How my iPhone is Getting me in Shape: Couch to 5K.

The iPhone really is an incredible little device.  I read my e-mail on the go, play Words with Friends with friends from all over the country, tell Siri to remind me to pick up random things from the Grocery Store, take videos/photos daily of my toddler, share daily videos/photos with friends/family/strangers, blog, find out the weather… and now it’s getting me in shape!!  I want to look good in a bathing suit on the beach this summer, so I’m doing the age-old trick to get trim: diet & exercise.

Diet

I’ve been using “Lose It” for a while which is a calorie tracker – I select what I ate (and almost every food from restaurants, the grocery store, etc. are already listed as choices) and it keeps track of my calories for the day – and gives me calories back when I exercise.  Sort of like weight watchers without the weird points calculations.  It’s simple.  I also set it up to tweet out when I exercise or lose weight.  That’s a motivator.

& Exercise

I got this little thing to stick in my shoe:

Nike+ Stand Alone Sensor Kit

And it tells my iPhone how fast and the distance of my “wog” (walk/jog. My husband came up with the name. Isn’t he hilarious?)

Nike + is built into the iPhone so it just magically keeps track of everything while playing music on the iPod.  It lets you set your work out for distance or time, and then a lady tells you how far you’ve gone throughout the work out.

I also downloaded this app called Couch to 5K.  And it claims that in 8 weeks I can run a 5k and only commit 35 minutes 3 times a week.  Even I can commit that kind of time.   This app is great: a voice tells me when to walk and run while listening to my iPod and while Nike+ is tracking my distance/speed.  How cool is that?  I hate it when the guy beeps in and tells me to “run” but it makes it very easy to keep going knowing that 60 seconds later he’s going to tell me to slow down and walk (for now… I’m only in week one).

Right now, I’m a wogger. But in 8 weeks, I will be a jogger!!