The Fitbit..motivator to a healthier lifestyle

FROM FINCH:

I discovered the original Fitbit (Ultra-the first) in January of 2012; it helped me embark on a committed path to improved fitness and most importantly, true personal accountability!

In July 2013 I bought a new Fitbit…The ONE! Only because I had to get an I-Phone for work and Fitbit has, of course, an App for that!

Being and keeping yourself motivated can be quite the challenge.  We all have responsibilities: work, family, pets and chores galore…oh and pressure (real or imagined), stress, deadlines…are you feeling anxious yet? Sorry! On  to the subject at hand and one very important thing that too often falls by the wayside.

Do you really take time for yourself? No, not really, most of you will answer; that is something we have to be mindful of daily.

On to my Fitbit One: it keeps me motivated  on so many levels:

Tracking steps: I aim for 10,000 per day (or 5 miles) sometimes i exceed it, sometimes I make it and sometimes I don’t.

Minutes active: I walk faster and with more purpose now.

My Sleep: Aim for 8 hours of restful sleep per night (this tells you how many times you wake up or stir per night).

Calories: This device has a ton of foods prepared and otherwise loaded into its database, so It’s incredibly easy to enter your food.

Water intake:Try for  64 ounces per day.

Activities: Enter everything from walking the dog, mowing, swimming, cardio, yoga etc. This means there is no excuse for not moving…each and every day. In fact, at work, rather than rely on e-mails, I meet with people face to face (better relationships and clearer communication).

I log about 5,000 steps just at work; add daily chores in and I can manage 7,500 without trying. On a gym day, 11-12,000 steps.

As I am an instant gratification girl, the Apple i-phone app enables me to enter and track periodically through the day (especially satisfying after I make it to the gym).

It also has badges you can achieve, for steps, floors etc. I just earned my 2,000 mile badge (crazy right)?

My Ultra Fitbit is now in the hands of Wren, she loves it as much as I did. We are now Fitbit friends; she sees my stats and I see hers…she’s gaining on me!!

Enjoy—Finch

FROM WREN:

A couple of months ago, my amazing sister Finch gave me a Fitbit.  (Mine is an Ultra; they also come in a bracelet format and several other clip-on versions.)  She’d actually offered to get me one for my birthday a year ago, but while it sounded awesome, it also sounded overwhelming to use.  Boy, was I wrong about that!  It is super-simple and even FUN to use.  Here’s the story:

Last September (almost a year ago), I had emergency abdominal surgery, which was completely unexpected and, need I say, unplanned!  I recuperated until December when I had a second surgery.  It has been a LONG road of recovery; apparently when surgery is done (TWICE) on your abdomen it’s not a quick bounce-back.  (God has brought MANY blessings to us on this long road, but that’s another story.)  Eventually I was able to start exercising a little, and when I was at a girlfriend’s one day during the summer for our kids’ playdate, I noticed her bracelet version of Fitbit.  I asked her about it and she was so excited to share!  She told me that it records her steps and helps her meet her walking goals each day.  Well, that really whetted my appetite….how wonderful to have something that actually tracks your physical progress on a daily basis.  I talked to Finch about her Fitbit and started researching them…and then Finch emailed me and told me she was sending me one!  Woo hoo!

Here is what I discovered about my new little fitness trainer:

• It tracks my steps, miles walked, stairs climbed and calories burned each day
• It has a clock
• It gives you little encouraging messages like:  “U ROCK,”  “I  LIKE U,”  “HUG ME” (that one comes up when you’ve been sitting and it thinks you need to get moving),  “READY,” “BONJOUR!” and others I haven’t discovered yet to keep you moving and smiling

Those are all things the Fitbit does without your doing anything besides wearing it and keeping it charged (once weekly via my PC and its charging cable/cradle).  However, you can track your fitness habits even more extensively with your online dashboard at fitbit.com.  There, you can enter your name and weight and can manually enter information to track your:

• Sleep habits (how many times did you get up, how many hours did you actually sleep)
• How many calories you take in (by recording what you’re eating) and how many calories you’re burning
• Your blood pressure, heart rates and glucose
• Journal entries for each day

I can’t tell you just how much I LOVE my Fitbit!  It is the best little silent fitness trainer.  I have loved seeing how I’ve been able to progress, even if it’s only been slightly, over the months I’ve been using it.  It encourages me to do just a little more when I can see how much I have exercised in a day, even if it’s only going up and down the stairs a few more times or bouncing on my exercise ball or our mini-trampoline.  (By the way, you wear the FitBit; it hooks onto the waistband of your pants, a pocket, or on your bra (if you’re female) or shirt somewhere—-any of these still enables the FitBit to track your steps.)

So, my personal fitness trainer Fitbit has revolutionized the way I think about exercising….and it’s helped me discover new ways to sneak in some extras:

• Walking up and down the stairs a few extra times
• Parking further away from the door so I can get in a little extra walking
• Choosing a table at Jackson’s coop on Tuesday that causes me to have to walk further to classes and the lunchroom
• Putting in a little time at the end of the day on the exercise ball

Like I said, I am still recovering from those winter surgeries so my stamina is not what I’d like it to be; I can do at this point about 2/3 of what I could accomplish in a day, pre-surgeries.  However, 2/3 is actually pretty amazing, considering where I was earlier in the spring!  I have come a long way.  And, with the addition of my darling little Fitbit (I love that it’s decorative as well as functional), I have noticed in the past couple of weeks that my core has actually been getting a lot stronger.  That is huge for me, since my core is the area where all the surgery was done!  I haven’t started losing weight (that I can tell) and I’m not yet the proud possessor of a six-pack…..but I am building core strength little by little.  I couldn’t be happier about that!

Check out FitBit for yourself!  I’m sure you can find it in stores but since I’m still not doing that much shopping, I can’t tell you where.  But!  I know it’s available online at Walmart.com, Target.com and Amazon.

What are you doing to live a healthy lifestyle?  Are there any changes you’ve made lately?

Enjoy!  –Wren