Fat Girl Fitness: A Quick Fitbit Charge 3 Review

Fat Girl Fitness: A Quick Fitbit Charge 3 Review

by Kristy ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

My last post was about my life-long struggles with fitness and weight, but I didn’t even mention my new Fitbit! That seems like a bit of an oversight, so here we are. I definitely feel like my Fitbit has helped me keep motivated while starting my running journey (that sounds cheesy as hell, but I don’t know how else to put it?) I like having all the tracking information it does for me, as well as how intuitive and extensive the app is.

Let’s start at the beginning, though, shall we?

 The Fitbit Charge 3 costs $199.95 regular price, but frequently seems to be on sale for more like $159, which how much I bought mine for from the Fitbit website.

I bought the Charge 3 to replace my last smartwatch, which I didn’t feel was doing a great job tracking my steps or runs, and also wasn’t even trying to take my heart rate, even during workouts or when i specifically went and asked it to. Which seemed like a bit of a failing. Besides, my Moto360 was getting very old and had been a bit stutter-y and weird for a while.

I decided not to get the more smartwatch-y Versa because I don’t really need my watch to control my music or have special apps, plus I like the slimmer look of the Charge 3 more, and it saved me a little money.

I love that it’s pretty comfortable to wear. I thought the silicone band might make it sweaty and sticky, but it doesn’t unless I’d be sweating anyways, and since the whole unit is swim-proof, it’s super safe and easy to wipe down and keep clean. Because let’s be honest, if you sweat under it, it does get a little stinky from time-to-time. And it comes with two size bands to make sure it fits pretty much all wrist sizes. I wear the larger bands almost as small as it goes, so the range goes from a couple inches smaller than my wrists to 2-3 inches larger. And you can get fancy fabric, leather, and “sport” bands if you so desire as well.

The battery lasts for days, and whereas I used to charge my Moto360 nightly, this one I like to wear overnight for sleep tracking, but I’ve had great success just chucking it on the charger when I hop in the shower. It never dips below 50% battery, and charges up quickly in the 20-30 minutes I have it off. And I don’t usually even shower daily.

There are lots of watch faces, even though the little display is only white-on-black, so you can easily find one to match your aesthetic and needs. I like having one on that shows a bit of information on the main screen, like time, date, and a cycle-able widget that you can tap to see various stats like daily steps, heart rate, calories burned, floors climbed, etc.

I mentioned the app earlier as well, and I do think it’s quite good. As well as collecting all your daily stats, it gives you graphs to see your progress over time, tracks your sleep patterns if you wear it to bed, and you can also use it to track water intake, food and calories, period and menstrual cycle data (if that applies to you), and weight. You can set goals for all kinds of things as well, such as steps, distance walked/run, floors climbed, calories burned, cups of water consumed, and fitbit will help you celebrate goals met and email you weekly with your stats and successes. It’s all very helpful and encouraging if you’re anything like me and love stats and gold stars for your efforts. I suggest setting your goals realistically so you can achieve them to start and making them harder when you can consistently hit those first targets so you don’t get discouraged!

I’m not sure what else there is to say. You can start exercise tracking from the app or watch if you’re about to go for a run or a hike or something. I like using the app because it gives you a map and a bit more information after you’re done you’re workout, but I also see the benefit of using the watch for easier to see updates during your workout of your heartrate, current pace, laps or distances covered, etc. Basically, its great that there are so many options to use these tools in the way that makes the most sense for you.

You can also set up the app on your phone to forward notifications to your watch and set a few simple canned replies for messaging apps. And straight from the watch, you can set timers and alarms, which could be helpful if you don’t always have your phone handy, whether working out, or just living your life. Maybe you want to make sure you know when your half-hour work break is over, or when your chicken will be ready to take out of the oven, for example.

So, tl;dr. I like the Charge 3 a lot. I think its very useful, especially for anyone trying to get fit, start working out, or just be more cognizant of their health and wellness. It’s a little bit of an extravagance, no one needs a fitbit, but if it interests you and you think you would use it, I do think it’s worth getting.

Let me know your thoughts on whichever fitbit you use, and leave me any questions you may have. Thanks for reading!

