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Striiver’s Log, Week 2

November 23, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

This is the second week of logging my activity with my Striiv fitness device and Coach Striiv kicked it up a notch this week. Here’s how it went down.

Wednesday

Went to Calgary for the day and had to take my Striiv off at airport security. Damn, six precious steps not counted! Then when I got to the Calgary airport there was a moving sidewalk. I love those, but Coach Striiv wouldn’t let me on it. Had to walk on my own, she said. Gotta admit it felt kind of good powering past all the people standing there gliding along on the moving sidewalk.

On my way back I had some time to kill before boarding so I decided to wander down to Starbucks. Came across this:

How did they know?!

Thursday

Coach Striiv apparently doesn’t differentiate between normal walking steps and the running-around-like-a-chicken-with-head-cut-off kind. Crazy, ridiculous day. But I got enough credits to donate a day’s worth of fresh water to a child in South America!

Starting to obsess about building things in MyLand. Got greedy and built some cool things, but only have the foundation. My Tree of Ages is in place but I need more energy credits to get it to grow. Must focus.

Getting started

Friday

Last day of work. Walked up to get a hug from Rita, who’s nearing the end of The Year of Hugging Fearlessly. Great hug that put me in a good mood, so I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go for a walk. I even did some challenges. Coach Striiv was impressed.

Home from work and the husband was tired. Graciously offered to take the dog for a walk so he didn’t have to. Got some energy credits and ended up at over 10,000 steps for the day. (That’s harder than I would have thought. Noted, Coach Striiv.)

Saturday

Coach Striiv put the pressure on today, so I went for a run. Ran around the bog and somehow managed to end up on a big hill right in the middle of a hard challenge. Coach Striiv pushed me on. No stopping! It worked and I got to grow my Tree of Ages and my Greek Vineyard. Nice!

After my run - enough to grow to the next stage!

Went out for dinner with friends, which turned into a bit of a bar hop. Stepped right through midnight and already had some credits toward Sunday. Partying does pay off!

Sunday

Hit the museum this morning for one last visit before we move. Some good walking but our visit was at a three-year-old’s pace so we didn’t stay too long.

Lots of packing in the afternoon, which doesn’t add up to many steps. I want credit for being on my feet all day, but Coach Striiv won’t budge. Threw in another dog walk with some challenges to get my step count up.

Striiving through fall

Monday

More packing. A little low on steps throughout the day until we started loading things into the moving container. Got energy credits and some extra for the stairs, so I guess there’s that. Then a dog walk again. Never been so motivated to walk this dog in my life.

Tuesday

Last day of the challenge. More packing (when does it end?) and some stairs. The toddler got antsy in the afternoon so I took him and the dog out for a walk. Did some challenges, even though it was pouring rain. Coach Striiv has this motivation thing down to an art.

Ended up at almost 47,000 steps by the end of the week. I donated three days’ worth of water and collected a whole bunch of trophies.

I really like this Striiv – it’s a great motivator with enough different things to keep it interesting. I love the MyLand game (similar in concept to Farmville for those who are familiar with that, though not nearly as annoying) but I really want to get far enough to unlock the next level. I guess I’m going to have to keep walking the dog!

I was not compensated for this but I would like to thank Striiv for providing the device to support our Just.Be.Enough. challenge.

Want a Striiv of your own? You have the change to win one, along with some other cool prizes, at our Twitter party on November 29th. See the Striiv wrap-up post on Just.Be.Enough. for details. You’ll also have a second chance by linking up with Be Enough Me on Monday, November 28. The prompt for this week is: What are you striving for?

Filed Under: Better world, Happy things · Tagged With: living life, running, Striiv

Striiver’s Log, Week 1

November 15, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

Nov. 9, 2011 – Day 1 (Wednesday)

Arrived home from work to find my Striiv had arrived after being, presumably, held up in customs. There was much rejoicing! Opened the box. Whoa, this thing is cool. It’s got a touch screen, settings that can be customized, and a game. And other stuff. Definitely as cool as it seemed in the video.

