I had my surgery on Wednesday, and I am doing pretty well. Yesterday was awful because I had terrible nausea from the pain medication. The doctor took me off the pain meds and gave me a prescription for the nausea, so I had a much better day today. I’m doing pretty well without any pain medication, and if I really hurt, I can take some acetaminophen. I know I am going to be really happy about having had the surgery a couple months from now, but right now I am just really uncomfortable and I’m annoyed about how careful I need to be about moving around. I’m nervous about breaking open any of my incisions, which are quite long. I’ll feel much less anxious when things start to heal up. I don’t mind scars – I will be happy to see them, because that will mean the incisions have healed over. The human body sure is resilient.

I was supposed to take my dressings off and have my first shower yesterday, but I decided that with all my nausea I didn’t think I could handle seeing my Frankenstein wounds. So I waited until today, and was very happy to have a shower. Unfortunately, I can’t really lift my arms to wash my hair, so after my shower, I went and got my hair shampooed and cut. I had about 3 inches cut off and it looks way nicer and neater. I was in desperate need of getting rid of my split ends. Of course I can’t go pay to have someone else shampoo my hair every day, so I am going to have to get that figured out soon.

I am down 20.8 pounds as of the end of week 12. I won’t be too smug about it though, because this is mostly because I had surgery this week and could hardly keep any food down on Thursday. We’ll see how I am doing next week, when things are hopefully back to a little more normal. I plan to be off work all of this coming week just to make sure I don’t have any problems. I am not allowed to drive for a week, and I have a post-op appointment on Wednesday to see how I am doing.

UPDATE May 5, 2010 REGARDING CUSTOMER SERVICE, see end of post

I first heard about the bodybugg in September 2009, when my husband told me his boss was using one and loved it. Stephen knew it would appeal to my obsessive compulsive side. The idea behind the bodybugg is simple. You wear an armband with a small monitor that keeps track of the calories you burn and the steps you take. At the end of the day, you upload the data from your armband device into the online bodybugg program. You also enter all the food you have been eating into the program, and it keeps track of all the nutritional information, including your caloric intake. That is basically all there is to it, you compare your calories burned to your calories consumed. If you burn more than you consume, you lose weight.

My biggest concern, when deciding whether to purchase a bodybugg, was whether the measurement of calories burned was accurate. The bodybugg website provides the following explanation of how the system works: “In addition to measuring motion and steps, the armband is able to see how much you are sweating, your skin temperature and the rate at which heat is being dissipated from your body.” It probably goes without saying that there is no way it (or any other device) could be 100% accurate. The more important issue is probably whether the difference between calories burned and calories consumed is accurate. My understanding is that they used these activity monitors on the tv show The Biggest Loser, which gave me a little bit more confidence that they are fairly close to the mark. I finally decided to go ahead and buy one in mid-October. Now that I have used it for several months, I can say that it has been accurate enough that I have been able to achieve my goals thus far.

The Good

There is probably a certain type of person for whom this device is appropriate, and I seem to be that type. I like to have a formula where I can plug in numbers and have a fairly good idea of what my results will be. I have been on Weight Watchers, which I think is an excellent program, but balancing my exercise against the points I consumed was always a pain for me because it seemed very imprecise. What I like about the bodybugg is that I don’t really have to calculate anything. I just provide the program with input, and it does the calculating for me. It has a fairly large database of foods and it is easy to add your own foods to the program. It can provide you with a breakdown of your calories – how much is carbs, protein and fat. It keeps track of the steps you take and helps you set activity goals. It can also tell you if you are being honest about the food you consume, if you are not losing the weight that your activity and eating suggests you should. It provides a wealth of information, but even if you distill it down to its most basic level – calories consumed and calories burned – that information will be enough to help you reach your goals. The rest is gravy.

The Bad

I’d like to preface this section by saying I know this sounds like a long list of cons for the device, but overall, I would still call this a positive review. It’s just that I think all these issues are very important to consider before you decide to purchase a bodybugg. Even with these problems, I would still buy the bodybugg, but they might convince another person that it is not for them.

COST:
The biggest problem with the bodybugg is that it is not cheap. I paid $200 for mine, and another $100 for the digital display, although sometimes there are sales. I felt strongly about having the digital display, so I could keep track of my calorie burning throughout the day, and make any eating or exercise adjustments that I thought necessary. The armband does not have any sort of display, probably to keep it as small as possible. I wear the digital display on a belt clip, and I really like having it. I don’t think I would like the bodybugg as much if I didn’t have the display.

