Why I finally caved and bought a Fitbit and what exactly it can do.
I resisted getting one for years. I lived in the D.C. suburbs when they came out, and my fellow suburbanites were snapping them up like hot cakes, but I stood my ground. “What’s the point of a Fitbit?” I thought.
I was young, I was healthy, and maybe I didn’t need one. Now I’m only a few years older than I was then, but 10 pounds, a couple of pant sizes, and a heart problem later…..I began to think I might get me one of these new fangled contraptions.
So I did my research, and I bought what was on sale on Black Friday: The Fitbit Charge II.
Y’all. I have been wearing it a month now, and I’m obsessed. I love this thing. I sleep with it, I check it 50 times a day, and by the way, I now always know what time it is. Plus, I see my text messages faster.
It does save power by not lighting up when you aren’t looking at it.
Here’s a run-down of what this baby can do.
1. Gives you your heart rate ALL the time.
I’m on heart meds, so I found this to be a huge plus. It even makes a chart of your resting heart rates over the past weeks. This has actually been surprisingly reassuring for me!
2. It’s a watch. It tells the time and date.
3. It counts how many flights of stairs you climb.
It converts hills into steps by measuring elevation and other things. Let’s not get technical.
My neighborhood is one big giant hill. We live at the top, so if I walk all the way to the bottom, it is the equivalent of 27 floors of stairs to climb back up these hills. It is quite the work out.
When you buy a Fitbit, you also need to download the app for your phone or tablet. You go to the app to check out all these awesome charts.
This is the home screen for the app, and the heart rate, water, and calorie stuff is also there if you scroll down.
4. It counts how many miles you walked.
5. It uses your personal info that you give it to calculate how many calories you are burning.
6. It automatically counts exercise minutes for you.
7. It maps your “runs.”
I want it to map my walks, so I tell it I’m running, but really……pshhh I’m just walking.
You set your own sleep goal. I put mine at 7.5. You see that day with 1 hr 27 mins for sleep?? Yeah. The Fitbit does NOT understand naps. Totally messed up my average.
8. It tells you how many hours you slept, as well as how many times you were restless or awake.
9. It can record what you eat, if you input that data.
Recording what I ate lasted all of 2 days for me. I have never been able to keep up with a food journal. Such a drag.
10. It will keep up with how much water you drink, but you have to tell it that.
11. It will tell you how many calories you need to eat to lose weight.
12. It provides COMPETITION.
You can “friend” people, and it tells you how many steps they walked. Just don’t friend my pal Erika because she logs in like 14,000 steps/day, and it just feels so impossible to beat her!! And she’s a dentist. I gotta figure out how she’s racking up so many steps.
13. It will give you a nudge to go walk if you haven’t met your hourly goals.
By the way, it’s nudging me right now!!! Better go get my steps in! It vibrates if you’ve gone too long without moving and you see a message that says things like:
- “It’s step o’clock! Let’s get moving!”
- “Feed me steps!”
So has it made me walk more???
Yes!!! Definitely.
I’m a moderately competitive person, which is why my husband won’t play Monopoly with me, so there’s that motivator. Plus, I hadn’t realized how sedentary I had let myself become.
14. It even shows you your text messages, as you get them and alerts you when you are receiving a phone call!!
I’m the kind of person who never knows where her phone is, so this is sort of a big deal.
You can buy them anywhere. Here’s the link to get your color of choice (free shipping if you are Amazon Prime) from Amazon. Happy walking!
featured image: depositphotos.com
April Alan is a happy mom of four boys, and she also writes at https://storiesofourboys.com. When she isn’t blogging, she’s usually doing exotic things like cooking, picking up kids, and coloring Mickey Mouse with her toddler.
