I just started playing around with the ‘Nike + iPod’ pedometer that I bought a couple of months ago. After a few fits and starts, it finally seems to be agreeing with my iPhone and recording data.  Now that I have it up and running and appearing to work properly, I figured I’d give it a bit of a review with regular updates as I get familiar with it.

Pros:

1. Based on a long walk I took today, my first major test of the gadget, the distance recorded seems to be quite accurate.  I have driven the route I take from the office to home, and I measured it at just about 3.8 miles. The pedometer measured the distance I walked at 3.8 miles exactly.  So there doesn’t seem to be much calibrating needed in this case, although a few calibrations might prove helpful.
2. The ‘Nike + iPod’ user interface on the iPhone is very elegant and simple to use. Shouldn’t be very difficult for anyone to figure out. Apple is so good at creating simple and elegant user interfaces that even 1 year old kids can figure it out.
3. The ‘Calorie’ feature is pretty cool, described as ‘A workout with a calorie burning goal’. I need to do a little research to find out how accurate the calorie burn information is when considering both the time of the workout and the rigorousness of it. I usually take the most conservative estimate of calorie burning in a period of time. Exercise machines are always to liberal in their calorie burn estimates, sometimes doubling what it probably is in reality.
4. The history feature is useful, especially for when I need to transfer exercise information into my ‘Lose It!‘ iPhone app. I suppose it’s too much to ask for an export feature to ‘Lose It!’…

Cons:

1. If you are in the middle of a walk while using the pedometer and someone calls you, the workout stops while the phone call is in progress.  Not sure why they can’t keep the workout going since one would probably want to walk and talk at the same time.  One can look up contact information or browse web pages when talking with the iPhone.  Why not workout too?  Looks like something overlooked that feature.
2. I suppose one has to buy special shoes from Nike in order to have a convenient place to put the pedometer. I am placing mine under the shoe laces and ‘tongue’ of my shoe, which can be a little uncomfortable.  But I may stick with this for a while or else fasten the device somehow into my shoe.

More updates as I become more familiar with the device.

Update (9/17/09):

Thanks to a friend of mine, I found out about the ‘Gmaps Pedometer‘, a tool that will help give you the exact distance of your walk/run for when you are calibrating your pedometer. You can even draw your route, which is good for those that have preferences for moving in not-so-straight lines and prefer to cross fields, wade across rivers or jump over high buildings. Check it out at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com.

When it comes down to it, whatever diet you choose, whether it’s a low fat, low sodium, low carbs or low whatever diet, there’s no avoiding the fact that you must always consider the number of calories you are putting into your system. If you eat foods that contain a high number of calories, you will gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than the daily recommended intake of 2,000 calories, you will more than likely lose weight. This is my diet in a nutshell.

Starting on January 1 of this year, I decided to start a diet. It’s a resolution I made in the past, but as a majority of Americans do, I failed. This time I can say I was a little more focused than in previous attempts, since in just 6 months I managed to lose 50 pounds. At the beginning of my diet, I weighed 208 pounds. When July 1st rolled around, I weighed in at 158 pounds, a weight I had not seen since the beginning of college over 20 years ago.

There were a few reasons I wanted to lose weight. My 20th anniversary high school reunion was coming up, and I wanted to go back in time as best I could (ironically, my old high school friends said I hardly changed a bit … if they only knew). The second reason was a more serious matter: my doctor said my bad cholesterol level was too high and I was at risk of heart disease, diabetes and other ailments.

For most people, the number of diets to choose from is long and complicated. There is Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters, Protein Power, the Zone Diet, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, the Sonoma Diet, the Paleo Diet, the Caveman Diet, Body Fat Solution, the Glycemic Impact Diet, Weight Watchers, The Master Cleanser, Detox, Metabolic Balance, Bridal Bootcamp, the Spectrum Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Cardio Free Diet, the Idiot Proof Diet, the Low Sodium Diet, the Oprah Diet, Slim Fast and so on and so on. I don’t deny that these diets work for some people, but the majority of those embarking on a diet eventually fail for a variety of reasons, chief among them simply being laziness. But for me the idea of paying a corporation to send me food and printed materials on a regular basis telling me how to lose weight just didn’t sound right for me. I wanted as natural an experience as possible, one where I could be more proactive and learn about the foods I was buying and eating. I wanted no processed foods, lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and smaller portions of meat.

As I will write about in future posts, I keep a daily diary of what I eat each and every day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are all recorded in my iPhone app Lose It! I remain completely honest with what I eat, even on days when I splurge and go over my limit (failure to do so would make the exercise a complete waste of time). I set a daily limit of calories per day (1,200 calories per day when wanting to lose 2 pounds a week, 1,500-1,750 when looking to maintain my weight with minimal loss of weight) mixed in with a weekly regimen of physical exercise. If on a particular day I eat more than 1,200 calories, I increase my exercise regimen to bring me under my daily calorie limit.  If I am under my daily limit, I reduce my exercise load.  The diet essentially becomes a numbers game, something that can be much easier to follow in real time than murky weight loss philosophies that are difficult to follow.

I end this post by showing you a picture of myself before and after the first 6 months of my diet: