Fitbit Mania

I’ll admit it. I’m in love with my new Fitbit. If you’ve been living under a rock you might not be aware of this monitoring device you wear on your wrist and it syncs to your smart phone or computer to give you fascinating statistics as often as you care to look. You can also go to the Fitbit community and compare your statistics with others people’s---sleep patterns, pulse rates, steps you take in a day, your calories in vs. calories out and what color unit you bought. I got the plum Charger HR. The first thing I found out is it takes me 70 steps to go from my computer to the bathroom and back again. If I was willing to walk to the gas station’s bathroom several blocks away, think how much more exercise I’d get. I pee a million times a day.

In my first week of wearing the Fitbit I didn’t change my routine, didn’t add or subtract any physical activities from my days---I’m pretty sedentary. I didn’t even take the dog for a walk because it was too hot or rainy all week. Still, I walked more than I imagined just doing average things around the house. Fitbit just sent me an email summary of my first week’s statistics and it read like this: 

Total Steps: 42,270 - 6,039 daily average (I need a smaller house.)

Total Distance: 17.7 miles – 2.53 daily average (No wonder my carpet’s wearing out!)

Total Floors Climbed: 8 – 1 floor daily average (A side benefit of purging stuff in the basement.)

Total Calories Burned: 16,640 – 2,377 daily average 

Total Calories Eaten: 10,124 – 1,446 daily average

Weight Change: 1.4 pounds lost

Average Sleep Duration: 5 hours, 2 minutes – average times awakened 10 

What I like the most about the Fitbit is your ability to see your calories in vs your calories out at any given time of the day (assuming you log your food eaten on your dashboard). It did stop me from eating things late at night a few times which has always been an issue with me. Now that I have a baseline, first week of statistics I want to add steps to my day, assuming the weather is cooperative and I can get outside to walk. And I plan to drop my calorie intake down to a diet mode of 1,000 to 1,100 a day. Then I need to learn how to push a grocery cart one handed otherwise your steps in the store don’t count. Bummer! I do my best walking behind a grocery cart and that’s a great skill to have in case I ever become homeless and need to carry my life around in one. (Yes, I'm an old lady who worries too much.)

I read a thread on Fitbit’s community message board titled: How to tell if you’re addicted to your Fitbit. One woman wrote, “You know you’re addicted when you pace the house at bedtime just to get your goal in.” Ohmygod, I did that once! I was near the 6,000 steps goal I’d set and I wanted to feel the ‘happy dance’ shock go off on my wrist. Even though I knew it was coming, it---well---shocked me. If I’d been carrying a glass of water at the time, it would have been all over me. That worked like Pavlov’s Dog in reverse. I immediately reset my goal to 6,500 steps. Another person wrote that he knew he was addicted to his Fitbit when he first made sure he was sitting down while his Fitbit was charging so he wouldn’t “waste the steps walking without it on.” Ohmygod, I did that too! I thought about posting on the thread that I knew I was addicted to my Fitbit when I woke up in the middle of the night and checked my Fitbit because I wanted to see low my pulse gets when I’ve been asleep. Sixty-one in case you want to compare.

Like most gadgets and devices, I will probably lose interest in my Fitbit when the novelty wears off, but I hope not. I want to keep it going at least until I see my doctor in October when I’ll bring in a few monthly reports from Fitbit and say, “See, I’ve been very good. Now, put a gold star on my Little Old Lady card!” ©