But more important than the initial price is the continued cost of using the online program. The bodybugg comes with a three-month subscription to the service. After that, you must pay a monthly fee in order to continue using it. I chose the cheapest option, which is to pay for a one year subscription, which is $79.95. Personally, I think this is ridiculous. I understand that this is one of the areas in which they make their real money, but forcing people to pay for a subscription service without which their expensive device will become a paperweight seems very greedy to me. Because I cannot install the full program on my computer and use it freely, there is a very good chance that at some point in the future I won’t be able to access the website and my bodybugg will indeed become a paperweight. The bodybugg could be an extremely useful device for many people struggling with their weight, but the continued cost makes it impractical or simply out of reach for many of the people who could most benefit from it.

In addition to the three-month subscription, you also get one free coaching call with the bodybugg folks. Although I did glean some useful information about the program’s features, the call seemed focused more on sales than on helping me. They try to sell you supplements that you can buy in their online store and they also try to sell you more coaching calls. Here is an extremely useful device that could help a lot of people, and they have made it simply part of a larger sales pitch. It really rubbed me the wrong way and it probably had the opposite effect that they intended, at least on me. Even if they sell some supplements that may be good products, the sales pitch turned me off so much that I would never buy any of them. There are a lot of excellent sources for vitamins and minerals.

SOFTWARE:
We had a lot of trouble getting the bodybugg synced with the software on my Mac. Although the program is online, there are still some components that need to be downloaded from their website apparently. I had seen reviews on Amazon saying that bodybugg didn’t work with Mac, but others said it did and the bodybugg website said it did. After much frustration, we finally figured out that I had to run my Safari browser in 32-bit mode rather than the standard 64-bit mode. Once we made that change, we were able to get things going. There was nothing about this in the manual. Stephen found it on a users’ forum somewhere.

Occasionally the program will crash my browser, but the larger problem has been program updates. There would be periods of time when every single time I tried to connect my bodybugg to my computer to upload my calories burned data, it would say I needed to download an update and restart my computer. This got very frustrating, so I sent an email to customer service. They sent me a very long response with this long list of things I needed to do, including uninstalling and reinstalling everything. After hunting around on a user forum, I realized that all I needed to do if I got the update message was to fully close Safari and reopen it. This can still be a pain if I have a lot of windows open with things I want to keep track of, but it is better than restarting my computer all the time for these “updates”. But any time I have had a problem, I have had to figure out the fix myself. Lately, though, I haven’t been getting the update messages, so I am hoping they have fixed that problem, although I have though that before.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Shortly after I got my bodybogg, the plastic clip for wearing my display device on my pants cracked. It was still wearable, though annoying, so I procrastinated about contacting them for a replacement. However, in January, the clip cracked again, breaking an entire section off. This rendered it unusable. I contacted online customer service and explained the problem, asking for a replacement. They never bothered to get back to me. I could have kept bugging them, but I just ordered a replacement clip ($7.95 I think) so I could start using the display again. But I am sure they didn’t get back to me because it would have cost them money to send me a replacement clip, and they seem to be more about making money than keeping customers happy.

Summary

Despite the negatives, the bodybugg is an extremely useful device. I would definitely recommend it, but caution that it is not cheap and it is helpful to be computer savvy. I am definitely glad I got mine, because it is doing what it advertises. It helps me compare the difference between the calories I consume and those I burn, and that is all I need it to do in order to lose weight. That being said, if another company came out with a similar product that worked as well and did not require a continued subscription to use their software, I would switch. I believe there are some other devices on the market, but currently, this one is probably the most accurate according to what I’ve read.

UPDATE: I emailed customer service on February 15, 2010, regarding the defective belt clip. Today, May 5, 2010, I received an answer! That has to be some sort of record for slow responses. Most of the email I received had nothing to do with the issue I raised: “The myapex accounts are private to each individual and are self-managed accounts. To cancel a scheduled monthly order, log-in with your username and password at www.myapex.com.” She did say that I should call Technical Support for warranty items. It really took them TWO AND A HALF MONTHS to respond and tell me to contact someone else? So, let me reiterate what I said in my original review above. Bodybugg is NOT about customer service. No company should take two and half months to respond to a customer, although I guess that’s a step up from not responding at all. The bodybugg is a great device, but be aware that if you have problems, you are likely on your own.

Here’s my weight loss graph for February. Stephen saw it and said, “You flatlined!” Thanks, honey. But I am actually continuing to do pretty well. It took me awhile to make the graph because I’ve been procrastinating. I am sticking this in my blog prior to the iPad and bodybugg posts, because I think they are more interesting. But I didn’t want to leave it out altogether because I want to have one for every month, even if I am a little slow on this one.

I am almost caught up now on my reading, which will hopefully make me less stressed about my challenge. Surprisingly, I’ve done much better with the weight loss portion than the reading portion, but I am trying to even that out. I finished Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child tonight. Child is one of my favorite authors, but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in the book. It was well-written and exciting, but the plot was kind of a retread of Relic, which he wrote with Douglas Preston. When I read Relic the first time, probably 15 years ago, I couldn’t put it down. I ended up staying awake most of the night to read it. Now I couldn’t stay up all night if I wanted to, but I didn’t have that sense of urgency with Terminal Freeze anyway. I knew where it was going, and luckily, getting there was still a fun ride. His new book with Douglas Preston is coming out later this spring, and I am really looking forward to that one.

