More than a number: Tracking postpartum progress-ish

 

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At the beginning of the month I talked about taking baby steps toward fitness and exercise. Around the same time I started paying more attention to my diet. Nothing drastic, partially because I’m nursing and mama’s gotta eat, partially because I’m not one for elimination of food groups, and partially because if I’m going to survive flu season with a newborn, I’m going to need to stress eat from time to time. EXCUSE ME!!! Do you have a runny nose? Did I just hear you cough? I HAVE A NEWBORN! GIVE ME A WIDE BERTH!!

Except I guess I did make some drastic changes, considering most of the food I ate was better suited for the trashcan than my body. High sugar, high fat, mostly carbs — you know, the good stuff. At one Christmas celebration I was hovering over a fondue pot I’d recently emptied and someone remarked, “Wow. There was two pounds of cheese in there.”

My current diet plan could be described as “eat like a civilized adult.” And yet after weeks, WEEKS! of not having dessert after breakfast, I saw no change in my weight. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

I complained to Tom, who replied, “Yeah. But there are other benefits to eating healthy that you can’t see.”

Oh yeah.

Good health isn’t just measured by your weight.

That’s why I love the Nokia Body+ scale, because it’s entire premise is that good health isn’t defined by one number. It’s a scale that does more than just weigh you, it gives you a more complete picture of your body — measuring bone mass, body fat and muscle percentage, water weight, and your BMI. Plus, it tells you the weather. (YUP, STILL FLU SEASON!)

For example, I lost five pounds when I had the stomach bug. FIVE POUNDS! But I knew that the loss was probably water weight and I’d be back to normal once I could hold down some ginger ale. If I’d had this scale, I would have known for sure!

The scale works with a companion app that keeps track of all that data and — my favorite — allows you see trends over time. So on those days when you feel like the wheels have come off (two pounds of cheese. TWO!), you can look at the numbers and see what’s actually happening in your body. You can set goals, monitor your progress, and access helpful information about what all the numbers mean. It also keeps track of eight different profiles, and has special modes for things like pregnancy, and an athlete mode for unique body compositions.

I love, love, love that the scale, the most dreaded of all household appliances, is getting smarter.

The postpartum journey is a long one, and it’s especially complicated because I am pulled in so many directions. There are so many very, very important things that take make it hard for me to maintain healthy sleep, exercise, and daily servings of vegetables. But the things that fill my days are the same reasons prioritizing my own wellness is so darn important.

I want to model healthy habits for my kids, and I want to feel good so I can care for them. So when I’m tempted to feel impatient with myself, or frustrated because my strategy to do this at a reasonable pace isn’t rendering immediate results, I’m glad to have a tool like Nokia Body+ to help keep me on track.

For more information about the Nokia Body+ scale and other Nokia products, CLICK HERE.

nokia from Amanda Krieger on Vimeo.

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