Fat Girl Fitness: My Struggles with Health and Exercise & Starting Running with the Couch to 5K app

Fat Girl Fitness: My Struggles with Health and Exercise & Starting Running with the Couch to 5K app

by Kristy ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’m not thin. I haven’t been for a very long time, but I was quite thin as a child. Because for about 5 or 6 years I spent hours and hours a week figure skating, and then I had a fall that completely broke my confidence and my goals of being an Olympic Gold Medal-Winning figure skater kind of tapered off. Honestly, that makes it sound like I really hurt myself on a big jump, but I was probably like 7 years old and barely hurt myself at all, but I did crush my confidence by teaching myself I was fallible, and as a stubborn-as-hell, perfectionist Aries, that was all that was needed to make me believe, I’m sure, on some deep level, that I couldn’t accomplish that. I didn’t give up skating right away, but like I said, with my confidence gone, my skill and interest fairly quickly waned, and by grade 4 I’d become a bit of a sedentary lump, because I’d never really loved any form of physical activity the way I liked skating.

Which isn’t to say I never did anything else, but from about that age, I did start to put on a little extra weight. I love food, I always have, and my mom was an excellent cook. And I’m sure we all know what happens when you eat generously and do nothing physically.

I did gymnastics for a while. I loved horseback riding, but my family wasn’t exactly wealthy enough to encourage that habit too regularly. I did dance for a few years in middle and high-school, but by then I was a bit chubby and possibly a little body-dysmorphic, because I had little to no confidence and was super self-conscious of my body, so I never really could commit to any type of dance the way you need to to be really good at it.

In elementary school, for one season, I did try track and field. I really liked running, and I liked to go fast, but there had been enough time between stopping skating and starting track to put on just enough weight for that to be a bit hard and a bit painful on my poor shins. So that didn’t last. I want to be the best at everything, and if I can’t be, I’m less likely to try very hard. Sure, that’s probably a failing on my part, but its an incredibly hard impulse to break, even once you’re aware of it… and I certainly wasn’t that self-aware at 10 years old!

Anyways, you’re probably getting the picture, but by highschool, I was pretty set in my ways as someone who loves food and hates physical activity, though I did like walking and a little bit of biking, which is probably the only thing that kept me from becoming a blob of a person.

As such, in the last few years, probably mostly since I first started beauty blogging and YouTube (though I’ve stopped those now, at least for the foreseeable future), getting back in control of my health and fitness has been quite a battle. I never loved physical activity, stairs, working out, sweating, weights, cardio… and the heavier and more sedentary you get, the harder it is to break out of the cycle. But I’ve been working at it.

I’ve tried some light weight lifting exercises. I had a gym membership for a couple years, and the financial drain was actually a guilt-induced motivating factor to get me working out, but usually only once or twice a week. I have done whole squat challenges, and I do love going for regular, long walks on the trails near my house.

But recently—and this is where we actually get to the whole point of this post—I’ve started jogging. I’m not sure what made me think of trying to start running, I honestly think it was hella random, but such is life. I did like it as a kid, and maybe that’s why it came up? It’s practically free, its close to home, and possibly came to me as an extension of my walks. Anyways, I downloaded the Couch to 5k app, and just started doing the workouts on the trails near my house.

I’m not going to tell you it isn’t hard, because it is, of course. And maybe running is a little more impact than I should really be making my poor little shin bones put up with, because I am overweight, but I have learned to take it easy, take small steps to minimize the impact, and my shin-splits have all but completely healed and only act up if I push myself a little too hard. And the app is brilliant for getting beginners to ease into running by starting you with lots of “brisk walk”-ing interspersed with jogging, and slowly shifting you, over several weeks, to more jogging than walking.

I love that the app is there to tell you what to do the whole time too. You don’t have to think at all about how long of a walk or jog you should do before switching, you just start the app and some good running music, and it tracks your route, pace, and distance as you work towards covering a whole 5k.

