Fitbit

I love my Fitbit.

I bought it late last year.  I'd been wearing a pedometer for quite a few months and found it was quite motivating for me, encouraging me to walk a certain number of steps a day.  But then I heard about Fitbit!  And started my 10,000 steps a day goal.

If you have a pedometer, you don't NEED a FitBit - but I'm so glad I have one!

It's tiny and so secures to your clothing much easier than a pedometer.  For women, the ideal place is to clip it to the center of your bra....but it's also suitable for pockets, belts, waistbands etc.

Like a pedometer, it counts your steps but it does more.  We'd often said, as we walked up steep hills  "why don't I get credit for the uphill, extra effort bits?" - well Fitbit credits you by noting the changes in elevation as you walk.  It monitors it as "floors climbed" so you get a number each day and can set a 'floors climbed' goal too.  All this you can read on the small device display, but what I really like about it is that it wirelessly downloads/syncs your data to your computer or mobile phone.

In addition to walking, you can record your food intake online, your daily weight, your own goals, your water intake, and the other feature I like about it is that it records your sleep.  At night-time, you wear the Fitbit in a wrist band and it monitors your sleep as in how long it takes for you to get to sleep, how often you wake up and for how long, total time asleep, etc etc.  Some nights when I felt that I'd been awake for ages, the Fitbit showed me that actually I had dozed on and off and still got plenty of hours of sleep.

Oh, and of course there are "community" options with Fitbit that I haven't explored - for example you can link with other users who are your friends and see how they are doing and set goals together and the such.

The part I like best is that, as I am often on my computer each day, I am constantly reminded of my goal to walk 10,000 steps every day. If you read back to my blog post about setting goals, you'll see one of my points was about writing down your goals and having them somewhere where you can read them throughout the day.  Fitbit accomplishes this easily.  And "someone" sends you little 'badges' to your email inbox when you achieve something good - like you've walked 50 miles or climbed 25 floors.  It's very reinforcing. Yes, I don't pay much attention to the badges, but when I get a message, it is another reminder of Fitbit and my goals.

So if you need that little bit of encouragement and have a spare $99 - get a Fitbit! It's a bit of a luxury but it works for me.