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The Best Gadgets & Apps for Weight Loss – #MillionSteps Challenge

I’ve lost many things over the past year. My patience. My sanity {I’m a work at home mom, with a 2 year old home with me. Eek!} My temper. But one thing that I have NOT lost, is the rest of this baby weight. {Can I still call it baby weight, if she’s now a toddler?} If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember my Nutrisystem diet challenge in early 2012 – I lost over 20 pounds, in just 3 months. I was super excited about that. But over the past few months, with the gloriousness of holiday food, I’ve gained 10 pounds. So, I’ve committed myself to losing it again – My goal is to lose 30 pounds by my birthday in May. We have a pool, and this year I don’t want to hide under a tee shirt all summer! Keep reading to learn about the tools, resources, and motivation I’m using to stay on track….

Fitbit weight loss tools - pedometer, and wifi scale

Weight Loss gadgets with WiFi – from Fitbit

I told you guys about the Fitbit a few months ago – I didn’t use it over the holidays; I guess I was just so busy I kind of forgot. Well, this baby is back on, and I’m using it daily to keep me motivated. I love that it automatically updates my account on Fitbit.com with my stats each day, using the Wifi in our house. I love that I can see how lazy I am on a given day, and get up and do housework, or go for a walk, or play Just Dance: Disney Party on the Wii with Abby, to reach my step goal. And I love that when I click the button on the Fitbit it gives me a message like, “Burn it Meagan!” followed by how many steps I’ve taken, how many miles I’ve walked, and how many calories I’ve burned. Fitbit has a couple of different options for trackers to check out – the Fitbit – Zip Wireless Activity Tracker, the Fitbit – One Wireless Activity and Sleep Tracker. I use the Fitbit One, and love it – but have heard awesome things about the Zip too. I’m also using the crazy-awesome Fitbit – Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale, that also has Wifi. {I’ll tell you more about this in a minute – and about my new weekly weigh-in posts.}

The best juicer

I’m juicing, baby!!

Now for a juicy piece of advice {hahah, puns} – If you’re serious about losing weight, you know it’s not just about exercising, right? You have to eat better too. And better for me doesn’t just mean less calories – it means eating fresher, cleaner, greener. I’m not a big fan of veggies, and struggle to get enough servings of them each day. So I am beyond excited to have discovered juicing! It’s so easy to add a veggie or two in with some favorite fruits – this awesome Cuisinart – Compact Juice Extractor makes it simple to toss ’em all in, and I get a ton of healthy foods in a super yummy drink. Which is also perfect for a super-busy mom like me. I had worried that a juicer like this would be too big and bulky, and be hard to find room for. But – no worries needed! This gadget is so compact – like a tiny Japanese juicing ninja, taking up just a little space on my counter. I can’t recommend this enough – and keep an eye out for recipes coming soon, if you want to get started juicing too.

weekly weigh in

Weekly Weigh-In on the Fitbit Aria Scale

Ok, this is a super scary pic to post. When looking at this photo here, I realized two things: One, I really need to clean the grout between my tile better. Two, I have gotten chuuuuuuuunkkkkkky. Ugh. I mean, I am tall – 5’9, and I’ve got big ol’ hips, so I’m never going to be a skinny-mini type. But this is about 50 pounds heavier than I was when I met Mike 7 years ago, and it’s time to get serious about taking it off. So – to hold myself accountable, I’m going to post a photo once a week, every Monday morning from now on. And – this Fitbit – Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale seriously helps so much. It measures not just my weight, but also my BMI and body fat. We can set up accounts for up to 8 people, and the Aria will use the wifi at home to send our measurements right to our profiles on the Fitbit site – so Mike and I can both track our progress. Or you can get the Fitbit app for your phone, and keep track that way too. {Want to win a Fitbit Zip? Look over at my sidebar, and you’ll find my giveaway!}

Click here for the Best Buy Homepage

Best Buy is your Busy Mom SOlution!

I know that when you think about weight loss gear, Best Buy might not have been your first thought. But they have really expanded the types of products they offer in the past year, and carry so many awesome gadgets that can make life simpler for busy moms like us. And since I know that “losing weight” is a pretty common goal at this time of the year, I wanted to share these awesome tools that I’m loving. Hope they give you a little bit of inspiration and motivation too – Check them out today on BestBuy.com, or at your local store!

Want to follow along on our #MillionSteps Challenge?

The other Best Buy Ambassadors and I have teamed up for a #MillionSteps challenge this month – to see if together, the 9 of us can reach a million steps tracked on our Fitbits by the end of January. That’s a lot of steps! If you want to watch our progress, you can follow along on Twitter. Or if you have a Fitbit too, grab some friends and tweet me your steps each day too! I’m at @sunandsipcups, and be sure to use the #MillionSteps tag too! Good luck.

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Comments

  1. I think my favorite find of weight loss was kitchen scale – I never though I would get hooked on it

  2. You can do it!!! I can’t wait to hear what works best for you! I need to lose 30!!!

  3. I am not a huge fan of veggies either. I like smoothies…maybe I should try juicing too. I’ve really bee trying to work on my step count each day. It’s higher in warm months but I can’t sit stubs waiting til then to get active!

    The weekly weigh in with pic is scary but I started doing it too and it holds me accountable for sure. Let’s rock this weight off girl!

  4. Good for you, Meagan! I can’t wait to follow along on Mondays and see your progress. :) I need to get it in gear too.

  5. Best of luck with your endeavors! Always had a hard time losing weight after having 4 kids and it really shows since I’m only 5’2″. Now, at 52 years old and just being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes I knew I had to do something. It was a lot more about health than what I looked like. Luckily, my hubby of 35 years has always stuck by me and loved me even when I complained a lot about my weight. I was diagnosed in June of last year with the Diabetes and since then I have lost about 35 lbs. I hope to lose more once I get my knee operated on. It sort of hinders most real exercise. I have not tried juicing yet, but I do make some awesome smoothies with my Magic Bullet. I have come to find out, I can sneak quite a few different veggies into my smoothies and not even taste the veggies, especially if you put enough banana in them. Banana will steal the flavor from most drinks so you have to go easy on adding them unless you don’t want to taste the spinach or sprouts or whatever other veggie you use. Again, best of luck!!! And always give yourself a treat once in awhile. Then you won’t feel the urge to overindulge as much. :0)

  6. Good for you! I’m getting in gear to get fit this year, too. I’m going to weigh in on Fridays, though, because weekends are typically a little off-the-wagon for me so a Monday weigh in is often disappointing after working hard all week. This way if I slip up over the weekend I’ll have a few days to correct myself before stepping back on the scale. Food for thought! Good luck!

  7. Great article. I. lost over 30lbs using a combination of the fitbit, withings scale and a site called myfitnesspal.com. I wrote an article that highlights how I achieved this. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/a7stptj

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