Fitbit

I got a Fitbit Charge HR for my birthday, which means I’ve had it for about four months now. I requested that model as it was the cheapest Fitbit without a screen that measured your heart-rate. Whilst I like the sound of the more expensive models, Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Surge, it would have been pointless getting one since the interfaces would not be accessible to me and I would therefore be unable to take advantage of the extra features. I did consider asking my parents for an Apple watch instead, which has the Voice Over screen reader inbuilt meaning I could access the watch to its full potential, but the price was too steep. My Fitbit Charge HR cost £100 and I’m very happy with its capabilities.

I say my Fitbit doesn’t have a screen, but in fact it does, just not one you can interact with. There is a button on the side of the watch and each time you press it, it displays different information, including the time, the amount of steps I’ve done that day and my current heart-rate. None of this information is accessible to me.

Setting up the Fitbit is also an inaccessible process, as you need to type in the code displayed on the screen in order to synchronise it to your smart device. However, once you are set-up there are tons of statistics at your finger-tips.

The App
The app itself is generally accessible. I am able to view the majority of information available with ease. The only feature on the app that isn’t accessible are the graphs that show progression or a lack of. This isn’t important, as Fitbit emails a weekly report and you are also able to view a breakdown of figures in number form in the app. When the battery level is low, Fitbit will again send an email to notify you, but this is visible in the app too. The battery lasts four or five days on average and takes about two hours to charge fully.

Steps
The daily recommended average is ten thousand per day and surprisingly, I find it quite difficult to reach the target on non-track days. I like trying to meet the goal and I still get a tingle of excitement when my Fitbit vibrates to inform me that I’ve managed it. Since having the Fitbit it has encouraged me to be more active.

Floors
The recommended amount is ten flights per day. This isn’t difficult to reach. I find the badge rewards quite fun, telling me things like I’ve climbed the height of a hot air balloon or I’ve walked the same distance as a marathon.

Sleep
This is one of my favourite features. Every morning the first thing I check is how much sleep I got the night before. It lets you know how long you slept, how many times you woke up and how many times you were restless. I have learnt that I require at least eight and a half to nine hours sleep per night to be fully functioning the following day. It is a miracle if I sleep straight through and I appear to be quite a restless sleeper, which I put down to dreaming nearly every night.

Heart-Rate
Ok so this is another feature I love. At the moment my resting heart-rate is sixty-seven beats per minute, which is fairly rubbish for a so-called athlete. Embarrassingly, when I first got my Fitbit it was seventy beats per minute and it has only recently started to decline. However, it proves that winter training is working and I’m getting fitter. To further prove this theory, I have been able to see my average heart rate on the long runs I have been forced to endure, as it automatically recognises and logs when I’ve gone for a run, walk or exercised. When I first started my long runs my average heart rate was over one-hundred and sixty beats per minute. After a couple of weeks that decreased to one-hundred and thirty beats per minute. The heart-rate feature is also good to track and prevent illness. One morning I noticed my resting heart-rate had spiked from the previous day warning me that my body was working harder than usual, possibly fighting off an internal infection. I did feel sluggish that day and ensured I didn’t exert myself unnecessarily. After a couple of days my heart-rate returned to its usual status and I felt back to normal.

Other
A useful feature on the Fitbit is that it vibrates when my phone is ringing. This is quite good when I’m out and about and my phone is in my pocket or handbag and I can’t hear it. You are also able to entre in manually your weight, water in-take and calories eaten. I don’t really bother with this stuff. For a bit of fun, if you have friends who have a Fitbit you can challenge them to see who can do the most steps in a week or other games. There are probably more features that I have yet to discover too. Personally, I find it all fascinating and definitely recommend purchasing a Fitbit Charge HR if you either want to get fitter or monitor your fitness.

Online Dating

In this day and age, if you are single, people’s default response is to urge you to go online. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, everyone does it and it actually works! For some people that is. I myself have two friends who met their respective fiancé’s online and another friend who is about to move in with their partner who they also met online. But what is online dating like for someone like me? Well, in a nutshell an unpleasant experience that I won’t be in a hurry to repeat.

I spent six months on popular dating website Plenty of Fish or for those in the know POF. I chose it for a variety of reasons, firstly it was free, secondly one of my best friend’s had a very positive experience and thirdly the site is pretty accessible for a screen reader user. The app is also ok, but not as good as the main site on a desktop computer.

In six months of being online, I managed to go on let me just count them up, zero dates. There were a couple of males who suggested going out ‘some time’, but then they would simply vanish from the face of the earth one day. This was a common theme. You will have a conversation with someone for a week or so, then they just stop speaking to you for no apparent reason. The irritating thing is that you can see when they are online and blatantly blanking you. It seems to be acceptable to be rude online.

A good feature on POF is the block button. This was used frequently to block guys who were just after one thing and had no shame in asking up front. This made me question whether ‘honesty’ was really an admirable characteristic or not.

