Without realizing it, when I bought my FitBit, I seem to have embarked on another phase in understanding the effect of exercise on fibromyalgia symptoms. Nope, after a few days of tracking my steps and my activities and food intake and calories burned, I have not solved my fibro pain. However, I do feel a difference, and I certainly don’t feel worse. I’ve attached below a screen shot of what the app looks like on my phone. Below this screen shot are calorie and water intakes and weight tracking, and lots of other stuff. It’s easy to use and it reminds me of a videogame, so I’m like one of the Mario Bros zipping around to see how well I can do. I think that’s probably a good thing.

Today, I really didn’t think I’d hit the 10,000 step goal. I went to the store and parked the farthest distance I could to be able to add more steps. I used the farthest elevator at work. There’s a reminder on the FitBit when I haven’t taken my 250 steps in an hour – because I get caught up working – so this guy is waving at me saying, don’t I want to move a little? All that helps to simply get up and move, even when I don’t want to. I start walking and when I want to stop, I can’t – even though my back and legs and hips are hurting – because I have to make it back to my desk to finish out the day.

Having this thing on my wrist makes me mindful of how much I actually am moving. And I’m discovering that I’m not moving as much as I feel like I’m moving. Plus I’m discovering that I can move more than I think I can. It’s a little like getting back into bootcamp. The more I go, the faster I go, the more I push my cardiovascular system, the better I am. Tonight I can make a fist with my right hand – something I haven’t been able to do because of the amount of swelling I’ve had. My knees are more defined – I can almost see my kneecaps, again because of a good reduction in swelling. Unfortunately my feet and ankles aren’t faring as well. My ankles are decidedly swollen and my feet are quite sore, which is probably why I was having such trouble getting up and about today.

So I’m going to keep doing this for a while and see what happens. I need to lose a lot of weight, and tracking my food intake is, again, making me mindful of how well or how badly I’m really doing with eating, both what I eat and how much. Losing weight will definitely help with the joint and muscle pain I’ve been having. I’m tracking my progress in the Captain’s Log page, if you want to peek in. My first weigh-in for a Greatest Loser contest at work is on Monday – I’m giving this until the contest is over, at least. I’m still searching for sustainability, but maybe I need to look for accountability instead.