May The Fitbit Force Be With You

   When you become a runner you quickly come to both hate and love numbers. They seem to weave their way into every aspect of your passion. How much time did that run take? I missed my PR in that race by 3 seconds! How far is five miles from my house? What was that mile split? Then, if you are lucky enough to have OCD, you start recording all those silly numbers in a running log. It's a disease, it really is. My running log is more valuable than my social security number! I mean, that's got 12 years of my life in it! 

   So, what to do when you're a runner with OCD issues who loves recording and categorizing all of those numbers? You do what I did in 2012 and go and buy a fitness tracker. One of my friends, Steve Walker AKA Steve Runner did an episode about this marvelous little gizmo called a Fitbit. Check out his incredible podcasts Phedippidations and Intervals. Really good stuff! He's a down to Earth guy who puts out some amazing material!

   Anyways, back to the Fitbit. I'd never been much into pedometers before. I experimented with them. But, I discovered that the majority of them were highly inaccurate, even when calibrated. But, Steve kept going on and on about how accurate his Fitbit seemed to be and about all the cool data that it collected. It's actually much more than a simple pedometer. It tracks steps taken, floors climbed, calories spent, active minutes and even has the ability to track your sleep quality. The price wasn't too steep at about $100 and it had a rechargeable battery. 

   I spent the money and bought the Fitbit Ultra. I quickly realized that Steve was absolutely right! The thing was extremely accurate. To say that I reveled in all that data it showed is an understatement. I was totally hooked! It uploaded all of your data wirelessly to their online site. Which has the nicest graphs. You could even compete with other Fitbit friends for steps. They came out with better and better models and even developed a smart phone app. 

   I had minor problems with some of their units. I even accidentally washed one or two of them. But, the company is one of the few left in the world who put the customer first. All of my minor problems were quickly resolved and I've been sent not one, but two units free of charge. Even after it was my fault that I washed the damn things! They're outrageously great. I was so impressed that I even bought their Aria wifi scale. Which, you guessed it, integrates with your tracker and uploads your weight and body fat to the app and online site. 

   The Fitbit isn't the fitness or weight loss silver bullet. It doesn't lose the weight for you. You still have to do the work and eat better. But, the site rewards your hard work with lots and lots of motivation and what they call "badges". Which are accrued when you reach so many steps, floor, etc. You can also taunt and encourage fellow friends. The site also integrates with other popular fitness apps. One of my only complaints is that their food tracking database is a little weak. So, I've synced it with my My Fitness Pal account. They work seamlessly together. By using both I was able to lose 27 pounds. I'd call that a huge win! 

   Over time I've gotten pretty used to not washing my Fitbit and remember it 99% of the time when I'm doing active. But, it's still somewhat of a pain in the ass. So, today Santa came early. I bought their next generation tracker called the Force. It breaks from their traditional clip on style and has now been modified into a wrist band. It now has the ability to tell time and has a vibration alarm which can be set for any time you like. According to the website, the Force will eventually display your smart phone caller id when you receive an incoming call. Pretty handy when you're out on a run. I'll call the dentist back when I'm done! No more stopping, pulling out the phone and looking! I dig it. 

   I've read some negative reviews online about their previous wristband model, the Flex. I'm not sure If I like it being on my wrist either. So, it'll be interesting to see what the deal is over the next 30 days. I'll keep you all well informed on it's performance.

   If you're interested in getting some motivation, cool data and becoming healthier may I suggest that you try Fitbit. They've gotten this fitness tracker thing right in so many ways! They sell models from $50 to $130 depending on features. Try it and you may be surprised how active you really are or how much of a slug you can be. 

   The Project and the running are continuing on. Notice I didn't say nicely. This week has been really hard due to sleep issues. The puppy has found his bark and I've been staying up too late doing computer stuff. I yet again verified today that my lower back still hates doing hyper extensions on the anything other than a fitness ball. Earlier this week I learned this AGAIN for about the hundredth time and now have a back strain. Yeah, I'm a stubborn old runner. I happily discovered that for some reason that after switching to a chocolate protein shake that the mixture doesn't get clogged in the mixer ball thingy like the vanilla flavor. Weird. I've tried googling it without any success. Does anyone know? After tomorrow I'll be working 10 days in a row to cover Christmas for Santa. So, time will be at a premium in the near future. But, fear not my fellow runners. The Project will be completed to it's 366th day and the daily blog posts will continue. Have a great night and run for your lives!