Later that day: Hmm, the Striiv appears not to be magic. I tried to use it to entice the small, screaming boy to pee before bed and he wasn’t interested. He didn’t even want to help me build stuff in MyLand with the few coins I had earned already. Ah well, I’m going to chalk it up to exhaustion and be glad he’s not going to try to steal my precious Striiv.

My Striiv in its Lego nest.

Nov. 10, 2011 – Day 2 (Thursday)

Thursday before a holiday Friday, which makes it jeans day at work. The Striiv fits perfectly into the little coin pocket. I didn’t even know it was there! It did its job though, carefully counting steps as I went for lunch with a departing colleague and then later up to the coffee shop for treats. Good thing for the social outings. Sitting at my desk didn’t earn me much, and my poor Striiv had to entertain itself for a while playing with my foam office Lego.

Nov. 11, 2011 – Day 3 (Friday)

Spent the whole day packing today. There are approximately 12 steps between the kitchen and the garage, so packed upstairs instead. More work, but more steps too. Even so, by the end of the day I didn’t have as many steps as I would have hoped so I moved some boxes while my husband sat on the couch. The Striiv noticed and I felt morally superior. This ended up being my highest-step day, so the extra work was worth it.

Nov. 12, 2011 – Day 4 (Saturday)

A whole morning of cleaning before our going-away party in the afternoon. Note to self: cleaning doesn’t involve very many steps. Best not to do it in future.

Nov. 13, 2011 – Day 5 (Sunday)

Hey, I get more credit for running than walking! (I really need to pay attention to the instruction booklet.) Escaped the house today for an afternoon walk when I got sick of packing and felt ambitious so I ran the last section. As a result of my motivational little white device, the dog was treated to an extra long walk and I got some extra lightning-bolt energy credits on my Striiv.

Nov. 14, 2011 – Day 6 (Monday)

Productive day at work, but my Striiv got bored. I made up for it by taking the dog, and the Striiv, for a walk in the evening. Hills in the moonlight – nice.

My Striiv visits the BC Parliament buildings

Nov. 15, 2011 – Day 7 (Tuesday)

Very tempted to take my car to a meeting this morning, but the Striiv was watching me. “Walk,” it whispered, so I did. Good thing too – it was beautiful and sunny and the scenery was worth it. Over lunchtime on my way back to the office, I took a little detour to enjoy the sun and take some pictures. The Striiv rewarded me handsomely.

My first official week of Striiving to Be Enough got me a total of 31,847 steps. Two observations: (1) We really do have to make an effort to get moving – the average office worker’s average day involves a lot of time sitting on one’s bum, and (2) In Striiv’s MyLand game, money does appear to grow on trees. But only if you move enough to grow and build stuff. Funny how that works.

As of this writing, I’m 130 steps away from my next trophy. Think I can get that in tonight?

***

Make sure you visit Just.Be.Enough. on Wednesday to catch up on the other challengers’ Striiv to Be Enough updates and next week the site will have information on our Striiv giveaway at the end of November as well as our very first Twitter party where yet another Striiv device will be given away, along with some other fabulous giveaways from brands that support Striiv’s mission to create a “movement around movement.” The Twitter party is scheduled for Tuesday, November 29th at 8 pm. Mark your calendars now so you don’t miss it.

In case you can’t wait for the giveaway or Twitter party, Striiv is being showcased on HSN this month. They are offering a fabulous bundle: just $99.95 for the Striiv device, clip, key ring and screen protectors (normally $129.95). But if you’re feeling lucky, I might have a little giveaway of my own coming up here in a couple of weeks.

The Just.Be.Enough. team is partnering with Striiv on a month-long challenge. Striiv provided the JBE challengers with the devices and no compensation was received. All opinions are our own.

