FitBit Flex Newbie Review

Have you ever noticed that the most successful people in life are “trackers”.  If someone wants to grow their wealth, they track their spending.  If someone wants a good running time in their next marathon, they track their time.  Tracking isn’t a glamorous life and it doesn’t exactly lend itself to spontaneity, but successful people are trackers.  They are disciplined and they know their numbers.

Over time, I have come to realize the importance of tracking my health and fitness.  As simple as I can state it, if you want to lose weight or maintain it, you need to know how many calories you are burning and how many you are eating every day. It's easy math, calories in must be less than calories out. Tracking these items doesn’t address whether or not the calories you are eating come from “clean food”.  That’s another topic for another day, but for a beginner, this is a good place to start. :)

It's like Christmas

So the “Analog Girl” (me) decided to pick up a FitBit Flex because I wanted to try to be a little more connected to my health and fitness – and wearing it on my wrist provides a nice visual reminder of the commitment I have made to myself.  I’m not very tech savvy, so I’m sharing my non-technical review, but if you’re less technical than me, you may have some questions, so please ask away. Three years ago I was just starting my fitness journey, so I’m always wearing those glasses when writing these posts.

Here is my non techie, beginners review on FitBit Flex: 

1. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE TECH SAVVY.  It takes about 20 minutes to set up your new Flex.  If you have an iPhone or a Droid, you can install an app on your phone which allows you to see your progress.  The installation is simple and easy to follow.  You can also log into your FitBit account via the website to see your progress from any computer.
2. IT TRACKS YOUR STEPS.  I receive lots of questions on where to start a fitness journey.  Most times, people want to start simple, so I suggest walking.  Flex allows you to see how many steps you walk per day.  You can set a daily goal (I recommend 10,000) and shoot for it everyday.  If you have friends with the Flex (ADD ME!), you can “sync up” with them and start some friendly competition to see who is racking up the most steps per week.  I love this and find myself doing more because I want to see myself reach a goal.  My Flex “lights up” and vibrates for a few seconds when I achieve it. Yay!
3. HELPS SET OTHER GOALS.  A built-in pedometer is just one cool feature.  You can set other goals like how many calories you burn per day, how many “Very Active” minutes you want to achieve and see your weight progress.
4. SYNCS UP WITH MYFITNESSPAL.COM.  I love www.myfitnesspal.com.  I track my daily calories in that program.  It’s a great place to log your food and focus on meeting a daily calorie intake goal.  Since I use this app on my phone, daily, I love the fact that myfitnesspal syncs up to my Flex app.  This sounds technical, but actually quite easy to set up! 
5. TRACKS YOUR SLEEP. Are you getting enough sleep? We have all heard that it’s important for adults to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.  It’s true.  Our bodies need the rest and they do a lot of repairing while we are asleep.  The Flex tracks sleep.  I probably love this feature the most because I really didn’t have an accurate idea of how many hours a night I was sleeping or how “soundly” I was sleeping.  Turns out, I’m not getting enough - only 6 hours on average.  I wake up at least 6-9 times a night – and even more if I’m not wearing my mouth-guard (nice, huh?).  You better believe I am working to get more sleep now that I know…and that mouth-guard is going in every night now versus just when I would think about it.

   

   it's sleek and stylish

Would I recommend buying the Flex?  Yes.  But, it’s just one tool.   

An important tool that often gets overlooked is a heart rate monitor.  I innocently bought the Flex, thinking that it would accurately track the calories I am burning in my daily workouts and that is not the case.  The Flex is not a heart rate monitor.  So, I use a HRM when I work out and enter the calories I burned into my app.  Everything syncs up and I love seeing a daily picture of my health and fitness.

If you have any questions about the Flex, let me know.  I’d also love to hear how you are using yours.    

I love you more than my phone...

It’s like Christmas in April! Yep, I got a new phone. She sure is pretty in her pretty pink and gray case. I definitely feel more “together” now that I have a sophisticated smart phone keeping me on task!

Am I excited about our new journey together? ABSOLUTELY! I am just imagining all the videos I will take of my children, the fun food picture collages I will make, the lists I will make to keep me organized…ahhh, the possibilities are endless!

I’m a little scared though! That I’m too close with my phone. The constant checking of Facebook to see if I have a new like or comment from one of my friends. The scrolling through the newsfeed. Getting
caught up in looking at someone’s engagement photos or child’s first birthday…or even looking at pages of others who aren’t even my friends. Sounds a little obsessive compulsive, doesn’t it?

The truth is. I have an unhealthy relationship with my phone. I love that it keeps me on task with my favorite apps like Habit List and Myfitnesspal. Those apps so happen to be on my phone to keep me focused on the activities that are important for me to stay on track and get the results that I’m looking for. On the other hand, my phone is exactly what I DON’T want in my life. I have enough on my plate. And, quite honestly, getting caught up in what everyone else is doing is a little exhausting…and at times depressing! Why do I let Facebook and other meaningless activities on my phone jockey for first place in my life?

The reality check for me was this morning. When I was ready to sit down with God and my YouVersion app, but I had to check Facebook, just one more time.



The point is, God is number one…and he deserves so much more from me. My family, too! Shouldn’t they get my sole focus and attention when I am with them? They need to feel my presence through my interactions with them, not a half hearted response while I’m distracted on my phone. I know I am not the only one who struggles with this. So often I see parents with their children out to eat in a restaurant where the whole family is buried in their electronic devices. I don’t want to be one of those people. It’s a very slippery slope.

Problem identified. What am I going to do about it?

I’m going to hit the “reset” button on my evening schedule. No phone from the hours of 5:30 – 8:30 pm. This starts when I pick my kids up from school to when I put the last one down at night. It’s very hard to do this. I’ve done it before and fell off the wagon. But I am going to add it to my Habit List app as a daily activity “NO CHECKING PHONE FROM 5:30 – 8:30 PM”, so I can hold myself accountable. Realizing I cannot do it alone.
Will you join me? Check in and see how I’m doing?
This is my start!