Monday, February 9, 2015

Why I Love Wearables - Fitbit Mania Is Well Warranted: A Review

A pal of mine pointed out to me that I tend to use the word 'motor' a lot. I suppose he's right. But it's a word that lends itself to frequent use by virtue of what it signifies: those that are mostly, usually on.
Those that always want to be doing, moving, getting things done, exploring. Or as the saying goes: Agito ergo sum i.e.: I move therefore I am.

And like goes with like. All of my closest friends and associates have this in common: they have a motor that tends to be on the majority of the time. And using things like a Fitbit or an Up24 allows one, who's in the habit of being on, to further finesse one's state of being on.

I stumbled into wearables a good while back. Being struck by the bug of neophilia and thoroughly in love with technology, I tend to get drawn to anything and everything new in its realm. Plus, in order to truly have a feel for something I have to have hands-on experience with it. My car, I'm told, is a veritable shop of gadgets. To me, it's best to always be prepared but I suppose I'm digressing.

While I'm an iOS-er through and through, I did play extensively with the LG and Samsung watches but since they don't connect to my Apple devices I had to gift them to members of my family and instead directed my attention to Jawbone and Fitbit which I could easily sync to my iPhone.

I first settled on the Jawbone Up24.  I used this model for a good half a year. In terms of accuracy this unit delivers. It tracks movement and sleep really well. Plus, the alarm feature on it comes in handy and I find it stronger and better than the one on the Fitbit. For a while, I actually was using both at the same time but that's another post.

I started using it after I completed the first races of the year in 2014. It was after I picked up wind surfing and paddleboarding. My use of the wearables was more of a byproduct of all the exercise I was doing. However, the reason why I moved away from the Up24 is because I moved past it. I grew and I needed more. The more I was doing, the bigger the needs.

I lead a very active life. In addition to running 10km a day, I am very engaged in my work which allows me to be highly mobile. Plus, after a long work day, the day doesn't end there for me. I crave more activity and I shift my attention to yoga, biking, lifting and every weekend I either paddleboard, wind surf or snowboard.

Hence, a wearable that's a. water-proof, that b. allows me to see what time it is, c. that has caller ID so that I know when I'm overdoing it and I need to get home by comes in handy. And this is why I switched to the Fitbit Charge. Which I love! But something tells me soon I will graduate to the next model, the Charge HR because that's just what's been happening and that's the natural progression of things.

Wearables fit well with my nature. The fact that I can now track every aspect of my daily activity is a huge plus in my life. I get to monitor why my pace is slower or faster in certain reliefs and how to go about gaining more speed. In short, I'm in tracking heaven!

Naturally, all of this tracking led me to one expected end point: run a marathon!

Of course. I suppose a marathon is a direct byproduct of running 10km every single day of the week. All of a sudden, 10km feels like child's play. And you want more. And more. And more. And your insatiable nature takes over and you wonder what's next.

The other great things about the fitbit is the social component of it. You can see how you stack up against the other people in your network which will then push you to do more and be better. It's a superb way to monitor your activity and that of the community. After all, regardless of how on our motors are, we all need other people to help push us further.

So, if you don't have one, I highly recommend that you get one. Not only am I enjoying mine, which by the way connects well with the Map my Run app which is what I use for my marathon training and daily running, I also got some for my family. They're all hooked as they keep counting their steps and go for the ideal 10k steps a day.

Hence, happy tracking, folks!

1 comment:

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