I’m on my 6th week, I think, now, and I’m not always managing to jog the whole timed sections that it suggests, but sometimes I do: yesterday I managed to run for the whole 8 minute section it set for me, and I feel super accomplished about that, to be perfectly honest! And it works really well for me that it tracks my distances and pace, because I inherently love competition (Aries, remember?) even if it’s just with myself, so I love knowing if I’ve done better than my last run and seeing how much I’m improving over time. And of course, it is a little of a battle to not get discouraged after a bad run, but life happens, shit happens, and sometimes I’m just too bloody tired to have a good run, so I try to see it as a win that I put on my runners and fucking went anyways. Because it is. The program is only 9 weeks, after this Friday, I’ll have finished two-thirds of the challenge I set for myself, and hopefully I’ll be close to that 5k mark. I’ve even booked myself into a 5k run in September, which means I’ll have an extra month of training time to get myself up to snuff to finish that race.

But yeah, I honestly feel really motivated and confident about my progress so far. I’m sure no one else can see much of a difference in my appearance at this point, but it hasn’t even been two months, and I’m already feeling a lot stronger, I can breath better, even during a long stretch of running (and I’ve been exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke throughout my life, which makes the breathing thing even more of a win), and even when I feel like I don’t want to, its getting easier to push myself to go for that next run. It’s kind of funny, but it’s like i enjoy running right up until the moment I have to put on those shoes and go, and I like it again as soon as I’m stripping down for my post-run shower. 😜

Anywho, I’ve now written more than 1200 words and no one is ever going to read my long-ass personal essay on my journey to becoming a runner, but there it is. I feel good having written it, and if you do happen to read this monolith of a post, let me know your thoughts, have you ever tried to start running? have you tried Couch to 5k? do you hate running and all exercise? I just want to hear some thoughts from anyone who got through this. Thanks for reading, if you did! ❤️

Mini Makeup Haul

Mini Makeup Haul

by Kristy ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I say mini, but this is probably the most makeup I’ve acquired at one time in a long time. But anyways, here’s a quick peek:

a small collection of new-to-me makeup products

Mostly this is just stuff I was running out of, and honestly, I forgot to grab a new mascara… BUT ANYWAYS! Lets go left to right, top to bottom, shall we?

1. NYX Can’t Stop Won’t Stop powder foundation in Light Ivory

I’ve been using the NYX Stay Matte But Not Flat powder foundation for a while, and I’ve quite liked it, but decided to give this one a try this time… just for a change really. The colour looks about right, so we shall see.

2. NYX Can’t Stop Won’t Stop concealer in Light Ivory

I kind of impulse bought this because I was already looking at the NYX stuff, but my KVD concealer is getting low and they reformulated it, so I don’t really care to rebuy. Plus, I had to swatch this to see if the powder might be the right colour, because they had concealer testers, but no powder testers? I dunno. And it is a really lovely texture, so hopefully it’s amazing!

3. KVD Sephora birthday gift

This little set includes a mini of the awesome Tattoo Liner on Trooper, a mini translucent setting powder, and three tiny samples of the KVD studded kiss lipsticks. Which, granted, have never been a favourite of mine, but it’s free, so whatever! Really, this is worth it for the tattoo liner, if you ask me.

4. Urban Decay 24/7 Waterline Eye Pencil

I grabbed this because both of the two pencils I’ve been using were running low. The previous 2 were an Annabelle Smudgeliner (which was great, but dried out only half way through and would not let me sharpen it anymore without just snapping off) and my Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero. Which I was originally just going to repurchase, because it never fails me, but then they had this at Sephora, and I only ever use black pencil in my waterline, and it is even more smudgeproof than the Zero pencil, at least according to my very scientific in-store smudge test. So hopefully it’s great!

Anyways, I guess let me know if there’s anything you want me to review down the road. Thanks so much for reading! ❤

What do you mean, you’re a witch?

What do you mean, you’re a witch?

by Kristy ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

It’s a little bit complicated, I guess, but I’ll try to lay it all out as simply as possible.

