Barbara Bland

My "wake up" call came when I had surgery to remove part of my thyroid. After that, my doctor wanted me to exercise and lose weight or I was going to be put on medication. After a few months of trying to lose weight on my own, I joined a gym and started out by just walking on the treadmill for 15-20 minutes at a time. Since I was 284 pounds at that time that was about all I could do.I talked to one of the trainers at the gym, and he told me about the Polar FT60 watch. I bought one and instantly became hooked. I soon realized that if I controlled my heart rate, I can do more in the gym and not wear myself out. The FT60 told me how much time I should spend in each of my three zones, and how many calories I should try to burn each week. After a couple of weeks, I learned that by working out in zones and giving myself a daily/weekly workout goal, I was getting the most out of my time in the gym. After a couple of weeks, I could not workout without it. As the pounds starting to come off, I was doing more and more in the gym, and my watch adjusted my zone times and calorie goals.Fast-forward to today (18 months later), I am 128 pound lighter and feel amazing. I now workout 5 days a week in the gym usually for 1 to 1 ½ hours, and do a lot more activities outside the gym. Before I joined the gym, I could not walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for air, now I run the stairs at work on my lunch break just to get in an extra workout. Recently I ran my very first 5k (of course I wore my FT60) and can't wait to run again and see if my time improves.Barbara BlandPlainfield, IL