New Scale

This is the scale we bought – Health o meter Body Fat Monitoring Scale.

It can save data for up to 4 users. Each user enter their height, age, gender, and weight goal. It saves the following data: weight (of course), body fat, bone mass, and water percentage.

Body fat is really more important than weight. Look at a weight lifter – high weight but low body fat. I have no idea why it records bone mass or what to do with that info – unless it proves that I’m not fat; just big boned!

The water percentage is for hydration/dehydration. I drink alot of water. Not only water, but I drink more water than anything else. This makes me sweat alot and urinate alot. The scale still gives me a low reading on the hydration. I guess I got alot of acreage to water. The scale will also display your BMI, but doesn’t save it with the other data. That’s kind of dumb in my opinion, but hey I didn’t design it.

I’ve tried it in the morning before I get dressed and I always get a low hydration level. that’s accurate because I didn’t drink any water all night and usually wake up thirsty. The weird part though is that I always get a very high body fat reading at that time. Later in the day after I get hydrated I get a lower body fat reading. So I have no idea which one is the most accurate. Of course neither one is good – I’m way fat on both readings.

IMPORTANT: You CANNOT use this scale if you have a pacemaker.

Ab Roller

I love my Ab Roller. It makes doing crunches so much easier. I have the cheapest/simplest model. It cost about $20 at Academy Sports.

Of course, I bought it about two years ago and only recently started to use it. I use it daily now. When I first started I could barely do 10 crunches with it, but I quickly got up 100 crunches a day.

Let me make this clear though. I DO NOT do 100 crunches all in a row. I do 20 reps for 5 sets. It takes me about 10-15 minutes to do them all. Sometimes I do a few extra ones on the obliques, but not too many. Sometimes I do another 100 later in the day depending on what I’m doing and how I feel.

I believe the Ab Roller is the number one reason I’m standing up straight. Being obese, I tend to slouch. The crunches strengthen the abs which holds the pelvis in place which helps you stand up straight.

The important thing to remember though, is the you CAN NOT target fat. When your body burns fat it burns it everywhere. So crunches can burn fat from your earlobe. What you can do is target muscles for strengthening. The crunches target the upper abs and make them stronger improving posture and balance.

One last thing. Work your abs at the end of your routine. When you are standing and twisting and getting up and down during your exercise – the abs are being used. If you work them at the beginning then they’ll already be tired when you work everything else and your work out will suffer.

So get yourself a roller and start crunching.