Cool, we have just got a posh new rowing machine in our gym so we might need a healthy (pardon the pun) competition.

Ooh, indoor rowing - I'm in, I need a bit motivation to get back on mine. I have a proper one (a bit old fashioned now, I suppose) in the basement, left over from my days rowing competitively. It was a massively expensive thing then, and I'm buggered if I'm going to get rid of it never mind how little use it now gets. I only do a very occasional workout these days. I usually do 7.5k or 10k if I want a decent steady-state session, and every now and then will throw in a 2k flat-out as a sort of benchmark. Times have gotten a lot slower than they used to be, somehow.... could it be because my ever-expanding gut is getting in the way of a smooth technique?

I traded my six pack in for a very large one pack a while ago.

No I never had a six pack really.

The odd thing with six pack's is you can't drink six pack's to have one.

It's a shame Ultrarunner is not here. He was a guru on health, fitness and life survival.

Damn! That explains it.

Two years ago almost to the day I decided that I was not happy with how I looked. I wasn't fat, but I was certainly overweight. I was out of breath easily. I had moved up two trouser sizes in the past few years. I was generally just not happy with myself.

I ran into someone from work who was very, very overweight... and she had lost 2stone. I didn't have 2stone to lose, 1st would be good... so I decided to make a change.

I started using MyFitnessPal to log everything I ate, and I stuck to it as close as possible. I allowed myself a few cheat days, but kept them to only one a month, and I didn't gorge, just went a bit over mainly to stay sane. I started to walk more. I signed up for a membership at the pool, and tried really hard to go swimming twice a week.

And slowly but surely things started to change. My trousers got a bit roomier. I could go for longer in the pool. I could run to the train and not be totally winded when I got there. A bit, but not badly!

In January 2013 my brother got me a Fitbit, which got me watching my steps and really aiming for my 10k a day. I realised how little I did on days when I worked from home. I started walking one tube stop further, and walked further when I went to get lunch at work.

It's two years on now. I had a few weeks here and there of being off the wagon, but my cheat days don't last long and I am careful not to have too many. It's not a diet, it's a sustainable, maintainable change.

In two years, I'm down that 2stone I didn't think was even possible. I'm down two trouser sizes, nearly a third (depends on the cut right now, want to be firmly in the lower one!). I can go for long walks, I can swim, I can run around and not be winded. Not to mention I look so much better and I feel a zillion times better!

Last month I foudn pictures of me from two years ago... and compared it to pictures taken two months ago. Awesome to see the progress - 4lb to go to my goal.

Unfortunately today I went swimming with my Fitbit. It appears it disagreed with being submerged in saltwater. Whoopsies. It's in rice right now, we'll see if it comes back to life tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic. If it's not working tomorrow I'll email Fitbit, from reading online they are actually pretty generous with replacing them. I love my Fitbit!

If anyone wants to be friends on Fitbit or MyFitnessPal, drop me a PM.

Great story and progress Schnooks. I've been reading about Fitbit on Amazon, and while it has mostly 5* reviews some of the lower star reviews have complained that it is not that accurate on steps (as it's attached to the arm) and that a pedometer would suffice. Also I read that it has to be recharged very frequently. Any comments?

Me, my husband, both my parents, and my brother all have the Fitbit One, which is the clip one. Mom and I wear ours attached to the bra; the boys wear theirs on their waistband. We all find ours very accurate with steps because it's kept on the torso, which tends to be more stationary and thus registers steps far more accurately as there's less sort of peripheral movement. The only times I've found it recording extra steps are driving on particularly bumpy road, or on roller coasters. :P The average train journey might give me maybe a total of 20 extra steps, but I'm not getting too worked up about such small numbers.

I charge mine every 7-9 days or so, which is great battery life in my books. It also takes just about an hour to fully charge, it's really fast. I keep a charger in the car, and ordered a few spares so I have one at my desk and a few floating around the house so it's easy to just give it a quick boost when I'm stationary - car and desk, mainly.

Highly recommend it.

That's what I was talking about with the UP band, it doesn't register steps if your arms aren't moving so pushing something, or carrying reduces the number of steps. When cycling I place it in my sock so it registers leg movement and at work I put it in my pocket. You can add workouts, the type, effort level, and duration.

Oh and it shakes to tell you you have been idle for too long.

Thanks
Thanks

Good info.

I got a concept 2 a couple of months ago as my long running days are over and needed something more than just walking the dogs.

I am not fast, but I've been following the pete plan for beginners (easy to find with google), and my times are steadily improving. It has things like 8x500 with 2 minute rests which make me feel like I'm about to drop dead. Still, my 500m split time is 25s faster than when I started it over 10k so it must be working.

Interval training is smart and practical.

I think that's the one we got downstairs. I'll look for the manual so I can work the little computer device thingy.

We've got a little rowing machine at work. So i had a go. 1 km took me 8 and bit minutes with a few stops, that was hard work.

Well, the new Apple Watch has been announced. They did mention quite a bit about the health side of it, so it could well be of use as a fitbit replacement, however, you do need a compatible iPhone to use it (presumably because it syncs things and some of the "apps" on it, or that will be written for it, don't actually install as "apps" they're app extensions), I believe iPhone 5 or above will work with it.