If you burn 500 calories sleeping, pass me the Snickers '“ Cheryl Gibbs

My current personal best is 14,000. Steps, that is. 14,000 and I am becoming obsessed with trying to beat it each day. This is because Matt bought me a Fitbit Versa watch for my birthday '“ it's a shiny new toy that keeps me entertained all day. Â
Cheryl is all or nothing when it comes to health and fitnessCheryl is all or nothing when it comes to health and fitness
Cheryl is all or nothing when it comes to health and fitness

I absolutely love it. It also makes me very competitive'¦with myself.

Which is probably no bad thing because you will find me pacing around the house of an evening trying to beat yesterday's step and calorie count.

Yes, I am THAT girl.

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Oh, did I not mention the calorie count? It calculates an approximate amount of calories burned each day based on your heart rate.

Did you know that the average person burns around 500 calories overnight alone?

How unbelievable is that?

So I could have a Snickers bar (two in fact) and will burn those naughty calories off my hips just by catching a few zzzs'¦

Great in theory, though I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that in reality. 

But at the moment I'm burning around 2,000 calories a day.

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I do go through these phases as my regular readers will know '“ I'm an all-or-nothing person. 

One minute I'm 110 per cent into something and the next, not so much.  

I have a feeling that, if nothing else, this Fitbit Versa will keep me moving.

Take yesterday for instance '“ I'm off work at the moment so yesterday was supposed to be a chill-out day at home. But I felt bad because by 2pm I had only walked around 4,000 steps.

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So I decided to take myself off around the block for a brisk walk in the afternoon sun, returning only when I hit my 8,000 daily target. 

I know 10,000 is the optimal number but I'm a newbie here, give me a break. 

This all sounds well and good, but if you knew what I had consumed over my birthday weekend you'd know that a few thousand steps isn't going to come close to burning it all off. But it's a start!

And what a weekend it was, I was thoroughly spoilt.

It's made me realise that turning 36 isn't so bad after all.

It's okay to gorge yourself senseless on your birthday

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I mentioned last week that Matt treated me to a meal at Four London Road in Horndean for my birthday. It was a big family dinner and we took lots of photos. Looking at them afterwards we were genuinely shocked by the amount we consumed.

Matt had four meat dishes to himself, I had two veggie ones and we shared a pizza.

Doesn't sound terrible, does it? Perhaps I should also mention that we shared a bottle of wine and tucked into two desserts. I had the most amazing cookie dough cheesecake and the waiters came out singing Happy Birthday. Matt finished the night off with an Irish coffee. 

What did I say above about burning off those calories?

A few more steps are needed, I think. 

Gardener Leigh is our green knight in shining armour

If you're a regular reader of my column (thank you) you'll know that we've been attempting to get our garden done for what feels like years. 

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We bought the place for the view from the garden, so it's quite the mission to get it all done.

We're not there yet, not by a long shot, but I was thrilled when we had another visit from our landscape gardener, Leigh.

Despite the cold weather Leigh is starting the task of turning our current concrete area into a beautifully laid and designed patio area, all ready for spring. 

I'll keep him warmed up with regular cups of tea and mince pies '“ I'm just so excited to be making steps in the right direction.Â