I’m not sure if my downfall was my profile. Do you drink? No. Do you smoke? No. Do you drive? No. Do you have children? No. What is your religion? Muslim. This is all before I reveal I have a disability. I chose not to state I was visually impaired in my profile. However, I did give little hints, such as ‘I enjoy walking my Guide Dog’ and had a picture of me with Calvin. I’m lucky that in photos I can hide my blindness. Generally, most people didn’t read your profile and messaged you based on your profile photo. For me this meant I received lots of messages from Asian men, which is fine, but when you’ve grown-up in a predominantly white area and your cousins call you a coconut (brown on the outside, white on the in) it means you struggle to connect with the majority of Asian males. Tecnically, I’m not even Asian as my Mum is from Mauritius and my Dad is from Kenya. Geographically that makes me African.

I tried to be open minded when talking to people and reading their profiles. Obviously, I couldn’t see their profile pictures, but POF tells you their hair, eye and skin colour, as well as their height and age. This enables you to create some sort of image in your head for evaluation. I wish it told me attributes like facial hair, piercings and tattoos, but you can’t have everything.

I spoke to hundreds of males online. Some messaged me first, others I messaged first. I was very careful, which was another thing that went against me. When people asked for my number I politely told them that I would prefer to keep chatting via POF until I got to know them better. Lots of guys didn’t like this and would move on to their next victim. My friends and family all knew I was online and if I did go on a date it was agreed that someone would be watching nearby. At the end of the day, I am a vulnerable individual no matter how independent I try to be.

Overall, online dating left me feeling deflated and undesirable. Therefore, I deleted my account and plan to explore other avenues in my quest for love. I’m glad I tried it and it is great that it works for some people, it just wasn’t designed for someone as unique as me. If you do try online dating, please stay safe.

Job Vacancy - Female PA

Female PA required to support visually impaired athlete with sporting activities, such as swimming and gym classes at David Lloyd Narborough.

No experience necessary
Car driver essential
Wednesday/Friday daytime
Aprox 2-4hrs per week
£8 per hour and 45p per mile

To apply please send CV and covering letter to: selinalitt@googlemail.com

Closing date: Tuesday 1 November 2016.

Rio Paralympics

So Rio 2016 has come to an end. Initially, I imagined my thoughts on the Paralympics would be very similar to my thoughts on the Olympics. However, the Paralympic experience for me was completely different. I guess because it is closer to home in the sense that whilst Athletics features in the Olympics it isn’t actually an event I could ever participate in.

It is terrible to say, but I wasn’t inspired by the Paralympics this time. Maybe it isn’t physically possible to be inspired over and over again. The concept of people overcoming adversity and achieving great things in sport isn’t something that is new to me. Don’t get me wrong, there were some amazing performances and acts of courage. They just didn’t feel relevant to me. This could be because we had a very limited number of visually impaired athletes competing, so very little visually impaired sport was televised. We had no Goalball teams, no blind football team, no S11 swimmers, which would be my classification and whilst I know we sent athletes in the Judo, I’m not sure if anyone managed to medal. Apologies if they did, but it must have passed me by. We did grab a handful of medals in the athletics, swimming and cycling from athletes who are mostly partially sighted. It makes me wonder how totally blind young people can aspire to represent their country at a Paralympics if they have no role model to follow. Personally, watching Tracey Hinton in Beijing was my first glimpse of what a totally blind athlete could do on an athletics track and later she became my rival.

Despite not seeing visually impaired sport, I did watch the Paralympics religiously every day and enjoyed it overall. The Channel 4 coverage was cringe worthy at times with stuttering presenters and their lack of knowledge, yet I know Channel 4 tried their best, which is all you can ask. I did surprise myself how much I know about not only Athletics, but other sports too when the presenters gave incorrect facts. It was common to see on social media incorrect classifications and facts too. To be fair the classification system is a tough thing to get your head around. I know the Athletics classes inside out and I’m reasonably familiar with the classifications in other sports. That’s because I’m involved in disability sport. For the general public including my parents, they find it confusing. They asked me what is the difference between a T34 and T54 athlete, as to them they both compete in wheelchairs. Also, in the swimming they were cheering the athletes with amputations because visibly to them they must be more impaired than someone with all four limbs. I noticed that the LEXI guide to classification wasn’t used much, as there was simply no time due to the amount of British performances that needed squeezing in.

The medals just kept on coming. 147 later and as a spectator I was a little bit bored with all of the winning. The medals didn’t feel as special compared to the Olympics especially when some people managed to collect three or four. In future I think they need to reduce the amount of events for certain classifications. It is a bit bizarre that some athletes are able to compete and medal over so many different disciplines. That isn’t possible to do in the Olympics, so it shouldn’t be possible in the Paralympics. I do know in the athletics that they took a fair few 200m races out so some athletes were unable to double up. This process needs to be continued on a class by class basis.

