I really like the Polar FT60. I exercise 4 – 6 times per week and wear it for my cardio and strength training. It is interesting to watch the heart rate go up and I record my maximum and average rate in my exercise log. It’s all just data to help keep me motivated and it works.

About a month ago I started having problems with the Polar FT60. When I tried to initiate the heart rate, it would show 00, then Check heart rate transmitter! Sometimes it would go in and out, showing what appeared to be the correct heart rate and then going back to 00. I wasn’t sure if there was a problem with the watch, transmitter, or belt but the error message seemed to indicate it was the transmitter. I read the instructions and realized that I had not been washing my strap as advised so washed it immediately and sure enough my Polar HRM started working again. I thought I had solved the problem. It worked for about 3 sessions and then became intermittent again. I tried washing again and accidentally put it in the dryer. Then no go, I started getting the dreaded, Check heart rate transmitter and 00’s and occasionally real high numbers like 200. I thought about sending it all back to Polar under warranty but wasn’t sure if I was going to have a problem because I purchased on ebay and had put the strap in the dryer (how would they know though). I also thought that I should check the battery in the transmitter, just in case. I opened it up and it looked like I needed a tool to get the battery out so took it to a watch shop. They were kind enough to test my battery, it was good and let me try the monitor with a new battery, it didn’t work. Argh. I finally decided to purchase a new transmitter and belt on amazon. No taxes and free shipping and others had reported that this solved their problem.

The new Wearlink strap and trasmitter arrived and they worked! Here’s the link to the Wearlink at Amazon:

Polar WearLink+ Coded Transmitter and Belt Set (Medium-XX-Large)


I also did some testing and both transmitters seemed to work with the new strap but not the old strap. So I could have just purchased a new strap, that would have saved me $34. Here’s the link for just the strap:

Polar WearLink+ Replacement Strap (Medium-XX-Large)


Now as I am writing this blog post, I pulled out my old strap to get the error message correct in this post. It did fail once and I got the error message but suddenly the FT 60 started working properly with the original strap and transmitter. Now I am confused but will keep working with the old strap and transmitter and if they are too intermittent will use the new strap.

So if you’re looking to purchase a Polar Heart Rate Monitor and have trouble with the strap, maybe the above links will help you solve the proble.

If you haven’t purchased yet, Here’s a link to the Polar FT60 at Amazon:

Polar FT60

Also some great prices at J & R:

Polar FT60


And I wouldn’t be cheap like me and try ebay, I didn’t save that much money and would have more options with the warranty.

The reversible travel yoga mat is just $29.98 from Gaiam. You can pick it up here: Reversible Travel Yoga Mat

For breakfast I have steel cut oatmeal with strawberries, blue berries, and walnuts. Steel cut oatmeal is wholegrain oats that have only been cut. It takes about 30 minutes to cook but today I have some leftover from earlier in the week so no prep time, I just need to warm it up. I also have coffee with nonfat Half & Half cream. This breakfast is delicious and the oatmeal is very filling. I love strawberries, blueberries and walnuts (can’t have too many though). It’s all good.

The menu for lunch is “Greens with beans and artichoke hearts, wasa and raspberries”. I don’t have raspberries so leave that out since I had fruit for breakfast. The Greens with beans and artichoke hearts is a hearty salad which also includes chicken, red onion, goat cheese, pine nuts, parsley, and a homemade vinaigrette. The beans are supposed to be canned white beans, I happen to have canned soy beans and use those. Prep time is less than half an hour, I have to cook the chicken and prepare the salad and vinaigrette. Wasa is wasa crisp bread. I have been eating wasa since the 1980’s when I was on The Diet Center program. It’s a high fiber cracker, pretty tasty, with no bad ingredients.

For an afternoon snack, I have celery with peanut butter. Again I have to watch the quantity on the peanut butter.

Dinner is “Grilled Moroccan Pork Tenderloin Kabobs with Carrot Salad and Brown Rice”. This meal takes some time to prepare. The pork is marinaded in a sauce of parsley, lemon juice, oil, garlic, oregano (fresh), coriander seeds, paprika, ginger (I started using fresh ginger in a jar to save time and it tastes like fresh), black pepper, kosher salt (I use it all the time now), cayenne pepper, and tumeric. The marianade is prepared about 2 hours in advance and combined with the park. Brown rice takes about an hour to cook so we get that going next. Now we have the time to chop our carrots and prepare ingredients for the Tunisian Carrot Salad. We need garlic, kalamata olives, feta cheese, lemon, Harissa (I’ve never found it in a store so substitute a hot sauce that I have), olive oil, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, and kosher salt. The carrots are cooked for about 5 minutes and then combined with the other ingredients. Instead of doing kabobs on the grill, I stir fry the pork which retains more of the marinade. It’s very good on the brown rice. The whole prep time on this dinner is about an hour and a half. To go with this great meal I can have 6 ounces of wine, I have a red pinot noir. I use very small wine glasses, 4 ounces, and then can have seconds (another half glass). It’s all good.

This is a typical day. I cook quite a bit more than prior to starting the Sonoma Diet particularly because I am cooking a substantial lunch in addition to dinner. It’s so worth it to me to eat this great healthy and filling food and to loose weight with it.

My husband and I dive off our our 32 foot Radon out of King Harbor in Redondo Beach. Besides being good exercise, I think that the cold water requires extra energy from the body to stay warm. The water is usually in the 50’s here sometimes warming up to the 60’s. Today I picked up a crab and my husband speared some sand bass. We eat good!

For dinner I made a sort of crab stuffing to go with the bass – celery, onions, pepper, garlic, cajun seasoning sauted in olive oil with just a bit of butter. Then add some bread crumbs and stuff the fish. I do believe that to be able to stick with a diet it can’t be too strict and has to have some flavor. I just learned this trick:

I exercise 5 to 6 hours per week. Why do I still gain weight? The answer is easy, I eat too much. Here’s my normal schedule (these are hour long classes except for the scuba):

I am pretty regular with the above schedule missing sometimes one day a week from the above. During May however, I was working more and did miss more classes which probably contributed to climbing to 179.

Now to loose weight I need to change it up, increase the exercise and descrease the food. I’ll talk about the food another day. On the exercise I have been upping the anty this week. I am doing all of the above plus adding another 15 minutes to an hour each day of yoga. On Tuesday I taught an evening yoga class in addition to the morning pilates. Today the weather was bad so instead of scuba I did a very intensive Power Sculpt class. I have to be careful with this class. The last time I went I hurt my ankle from the jumping and it took months to heal completely. I currently have a sore right shoulder and a twinge of neck pain so I am being careful with the shoulder, using lighter weights or no weights. It’s tough getting old.