Howdy Bookworms!
I realize I normally talk about books almost exclusively, but bear with me here. I have some thoughts a-percolating in the old gray matter and I need to get them out. I’m talking about my personal relationship with exercise. I don’t normally go OMG EXERCISE on the internet for a few reasons. Foremost among them being that if one were to take a glance at my physique, one would not immediately scream “you are a superfit lady!” and ask me for workout tips. Similarly, I’m not going through a major life overhaul where I want motivation and accountability either. Just like, I go to the gym sometimes. It simply isn’t terribly exciting.
The whole exercise thing has only been at the forefront of my mind because I started playing around with a Fitbit
I am just nailing this whole blogging thing.
ONE: The fact that this bad boy is a basic pedometer is no joke. You get exactly the same amount of step credit for taking a step as you do for doing a tuck jump. I think you have to do some fancy pants thing to get the appropriate amount of “credit” for exercise that isn’t running/jogging/walking. There’s an app. I am very lazy and have no intention of figuring it out.
TWO: I logged ZERO ACTIVE MINUTES for a BodyPump weight lifting class. Despite sweating my face off, feeling like an overcooked noodle immediately afterward, and having soreness in muscles I didn’t know I possessed the following morning. I feel cheated.
THREE: Complaints aside, it does give me lots of credit for stairs I didn’t actually climb, so maybe that kind of sort of makes up for the fact that it cheats me out of steps and active minutes?
FOUR: Ten thousand steps is WAY harder to reach than you might think. Especially when your exercise efforts aren’t step-heavy.
FIVE: I thought the sleep feature would be super cool, and it is. Except. The Fitbit thinks I’m sleeping when I’m reading in bed at night. I glanced at the clock when I put the kindle down last night at it was past 11, but the Fitbit registered my sleep time at 10:15. Reading puts my into a meditative state, I guess? (It also thinks I’m sleeping sometimes when I’m laying on the couch watching TV. Why you gotta judge my binge watch of Say Yes to the Dress, Fitbit?!)
SIX: Does anyone have a recommendation for headphones to use during a workout? If I’m not taking a class of some sort, I’m spending quality time with an elliptical machine and Hamilton
Are you still reading this? I probably would have stopped after I saw that pathetic phoned-in image, so YOU ARE AMAZING. If you’re still here, and you have a Fitbit, do you feel like it’s judging your television choices?
*If you make a purchase through a link on this site, I will receive a small commission. Again. Nobody paid me anything to say anything about anything in this post.*
Akilah
I just started doing Body Pump a couple of weeks ago, and I love it so much.
I have nothing else to add and am therefore zero help with your FitBit and/or headphone questions. But still. Body Pump. Yay!
wordsfor
I love Body Pump most of the time… It’s just that the first class after an absence is bruuuuuuuuuuutal. Even if I go light on the weight.
Heather
Oh- my Fitbit totally judges my reading habits and my TV habits. I feel like such a slacker when it tells me I slept for like 10 hours, when no, four of those hours were from me getting into a book and refusing to sleep until I was done. There needs to be an “I’m reading” button or something.
Anyway, I usually can’t do the in ear headphones- they make my ears hurt if they’re not shaped just right. So I got a pair of beats actual headphones and they are amazing. Seriously- If you thought Hamilton sounds good through the apple headphones, wait until you hear Rewind through a pair of beats. Perfection! Anyway, I have tried the beats in earphones (after thoroughly cleaning the pair I borrowed from a friend) and not only did they have the same sound quality as my regular headphones but I felt like they didn’t move as much once in my ears… which meant less annoying pain for me. It might fix your sweat issue. Which, to be honest, is a sentence I never thought I would write.
wordsfor
We’ve been looking into the Beats headphones! I feel like I’m not cool enough to rock the full coverage ones, but the ones with the ear clippy things? I think those might work. Hubs and I are so terribly romantic. I think these will be Christmas gifts to each other, LOL.
