Entry tags:
Fitbit
Back around Thanksgiving, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rackham and I picked up new phones... and they happened to each come with a Fitbit Flex. I slapped mine on my right wrist (where I usually wear a watch), dithered over which setting to use when it came to handedness and finally settled on "dominant" (since they're both dominant, so it shouldn't matter which hand it's on) and proceeded to go walking everywhere with Rackham, who was getting almost twice the step count I was (even though I have a shorter stride). Having worn pedometers in the past, I knew mine wasn't right.
I switched it to "non-dominant" and the count got a little better, but still wasn't up where it seemed it should be... and I was getting really annoyed at catching myself trying to check the time on the Fitbit (since it was on my normal watch-wearing wrist), which doesn't have a watch function, so I swapped it to the left wrist and suddenly the count seemed spot on! It finally occurred to me to check online for information on what to do with these things if you're ambidextrous and found out that, yeah, you want to set it to non-dominant. But still, I was rather puzzled about the difference in numbers I got between wrists... and then I noticed it. My right arm doesn't really move much when I walk. Almost no natural swinging. This sort of thing is really at the heart of why I want to start going through my old physical therapy exercises... the right shoulder is the one I broke and all I can think is that somewhere along the line in the past few years, I overdid things and it started to hurt, so I started to "guard" it and it snowballed into what's going on now. I still have full range of motion, but I have to actively think about letting the arm swing when I walk or I end up just holding it straight at my side. Very weird.
So, that was one bit of helpful surprise info... but I also started using the other function on the Fitbit: the sleep tracker. Wow. I probably like that more than I do the step counter! I've found that it generally takes me less than ten minutes to fall asleep after I put it into sleep mode (sometimes as little as five minutes, which completely shocked me). Also, I definitely do my best with about six and a half hours of sleep... and when I'm home, I wake up a lot less than I thought I did.
The other rather cool thing is that I was already using Runtastic on my phone to monitor my walking and hiking, then a month or so ago started using MyFitnessPal to monitor food and overall exercise... and all three (MyFitnessPal, Runtastic and Fitbit) will interface with each other! It makes things so easy to track! I find I'm doing more and enjoying it all a whole lot more, too.
I've also found that it's not terribly difficult to reach 10,000 steps.
All five lights on the band indicate I've reached my goal (in this case, 10,000 steps). Today, I did go for a walk withtaradaktyl and her dog, Toby... but I've found that being aware of how many steps I've taken, in an easy way like that, will get me up and moving more even in the house (and I've also picked up Zumba for our Xbox360, for days when the weather isn't good enough outside to do much). It's amazing how quickly it can add up! And yeah, I had the same goal many times with pedometers, but there's something about seeing it there on your wrist all the time and having lights blink at you that seems to work even better for me. What can I say, I'm a gadget kind of gal.
Crossposted from my Livejournal.
rackham and I picked up new phones... and they happened to each come with a Fitbit Flex. I slapped mine on my right wrist (where I usually wear a watch), dithered over which setting to use when it came to handedness and finally settled on "dominant" (since they're both dominant, so it shouldn't matter which hand it's on) and proceeded to go walking everywhere with Rackham, who was getting almost twice the step count I was (even though I have a shorter stride). Having worn pedometers in the past, I knew mine wasn't right.I switched it to "non-dominant" and the count got a little better, but still wasn't up where it seemed it should be... and I was getting really annoyed at catching myself trying to check the time on the Fitbit (since it was on my normal watch-wearing wrist), which doesn't have a watch function, so I swapped it to the left wrist and suddenly the count seemed spot on! It finally occurred to me to check online for information on what to do with these things if you're ambidextrous and found out that, yeah, you want to set it to non-dominant. But still, I was rather puzzled about the difference in numbers I got between wrists... and then I noticed it. My right arm doesn't really move much when I walk. Almost no natural swinging. This sort of thing is really at the heart of why I want to start going through my old physical therapy exercises... the right shoulder is the one I broke and all I can think is that somewhere along the line in the past few years, I overdid things and it started to hurt, so I started to "guard" it and it snowballed into what's going on now. I still have full range of motion, but I have to actively think about letting the arm swing when I walk or I end up just holding it straight at my side. Very weird.
So, that was one bit of helpful surprise info... but I also started using the other function on the Fitbit: the sleep tracker. Wow. I probably like that more than I do the step counter! I've found that it generally takes me less than ten minutes to fall asleep after I put it into sleep mode (sometimes as little as five minutes, which completely shocked me). Also, I definitely do my best with about six and a half hours of sleep... and when I'm home, I wake up a lot less than I thought I did.
The other rather cool thing is that I was already using Runtastic on my phone to monitor my walking and hiking, then a month or so ago started using MyFitnessPal to monitor food and overall exercise... and all three (MyFitnessPal, Runtastic and Fitbit) will interface with each other! It makes things so easy to track! I find I'm doing more and enjoying it all a whole lot more, too.
I've also found that it's not terribly difficult to reach 10,000 steps.
All five lights on the band indicate I've reached my goal (in this case, 10,000 steps). Today, I did go for a walk with
taradaktyl and her dog, Toby... but I've found that being aware of how many steps I've taken, in an easy way like that, will get me up and moving more even in the house (and I've also picked up Zumba for our Xbox360, for days when the weather isn't good enough outside to do much). It's amazing how quickly it can add up! And yeah, I had the same goal many times with pedometers, but there's something about seeing it there on your wrist all the time and having lights blink at you that seems to work even better for me. What can I say, I'm a gadget kind of gal.Crossposted from my Livejournal.