FitBit Fabulous

For Christmas, I received a FitBit Flex device, which looks like a watch, but works similar to a pedometer.  My sister had one that my mom thought I would enjoy, also, and I truly have loved it! It updates stats onto an account that can be linked with your Google+ account, facebook, or email.  My current goals are set for 10,000 steps per day, thus 70,000 each week.

Throughout the day, I tap the face of my fit bit and the 5 lights dance across the bar to show a fraction of how many steps I have accomplished so far in the day. Each light represents 2,000 paces for me currently, but you can change your goals online if you want to track more or less.  I especially like seeing how many steps I have throughout the workday--by 3rd period, I am usually 50-60% through my steps, which is when the third light is blinking.  

It's also nice because I can see days that I have been very active vs. not so active. Take yesterday for example: we had a school cancellation due to the bitter-cold temperatures, so I woke up at 11 AM and sat on the couch reading for most of the day rather than going and working out or running (which is bad form seeing as yesterday is usually a gym day in my schedule).  It showed on my FitBit Dashboard that I walked less than 2,000 paces in the entire day, and that I had zero "active minutes." Talk about being a bum...

Yesterday, I received an outline of my weekly stats that summarized my work into categories of total steps, total distance, total calories burned, weight change, average sleep duration (did I mention it tracks your sleep?! It figures out the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, how long you are asleep, how many times you wake up in your sleep, etc. Cool, eh?), my most active day, and my least active day.

You do have to sync your FitBit Flex with a USB receiver and the internet.  I leave mine plugged in to the computer so that I simply have to refresh my FitBit Dashboard page with my wrist close to the receiver to update my stats.  Sometimes I do this every few days; it does not lose the info if you don't sync every day.

Battery life: it lasts at least 5 days without charge.  I have not tried to go longer than 5 days because I try to recharge on a "rest" day.  I have received notifications via email that the battery life was getting low. and plugged it in for a few hours and was good to go again.

The FitBit has been nice for me.  It's helping me keep in check that I'm getting in activity even on my rest days.  I really like seeing the graph for the days that I have been active--last Friday, I went to the gym after work and ran/walked every 90 seconds for 3 miles.  It felt good to see so much green on my graph after that!

Plus, I was way over my daily goal for steps.  FitBit does make other devices that can help track your activity, which you can check out here. Kylie--I think I'm about ready to sign up for the mini-marathon!