BodyMedia

I bought a used "GoWear Fit" device on ebay, for $75 (which included shipping). The device is made by "bodymedia," and it is identical to the "body bugg" that apparently gets used on the show "The Biggest Loser" (which I have never seen.)

I have been using it to track how many calories I burn, and eat (the latter you have to plug in yourself, using its software. You can't use the device without the software, and the software costs anywhere from $7 to $13 a month, depending on how long you want to commit to using it.) The software displays in a webpage that shows me how much moderate versus vigorous exercise I'm getting, how many "steps" (or step-equivalent, because the readings are too generous to be actual steps) I take in a day, how much sleep I'm getting (versus time spent simply lying down), whether I'm running a calorie deficit or surplus, etc.

It's been pretty eye-opening.

For one thing, I burn a LOT more calories than I thought I did--on the order of 2000 calories on days I don't explicitly exercise, and 2500 on days I do. But I also EAT a lot more calories than I thought. A LOT. To give you a typical day where I feel like I'm actually kind of "dieting" (meaning I could have eaten a lot more than I did): I have coffee in the morning for breakfast, a salad for lunch, veggies and hummus with a small serving of tortilla chips for dinner, and nothing else (seriously, NOTHING else). What I just described is over 1400 calories. I'm not overestimating. I make the food myself, weigh everything... it's really, truly, over 1400 calories.

So on days when I eat "normally," I'm pretty easily hitting 2000. On days I splurge, I pretty easily hit 2500. This is all confirmed via rigorous use of the calorie tracking software. No wonder I've just been maintaining my weight for years!

I don't expect to use this little meter device for long--maybe a month or two, to get a sense of how much I burn and eat. After that, I'd be willing to lend it to whichever of you would like to borrow it. I think it's a pretty valuable tool.

VeggieFest post, at last

Actually, it's called "SummerFest," which isn't very descriptive, but whatever.

I did not expect to get much out of it--but I *loved* it. I loved it more and more as the days wore on. It was heartening to be surrounded by completely normal looking people, all of whom shared this core value: a dedication to avoid contributing to the suffering of animals. I don't know how to explain it other than to say it was just soul-enriching.

I didn't learn a ton than I didn't already now. The food, while sometimes delicious, was mostly meh. But I loved the conversations I had--not just with Momcat and (especially) Kipsy about our own approach to veganism/activism, but with new people I met. It was invigorating, and it made me more committed. Kipsy and I vowed to try much harder to be "real" vegans rather than don't ask/don't tell vegans, or "95%" vegans, or whatever. Kipsy also convinced me of the importance of really, actively avoiding household and cosmetic products that are tested on animals. I have committed myself to that--in retrospect, it's silly that I didn't do so before.

Amazingly, I managed to lose about a pound over the course of the conference. "Amazing" because I didn't exercise much, and I ate and ate and ate. Next post is about weight loss!