Bugging Around

A few months ago I started hearing about this thing called a Body Bugg. The first time I think I heard about it was by watching the Biggest Loser, as I believe they make all their contestants wear one. I also saw that you could win a body bugg if you spelled enough letters by playing Scrabble through Subway, which by the way, I now believe is a total hoax. And then I met up with my cousin, Meredith, at her new apartment in San Diego to find out that she has one too.

I, of course, had a bizillion questions for Meredith. What was it? What did it do? What was it like? Did she find it annoying (because you wear it on your arm)? She answered all my questions as follows. She explained that the body bugg was a device that tracked her calorie burn and at the end of each day, she had to plug it into her computer and also manually enter her calories consumed, and then see if she had a calorie deficit or surplus. She explained that it didn't bother her at all, even after I said "really"? Because it just seemed hard to believe that this thing that is on your arm at all times except for when you shower would just be intolerable. She insisted otherwise.

Of course after hearing about it from Mere, I grew much more curious about this device. I got disheartened at first, finding out that they only sold them at 24 hour fitness... or so I thought. Turns out they also sell them online at apex's website. I guess they would be considered the makers of the body bugg. First thing to note about the body bugg is the price. It is not cheap. I had to find a way to rationalize this purchase while also saving for a wedding. The way I see it, even though it costs about three hundred dollars for the whole shebang, it is a life time investment, so after about two weeks of wrestling with the decision, I went for it.

Now it has been one week that I have been wearing the Body Bugg on my arm. Mere was right. It is not annoying, it does not bother me at all. I think the trickiest part was just getting it started. I had the worlds most difficult time trying to figure out how to take the device out of the arm band it comes in. You see, in order to charge it, you have to remove it from the arm band to find the usb port. Jimmy and I must have looked like fools staring at this trying to figure it out that first night. Once we found it, it was glorious and we felt like we had conquered something much greater than what we actually had. Nonetheless once set up of the actual arm band and device was complete, I had to synch it with my calorie counter watch.

The calorie counter watch is an optional part of the body bugg. You don't have to get it, but I find it very helpful. Instead of having to plug in the arm device to see what your caloric burn is, you can just glance at your wrist and there are the numbers. Easy breezy. The watch also shows me how many steps I've taken, what time it is and length of each activity I do that it monitors. In a nut shell, I think its awesome.

When I started on the body bugg I weighed in at 148 with my clothes on last Tuesday. Last night, one week later, I weighed in at 146.6. I truly believe that the food journaling along with tracking my caloric burn is really working for me. I mean I am seeing the results, this morning I weighed in at 145. I have not seen that number in a very very long time. I almost cried, but that wouldn't anything unusual, now would it?

If any of you who read this are considering purchasing the Body Bugg, I highly recommend it. Once you get in the habit of writing down everything you eat and entering it later, its not that bad. Also it's really neat to see what you are actually burning versus what the machines at the gym tell you that you burn. I am going to update everyone on my status with the body bugg as I go just because I find this whole thing fascinating.