10000 STEPS IS EASY, 10000 CALORIES IS HARD

As the millions of 'fitbitters' around the country know - 10000 steps is the recommended target to shoot for each day. 10000 steps is estimated to be the equivalent of walking 5 miles.

It's not that attaining 10,000 steps per day is easy.  It is not.  Trying to 'burn' 10,000 calories in a day is nearly, but not quite, impossible.  Certainly, it is hard to argue against the fact that it is highly improbable.

Today I wanted to shine a spotlight on my dubious accomplishment on Friday when I spent 7 hours on an elliptical machine over the course of the day.  My fitbit recorded 'only' 45,774 steps. Those steps were not just walking around the neighborhood, or strolling through a mall: the steps on the elliptical machine were calculated by the fitbit to have burned 10,160 calories. As I have discussed many times before, I know that these numbers are likely wildly overestimated - but it is clear that I must have burned some large number of calories having spent 7 hours on an elliptical machine.

In contrast, back on October 1, 2015, all I did was hike up to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite Park and back down again in one day.  The fitbit on that day recorded 54,101 steps - but 'only' recorded 7,212 calories burned.

And finally, on October 11, 2015, I walked nearly 40 miles over the course of the day... (26 miles Chicago Marathon route, with other miscellaneous walks that day that totaled nearly 40 miles) That day was my personal record for steps and calories burned. The fitbit recorded an astounding 75,029 steps and recorded a calorie burn of 10,891.

No matter how inflated the calorie burn recorded by the fitbit and/or elliptical machines are.... It is still some kind of accomplishment to end a day with an alleged burn of 10000+ calories.

My exercise on Saturday kept me far away from any elliptical machine.  Still, I did not exactly take a day off.  I took a long 10 mile walk.  I took a short break to pick up a snack in downtown Chicago. Then I walked 2 miles more to get home. Walking 12 miles at 4.5 miles per hour is excellent exercise.  In fact, it is my favorite exercise. I enjoy watching TV and/or Netflix movies while working on the elliptical machine - but nothing beats being outdoors in the sunshine.

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Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, March 12, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
2 Egg Omelette With Ham and Cheese	383	2	21	32	810	2
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon, 6 slices	240	0	18	18	1,050	0
Apple - Braeburn, 2 medium apple	142	38	0	1	0	29
	765	40	40	51	1,860	31
L U N C H
CHERRY VANILLA GRANOLA	240	40	7	5	60	15
Campbell's Manhattan Clam Chowder	480	72	12	20	3,200	12
Organic Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Baton	190	21	11	3	5	11
	910	133	30	28	3,265	38
D I N N E R
Grilled Brussel Sprouts, 1 cup	65	13	3	6	23	0
BLACK ANGUS TOP SIRLOIN	360	0	24	33	0	0
Baked Stuff Potatoes, 2 cooked	480	54	24	16	800	8
	905	67	51	55	823	8
S N A C K S
Organic Dark Chocolate Baton Espresso	400	38	26	6	10	26
	400	38	26	6	10	26
Totals	2,980	278	146	139	5,958	103
Your Daily Goal	4,066	508	135	204	2,300	152
Remaining	1,086	230	-11	64	-3,657	49
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 2,136 extra calories from exercise today

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Your Exercise Diary for:

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace	133	1,938
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace	27	379
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	-181
Daily Total / Goal	161 / 30	2,136 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1081 / 210	16,759 / 4,130

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total calories consumed 2980 calories

total calories burned (twelve miles walking) 2317 calories

total net 663 calories

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fitbit day 192

22765 steps  

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One thing that you can't see while working out indoors on an elliptical machine is a RHINO.  Oh sure, the GOP debate stages have been chock full of RINOS (Republicans in Name Only) but I prefer the real ones at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

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This lion at the Lincoln Park Zoo was enjoying the day while relaxing on a big rock. 

I enjoy working out on an elliptical machine, but you'd never see a lion working out indoors.

