My new toy

No news to share regarding the house, other than I did go ahead with a price reduction with the hope it might spur some interest.  But I've gone as far as I'll go - if it sells, it sells, if not I'll stay here a while longer.

What is new, is my recent acquisition... a Fitbit, an Alta HR to be exact...like I'd know the difference between it and another.  What convinced me to purchase this new toy was a friend who showed me the data on her recent sleep patterns.  I was intrigued as I've wondered what my sleep is like.  I usually go to bed about 10 p.m., watch the news for 10-15 minutes and usually fall asleep relatively soon after lights are out.  Typically I sleep until around 6 or 6:30 though can be up a couple of times during the night and the cats will wake me earlier.  

What I have learned is that I spend most of the night in light sleep.  Most nights I'm awake more often than I recall, and I spend very little time in deep sleep.  Most information I've read indicates 20% of a night's sleep should be deep sleep, I rarely get more than 10-15% a night.  An article I read indicates, "deep sleep is crucial for physical renewal, hormonal regulation, and growth.  Without deep sleep, you're more likely to get sick, feel depressed, and gain and unhealthy amount of weight."  Ah ha, now I can blame lack of sleep for my weight gain...or not.  I suspect it has a lot more about what goes in than how  much or how little sleep I get.  

When I told my daughter that I've learned I'm a light sleeper, her response was, "that explains why I couldn't move at night without you hearing me".  Hmmm, perhaps being a single mom all those years caused this pattern.  

In any event, I'm finding other benefits to the Fitbit.  For example, on a normal day of doing housework and yard work, I can easily reach 7-8 thousand steps.  However, housework is rarely recognized by the app as "active minutes", with the exception of vacuuming.  Gardening, on the other hand does count.  I believe it determines the activity level by heart rate.  I'm still not at 10,000 steps a day every day but my average for the last two weeks is over that number.  All it takes to reach the target is a walk around the neighbourhood.  I just have to get more regular with these walks.

There is also an option to track what one eats and drinks, calculate the calories and pointing when one has over eaten (only once in 14 days).  What I have learned is I have far too much sodium in my diet.  This is a concern because of my family history of heart and stroke so I'll definitely need to work on that.  For example, for dinner this evening I had chicken strips with a side salad at the local Denny's restaurant.  According to the app that meal contained almost 1200 mg of sodium!  The daily recommendation is 2300 mg.  Once I added in the cheese and salad dressing I had in my salad at lunch (nearly 600 mg), and the sausage with cheese on an English muffin for breakfast (760 mg) and I'm well over the daily limit.  I understand sodium is used as a preservative, hence there are high amounts of it in salad dressing, in processed meats, and cheese.  I do take some of the numbers less seriously as, for example, grilled chicken is shown as high sodium.  I don't salt my meat that I grill but rather use a Mrs. Dash, a non-salt added spice mixture, however I usually marinate the meat in a oil based salad dressing.  I'm definitely going to have to start reading labels more closely and try to find options that will be a little more heart healthy.

Do you have a Fitbit (or some other tracking device)?  It's relatively new to me so I'm quite fascinated, is there something you've learned with the device that you can share?  

Speaking of sleep, it's time to head to bed.  Have a good weekend everyone!