Reading back, this does seem to be quite a negative post. So to end on some positives…

Rio delivered. They got the crowds in and backed their athletes whole heartedly. When Brazil clinched the Bronze in the final swimming event, a relay of some sort, it brought a tear to my eye, as on classification points it shouldn’t have physically been possible. The crowd’s reaction was mind blowing. And I say I got bored of us winning all of the time, but 147 medals for Paralympics GB is an incredible achievement. Only China with a disabled population of a mere 65 million could beat us.

Next up Tokyo 2020. This last four year cycle I didn’t aim to become a Paralympian. Dare I say it, but I would love to be in Tokyo. I wish I didn’t love athletics so much, as I would consider doing a different sport to aid my chances, but the truth is the only sport for me is track and field. To get there as a sprinter would be a tall order. If I’m lucky we may have a relay team by then or I may discover a hidden talent for another event. It is always good to dream.

Baths, Boiled Eggs and Back Cracks

Taking baths, eating boiled eggs before training and having treatment on my back are just a few of the changes I made this year to enable me to run an illegal 13.52 and a legal 13.61 over 100m. My previous PB was 13.93 set in 2013 and it was a relief to start making progress again. Tomorrow I begin winter training, so thought I would take the time to reflect on my season before starting anew.

Whilst I am pleased with my progression, I had a real reality check this last week watching my event at the Paralympics. Fifteen out of the sixteen athletes who participated ran faster than my best time. The slowest time set was 13.99. Again I was left thinking, how on earth do these girls do it?! I train so hard, yet seem to be forever chasing. One of the most difficult things to accept was the re-classification of some T12 athletes moving down into my T11 class. This is something that could keep happening and pushing my classification on further. However, there is nothing I can do regarding that situation and can only concentrate on improving myself as a sprinter.

Yes, baths, boiled eggs and back cracks have contributed to my progression, as well as my nine pound weight loss. My friends all thought I was crazy when I told them I was trying to lose weight. That’s nine pounds less to drag down the track though. Also, I am managing to do drills that I literally physically couldn’t do before.

Each year I learn more and more about what it takes to be a world class athlete. For instance, I know I wasn’t able to lift heavy enough in the gym last winter, so there was only so much power I could expect from myself come the summer. This is something that is going to get fixed this time around.

I managed to run under fourteen seconds on six occasions this year demonstrating my ability to be more consistent as an athlete, which is a positive. I took just under four seconds off of my previous 200m PB, which is remarkable considering I don’t train for the event. I was given the opportunity to compete for Great Britain in front of fifty thousand people at the London Anniversary Games, which I was incredibly grateful for. These small achievements are what I need to remember moving forward.

Winter training is going to be tough. It is going to hurt. I am not going to enjoy it. However, I know it is going to be worth it.

Rio Olympics

I was excited for the Olympics to start of course, but I didn’t realise how hooked I would get. For two solid weeks my life revolved around the games. I’m already motivated when it comes to achieving in sport, I bleat on about it regularly enough on here. However, watching the Olympics inspired me further, encouraged me to run faster, aim higher and become stronger. I was in total awe of every single athlete competing on the greatest stage of all. So much so every time someone won a medal or just missed out, it caused me to well up. Even now when I watch the highlights, I can’t stop the eyes from filling. I’m not sure if it is old age or simple recognition and appreciation of the hard work every athlete puts in. They all spoke of the sacrifices they had made and it’s so true. As an athlete you feel you are constantly saying no to things because you need to train or compete or rest before training or competing.

Prior and during the games Rio received a lot of negative press to put it mildly. Many people argued that they shouldn’t have been awarded the games at all. Personally, I think this is unfair. They were very much a developing country when they were awarded the Olympics and it really shouldn’t be an event that only the rich are allowed to host. The Olympics is a place where all countries come together. This shouldn’t be in a magical land where no bad happens. Having the Olympics in Rio gave the games a touch of realism that I liked. Ok so the venues were half empty, but the organisers shouldn’t have made ticket prices so high. The Rio public came out in their thousands to watch the free events, such as the marathon. They are like Britain, a nation that loves sport and in my opinion deserved to host the games.

Britain had a great games winning more medals than ever before. This meant I ended up watching more sports than ever before and really enjoyed doing so. In particular the gymnastics and diving had me gripped. Ultimately, the athletics was the best of the rest though. It was a shame it was on so late meaning I recorded it each night, avoided the news and social media in the morning in order to gain the full experience. The athletics did not disappoint. Although I never expected to enjoy the men’s 400m final more than the men’s 100m final, which were on the same night. This year I didn’t doubt BBolt’s ability and superiority to the others. I knew the men’s 400m would be impressive, but seriously didn’t predict anyone breaking Michael Johnson’s World Record. That takes some class or at least a very fast South African called Wayde Van Niekerk. I was pleased that our Super Saturday stars from London 2012 were able to medal again, a feat that was by no means easy or a given.


Now it isn’t long before the Paralympics begin. Naturally, I will be watching.

TPT Guest Blog

Recently, I was asked to guest blog for Thomas Pocklington Trust. I wrote about how athletics has helped me deal with my sight loss in the hope that it encourages other visually impaired people to get involved in sport. You can read my post by clicking here.