FASHION POLICE ON HIGH ALERT

The question today: Should a 58 year old man be wearing spandex shorts?  This 58 year old man did wear spandex shorts for his 10 mile trek through Chicago yesterday morning.  In fact, I had my most successful effort yet... I completed my 10 miles in two hours, forty-five seconds.  I do not attibute this improvement to the spandex shorts.  I do attribute it to an improvement in my leg strength and endurance. I thought it was OK for me to wear spandex shorts.  Nevertheless, the FASHION POLICE WERE ON HIGH ALERT!

One thing that I unambiguously know for sure:  The Fashion Police would certainly have arrested me if I had been wearing spandex shorts back in the days when I weighed north of 300 lbs.  Back in those days, that was not an issue that concerned me - I never would have owned a pair of spandex shorts.

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I set out today for my 10 mile walk with the idea of walking straight in one direction as long as I could.  The first part of my walk had me walking north on Halstead Avenue and then sliding over to the lakefront trail to return home.  The weather was beautiful, and I was able to wear shorts for the first time in a week.

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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, November 15, 2015

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Kashi - Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar, 3 bar	360	63	11	12	150	21
General Mills - Kix Cereal, 2.5 cup	220	50	2	4	360	6
Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 3 medium apple (170g)	285	75	1	2	5	57
	865	188	13	18	515	84
L U N C H
John Mc Cann's - Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal (Certificate of Award Uniformity of Granulation), 160 g (1/4 Cup)	600	108	10	16	0	2
Kashi - Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar, 1 bar	120	21	4	4	50	7
Central Market - Chipotle lime Salmon, 6.4 oz	304	3	18	29	1,168	0
	1,024	132	31	49	1,218	9
D I N N E R
Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 3 medium apple	285	75	1	2	5	57
Campbells Home Style Soup - Italian Wedding Soup, 2 cup	200	26	5	12	820	8
	485	101	6	14	825	65
S N A C K S
WHOLE FOODS 8738 - DRIED MANGO SLICES, 52.0 g (approx 6 pieces)	143	36	0	3	1	26
Whole Foods - Garlic Sesame Sticks, 0.5 cup	160	12	11	3	350	0
	303	48	11	6	351	26
Totals	2,677	470	61	85	2,910	183
Your Daily Goal	5,412	676	180	271	2,300	203
Remaining	2,735	205	118	185	-610	19
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 3,482 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking, 5.0 mph	121	2,173
Walking, 3.5 mph, brisk pace	175	1,562
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	-253
Daily Total / Goal	297 / 30	3,482 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1190 / 210	16,424 / 4,130

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TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED 2677 CALORIES
TOTAL CALORIES BURNED (10 MILE WALK @ 5MPH) 2173 CALORIES
TOTAL NET CALORIES 504 CALORIES

With the return of my daughter from her trip to Paris, we were able to take 10 mile stroll in the afternoon.  We visited Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park and Navy Pier. We certainly were not motoring along at 5mph (but still accumulating plenty of steps to 'feed' the fitbit.)   The beautiful morning became a picture perfect, stunningly warm November day. Picture perfect days require pictures.

No special camera effects were used to enhance the blue color of the Chicago sky.

Father and Daughter happy to be re-united after daughter returned home from Paris less than 24 hours ago.

A brand new TARGET recently opened in the Streeterville section of downtown Chicago, along with a brand-new Starbucks.

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Setting aside that I was wearing spandex shorts... It was nice to be wearing any type of shorts on a November day in Chicago

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fitbit day 74

35075 steps

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10,000 STEPS

I have been a 'fitbitter' for just over one week. I know that I am joining a community of hundreds of thousands of people who are each day logging and counting their steps. Before I made my purchase, even I was aware that the fitbit is a device that encourages its users to make 10,000 steps per day.  I was curious where this number came from....

I found this article on the fitbit blog dated June 22, 2010

The Magic of 10,000 steps

When you join Fitbit, the default goal we set for each member is the magical number of 10,000 steps a day (you can also choose to customize your goal).  And while this may not be the first time you’ve heard that goal, it might be more meaningful, and motivating, to understand its origins. 

The Japanese first started using the 10,000 steps a day number, as part of a marketing campaign! (to help sell pedometers).  Since that initial campaign however, medical authorities around the world have agreed that 10,000 is a healthy number to aim for. The American Heart Association uses the 10,000 steps metric as a guideline to follow for improving health and decreasing risk of heart disease, the number one killer of men and women in America. 

