Fitbit

At the end of April, as a gift to myself (and as a motivator to keep active and moving), I decided to invest in a Fitbit. A Fitbit is basically a pedometer on steroids.  It tracks your steps, the distance you've traveled, has a 3D sensor, an altimeter (to gauge how many flights of stairs/hills you go up), gives you an overall score for how active you have been for the day, tells you how well you are sleeping and how much, and estimates how many calories you've burned based on your height/weight and your activity levels.  It does all of this, and is small enough for my to slip onto my bra so that no one even knows that it is there!  Other options are on your pants or in your pants pocket--for those who don't want to reach down their shirt during the day or for those who don't wear a bra.

You can look at how you're doing throughout the day by checking the Fitbit, but you can also log food, activities (if you'd like to or if you are doing an activity that isn't tracked well by the device, like yoga, weight lifting, or bike riding), weight, heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose on the website.  You can set a weight goal for yourself or change your goals for how many steps you'd like to take, flights of stairs, distance, activity, and how many calories you'd like to burn.  If you choose a weight loss goal, you can also put when you'd like to achieve your goal and it will tell you how many calories you can eat during the day based on your ongoing activity levels, which I think is really cool.

The website tracking is easy to navigate and fairly intuitive, as long as you are at a computer often enough to track things.  The fact that it is a website is convenient because that means it is easily accessible if you use more than one computer throughout the day.  You can also get a free app if you have a smartphone that will allow you to track your activities, food, or weight on the go.  I actually have not partaken in a lot of the online or smartphone tracking of how many calories I've eaten or the other metrics, but I've really enjoyed looking at how active I am (or am not) throughout the day and challenging myself to keep moving.  I have also been able to see how much I am truly sleeping at night (which generally has not been as much as I thought, either).  I have been able to see myself being a little more proactive and motivated as far as getting more steps throughout the day or taking more little walks to make sure I hit or get close to my 10,000 steps a day goal.  It was amazing to me to learn that in an average day, I was generally at least a couple thousand steps away from my goal if I don't make it to the gym (If I'm being honest, I haven't been that great about it lately!).

Yet another really awesome thing about the Fitbit is that if you have friends who also have a Fitbit (I am currently at only one), you can see how they are doing and even get a little bit of competition going.  I personally do not see it as a competition *cough cough* Peter *cough cough*, but it is really cool to be able to connect in that way if you want to be encouraging or know how others are progressing on their goals.

I would say that for $99, the Fitbit was an excellent investment for me, and I hope that some of you who are reading this consider getting one, as well.  I think it is a great tool no matter what your goals are. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get more active, or even just a cheap way to monitor your sleep, I would highly recommend the Fitbit.  The only thing that I hope changes in the future is that it starts to support syncing with your cell phone throughout the day so that you do not have to be near your computer (a USB dock/charger comes with the Fitbit and will sync the Fitbit with your computer within a 15ft range).  However, this is not a deal breaker for me, because the only thing I truly need to look at during the day that I cannot see on the actual device is how well I just slept, which is not a huge issue.  Not having support to sync the Fitbit with my phone also does not change that I can still log activities or food with the app throughout the day if I so choose.  A small inconvenience for such a handy device.  GO BUY ONE...NOW (you know, if you can afford it and whatnot)!

Here is a video about Fitbit: