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"  I always do better at dieting and exercising if I have a buddy. Flashback: The Gorgeous Arm Challenge that Charmaine Rodriques and I undertook and blogged about a little over a year ago. So when Charmaine and Mary Clarke were game for trying out BodyMedia Fit Core Armbands and comparing notes, I realized this was another great opportunity for me to get back on track with a fitness and diet routine. The BodyMedia Armband is a device that you wear on your arm 24/7 so it can track your activity level and sleep patterns and into which you enter your food intake. I&amp;#039;ve been wearing mine for over a week now and although my scale dial has hovered over the same weight, the system has been really helpful in pointing out some key problems in my daily routine. Here&amp;#039;s what I learned:  Activity: Since I want to lose weight and lose it rather fast, I opted for the &amp;quot; Very Active&amp;quot; level which requires that I take at least 10,000 steps every day and include 30 minutes of vigorous activity and 60 minutes of moderate activity. Well, although I meet the 10,000 steps goal pretty much every day, I never get in the total of 90 minutes of activity, and even when I do, it&amp;#039;s mostly moderate activity that&amp;#039;s not vigorous enough. Food Intake: It looks like I never consume the amount of calories I&amp;#039;m allotted per day for my weight and projected activity level (which probably is a good thing as I don&amp;#039;t seem to be hitting the activity goal either). It&amp;#039;s also possible that I&amp;#039;m not good at estimating the amounts that I eat, which could definitely explain the &amp;quot;no weight loss&amp;quot; phenomenon. Sleep: I don&amp;#039;t get enough sleep during the week. For example, last night I only got 4 hours and 40 minutes of actual sleep although I was lying down for 7 hrs! Lack of sleep could be another reason why I haven&amp;#039;t lost the pound and a half per week that I was shooting for.  I am not disheartened by my performance this past week. In fact now I have gathered enough quantitative evidence to help me focus on the problem areas. With the competition from two younger, fitness-conscious officemates, who are also wearing Body Media Armbands, I&amp;#039;m energized and optimistic about the coming week. Follow this link to sign up for a tour of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute Labs. To become a beauty product tester conact us at ghribeauty@hearst.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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