10,000 steps a day is a rough equivalent to the Surgeon General’s recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week. It should be enough to reduce your risk for disease and help you lead a longer, healthier life. The benefits are many:  lower BMI, reduced waist size, increased energy, and less risk for Type II diabetes and heart disease.  In fact, a recent study of the 10,000 steps a day method reported conclusive health benefits. 

10,000 steps daily is approximately 5 miles.  Unless you have a very active lifestyle or profession, you probably don’t reach 10,000 steps on a given day without putting some effort into your activity.  This could be a lifestyle change such as walking to work, or the addition of an exercise routine to your day. 

Another reason to do it?  For most people, it’s convenient, free and simple to do with just a little change to your daily routine.  Working towards a 10,000 step a day goal?  Good for you!  Get motivated with one of our Fitbit groups, like 5k-6k steps a day.  Already mastered 10,000? Maybe Active Maintainers is for you.

After reading this I was wondering was ACTIVE MAINTAINERS was all about.  It is an online group of 'overachieving' people with fitbit.  Naturally, I joined.... This is what the leaderboard looked like this morning, September 12th.

Steps in September

• Mike K. - 582,197 steps#1
• Jennifer K. - 526,615 steps#2
• Debbie A. - 492,026 steps#3
• Tracy E. - 211,113 steps#122
• Chris E. - 210,583 steps#123
• You - 210,492 steps#124
• Alma R. - 210,107 steps#125Tracey V. - 209,941 steps
• #126

This group has nearly 200,000 members.... so my standing of #124 is fairly respectable.  I do not think that this will ever be a group where I will be number 1.

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226.6 lbs

I weigh 226.6 lbs.

I gained 0.8 lbs this week

I have lost 82.4 lbs in 262 days. Today begins Day 263.

I will always be at the beginning of a journey that never ends.

I weigh 226.8 (262 days ago I weighed 309 lbs)

I have lost 26.6% of my weight since Dec 24.

I have a BMI, body mass index of 30.31 

I had a 42.0 BMI on Dec 24 just 234 days ago (Class III obesity)

I have 4 words of RATIONALIZATION for myself today: IT MUST BE MUSCLE

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 FRIDAY MENU

breakfast   oatmeal, bacon, poached eggs                                         590 calories

lunch         almonds, bacon, apples, dark choice cashew bars         1270 calories
dinner        Mariano's huge spinach salad                                          750 calories
SNACK    mango, cacao goji, Quaker Rice Cakes                         1030 calories

total calories consumed 3641 calories

calories burned

Northfield YMCA PRECOR 100i elliptical machine 
(maximum session length limited to 60 minutes)
session 1 elliptical 60 min, 5 min cooldown, level 20, 1095 cal
session 2 elliptical 60 min, 5 min cooldown, level 20, 1108 cal

TOTAL CALORIES BURNED 2203 calories

Friday net calories 1438 calories
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URBAN HIKE

I have been 'fitbitten' for only four days.  I purchased my fitbit on Thursday afternoon.  The fitbit is designed to encourage each user to take a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. As I have consistently been using an elliptical machine for workouts of a minimum of 90 minutes (and often two hours) this level of activity has not been a personal issue.  Nevertheless, the fitbit has encouraged me to be more active.  On Sunday, I rode my bicycle roundtrip (seven miles) to the YMCA and I worked out for two hours.  Once I returned home around noon, my fitbit indicated that I had taken 11,000 steps.  Yesterday seemed like a good day to try to reach 25,000 steps (especially with 11,000 steps already logged in by noon)   I asked my daughter if she wanted to take a walk.  The walk that I had in mind was more of an URBAN HIKE. Our hike logged another 24,000 steps.  And when we returned home my fitbit recorded 35,000 steps for the day.  As I was feeling ambitious, I spent another 45 minutes or so walking in place and logged an additional 5000 steps after arriving home.  Total steps logged in on Sunday was 40,001.

