Measure what matters

I kicked off my health transformation in 2018 when I transitioned to running outdoors vs. the treadmill and was gifted a Garmin Fenix 5S Watch that I began tracking all my metrics with my workouts uploaded to an app called Strava so I could start monitoring my progress; you can't change what you don't monitor. Here are tips to help you with your health transformation:

Buy a fitness tracker and walk 10,000 steps a day.?The?average American?is walking 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day. Since 2018, I have taken 16,684,989 steps with an average of 14,534 steps a day. Without a doubt, my activity level has helped me lose and sustain my weight loss of nearly 40lbs going on four years.

Embrace tracking your weight.?I have no idea why we demonize the scale, but you can't change what you don't monitor. I have carefully tracked my weight loss journey that started in 2018. I literally lost about a pound or two a month for years. Today, my weight is stable despite the extreme adversity I have been put through. I started with a BMI of 23.7 in 2018, and today my BMI is at 18.9. At the start of COVID in 2020, my BMI was 21.4. It is much easier to course correct when up a pound or two than 10 or 20 pounds.

And track other vital data?like Cholesterol, Resting Heart Rate, V02 Max, and Blood Pressure for a holistic wellness picture to go with your weight.

Do NOT rely on the calories burned on indoor exercise equipment.?Countless?studies?have shown the calories count can be off as much as 30%. Invest in a good watch with a heart rate monitor. I started with a FitBit before I transitioned to my Garmin watch when I began marathon training in 2018.?

And speaking of indoor equipment, ditch it for at least half your workouts and embrace the outdoors.?I have taken countless studio classes over the years, and calories burned cycling and running outdoors are significantly higher than training indoors. The reason is most indoor equipment cannot mirror the change in elevation, which engages different muscles. I took an hour-long spin class earlier this month and didn't even burn 250 calories, according to my Garmin watch. The studio bike, however, told me I burned 600 calories!?

There is an exception to this rule: Cycling on Indoor Trainers.?I am gearing up for my first 140.6-mile race and working on building up my leg muscles. I decided to try an indoor trainer called Wahoo Kickr Snap, in which I threw my gravel bike onto and pedal away while using an app called Zwift. The combination of the two mimics the outdoors with serious intensity! Best of all, My aluminum bike cost $1,200, and the?Kickr Snap?was $500. A monthly subscription to Zwift is $14.99 - less money than Peloton while having the ability to train indoors or out!

As far as treadmill running goes, there is a place for treadmill running especially new runners as they work on form.?The issue with a treadmill is you hit the same leg muscles repeatedly, where outside the elevation changes recruits different muscles as you run up and down hills. I believe the repetitive movement on treadmills likely leads to unnecessary injuries.

There is a lot of controversy about whether a heart strap is more accurate than a heart rate monitor worn on the wrist.?I have both. Check out my Zwift ride last night - I wore a?Wahoo Fitness Tickr X. TICKR X tracks heart rate, calories burned, running analytics, and indoor cycling cadence. Equipped with Bluetooth and ANT+ technology, it connects to your favorite training apps, GPS watches, and bike computers, and now supports up to three simultaneous Bluetooth connections. I also wore my Garmin Fenix 5S Plus Watch. Here are the results, and as you can see, the differences are negligible until we get to the time spent in each heart rate zone(s). Based on these results, I will continue using my Garmin Watch for running, swimming, and other sports and my TICKR X for cycling as it tracks a lot of the cycling data I am after while I am on the trainer.

Workout time

Tickr X:?34:59

Garmin:?34:53

Calories Burned

Tickr X:?261

Garmin:272

Average Heart Rate

Tickr X:?115

Garmin:?118

Heart Rate Zone

Tickr X:?2% in Zone 1, 58% in Zone 2, 19% in Zone 3. The rest of my workout did not register in a high enough heart rate zone to be tracked.

Garmin: 15% in Zone 1, 71% in Zone 2 and 8% in Zone 3.