I just read this post by Wil Wheaton, and in reading it something clicked in my brain, and so now I am here writing about it*.

Despite it being true that I don’t much mind the fifteen pounds I could stand to lose, I’d actually like to lose them.

I have a FitBit and love it, but I don’t manage to use it very effectively as a motivator (mostly because I’m usually most motivated to sit on my ass and read stuff or make stuff or write stuff or edit stuff). Often, my FitBit simply serves to tell me how little I move around.

The thing that clicked in my brain while reading Wil’s post is that I am not connected with the right people through Fitbit or LoseIt (LoseIt is an app that easily lets you track what you eat). My dad, my cousin, and my friend who’s a marathon runner are not the right people to “compete” with for steps and diet. And neither are random strangers.

The people I’d like to connect with for some shared upping of the movement and good-food-choices game are people who, like me, work from home. We who work from home don’t have a commute and we don’t walk up and down hallways and flights of stairs all day. We who work from home need to go out of our way to be even a tiny bit active, and that’s a different sort of challenge than people have when they commute and need to motivate themselves to stop at the gym on their way home from work. The last time I recall losing weight, it was around seven years ago when I went on a seventeen-day book tour and schlepped my ass and my luggage all over the damn place. Pounds, they shed right off me.

I fucking hate the gym. I have approximately zero interest in fad diets. If there’s a book about it, I discount it by default. All I want to do is get better at making activity and wiser food choices a normal part of my day. That’s it. I’m not a foodie and I eat for convenience, and I’d like to eat better convenient food. I want to be held accountable in some way that doesn’t activate my adolescent attitude problem.

So here’s what I propose:

If you work from home and you are, like me, generally speaking, more interested in exercising your brain and your hands than the rest of yourself, let’s connect on Fitbit and/or LoseIt, and subtly encourage each other to take an hour every day and get out of the damn house. Let’s be brutally honest with each other about the crap foods we eat so that we might also subtly encourage each other to make wiser food choices.

That’s it. If you fall into this category of people who work from home and hate the gym and want to get moving and eat better, and you want to do this thing, shoot me an email and we can swap usernames and whatnot.

* I will not make a habit of blogging about healthier eating and exercise. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.

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Daisy

I keep thinking about saving up for a FitBit — I think it’d probably help remind me to get off my ass and move around more. I’ve been working at home for almost five years and have gone up two pants sizes since then. I actually enjoy lifting weights (at home in the privacy of my basement. The thought of exercising at a gym in front of other people about gives me hives) but sadly it’s going to be at least 6-8 weeks more before I’m cleared to start doing it again because I had to go and break one of the hardest-to-heal bones in the human body (scaphoid) at the end of summer and I’m supposed to be waiting until it’s been pain-free for 2-3 months before I lift anything heavy, which is getting super frustrating.

Neil (the Dad)

Hmm…I had no idea I was competing with my daughter. But Kim, I discovered a great technique for doing what you want to do…exercise, have Fitbit report that you’ve done a wonderful job, and still remain at home.
Yesterday, I wore my Fitbit One inside my jeans pocket while I dug out from Pax’s plethora of white particulate matter. Returning inside, I deposited my jeans in the wash. 2 hours later, I discovered (with a little dig in the ribs from Mom) that I had walked 3.5 miles, climbed 48 flights of stairs, and burned 687 calories. All while I watched a couple of episodes of Stargate SG-1! Who knew?! This technique will be become my approach from now on. The best of both worlds.

Rachael

I use the Moves app to keep myself motivated to leave the house and walk 10,000 steps a day. It’s time consuming to do but I build walking time into errand running and a means of transport. It’s helped ensure I’m not completely sedentary. Moves tracks other activities as well, like running and cycling.

For working out at home I use three apps, You Are Your Own Gym, Gain Fitness, and the 7 minute workout.

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