Posted Apr 20, 2012 @ 09:21 AM
My parents’ rock! Why you may ask? Even though my sister, brother-in-law and I are grown adults we still receive Easter baskets. Not only do we get remembered, we sometimes get some really cool but sometimes non-traditional items. This past Easter, my somewhat non-tech parents blew me away when I opened my little green plastic egg to discover a little plastic clip. With no writing on the device and with no packaging, I asked "what is it?" My mom exclaimed “It's a FitBit!” as she reached inside her shirt to pull out her clip on device. She pushed the button on the device and the device lit up with the amount of steps, flights climbed, calories burned, and miles walked she had completed already that day. As we were walking out the door to a family event, she was telling me about the dashboard charts that record the steps taken, a place to enter you food intake, and even the number of hours slept. It was just torture…a new gadget and no time to figure the ins and outs of my new toy!
Let’s break this down Barney style, FitBit uses the simple theory of burning more calories than you consume to encourage a calorie deficit which results in weight loss. FitBit uses an invisible Wi-Fi network to keep your FitBit website dashboard up to date to your device. Before you clip on and go, you will want to register your FitBit device with the website before it will properly record your steps.
After registering, I clipped my little device which I have nicknamed Jarvis and learned the following from wearing FitBit for one week.
· I walk an average of 12000 steps a day between the gym, walking the dog, and everyday walking around.
· I sleep walk an average of 280 steps between midnight and 5am. The FitBit device will reset your counter automatically at midnight. To set the sleep feature, just remember to enter your information on the website or activate the stop watch feature on the device.
· Jarvis doesn't record steps when you are on a bike or lifting weights. :(
· Jarvis doesn't like water just like my cat Miss Tobie, so it is important to remove it from your clothes before washing. I caught this one just in time yesterday. A little saying popped up on the device that said Thank You, Holan.
· I can get almost half of my daily steps in one step aerobics class.
· My dog, Jackson is very fond of Jarvis since we are going on multiple walks per day to get to 10,000 steps. A 1.75 mile walk is about 3500 steps depending on your stride.
· I have found that the family is now in competition to see who has the most steps in random checks. It's the new swag bucks competition.
Let me know if you get biten by FitBit!
