NASA has nothing on me when compared to the telemetry collected during one of my typical workouts. Besides my iPhone there are two specific tools that have helped me get started with exercise and how to optimize the amount and exertion level of exercise as I progress from couch potato to fit person. The first is a pedometer, the second is a heart rate monitor.
My Kaiser program came with this Omron pedometer. I highly recommend it for one simple reason - there is no reset button! I have owned many pedometers and there is nothing more frustrating than walking 9,998 steps only to check your meter and find out you accidentally hit the reset button sometime during your day "I know I walked more than 350 steps today!". This Omron tracks 7 days worth of steps. The key takeaway here is to start walking! Monitor (write down) every day how many steps you take and try to add a few more each day until you are comfortably getting close to 10,000 each day.
After you have been walking it won't be long before your ready for more strenuous exercise. That might be in the form of a faster walking pace, a bike ride, run or aerobics class. I found that in past weight loss attempts I would soon be going overboard with the physical activities and found myself over trained, exhausted and so sore I could hardly function.
Enter the Suunto Heart Rate Monitor - Specifically the Suunto T6C. (Link is to the T6D, C model has been updated) I researched heart rate monitors (HRM) and this is what works for me and there is one specific reason. Suunto calculates and displays whats called a Training Effect. Essentially a number from 1 to 5 that indicates how effective your training is. A "1" is telling you to get off the couch. A five is telling you to back off before you blow a gasket. How the Suunto calculates TE is mystery to me. It definitely looks at how frequently you exercise and your heart rate during exercise. When I first started I could shoot up to a TE 4.2 with little effort. Now getting into the 3's takes a focused intense effort.
Read more about TE here.
Now get off the computer and go for a walk!