I’ve been collecting books from the Portable Library of Korean Literature, so I’ve decided to tackle those next. I only have seven of them, but there are probably at least 50 in the series. Most of the books are novellas or short story collections, and they usually only run about 100 pages. I am starting with A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball by Cho Se-Hui. It was first published as part of a short story collection in 1978, and is considered a modern classic in Korea and remains very popular. The translator of this edition, Chun Kyung-Ja, has won awards for her English translations of Korean literature, so I am hoping it is a good translation.

I am having surgery in about three weeks that will hopefully help with my back problems, which will probably result in a brief spike in weight loss like when I was sick a couple weeks ago. So don’t be worried if I lose weight a little more rapidly that week. I am just hoping it has a positive effect on my back. The bummer is that I won’t be able to walk Chiqui for awhile. Well, I can walk with her and Stephen, but I won’t be able to hold the leash.

Sorry for the delay in posting my challenge update from last Friday. It was my birthday weekend, and I was busy having fun! After losing more than six pounds in week six, I gained just under four pounds in week seven, making my overall weight loss so far a little more reasonable. Plus I seem to be over whatever stomach bug was ailing me.

Yesterday, I started reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I enjoyed it so much, I ended up finishing it yesterday too. I’m on week eight now, so I need to read two more books to catch up. I liked it so much that I put the movie in my Netflix queue. I hope I enjoy it as much as I did the book. I got rid of a few more books too. My friend’s daughter is an avid reader, and I went through my book donation boxes and picked out a bunch of titles I thought she might like. We need to make another trip to the library this weekend though, to get rid of the rest of these boxes.

Cando Vestibular Disc

I have made an adjustment at work that will probably contribute to weight loss, although the reason for it is to reduce back pain. My desk has been converted to a standing desk, so that I do not have to sit all day. This means that I will be moving around a lot more. They have ordered a stool for me so that I can sit when I need to, but I am going to try and stand as much as possible. To alleviate stiffness and pain in my legs from standing all day, I ordered a vestibular disc. It is kind of like a balance ball, but flat. You stand on it so that you are shifting your weight and moving all day, instead of standing in one position with your feet flat on the floor all day. They raised my desk much more quickly than I expected, so hopefully my stool and my disc will arrive soon.

Stephen put together this nifty graph of my January weight loss. It actually starts on January 14, when my weight was 212.9. For the first week or so of January, we were in Jamaica and I didn’t have access to a scale. My starting weight as of January 1 was 215.3. I lost 8.3 pounds during the month of January. My goal was to lose four pounds, so I exceeded my target. Without Jamaica, I might have done even a little better, but I couldn’t help eating at least a couple Jamaican patties.

I have been concentrating on trying to eat a balanced diet and get all the right nutrients. The hardest thing for me is getting enough protein. I am not a big meat eater, so on days when I don’t eat any meat, I try to eat other high protein foods. I use The Wellness Encyclopedia of Foot and Nutrition from UC Berkeley to look up nutritional information for various fresh foods. Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print in any of its various incarnations, although you can buy used copies on Amazon. There are probably lots of similar books on the market. I find this one to be extremely useful.

I read four books in January, which is almost on track. I am about one week behind. In January, I read the good, good pig by Sy Montgomery, Tongue by Kyung Ran Jo, Food Rules by Michael Pollan, and a children’s book called, The Wicked Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House by Mary Chase. I found the last one when boxing up books for donation and figured I could read it very quickly (like an hour or less) and then give it away. It doesn’t seem to be in print anymore, but it was originally published in 1968 (as The Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden), so there are probably zillions of used copies floating about. I would have loved this book when I was about 10 – lots of creepy elements. A quick and enjoyable little read. I really wanted to be reviewing the books I’ve read so far, but I haven’t had a chance yet. Of the first four books, Tongue is the only one that I definitely would not recommend. It may be the translation, but I found it a little dry and slow.

I haven’t been too diligent about updating my blog, but luckily I have been diligent about my challenge. I went to the doctor for my annual checkup yesterday and I was down to 205 lbs. I got a big surprise though. Every time my height has been measured for the past 20 or so years, I have been 5’9″. Yesterday, I was 5’8 1/4″! I thought I was a bit young (a couple weeks shy of 42) to be shrinking, but I asked the nurse if it could be related to my ruptured and herniated discs. That is exactly what it was. I had no idea it would affect my height – especially not that much. I am still calculating my BMI based on 5’9″ though! I figured the change in height didn’t affect my body composition – my spine is simply compressed.

