Review: FitBit

about the length of my pinky!

I have a new favorite toy.  You could say we know each other in a very personal way.  It's called a Fitbit, and it's pulling me back to the world of health sanity.

I discovered Fitbit through my father.  Now we compete for the most steps!  He has been wearing a pedometer for years, and has tried multiple companies and versions.  When I was in high school he got me into the habit of tracking steps.  It's such a great motivation tool to take a glance and see how much you've been moving.

Basically, the Fitbit is a high tech pedometer and very user friendly.  It's so small you can wear it pretty much anywhere.  In my case, I wear dresses enough without pockets or belts that it is easiest to wear it on my bra.  No one knows!

The Fitbit comes with a charging station, and once you set up an account the station with auto-sync your current step count any time you are within 15 feet.  That means you never have to plug the Fitbit in to get updated info, it does it for you.  Convenience gets a lot of points in my book.

The bonus of this is that Fitbit has developed a fantastic app for your smart phone.  When you're around your charger, your phone has up-to-the minute info.  It tracks steps, stairs taken, and generally how active you are.  There are also sections to track everything you eat and (my favorite tab) how much water you drink.  The app has great links with other popular apps, like LoseIt!, and I prefer to use that to track food because I think it has a greater database and it has a barcode scanner built in.  The two apps sync and work together, making imputing information much easier for me.

Another great feature, when you wear the Fitbit on your wrist at night it will track your sleeping patterns.  This was eye opening for me, but I guess really just interesting not extremely helpful except telling me I need to go to bed earlier and quit pressing snooze (I know that already).

Pros:
- I realized I take next to no steps when I'm sitting behind a computer all day, so I've started taking walks around the halls every hour and at night when I get home
- tracking food is IMPORTANT!  I've wondered why I've been struggling and it's because I like to snack. A lot. This was like a slap in the face to reform my eating habits between meals.
- I never have to plug it in, I only have to put it on the base station to charge (and the charge lasts at least a week!)
- LOVE LOVE LOVE the app for my iPhone

Cons: Price. at $100 a piece you better be careful not to accidentally throw it in the washing machine.