If you also access Fitbit.com and the mobile app all of this info is automatically downloaded and calculated, along with the option of entering items consumed in a really terrific food log and voila! You know all about your calorie consumption, calories burned, etc etc. You can set a weight loss goal if that's your thing and even decide how long you want to work toward it -- fast, medium, or slow. Check it all day long on your computer or smart phone!
There is even an option for connecting with Fitbit friends to share info on your progress and urge each other along. AND if you wear it overnight it will tell you how long you slept, how often you woke up, and how many times you were restless. I know...a bit scary, huh?
I don't do the sleep part because I like to sleep without anything strapped to me or hanging on me -- no jewelry and certainly no computer!
But during the day, my purple Fitbit is my new best friend. It's oddly motivating to get that immediate feedback. Fitbit emails me "badges" if I accomplish some pre-determined feat of excellence. I pay little attention to them, but it is sort of fun to get an "atta girl" for my efforts. 
Fitbit has decided that 10,000 steps is the daily goal. I don't always make it, but I find myself not worrying about having to make extra trips up and down stairs or out to the garden or down the driveway to pick up the newspaper, because I know I'm getting more "steps and stairs" in.
The first time I got to 10,000 steps I was sort of freaked out. I had no idea my Fitbit would throw a little party on my wrist for this accomplishment. I was being neighborly and had walked across the street to gather up a few days' newspapers still on the sidewalk leading up to front door. They were on vacation. I got almost to their property line when my Fitbit began to vibrate like crazy for a few seconds. I stopped dead in my tracks!
I thought I'd triggered an "Invisible Fence" system used to keep dogs in the yard. We used to have one. It would cause the dog collar to vibrate in warning that if our pup went another 4 feet, he'd get an unpleasant "correction" (mild shock -- I tried it on my hand to test it out -- unpleasant, not excrutiating). Anyway, I thought, "Yikes! I cannot go onto their sidewalk...I'm gonna get zapped!"
Then I glanced at my Fitbit and noted I had just made it to an even 10,000 steps. Oh! It's congratulating me! Sure enough, now I know when I get the vibration, I won't get zapped -- it's a good thing, not a punishment!
There are quirks to it, though. Another time I knew for a fact that I had not walked enough to get to 10,000 steps yet, that night in the middle of a musical performance I was attending, I got the vibration. I realized most of my "steps" had been my wrist moving as I clapped along with the music! Another time I was scooting around on my bottom pulling weeds in the garden for a few hours apparently in just the right sort of motion to be registering 10,000 steps. So, now when I know I'll get a false reading, I just take it off. But sometimes that stops the accumulation of data and when I put it back on it starts over from zero. I like to keep my documentation accurate, so this annoys me. I also suspect that pushing a stroller or carrying my granddaughter around is causing my arm to be stationary while my feet are moving, which then doesn't register as steps. Friends have told me to put it on my ankle or tie it to my shoe. Haven't tried that yet.
But in spite of a few little annoyances like those, I still love it. And I'm absolutely amazed that something like this exists. I LOVE being alive and moderately able to interact with basic technological advances. I get frustrated when I don't understand the finer points nor am I nearly as intuitively tuned in as my grown sons and even my six year old granddaughter around tech stuff, but I am so grateful for the access to, and the fun of, some of these gadgets.
Just checking -- I'm at 8 flights of stairs today -- I can easily make 20 by bedtime. But my step count is way low -- too much reading and computer time! Better get a move on!
At least, that's the view from here...©
I've been thinking about getting one of these and this really helps rev up my interest. I'd like the sleep part because I don't think I get much. Maybe it would tell me otherwise. I would get purple, too! Is the print small and hard to read?
ReplyDeleteThe print is about like it shows in the photo on the blue and purple one. Don't know what that black one is that's so much larger in the photo. There are several options to choose from. I ordered mine from Amazon, but you can "shop" the Fitbit website too. You push the little button on the side and it switches from time of day to steps taken to stairs climbed (it has a built in altimeter), to heart rate (if you get the HR version) to miles walked to calories burned. Checking constantly does run down the battery more quickly. It says the battery charge should last 5 days, but mine is more like 2 days (and I've googled that and other users agree). I just charge it overnight, since I don't wear mine to sleep, but it doesn't take nearly that long to charge. I have the app on my laptop and phone too, so I check that more than I do the wrist device if I'm home and just want an update on my steps, stairs, miles, and calories progress. It's fun!
ReplyDeleteI checked out their website today and some reviews at Amazon. So many people I know have one and like it. I really like the idea of having a print out I can take to my doctor to prove I don't sleep well and other things. Toys are so much fun.Toys that actually help you get healthy are even better.
DeleteI got my Fitbit and wrote a blog about my first week of wearing it. You'll have to check it out since your post here pushed me in the direction I've been wanting to go for a long time but never did.
ReplyDeleteYippee! And I am subscribed to this blog! Thanks, gals! Sorry ... I have to dash over to Fitbit
ReplyDeleteWelcome! So glad you're here!
DeleteA couple of weeks ago I removed Freeda (my name for my fitbit) and parked her on a shelf. Truth was I didn't WANT any more feedback and the realization that I had been disappointing Freeda for days on end was the last straw.
ReplyDeleteFreeda' s people sent me a little email message. .. sort of an encouraging message including the idea that I could set my own goals. ..I wasn't at the mercy of someone else's notion of what I should be doing!
Viola! Freeda was again a friend. ..a non-judgmental companion on my journey.