Hello, fellow Germs! With the new year upon us, I thought I would review a product that I have been using for the past few months and have grown quite attached to.
I recently moved up to Seattle, and my lifestyle has taken quite a change. Living in the city, driving isn’t always an option, so I took to walking to the store, to the local pie shop, to just about anywhere within walking distance of my little apartment. It was about two weeks into my move up here that I realized that I had no idea how far I’d been walking, and being the ham that I am, I wanted to show it off.
Enter Fitbit: an adorable bracelet with a device in it that will track just about anything. Now, there are four different variations of the Fitbit; at the very least, they will track your steps, and the most high-tech one will track your heart rate, sleep, the time, and comes equipped with caller ID. The one that I have (Fitbit Flex) tracks my steps/activity, distance, and my sleep. It also has an alarm on it that vibrates; so, unlike the iPhone alarm that disrupts the whole apartment, I can set it so that it silently wakes me up without shocking me and my husband awake.
When you get the Fitbit bracelet, you download an app on your smartphone, and from here you can easily track everything. One of my favorite features about the Fitbit is that it comes with different challenges that you can use to challenge other people that have Fitbits! They count your steps over the weekdays, the weekends, or by day, and the one who has the most wins! Now, being an incredibly competitive person, this is right up my alley. I have one friend who will challenge one of her friends during the week, and whoever ends up with the most steps gets a gift card to the place of their choosing.
I mentioned before that it can track your sleep, and I personally love this feature. You tap it twice when you are about to go to sleep, and it will track how restful your sleep is, how long you slept, and how many minutes you spent restless or awake.
At the end of the week, Fitbit will send you a report that details your past seven days. It gives you the average amount of steps you’ve taken, the day when you were the most active, and the average amount of sleep you got, and then it will send the information to you via email in one super convenient report. It’s an easy way to passively track your activity, and because you can set step/mile goals, it’s a good way to keep yourself accountable. Since it’s a bracelet and waterproof, it’s easy to just keep it on and let it do the work for you. The only time you actually have to take it off is when you charge it.
Admittedly, there are a handful of features on the Fitbit that I don’t really use (the calorie counter being one of them; I’m just too lazy), but I have still found it incredibly useful. It is a little bit on the pricier side, but, as mentioned above, you are wearing it every day, so if you are interested, I would look at it as an investment in your health. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who is getting ready to get back into the fit habit. If you have any other recommendations for getting back into shape for the new year, pass them along! Until next time, stay healthy and stay happy!