Many people focus on counting calories... and if that works for you... all the power to you. I focus on calories too... but instead of how many I'm consuming... I focus on how many I'm burning.

For those of you that workout with me... you know I am always monitoring my heartrate during workouts (Devin thinks I'm watching the time - and sometimes I am *smiles* but most of the time I'm tracking my heartate)... it keeps me entertained and motivated.

In November (after 3 failed heartrate monitor watches *long story*), I spent an extra $40 and bought a Timex Ironman Triathon (30 lap) watch at Sportcheck (they even make a small one to fit women's writsts). It cost $130 and was just as good of an investment as a pair of sneakers.

At first I was apprehensive about the chest strap, but actually you don't even notice it's on if you are working out hard enough. Sometimes after the workout I forget to even take it off (actually I'm wearing it right now)!

What is great about this watch is it monitors your heartrate the entire workout without having to press any buttons to get updates, so it gives you a more accurate reading of how many calories you burned.

I'm not sure of the mathematical equation but it stores your age, weight, gender and then monitors the heartrate the entire workout and gives you a total of how many calories you've burned. The only sucky thing I noticed... the more weight you loose... the less calories you burn in a workout... talk about a catch 22!

At my current weight, on average I burn about 850-900 calories every workout. Do the math on that... during my workouts alone... I burn between 5950-6300 calories every week. This is why I'm loosing weight. I think the calories I burn during the workouts equate to almost 2 lbs... not to mention the increased burn during the day from working out. Getting the workout done first thing in the morning really kick-starts your day. This morning is a perfect example, even though I got about 8 hours sleep last night, I woke up tired. Thursdays are usually rough for me because on Wednesdays I work out twice (so my body is exhausted), but I still got on the treadmill and went for my jog, within 10 mins, the adrenaline kicked in and I was glad I didn't make a sad excuse not to do the work out (like I would have in the past).

Monitoring my heartrate, recovery, resting heartrate has helped me to keep myself "in check". I guarantee you... at one point... you will be accountable to yourself for the workouts. It may take a couple months, but it will happen. Last week on my 5th run of the week, I had 2 minutes left and I actually said to myself... "come on Michelle... this is your last run this week... make these last 2 minutes really count" and then I put it into overdrive. Really? Who is this person? I'm at the point where I can motivate myself during the runs because really, I am an adrenaline junkie and love the runners high and seeing the total calorie burn at the end! hahaha

Anyway, go buy a watch... you are worth it!

Now I'm off to go have breakfast (cottage cheese with blueberries... I have no idea how many calories are in it... and to be honest... I'm not worried about it)!