Is A Fitbit for you?

Yes, I poo-pooed the Fitbit until I fell in love with the life hack of tracking my vitals to maximize the life in my days. There is no question that little baby around my wrist makes me healthier and happier.

But do you want one? Will it bring you joy? For me, it brought me around the block a whole buncha times, and that brings me and my pup joy. Sunshine, rain, winter or summer, beep beep goes the watch, and hop to it move it goes my feet.

Why do you want to move more? Maybe you’re trying to lose weight, training for a race, or just want to make healthier choices the Fitbit may be as great for you as it is for me.

There’s no denying that Fitbit devices are great gadgets that may be an ideal lifestyle or workout companion. Before investing, here are some simple questions you can ask:

1. Do you exercise? Why/why not?

For me, the answer was not really at that time. I was in a sloth mode and was so busy working at a desk that I would forget to move. It was not that I did not want to move, more who had time for it. So the simple reminder to get up, and move around every hour really changed my life. I went from 2,000 steps the first day to an average of 12,000 these days. Hello, beast mode.

The other extreme, if you exercise a lot, at Fitbit is perfect because it tracks your heart and steps so you can see when you are really in your zone.

Now if you hate exercise this will not get you to do it – but what I found is a brisk walk in the morning, after lunch or in the evening is a perfect low impact exercise, and the Fitbit helps you feel accomplished and want to do it again..

2. Will you wear the Fitbit?

For a fitness tracker to do its job, you have to wear it. Forgetting to wear it during a walk or at night means it won’t record accurately. Which is no biggie if you miss a day or two – but if you miss a month – maybe not a great purchase.

Do you like wearing a watch? If you dislike the feeling of wearing a watch or bracelet, you won’t like a Fitbit either. I love mine, it beeps every house from 8am – 9pm to tell me to move a little, and it tracks my sleep so I can see how restless I was a night. I wear mine about three days straight, then charge overnight, repeat.

3. Joy in competition?

Fitbit helps you and those you love “keep it real”. The Fitbit app lets you add friends and check how their step counts compare to yours. My cousin Whitney kicks my arse every week, and in turn, I kick my dads. And boasting about kicking a 70+-year-olds arse, is not a real shining moment, but I will take it.

You can choose what you share with others – so you are in control, and you can send messages – like “way to go, you are killing it grl” or “yo GOT marathon or what?”.

There is a feature to set challenges with a group and just the plain old daily tracking how are your last 7 days against theirs – which really does help you stay motivated with your goals.

4. Are you a smarty pants #enjoydata?

Fitbit can track just the basics of how many steps you take each day and your heart rate, or it can scale up and be a health dashboard.

I don’t but a lot of people using the Fitbit and its app to record exactly how active they are and what they eat, keeping track of all that data day to day, month to month and year to year. Other people use the data to simply try to eat fewer unhealthy foods, go for a run/walk daily and don’t worry much about all the data tracking.

I do keep track of sleep, to see how my daily routines effect my sleep patterns. #SleepNutJob.

So if you thrive on information (like how many calories you’ve consumed and how far you’ve walked – aka have you walked enough to burn up that donut I ate at breakfast) will love all the extras the Fitbit offers to track. But that is not required if simple is what you like.

The Finish Line

The company takes great care of their customers too. You may notice in the top picture, my Fitbit cracked this week, and they are sending me a replacement free of charge. I was thrilled. To feel appreciated is a rarity with companies these days, and they do great job making sure those that have their product love them.

To wrap this up, my Fitbit really holds me accountable to myself. I lose track of if I am moving or not – and this keeps me honest and healthy. It also allows me to tease my dad regarding my killer step counts – which is always a plus. Join the Fun.

Interested in a Bit more Fit?

Here are Some Options to check out:
The most basic model, the Fitbit Zip, offers step and calorie tracking.

I have a Charge2 and adore it – mine is like below but has a super cute turquoise band – so check all the colors when you click thru, there are lots of fun ones to choose from.  PS There is a Charge3 if you want to be more cutting edge then me, which I of course will cheer you on about.

The mac daddy, the Fitbit Ionic GPS Smart Watch is a full-blown smartwatch and fitness tracker combo.

The Last Word

My full disclosure (if you made it this far) is I am a past Marathon junkie having run 16 give or take. I had however become a desk-aholic, which I am attending classes for, they are outside in my garden, on walks and starting to run again to break this disease of sitting all the time. In all seriousness, this little watch (a Christmas gift from my folks two years ago) helped me to get me moving again. I am 10 pounds lighter, a whole lot happier and beaming with joy.  Thanks Fitbit.

Join me. On Fitbit I’m Lisa George. You are amazing and I can’t wait to cheer you on.

Be Your Own JoyMaster.