Let’s start over 10 years ago. No, I am not one of those people who has considered themselves a witch since highschool, but it was either highschool or late middle school that I started drawing pentagrams on everything. First because they meant satanism to me, which of course, is not the only use of the symbol, and usually satanism utilizes the inverted pentacle. But then I found out that the pentagram (or pentacle, it doesn’t matter, you catch my drift) is actually a symbol of protection and witchcraft. Well, that’s just fucking cool, plus I always loved stars and drawing stars anyways, so that just cemented the deal. I drew them on everything, including myself, my chucks, and one pair of jeans. When I had money and found them in stores, I bought pentagram necklaces. Pendants. A lovely silver ring that I lost fairly quickly…

A couple years ago, though, I started to get the feeling that I should really better understand the symbol that I had adopted and emblazoned all over my whole life. So I started with what seemed the most obvious choice: Wicca. Of course, I had looked up wicca before, but my little cynical, atheist, highschooler self thought it was just as bullshit as everything else and quickly moved on. But on my second attempt at researching this path, I took a more scientific approach; I had loved learning about different religions in my humanities courses at university, so I basically started studying wiccan books in the same way. But this time, some of the stuff the books said made a lot of sense to me on a personal level.

As is to be expected, a lot of my ideas about the world have mellowed and become far more nuanced since I was a teenager, and it’s long been my motto or philosophy that as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, you should be able to do whatever the fuck you want. And I think that’s what first drew me to wicca; the “wiccan rede” says “An’ ye harm none, do what ye will” or some variation of that sentiment. However, it wasn’t long before I realised that there was no melding my atheism and Wicca, which is, after all, a religion with deities, who I simply cannot believe exist.

It was at this time, though, as I was trying to keep the bits of wicca that I liked while getting around the religious stuff, that the internet introduced me to secular witchcraft. Or just “witchcraft.” Basically its all the magick things you want to believe and practise and nothing you don’t. Since it isn’t a faith or a formal anything, there are no rules or laws or tennants. You make your own choices, along with the help of whatever books and websites and tumblr blogs you want to take advise from! This is, of course, right up my ally as a lazy-ass atheist who desperately wants magic to be real.

You might notice I use both “magic” and “magick,” and as often as possible, I try to use “magic,” the normal spelling to mean fantasy, sparks and lights and sounds and amazing magic like in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The flashy cool stuff literally any person who isn’t lying to themselves wishes they could do. Whereas I try to use “magick” to describe the type of spells and charms and such that one can actually use in the real world. No, it isn’t showy or cool to look at, but I believe it is real, at least for those of us who believe in it. Which is convenient… but do you really need EVERYTHING in life to have a real explanation?

To me, magick is a lot about personal intention and how you attempt to manifest those intentions in the real world. This might be through meditation, charmed cooking, or a little impromptu wish/spell said over your morning cup of coffee. Of course, it could also be a big, ritualistic ceremony, if you’re into that type of spellwork, but like I said, I’m lazy, so that is so not my style.

I mainly consider myself a kitchen witch or hearth witch (house witch), because a lot of my magick has to do with cooking, baking, and around the house stuff. I also practise divination, especially tarot/cartomancy, but also astrology and numerology. I’d love to get into runes, I even have a lovely pink moonstone set, but I just don’t get it, tbh. I also like crystals (of course, because who doesn’t like crystals), incense, aromatherapy, plants, nature-y things, the moon… Y’know. Witch things.

Honestly, this is a huge block of text now, and I’d be super shocked if anyone read all that, so I’ll leave this there for now. Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s anything I mentioned that you would like me to go into more depth about in the future. No, this isn’t going to be a blog only about witchcraft, and it may never come up again if I don’t feel comfortable sharing, or if no one seems interested, but it is a thing about me and my life that I like a lot and that I thought I might share a little about. So yeah. Comments please! About anything! Are you a witch? Do you love harry potter? Tell me something about this post or yourself =P

Have an awesome day!

Life’s Library #1 — If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Life’s Library #1 — If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

by Kristy ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

You may or may not have heard of the Life’s Library bookclub, and if you have, you’re probably a nerdfighter. If you don’t know what either of those things is, don’t worry about it. Or google it. I don’t feel like being overly condescending and explainy right now.

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Suffice it to say that it is an online book club run, in part, by one of my favourite online creators—well, one of my favourite people of all time, probably, but that’s a tangent for another time, perhaps—where, if you subscribed for the physical subscription, you pay $25 USD every 6 weeks and receive a new book selected by John Green and Rosianna Halse Rojas, as well as some other neat goodies. There are cheaper subscriptions, and even a free public Discord channel if you can’t afford the sub, but want to take the books out of your library and take part for free. But I wanted the shiny extras and the brand new books… so obviously I’m paying my $25 USD every month and a half. Besides, I always want to read the books John suggests, and I love listening to him talk—his voice is just so soothing—and each book also comes with a podcast of John and Rosianna discussing the chosen book (Rosianna also has a lovely British voice and intelligent things to say).

