So my Fitbit FINALLY came in the mail last week! I didn’t wear it the first two days because I’d just gotten back from a trip where I’d partied way too hard and slept way too little and I ended up coming home sick as a dog. It was a pity because I exercised a lot the second day (the first was spent entirely in bed, sleeping). Nevertheless, I started wearing it eventually and fell in love. It’s safe to say I’m obsessed now.
I haven’t yet worn it climbing because I was afraid to get it all chalky, but the past three days I’ve been playing some hardcore sand volleyball (complete with cuts and bruises, haha), and it’s gotten pretty sandy and beaten up. Yet it still looks new. So I’ll probably wear it this afternoon when I climb.
So what does a Fitbit do? I kind of didn’t really know, but still wanted one because they look cool and all the fit, active people I know have them. So when a guy I work with started wearing one, he became my Fitbit guru and I asked him all these questions about it. Also, I started using it as an icebreaker when I met new people. I went on a bar crawl and most of the guys there were wearing them, so I’d ask them how they liked it and it gave us a good conversation topic for a bit. The one consensus was that everyone enjoyed their Fitbit. So I decided to break down and buy one. Once it came, I brought it to work and had my friend at work help me get it all set up.
I got the Fitbit Flex because it was the cheapest and I like its design the best out of the other possible Fitbits you can choose from. It’s the slimmest and it doesn’t attach with a bulky buckle like the others. The two main functions of the Fitbit Flex are to count your steps and track your sleep. In addition to step counting, it shows how many miles you’ve walked and calories you’ve burned. I haven’t used it to track exercise yet, I keep forgetting. >.< But that is a feature I want to try out. I wish it would track sleep and exercise automatically. That’s what I initially thought, so the first night I just went to sleep and was so sad the next morning when I awoke to no log of my sleep. It turns out you need to specifically press a “Log Sleep” button. Same for logging any exercise.
The one downside is that Fitbits can’t track swimming or bike riding. I took a long bike ride last weekend, but had no record of the calories burned… Swimming could be a possibility as Fitbits are water resistant. But they’re not water proof, so I’m too nervous to wear them in a pool.
But the feature I really like is that Fitbits can function as alarm clocks! I used to use my phone as my alarm clock, but for the first time this morning, I turned my phone alarm off and only relied on my Fitbit. It vibrated nicely on my wrist to wake me up. 🙂 Unfortunately, because it was such a soothing wake up and I didn’t have to physically turn it off, I promptly fell right back asleep. Luckily it vibrates again ten minutes later just to be sure you feel the alarm so I woke back up and still made it in to work! This silent alarm feature is also good if you set alarms for pills or things that will go off when you’re out with friends. Then it’s nice and discreet and no one else notices but you. And, even better, it’s independent of your phone so it will still go off if your Bluetooth is turned off or your phone died.
So yeah, kind of obsessed. I totally recommend getting a Fitbit if you were debating it! And then you’ll join the Fitbit love team as well. 😀
The Outdoorsy Life 