THE URBAN HIKERS - FATHER/DAUGHTER

Our URBAN HIKE took us all the way to the SOUTH LOOP area and we stopped at a Whole Foods for a refreshing MELON SALAD.   I calculated that our entire hike was approximately 10 miles.  It was a real hot day and the urban hike was a terrific way for us to close out the summer.  Tomorrow our family will take it easy and get ready for the school year to start on Tuesday.

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LOOKING NORTH FROM ROOSEVELT ROAD BRIDGE IN THE SOUTH LOOP

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MONUMENT WITH STANDING BEAST (that is the name of the sculpture)

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My title of this photograph: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!

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 Sunday MENU

breakfast   OATMEAL, HONEYCRISP APPLE                          455 calories
lunch         oatmeal, kale crunch, ginger, coconut water, melons 1120 calories
dinner       zucchini saute, sausage, whitefish broiled                    780 calories
SNACK    organic fair trade coconut chocolate bar, kale crunch  780 calories
     

total calories consumed 3135 calories

calories burned

elliptical machine 125 minutes, 4:3 interval,  level 20              1666 calories

CALORIES BURNED 1666 CALORIES

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Saturday net calories 1469 calories

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AGORA  ----> FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Agora is the name of a group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures at the south end of Grant Park in Chicago. Designed by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, they were made in a foundry near Poznańbetween 2004 and 2006. In 2006, the Chicago Park District brought the work to Chicago as a permanent loan from the Polish Ministry of Culture.Similar installations have been constructed throughout the world, but Agora is among the largest.

Chicago, which has a large Polish American community, had hoped to add a major work by Abakanowicz for several years before Agora arrived. Among the plans which were not realized were a large hand to be placed at the end of BP Pedestrian Bridge and a set of animal sculptures to be placed near the Monroe Street harbor. One proposal called for a group of headless figures be placed in Chicago's Museum Campus. Chicago MayorRichard M. Daley eventually suggested placing an installation at the south end of Grant Park, near Roosevelt Road. By 2006, private donors, including actor Robin Williams, contributed over $700,000 to bring the work to Chicago.

The figures are 9 ft (2.7 m) tall and weigh approximately 1,800 lb (820 kg).Each is made from a hollow, seamless piece of iron that has been allowed to rust, creating a reddish appearance^[5] and a bark-like texture. The figures appear to be milling about in a crowd; some face each other, while others look away. Visitors are meant to walk through the sculptures and contemplate the work.

The name Agora refers to the urban meeting places of the Ancient Greek city-states. Abakanowicz, who grew up during World War II, has said that her art draws on her fear of crowds, which she once described as "brainless organisms acting on command, worshiping on command and hating on command". However, the work has inspired optimistic interpretations. Kevin Nance of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "If they had arms and hands (they don't), these would be clasped behind their backs as if in contemplation. They seem, somehow, to be thinking, not as a group but as individuals. [...] It's possible, in fact, to interpret the piece as a representation of democracy."^[

Agora received a mixed response from the people of Chicago. "I get e-mails from people loving it and people hating it. There's nothing in between," said Bob O'Neill of the Grant Park Advisory Council. Mayor Daley lauded the work, saying, "You've got to go through it yourself to feel the spirit of the artist and each piece of artwork."

MONUMENT WITH STANDING BEAST ---->FROM WIKIPEDIA

Monument with Standing Beast is a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet in front of the Helmut Jahn designed James R. Thompson Centerin the Loop community areaof Chicago, Illinois. Its location is across the street from Chicago City Hall to the South and diagonal across the street from the Daley Center to the southeast. It is a 29-foot (8.8 m) white fiberglass work of art. The piece is a 10 ton or 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) work. It was unveiled on November 28, 1984.

This is one of Dubuffet's three monumental sculpture commissions in the United States. It has been taken to represent a standing animal, a tree, a portal and an architectural form. The sculpture is based on Dubuffet's 1960 painting series Hourioupe. The sculpture and the series of figural and landscape designs it is a part of reflects his thoughts of earliest monumental commission, for the One Chase Manhattan Plaza.

FITBIT DAY 4

40001 STEPS!

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l'Hourloupe - Jean Dubuffet