Filed Under: Better world, Happy things · Tagged With: living life, running, Striiv

Striiving to Get Over this Slump

November 1, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

About four years ago pedometer challenges were really big in my workplace. Aiming for 10,000 steps a day, people did team challenges, take-the-stairs challenges, and all kinds of other things designed to motivate the unmotivated. I was training for my third half-marathon at the time so didn’t really feel the need to jump on board that particular bandwagon, but I tend to be sort of an organizational culture geek and I think getting involved is important. Plus, higher-ups tend to notice if you don’t participate in these sorts of things. Or maybe they just notice if you do. In any case, sticking a piece of plastic that can count on my waistband is worth it if it gets me on the good list. So that’s what I did.

One day at lunchtime as part of the motivational rah-rah, we had a speaker come to talk about how great tracking your footsteps is. At one point he asked the crowd to guess how many steps it takes to burn off one M&M. I can’t remember what the number turned out to be, but it was a lot of steps. Like, 439,000 or something. Okay, maybe not that many, but it was a seriously big number considering the goal was 10,000 steps per day. It gave me a newfound gratitude for those long runs I was doing at the crack of dawn each Sunday.

I played along for a while and then, as tends to happen, the collective enthusiasm for step counting petered out. One day I forgot to put my pedometer on and I came across it again several months later in the bottom drawer of my dresser. So much for that.

It didn’t really matter because I didn’t need it at the time. Shortly after that I got pregnant and when I needed motivation to exercise I had a very perky Denise Austin and her four pregnant assistants on DVD to keep me going. (Hey, it worked.) Then I had a baby and, when I had recovered from the c-section, started running again so I could run one of my favourite races – an 8K, which I ran when Connor was four months old. And I just kept going. Until sometime this summer.

I was fairly active while I was on leave because for me exercise has always been a critical part of not feeling crazy, but for some reason when I weaned off all meds except the anti-depressant I seemed to eliminate all motivation for exercise at the same time. And now I’m writing posts about needing maternity clothes when I’m not pregnant. I am now the unmotivated.

It’s time to do something about it, and as part of the Just.Be.Enough. team I have an opportunity I think will kick me in the pants. A few of us are going to try out a Striiv, described as a “sleek fitness device that fits on your keychain and counts every step you take.” Ah, but there’s more.

This device gives you little kicks in the pants throughout the day in the form of games, personal challenges, and opportunities to have donations made to charity. All of that is powered by physical activity, naturally, and if games and challenges aren’t enough to get me going, having each step count towards a donation to charity (at no cost to me) just might. Well, that or the fact that our JBE team has decided to do a little challenge amongst ourselves.

The other team members have their devices already but since I’m in the Great White North I’m still waiting for mine to arrive on my doorstep. (Note to Canada Customs – give it up!) When it does get here, well, if it weren’t counter to the JBE spirit to say I’m going to kick some butt I totally would say it. Kidding, of course. I’ll take motivation in whatever form it’s provided.

We’ll be writing about our progress weekly with a wrap-up post on Just.Be.Enough. every Wednesday. Feel free to follow along, and if I need a little extra kick in the pants you’re welcome to give me one.

***

Here’s some info if you’re interested or want to get a Striiv for yourself so you can challenge us (bring it!).

Striiv features include:

Walkathon in your pocket in which every step counts toward a donation to charity, at no cost to the user.
Activity-based games where progress is based on walking, running, and taking the stairs.
Daily challenges and trophies to reward activity.
Charts and graphs to track progress. (Yes! I love charts and graphs!)
TruMotion Technology which is always on and always sensing if you are walking, running, and even climbing stairs.

Find out more at www.striiv.com.

Share your thoughts on Twitter (@striiv) or Facebook.

Striiv videos can be found on their YouTube channel, including a new video of the device in use.

Striiv is available for $99 on www.striiv.com, or on HSN and HSN.com with an exclusive holiday bundle for $99.95.

I received a Striiv (or will) to allow me to participate in this challenge but was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own, and if this doesn’t get me back to regular exercise I fear I’ll have to buy a new wardrobe.

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged With: running, Striiv