Personal Challenge 2014

More Things Changed, Some Things Stayed The Same

We have come to the part of the year, other than birthdays, reunions, or anniversaries, where people look back on life and either reminisce, have regrets, or set new goals.

2013 was a challenging year for me. Honestly, I do not regret anything in life, however, I would say that in 2013, I had setbacks. These setbacks will take some effort to mitigate, but they are resolvable. I have also had triumphs, of course; but unfortunately the setbacks are weighing on me at the moment. Similar to most people, I have many challenges, but my biggest one is food. Because of food being my biggest vice, I challenge myself every year to give up one of my favorite foods. So far I have given up soda, ice cream, and deep fried foods.

2014 will be the year of no red meat. This will be hard, though, not as hard as ice cream, but hard nonetheless. I look forward to making healthy substitutions for red meat. My goal for these annual personal challenges is to break a habit and weave in a healthy habit into my eating lifestyle. My hope is that it will make it easier for my sons to emulate my eating habits- not to mention to enriching and lengthening my life.

There are many tools that can be used to track eating, exercise, and enrich quality of life. Below are a list of tools that I use.

MotoActv: This is my number one tool because it is so comprehensive with regards to tracking exercise, setting goals, creating workout plans, and challenging others in competitions.

Fitbit Flex: I am using this as a supplemental tool to my MotoActv. The great thing about the Fitbit Flex is that it includes a lot of the stuff I used to use myfitnesspal for. I can track my food, water, exercise, and have it sync with other tools that I use seamlessly.

Healthvault: Healthvault is an app that came pre-installed on my Surface Pro and I have to say that I love it. I have it synced with my Fitbit and soon I will have my other health info synced.

As I discover more tools throughout 2014 I will definitely update; but until then, Happy New Year and Godspeed!

-Ellison-
A.K.A Edmund Starbanks