Longklaw.com

I bought a Fitbit One about a month and a half ago. It’s one of the many wearable fitness devices that are growing in popularity. It keeps track of steps, calories burned, stairs climbed, etc. You can also use it to track your sleep. I had already pre-ordered the new Fitbit device that’s supposed to be coming out soon, but I got tired of waiting. At one point, I thought about getting a Nike Fuelband, but I didn’t want to wear anything on my wrist. I don’t even wear watches anymore. I can put the Fitbit in my pocket and forget about it.

Fitbit has an app that I use a lot now. I was already using it to track my weight, but now I use it for more. I’m constantly checking my stats throughout the day on the app and on the Fitbit website to make sure I’m making progress toward my daily goals. You can set goals in several categories, but the most important one to me is number of steps. My current goal is 6,000 per day. On days that I work out, I usually take about 11,000-12,000 steps. On Saturday, it’s about 12,000-14,000 because I run errands that day. On other days of the week, I usually struggle to make it to 6,000. There’ve been times at night where I find myself reading and pacing back and forth just to reach my goal.

I once thought that I would never track calories because it’s too time consuming and I didn’t want to become obsessed with it. When I bought the Fitbit, I said I would do it for a few weeks. Well, over a month has passed and I’m still doing it. It’s helped me to see why I couldn’t seem to shake the weight I’ve gained back since I moved to Portland. The king-sized Reese’s that I’ve gotten in the habit of eating again can easily put me over my recommended calorie count for the day. A lunch from Subway or Quiznos can get up to 500-600 calories while the lunches I eat at home are 300 calories at the most. I’m getting back on the wagon and coming in very close to my recommended amount each day. That amount is adjusted based on your activity level during the day. If Fitbit’s estimates are correct, I can go at a medium pace and be back at my pre-Portland weight in August.

I’ve also been using the Fitbit’s sleep monitoring capabilities. You place the device in a wrist strap and sleep with it on your wrist. Supposedly, wrist movement is an accurate way to detect whether you’re awake or asleep. What I’ve learned is that when I fall asleep, I’m out like a light.

Soon after I bought a Fitbit One, I bought a Fitbit Aria, which is a wireless scale. It measures your weight and body fat and uploads it to your online profile. You can go here to check out my online profile. Cheer me on. Mock me. Whatever. A know a lot it is visible only to friends on the site, but you should still be able to get an idea of how I’m doing.