There are many tools that can help you achieve success in a health and wellness program.
Some of these things are suggested to complete the program fully. Of course, if you’re not interested in calculating certain measurements, you won’t need some of these tools. However, I have found this list of things to be helpful in my weight loss journey and I wanted to share it.
If I had to minimize my purchases and work out at home alone, I would buy:
- A notebook or something to take notes and journal
- A body composition scale to track my weight loss journey
Having all of these at home will set you on an excellent path to success for a long time. You can:
- Track your workouts, meal plans, and progress
- Set a wide range of achievable goals
- Journal about your journey
Health and wellness metric tracking tools
Fitness Trackers
Fitness trackers are excellent for keeping track of health and fitness metrics that can be difficult to track manually. Some of these metrics are crucial for improving your health and wellness, while others are important to follow to get an average idea of your daily activity.
Three of the metrics I have tracked most over the years are:
- How much sleep I get
- The quality of my sleep
- How many calories I burn on average per day
Fitbit trackers are a great tool that I have recommended to people for years. I now recommend them to those who don’t have an Apple phone. I love that it is lightweight and hardly noticeable on my wrist.
Fitbit tracker
A Fitbit tracker and app will track your:
- Steps per day
- Distance per day
- Calories burned per day
- Sleep duration and quality
- Water intake per day
Amazon link:
Apple watch
If I didn’t have a Fitbit I’ve been using for years and a really nice watch I cherish, I would purchase an Apple watch to track my fitness. Apple watches are incredibly versatile in the information they provide to their users through their health and fitness apps. An Apple watch and its fitness/health/sleep apps will track:
- How much exercise you get per day
- Distance per day
- Cardio fitness per day
- The pace you ran that day (if you ran)
- Your walking pace per day
- How long you stand per day
- How long you stand per hour
- Your heart rate
- Whether or not you have any irregular heartbeat rhythms
- Has an electrocardiogram (ECG) to monitor heart conditions
- Monitor falls
- Duration of sleep
- Respiratory rate
Amazon Link:
Body Composition Scale
I recommend weighing yourself weekly, but I only ask that you share your weight with me every other week. I suggest using the Renpho scale because it provides additional calculations that are important to understand beyond your weight. This scale helps you read your body composition, which is essential throughout your health and fitness journey. It allows you to track your lean body mass, body fat percentage, and other crucial metrics for your health.
Amazon link:
The Renpho scale provides information on:
- Weight
- Body Mass Index (BMI) – a ratio that calculates your health by measuring your weight relative to your height
- Body fat percentage – the percentage of body fat in pounds relative to your total weight in pounds
- Fat-free body weight in pounds (lean muscle mass in pounds) – how much your body weighs in total, excluding fat
- Basal metabolic rate
- Bone mass in pounds – how much your bones weigh
- And much more!
Please read the disclaimer on Amazon before purchasing.
Body Fat Calipers
One of the lessons in this course teaches you how to use a body fat caliper to determine your body fat percentage. It involves measuring the thickness of the skin in eight different areas, with seven of them used in a formula to calculate your body fat percentage. However, if you do not want to buy a caliper or measure and track specific areas of your body, you can skip this section in the Body Assessment. Using body fat calipers can help you understand how much fat you lose in different areas throughout your health and fitness journey.
If you want to measure the thickness of your skin in those areas to track your progress, I suggest ordering a caliper. You may discover that you lose a lot of inches in unexpected areas, which can be very motivating.
The lesson “Understanding and calculating your total body fat percentage and weight” will teach you how to measure your body fat using body fat calipers and how to use them in eight areas of your body.
If you opt out of this section, we will still need to find a way to obtain your body fat percentage, such as using the Body Composition Scale liked mentioned above or visiting a local nutrition shop with expensive body composition assessment machines.
The body fat caliper I recommend can be found at this link:
Amazon link:
Blood Pressure Test
Understanding your blood pressure is essential to keep it in a normal range and prevent complications such as heart disease and stroke, according to Healthline.com (n.d.). Please check your blood pressure at your local pharmacy or order a blood pressure monitor from Amazon, such as the one provided in the link below. I will ask for your blood pressure in the Body Assessment and keep this information for future reference.
Knowing your blood pressure helps us determine the appropriate intensity level for your workouts and the type of exercises to assign you. If you do not provide me with this number, I will assume that you are in the healthy range and assign your workouts accordingly. However, assigning a moderate to intense workout when you have high blood pressure can be dangerous, so it’s essential to personalize your workout plan accordingly if you have high blood pressure.
I prioritize your safety while working with me, and knowing your blood pressure is one of the first steps. If you have high blood pressure, please talk to a physician before starting the fitness test and exercise.
Here is the link to a blood pressure monitor on Amazon:
Amazon link:
Reference
Healthline.com. (n.d.). Blood pressure readings explained. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/blood-pressure-reading-explained.