A Great Fit

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I posted last week about needing a new pedometer because yet another one of mine died. Thankfully, I found just the solution on Monday. The Fitbit Zip is a good starter device for the 'higher end' trackers that are out there. This is a pedometer on steroids, as it tracks, in real time, your steps, an estimate of calories burned, miles covered, and intensity of activity. You can log food consumed, various physical activity besides steps, your weight, sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and even glucose level. To make it even more cool, the Zip will sync with your Fitbit profile online and chart all your results to the hour and/or date. Very cool.

Now I have all this data accumulating in the background, able to show what times of the day I'm more active and when I'm not, how many steps I'm logging, and the intensity of my physical exertion. It's interesting to see the ebb and flow of activity: when I'm around the house in the morning, especially when I have time for my workout, then while I'm at work, and later when I'm home again. Seeing the data on bar graphs is valuable because it gives a real representation of when I'm expending energy.

There is also something interesting to me. I was a bit surprised to see that it logs calories being burned while we're sleeping. Once I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Even when we're sleeping, we're still burning a minimal amount of calories. As I sit here at 11pm, I've burned an estimated 2,260 calories so far today. Hmmm... my burn seems to be passing my intake today... maybe I better get some dessert.

So this has opened up a whole new world for me. It's still in the glowy phase, and I'm sure the interest and shine will settle into something more normal and sustainable before too long. But for now, I'm intrigued and enjoying my new whiz-bang gadget.

If you haven't taken the plunge for tracking your steps, maybe it's time you gave it a shot - it's a great complement to your power pantry lifestyle. You can get a very reasonably priced pedometer, some as affordable as $5, and you're on your way. Once you see the thousands of steps accruing by simple efforts like taking the stairs and parking a bit further from the store entrance, I think you might catch the fit bug as well.

By the Way

What made my Fitbit purchase even sweeter is that I found it half-price at Target. I've heard that they will sell Fitbit trackers at deep discounts when a newer model comes out. Mine happens to be from 2012, but I can't tell any difference from the 2014 full price models. So I got a cool gadget for cheap - that's a great deal.