Getting Fit with my Kindle

This may seem like an odd thing to share on while talking about getting fit and losing weight, but stick with me. Okay?

At the end of this post, I have some ways to buy a Kindle Fire for Cheap.

I started thinking about this just this morning. I hopped on my treadmill like a good girl and grabbed my Kindle Fire. Here’s a frightening revelation: reading on my Kindle constitutes less than 25% of what I do with the thing. Irony? Maybe. Think of a Kindle Fire as a cheaper version of the iPad that fits in your purse to boot. It’s not just an eReader; the Kindle Fire is a tablet.

Inspiration

On my treadmill, I went on You Tube, and watched a few videos about health and getting in shape while I sucked wind for fifteen minutes. Somehow this inspires me.

Sometimes I use my RSS Reader App and read my favorite weight loss and fitness blogs for further inspiration. Sometimes they have you tube videos on their blogs, which sort of combines them both.

The Netflix app on my Kindle Fire also allows me to watch great documentaries like Forks over Knives and Food, Inc. which will blow your mind.

Work Out Music

Sometimes, when I’m doing something that can’t be done while holding a kindle and watching or reading, I open up my Pandora.com app, and listen to my workout music. (You need wi-fi for this). I use Pandora on my regular computer too if Kindle is being used for playing Angry Birds doing school work by one of the kids.

Resources

There are so many free ebooks on Kindle every day, that I’ve not bought too many books lately. In fact, I’ve gotten some great dieting and exercise books on my Kindle for either free or less than $5.

In addition, there’s those other blogs I mentioned earlier that I follow for inspiration, and of course Pinterest and via.me which are both great resources for inspiration and recipes and ideas.

Saving Money

(this is a good way to sell the idea to your husband to get it as a Christmas or Birthday/Anniversary/whatever gift — my husband can now testify that this is true though he thought it was just another toy at first)

I use my Kindle Fire to better plan my grocery shopping for maximum savings, using MightyGrocery, an app for Kindle Fire. This app allows me to figure out exactly how much I’m going to spend at each store, and figures in the coupons I have. I really love that I know how much I’m going to spend before I get to the checkout. No surprises.

It’s a variation on the “grocery pricebook” idea that I’ve used for years…keeping track of the unit price of commonly purchased items and stocking up whenever the price falls well below that benchmark.

I also use a variety of coupon apps and sales apps on my Kindle Fire to help me keep track of what sales and coupons are available.

Accountability

My free MyFitnessPal app allows me to keep track of what I eat and how much I work out every day, and share this information with those I allow to be my friends on MyFitnessPal.

Sure, you can do this on your computer too, and I do sometimes, but I try not to have my fanny glued to this seat too much.

My Fitness Pal also allows you see how many calories you have left for the day (it helps you gauge if you really do want/need that midnight snack…). You can “buy” more calories to eat by working out. Sometimes that alone keeps me on the treadmill for that extra five minutes.

My favorite thing about MyFitnessPal is when that little app tells me that I didn’t eat enough calories for the day, even if I scarfed down a lot of healthy foods. MyFitness Pal on my kindle helped me to see just what the caloric difference between what I had been eating vs. what I am now eating really is. You can fill your face with veggies and still get that “you didn’t eat enough” warning. That makes me like veggies even more.

Buying a Kindle Fire for Cheap

There are a few ways to buy a Kindle Fire…

1. Pay Full Price (not very frugal)
2. Earn Amazon.com Gift Cards using Swagbucks and MyPoints
3. Earn Amazon.com Gift Cards using your Amazon.com Affiliate Program
4. Combine # 2 and 3

When I bought mine as a 2oth Anniversary gift to myself …(I put hubby’s name on the card)….it was after earning gift cards through Swagbucks (see banner to your right) and  waiting for a really great sale. I mention this in more detail here on this post about how swagbucks works.

And, as I noted above, the benefits were worth far more than that. Just in what it has saved me in grocery planning and savings is worth it.