I got a little behind in my reading because I had been driving to work. I started taking the train to work again, so I am getting caught up this week. But the big news is that I have decided to let go of some of the books in my To Be Read (TBR) pile. I will never get through 911 books, so I decided to keep only the ones that I REALLY want to read. I have donated about 150 books so far, and I have another 150 or so boxed up. I got more boxes and I think I can probably get rid of another 200. This will put a huge dent in the massive numbers of books I have around the house. I feel better already! I am donating all the like new books to the Friends organization of my local library, and sending the beat up ones to Goodwill.

It turned out to be a busier weekend than I expected, and I got NO writing done. It also wasn’t a very good weekend in terms of food. I still had a calorie deficit, but in the case of Sunday, it was only a deficit of 11. I was feeling a little down, probably because my back is bothering me and because of work stress, and I always have trouble with eating in moderation when I am down. I did a little better on Monday and had a 500 calorie deficit, and I feel like I am back on track today.

Because I had such a crummy food weekend, I decided to change my week three book to Food Rules An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan. I haven’t read Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food, but I have heard wonderful things about them. I chose Food Rules because it is a quick read with concrete advice, as opposed to being about the science and history of the western diet. Here’s a brief description from Amazon: “Michael Pollan, our nation’s most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat.”

I hope to get caught up with various posts here and on my travel blog by the end of this coming weekend. Despite setbacks on Sunday, I think I am on track for my weight loss and reading goals for Friday. I have a tendency to neglect updating my websites, even when the news is good. I am trying to be a little more disciplined about that, which is why I switched to the blog format. It is much easier to update since I don’t have to write code for every page.

Meal Planning

In my quest to eat more healthily, I think I will do a lot better if I plan ahead. But in the times when I have planned out my meals by week, it turned out to be a LOT of work on the weekend. However, it was great during the week when I already knew what we were doing for dinner when I got home exhausted from work each night. I am trying to find ways to make meal planning a little easier, while recognizing that it will probably take some extra organization in the beginning. But if I can find something that works for me, maybe I won’t lose steam on planning our meals.

I looked at all sorts of meal planning templates, but what bothered me was the waste of paper by printing one out for each week or using pads with tear-off planners. Then I ran across an idea I thought was great. Print out your lovely meal planning template on a piece of 8.5×11 paper, then put it in a picture frame. You can use those wipe-off markers to write on the glass, then at the end of the week, you just wipe it all off and start over. You can even hang it on the wall in your kitchen, then take it down to write out the new weekly menu. No wasted paper!

I still need to deal with weekly shopping lists. I used to use a shopping list I created in Word that was organized by the aisles in my grocery store. I just sat at the computer with my week of menus, then added each item under the correct aisle. I printed it out and away I went. I used to have people reading my grocery list over my shoulder, getting excited that I had it organized for that particular store. But again, more paper wasted. There is probably some sort of shopping list app for the iPhone, so maybe I should investigate that. I don’t know how good I would be about utilizing that type of thing. And walking around the store while staring at my iPhone sounds like it would just be annoying. I don’t think I’ll try the picture frame idea for the grocery store!

Recipe Organization

I probably have around 30 cookbooks, but there is no good place to store them in or near the kitchen. I am wondering if maybe I should just take one cookbook at a time and type the recipes I know I will use into my computer, then get rid of the cookbooks. My husband would love this. There are a couple cookbooks I would definitely keep, like Joy of Cooking, but then I would clear out some more books and make more room in our house. Of course, if the recipes are on our computer, then that necessitates printing them out and wasting more paper. My Mom has a great setup. She has one of those little counters between her computer/tv room and her kitchen. If she is working on the computer (which is on the computer room side), the monitor faces that room. When she is cooking, she brings up the recipe, then turns the monitor to face the kitchen. It works great. I’d actually have to have some sort of computer on my kitchen counter to make this work. If I had unlimited funds, which I don’t, I’d mount a Mac Mini under the cabinets and set the monitor on the counter.

What I want to avoid is spending tons of times paging through cookbooks at meal planning times, when half the recipes are things I would never make. It seems more efficient to have only the recipes I like stored on my computer. I looked at recipe organization software for the Mac awhile back, and it seemed a little pricey. My Mom just uses MS Word, then stores each recipe in the appropriate folder, with names like “chicken”, “dessert”, etc. At some point, I think she’d like to scan her hard copy recipes and drop them in those folders as well.

I have a huge three-ring binder with lots of my favorite recipes in those clear plastic sheets. The idea was that I could take a plastic sleeve out to use a particular recipe, then just wipe it off if there are any spills. I can barely lift the thing, however, so it seems less than practical. It was a good idea at the time, but if I add another recipe, I’ll need a forklift.

I’m still thinking about ways to make meal planning and recipe organization easier, and I’d welcome any suggestions.