping track of my walks!

I now use Google Fit to record my walks so that I can record my walks in my planner, food/calorie journal and in some cases, my brand-new fitness journal.  (Redundancy, I know – but I did work 10.5 years for the Federal Government.  Picked up a couple of tips!)  And this works for me.

I want to know what I did.  I have a goal set in my mind for what I would like to accomplish on my walks and hikes.  Sometimes it is a feeling; I want to feel relaxed, free, or exhausted.  Sometimes I want to get to a certain place; I want to travel from point A to point B (and many times then back to point A).  And sometimes I want to know how long and how far I wandered.  And the app, Google Fit, does that for me.

If you are finding walking to be boring, maybe setting a goal to reach and tracking it with an app is the way to go for you.  It holds yourself accountable and it allows you to glance in at the work that you have done.  You can count reps that you have done on a workout machine.  You can gauge the weight that you have lifted.  You can keep track of time on an elliptical machine, but walks are a bit vague.  Google Fit keeps track of time, length, specific speeds, and elevation.  It gives you a look at the work you did on your walk.

So again, if you are bored with your walks, have a smart phone, and do not currently track your walks, this could give you a boost and help get you out there while having a good time with it.  Let me know what app you use if you use one.  If you do not track your walks through an app, or at all, do you annotate that you walked that day somewhere, or is this not your thing.  Let me know!  Have a great one, everyone!