Little technology...Big difference

Monday night when we were leaving the gym I purchased an early birthday present for myself, a Fitbit. I love new gadgets, but this one has made a bigger difference than I could've imagined.

 

It measures the number of steps you've taken:

 the number of flights of stairs you've climbed:

 

the number of miles you've walked:

and the amount of calories you've burned:

 It also shows you how active you've been in the past 3 hours by the number of petals on a flower (up to 12 petals...I need to walk more!):

It's so small and can clip on your pants, bra, shirt, or even just placed into your pocket. 

It also records your sleep patterns at night.  It uploads wirelessly to a personalized webpage for you and calculates how many calories you can consume based on calories you've burned to lose your goal weight each week.  You can input your caloric and water intake on the webpage as well.    It has pretty graphs that show your activity level throughout the day and your sleep patterns at night, including how many times you woke up.  There's also an iPhone app that shows all of the things the webpage does, and I do love new apps! 

It came with a comfortable wrist band to use at night for sleeping and a clip that can be used for thicker materials than the Fitbit can clip on to (like my comfy pj pants that tie at the top).  It also came with a USB charger which rarely has to be used since it holds a charge for at least 3 full days and reportedly up to a week.  I've used it a day and a half and still have almost a full charge so I believe that it could easily last a full week.

 

Yesterday was my first day to wear it all day and night, and it's so addicting!!  I'm constantly looking at it to see how many steps I've taken and calories I've burned.  I check the webpage more than I check Facebook.  It's satisfying to see my calorie deficit throughout the day.  Times when I would otherwise be sitting around, I find myself walking around instead to see how high I can get my activity level.

Since I work in an office all day and have few opportunities to be active, this is a great motivator to get off the couch at night!  I highly recommend a Fitbit for absolutely anyone.  If you're needing motivation, this will definitely help!

Eat Clean, Exercise Dirty!