How to have a Fitbit

There was a recent article in the New Yorker magazine about treadmill workstations. The office worker stands and walks s-l-o-w-l-y on a belt in front of an ergonomic desk, with everything they need in easy reach. Maybe you get to sit down for coffee breaks.

The author said the only unproductive thing about her workstation was constantly explaining why she was "breathing like that" on the phone. She also felt compelled to tell clients what she was doing: "Do you know I'm actually walking while I'm writing this?" It was the kind of wry article you'd expect from the New Yorker.

On the serious side, research shows that sitting is one of the worst things for the human body, and the damage is not mitigated by spurts of vigorous exercise at the gym.  Several hours a day of gentle, natural movement (boring old walking) is much better than overdoing it on fancy exercise machines. The problem is all that walking takes time.  Hence, the treadmill workstation invention.

There are all kinds of electronic walking gadgets to "help you reach your fitness goals," as the advertisements put it.  One of these is the Fitbit, a device not much bigger that a quarter that you carry around in your pocket or clipped to your bra.

John and I both have Fitbits and they track our steps, distance walked, calories burned, etc.  When you set up a Fitbit account on the computer or smartphone, it creates a personal fitness log and syncs wirelessly, which is neat. You can also compete with the "community" of Fitbit users, or just the ones in your own household.

John started walking (almost) daily six months ago, and he gets kudos for sticking with it.  It isn't easy to come home from work and then head out for a long walk in the wind and rain.  Since he's on his feet quite a bit anyway, he sometimes logs (and boasts about) nearly 20,000 steps a day.  To put that in perspective, an average active day for me is 6,000 or 7,000 steps.  My goal is 10,000, but I'm still recovering from ankle problems so I'm working up to it slowly.  When I ride, the horse's steps are logged, giving me a nice bump up for the day.  (John says this is cheating, but I say riding is exercise for the human, too.)

Oh yes. My new Fitbit model is fancier than his.  Worn on a wristband at night, it tracks your sleep pattern, or for the sleep challenged, the lack of.  Basically it does this by tracking your movements-- how much you thrash your arms around and how many times you get up.   The first night I wore it to bed, Fitbit claimed I slept 6 hrs. 43 minutes and woke up 27 times. Really? Can you even call that sleep if you're waking up every 14 minutes?

Well, I knew it hadn't been one of my better nights, but seeing the facts on the computer screen only made me feel worse. I decided maybe I'd just set the sleep log wrong, and Fitbit thought I was walking around all night.  It was too depressing to be true. From there on, things improved. This morning Fitbit says I "woke up" only 12 times and slept 6 hrs. 58 minutes.  And I feel pretty refreshed today!  That's more like it.