Unruly Reader
I’m right there with ya! I’m not sure the Fitbit is capturing all my steps correctly. And it messes up on how many hours I’ve slept, too (it keeps sleeping when I take it off to shower), but I’m finding it a good accountability tool to keep me honest (once I adjust for shower time) about the amount of sleep I’m getting. The thing actually forces me to go to bed on time, because otherwise, in the morning: Judgment Day.
And I like it that it reminds me to get up an walk around once an hour, because when I’m engrossed in a project, I’m oblivious to my chair-potato-ness.
But the step counting? Come on, Fitbit!
wordsfor
Wait- can you set it to actually buzz and remind you to move or is it just a mental thing? Because I wouldn’t mind a “get up for a minute, Katie!” reminder.
Charleen
I have the Samsung version of a FitBit, my husband got it as a free perk when he got a new phone a couple months ago. It’s definitely not perfect, but on the whole I feel like it’s keeping me more active than I might otherwise be. Especially, like Unruly Reader, the reminder to get up when I’ve been sitting too long.
I have my daily step goal set to only 5K, and some days I find it hard to hit that… mostly because I get next to no credit when I take the little man for a walk in his stroller. If my arms aren’t swinging, I’m not walking, apparently. (And then on days I get to walk sans stroller, I’ll hit 5K without even trying… need to get better about pushing for 10K on those days.)
wordsfor
Oh yeah one of my friends told me that she gets no credit while shopping because pushing a cart means no arm swing. 5K is a more reasonable step goal for days I’m not just, you know, spending a full hour on an elliptical machine. Still though. Days I don’t work out? I wouldn’t even get close to 5K.
Jenny @ Reading the End
Oh man, ten thousand steps seems like so, so many. I am feeling great about myself because I did my 12 minutes of stair-running TWICE today, so I am basically the Queen of Fitness. :p
wordsfor
Stair running, even in small doses is pretty impressive. I can guarantee I’d be a sweaty mess and would need a shower after 12 minutes of stair running. Because basically anything makes me sweaty. By my logic, if I’m already repulsive, I may as well go for broke.
Jennine G
Love my fitbit, but it does have some annoying aspects. If you are pushing a grocery cart, stroller, or holding a bunch of stuff in your arms, it’s not counting your steps most likely. To fix this, I started putting it in my pocket where every step get counted…although I then lose exact heart rate, but I don’t care about that unless I’m working out. And motion that is like that of climbing stairs will count as stairs…like walking up an incline. My campus is a slight uphill and walking across it gives me a few flights of stairs.
There is a record your fitness feature you can use during exercise, so if it’s not step heavy you’re at least getting the calories burned credit.
Overall, I’d definitely say the Fitbit motivates me to get moving…It’s been depressing me lately cause I sit and do homework or grade papers so much my step count is nothing but pathetic.
ThatAshGirl
For the gym I actually use a cheap pair of Sony Sports Headphones that have the wraps around your ears. They NEVER fall out that way even when running. I keep them in my gym bag and that’s all I use them for. These are the exact one’s I have and they’ve been going strong for over 5 years. https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDR-AS20J-Active-Headphones-Hangers/dp/B0015AHRFK
Michelle
I have a love-hate relationship with Fitbit. I’ve owned three now. The first one is Fitbit One – the version that clips to your clothes. It gave me extra steps and stairs for riding on the back of the motorcycle but never gave me any steps for riding my bike. Then I moved to the Fitbit Flex after I washed and dried my Fitbit One (it did not survive). It too gave me extra steps for riding on the back of the motorcycle and no steps for biking itself. Then, I started breaking out in a rash because of the band and stopped wearing it. I stopped using one for about a year. Only recently I purchased the Fitbit Alta along with a leather band. So far, this is my favorite. It keeps my steps pretty accurate and has a built-in reminder to buzz you if you do not get 250 steps in an hour. I have not tried it on the back of a motorcycle or on a bicycle yet, so I cannot judge on that. So far, it does register when I am reading versus sleeping. Overall, I like it a lot.
However, at no point in time has any of the Fitbits made me want to be more active. I do a better job of at least trying to get 250 steps each hour when I get the little buzzy reminder. However, I have not altered my minimal exercise in years. So, I like it but not enough to influence any habits. How’s that for a recommendation?