Jade Lee / Kathy Lyons | Competition or Why Play Time was Always Stressful
July 23, 2014
My Fitbit Problem--
For my birthday some months ago, my daughter gave me
a) a massage gift certificate which her father paid for.
b) a lavish bouquet of flowers
c) a lavish trip to Hong Kong!
d) a fitbit. Duh. Look at the title of the blog.
Answer: A and D. I actually have two daughters. As for the flowers and
the trip to Hong Kong...I wish.
For those who don't know, a fitbit is
a small device that tracks your steps every day. It's like a pedometer, but high
tech with a website link, food logs, motivational links, and way more. The
wristband ones can track your stairs every day. I've got the little one that
attaches to my bra and gets my forward and backwards steps pretty accurately.
The side to side lateral steps are harder for it, but it catches some of
them.
* * *
My reaction to the gift of electronic monitoring:
a) PANIC! OMG, the
government is going to keep track of me!
b) Yawn. Why do I need to know how many steps I take in a day?
c) HUH? What the hell is this little thing and WHERE do I attach it?
d) AWESOME! Now I can track my fitness obsessively! (and completely ignore the
food log aspects)
Answer: D. I knew that according to doctors, a healthy person walks
approximately 10,000 steps a day. Now obviously there are plenty of healthy
people who don't do a fraction of that, and probably some very unhealthy people
who do way more than 10k. Whatever. I just thought it was cool and wanted to
start establishing goals and tracking what I did and generally feeling proud of
myself because I walked two miles in a day.
It worked great for a couple months. Loved the thing, had fun with it, and
gabbed with my friends about it. And then the problem happened. Audio
a) I accidentally flushed it down the toilet
b) The government caught me on a day when I hadn't walked at all and
fined me a zillion dollars for being a couch potato.
c) I suddenly lost a hundred pounds and am now a supermodel
d) I joined an Entangled Authors/Staff Fitbit Group and suddenly got
competitive.
e) Not only did I suddenly get competitive but in an effort to reach top
slot on the leaderboard, I hurt my ankle, then ignored it. Started on
shinsplints, which I ignored. And then pulled a hamstring which I couldn't
ignore. That's me over there on crutches.
Answer: D. E is completely true except for the crutches. I'm actually wearing an
ACE ankle brace since the problem began with the swollen ankle. It's possible
that a competitive nature PLUS blatant stupidity in ignoring the injuries is
what has truly done me in. But in my defense, a competitive nature INCLUDES the
need to ignore anything that will deter one from reaching the GOAL.
And now I've falling off the Leader Board ENTIRELY! WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
The main question here is will I learn an important life lesson from this?
a) I've learned that I don't play well with others because I have to CRUSH THEM
INTO THE GROUND
b) I've learned that one doesn't ignore a swelling in ANYTHING. Rest and ice
early might have prevented this particular disaster.
c) I've learned that doing speed drills suck if you've pulled a hamstring. Wait,
are you saying I shouldn't do them at all? But then how will I play racquetball
with quick feet?
d) absolutely nothing.
Answer: D. Seriously. I've had a zillion athletic injuries throughout my life,
all resulting from pushing too hard and ignoring the consequences. It's part of
my charm.
Want to know who else has a directed, competitive nature? Who sets a goal and
doesn't let anything deter her? That would be the heroine of TWO WEEK
SEDUCTION by Kathy Lyons.
Comments
2 comments posted.
Re: Jade Lee / Kathy Lyons | Competition or Why Play Time was Always Stressful
you're so funny--and a great writer! (Denise Holcomb 8:58pm July 23, 2014)
I'm still smiling reading about your escapades with the Fitbit and it's visit with water in the toilet. Did you know a lot of people drop their cell phones in the toilet? My son took a shower with his because it was water resistant. They gave him another when he brought the box in that said water resistant and because he was still a teen. (Alyson Widen 5:51pm July 31, 2014)
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