Anyways, the first book was a YA novel from 1998 (that’s one cool thing about the book club: the books aren’t brand new, they actually have to be at least 1 year old, and can be from any genre. I guess that’s 2 cool things. Sorry, I told you I ramble right in the blog title.) by Jacqueline Woodson called If You Come Softly. I had personally never read or heard about this book, but it was quite short and the coverart of my edition was pretty cheesy looking (it’s actually the one pictured in their IG post); this was not the type of book I would have picked up for myself. But really, isn’t that the best reason to be apart of this club?

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I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who wants to read it, so I won’t try to summarize the book myself, because I can be incredibly wordy (obviously), so I will drop a link to the GoodReads summary here, and go on to talk about my impressions.

I did like this book. The characters are fairly well developed for such a short novel, and they are impressively different, with completely different voices, which not all authors are particularly good at. It was very interesting to get a glimpse into the lives of these two very different characters, their families and thoughts (since they are both narrating characters in alternating chapters). It was also a surprisingly believable take on love-at-first-sight, which, in my opinion, is completely bullshit as an actual thing in real life. But this is a fictional novel, so maybe it’s just easier to believe it in this setting versus in real life.

I do wish there had been more time in the novel, though, for more plot and even more character development. I would admit that we were enough into the story for the ending to feel abrupt, and perhaps that was the point. )If you have read this, or if you do read it, that statement will likely make more sense, but again, I don’t want to specifically spoil anything.) But I love a long book. Almost all of my favourites are over 300 pages, or long books that are part of even longer series, like A Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter. Which isn’t to say that I can’t appreciate a shorter novel. Some examples that have made a huge impact in a short page count include The Great Gatsy and The Realm of Possibility, and I guess my main complaint here is that this novel didn’t have the same hard-hitting impact that most of my favourite novels have on me. It wasn’t poetic or beautiful and lyrical in its language. It didn’t give me time to be emotionally invested. It was a good story, for sure, and I think if you have any interest, you should read it, but it won’t be an enduring favourite for me.

All that said, though, I’m still happy to have read the book and very much looking forward to the next book that John and Rosianna have selected, which has been announced to be A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit. Check back in a month or so to see how that one goes.

For now, thanks so much for reading. Let me know if you’ve read this, if you’re part of the Life’s Library club, or just generally if you have any thoughts.

What books are you guys reading right now? What’s your favourite genre? Would you be interested in seeing what comes in the next Life’s Library package?

Have an awesome day!

An Introduction.

An Introduction.

by Kristy ♥ 2 Comments

Hi there. Welcome to my new blog!

A green tea latte in a black mug labelled

I’m not sure how you found this place at this point, since I’m not planning to promote it or share it out or anything, so if you would take a moment to leave me a comment, that’d be cool. But at any rate, I mean the welcome.

Today, I just want to try and get down in words what I want to accomplish with this blog. I’m hoping it can be a place I just write. About whatever is on my mind; whether that be books, reviews of products I really love, rants, witchy things like tarot, random thoughts, recipes, etc. I don’t want to be bound to any particular genre of writing or blogging, which I suppose will simultaneously make this a “lifestyle blog” but one that won’t be interesting to very many people.

I used to be a beauty blogger and very small youtuber, but that became far to much work, and too draining once I started my current, semi-full-time job. I know many bloggers manage around their full-time work, but it just wasn’t for me. I do miss writing, though, and while I have moved back out of the beauty community, there are obviously other things that take up my time and energy and I think I’d like a space to share those thoughts. Hence this blog.

If you’re still here after those musings, I hope maybe you’ll stick around. I do like writing, but it is always a little more fun if you know there are people reading. Otherwise, why not just write in a book? So if you’re reading this, thanks for your attention, and please do consider dropping a comment to say hi, introduce yourself, and maybe share how you found this blog or some other random fact or information about anything really. =)