Lovin-Life Teaching: Fitbit Craziness! Take Time to Exercise

This week has been crazy!!! First of all, testing took place. Talk about boring!! As monitors, we have to walk around the room for hours! Well, that fell right into place with my Fitbit challenge I was presented with this week. Yes, a Fitbit challenge with several of my friends at school.

So the challenge took place from Monday at 12:00 A.M. until Friday at midnight. I have not really exercised since Hilton Head, so I decided, “What the heck?!”

First, I had to buy a new battery for my Zip. I have had my Fitbit for so long, that the battery had died. Sunday was the first day with my Fitbit back on to measure my steps. Well, let’s just say, I should have left it off. That’s the day we went to Topgolf, and I barely got up! Therefore, the challenge that was beginning that night was not looking good for me. However, Monday morning, the first day of the challenge, I woke up ready to conquer!!!

HERE’S WHERE FITBIT CRAZINESS BEGINS!!!! Walking at school was not a challenge because I do that anyway. The challenge began when I got home. However, I basically walked from the time I got home until we left for the golf course. Then, I walked 9 holes of golf! When I left the golf course, I had over 24,000 steps in for the day. I had never walked more than 15,000!!! It didn’t stop there! When I got home, I kept walking. I walked until I collapsed in bed. Needless to say, after day one, I was ahead of the group.

Day 2 was very similar, and I remained in the lead after Tuesday. Wednesday FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 entered my life. FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 told me she usually walked about 25,000 steps a day. Well the race was on, and she was ready to compete. Since she said she only walked 25,000 steps a day, I decided to watch Nashville sitting down, rather than walking. BIG MISTAKE! This was the day, FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 decided to pull ahead. On my lowest step day of the week, 24,000, FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 walked 36,000 steps. Yep, by Thursday night she had pulled ahead 20,000 steps!!!

Meanwhile, at school, all the students were sending me messages from FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 to tell me not to walk at recess, to just relax! My children at home were telling me FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 told them to tell me to go to bed by 9:00 P.M. My husband wanted to call her and tell her the competition was over! Her husband wanted to call ME and tell me to settle down! The truth was, we were killing ourselves just for bragging rights!!!! BUT WE WERE HAVING A BLAST! We would text each other at night and say, “Go to bed!” We had more laughs than I have had in a long time.

Back to the story, it was Thursday night and I was wondering how in the world I was going to catch this woman. My husband took me to the Horse Park, and we walked! We found an awesome cemetery. The kids became tired after awhile, so they went to sit in the truck. I walked around the parking lot until I felt I had done enough for the day. I decided to go to bed early (10:00), to wake up refreshed Friday morning.

FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 has a running club on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays where the students run around the track for 30 minutes. I had a grand idea! I would be on the track before FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 could get out there! AND I WAS, AND SHE WAS SURPRISED! I walked/ran over 2 laps before the running club could even begin. Oh, and FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1’S battery had died, so she had lost some steps charging the battery! Boo Hoo, right?!! We joked the whole time we were running, and the day was off to an amazing start! When I went inside to start teaching, I was already at 7,000 + steps!

It’s testing time, so I needed to review the mountains and rivers with the students. We studied them in quarter one, so they definitely needed a refresher! My goal was to walk ALL DAY LONG, so we went to the black top outside and we practiced our rivers and mountains on the black top map! Not only did I get my steps in, my students had a BLAST!!!

The remainder of the school day was spent walking! We read two chapters of Because of Winn Dixie. I let each student read, while I followed along, WALKING, OF COURSE!!

Then, we had recess where I walked on the track with two other FITBIT CRAZIES who weren’t near as crazy as FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1! All in all, I did an amazing job walking. When, I left school I had over 22,000 steps! With only 9 hours to go, I knew I had to continue walking. I came home and walked/ran at my house. I did this until it was time to go to my son’s soccer game, where I walked the entire time!!! I actually could see the game better because I followed the ball wherever it went! After the game, my family went to eat with our friends. I started to feel sleepy, so after dinner, I took a quick shower. Then, I put on my walking shoes!!!! I walked until 11:57 A.M. last night! The challenge ended at 12:00 A.M. At one point, I even went to the pantry to grab the Cheese Puffs. I ate them and WALKED!!!

At 11:57 I did the sync, and of course, I was well in the lead. FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 usually didn’t complete her sync until morning, so it was off to bed. My husband looked at me when I went to bed and asked if I was done. I said, “The time is up, and I have done all I can do!”

So, that’s where it ended. I received a badge for walking 55,000 steps in ONE DAY, and my grand total for the five days was 160,797 steps, completely insane!

This morning, FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 completed her sync, and she won…. She ended with 168,568, even more insane. She sent me a text first thing, and said, “55,000 steps!, holy cow!” I told her thank you for the motivation, and now we are going to start running after school!

I learned three valuable lessons this week….

#1 Don’t forget to exercise even when life is busy. I felt so good this week, minus the aches and pains!!!

#2 Have fun with your school friends. The students feed off of it, and love it.

#3 NEVER TELL A COMPETITIVE TEACHER HOW MANY STEPS YOU HAVE WALKED IN A DAY BEFORE YOU LEAVE SCHOOL, SO SHE KNOWS SHE HAS TO KILL IT THAT NIGHT!

FITBIT CRAZY NUMBER 1 earned two badges this week in the hustle! I would say this was beneficial for us both. I had an amazing time and a lot of laughs. I failed to mention the other ladies because this one was my competition this particular week, but I had a ton of fun with them, too! Everyone did an amazing job!!! Remember this was only for five days! I guess I am FITBIT CRAZY #2 and proud of it!!