Fitbit One

On January 1^st, 2012, after hitting a new high on the scale, I took the plunge and ordered my first electronic pedometer. After doing some research I decided on the FitBit brand. While it was a little pricey, the fact that it only needed to be charged once a week and wirelessly synced to my PC were two major convenience features that I wanted.

After setting up my FitBit account and charging the unit, I decided to follow my normal schedule for a few days to see how active I was. What I found was my current daily activities at work and home were FAR below th suggested 10,000 steps per day.

Infact, most days I was well under 20% of the recommend goal, completing less than 2,000 daily steps. This is when I began to make a concerted effort to get up to 10,000 steps per day. I told myself that any every night, no matter how many steps I had left to do, I would walk on the treadmill until I hit 10K on my Fitbit.

I soon began to find myself doing things during the day just to get extra steps. I was parking in the farest parking spots, volunteering to retrieve items which required long walks, even walking to colleagues desks versus calling them on the phone. And after a year of 10K steps a day, and having lost over 10 pounds, I felt ready to move on to new challenge: jogging.

Since ordering my first FitBit, the company has come out with a whole new line of products, some much less than the $99 I paid. In fact, I’m currently wearing the new FitBit ONE model after losing my original unit.

While the FitBit One does come with a belt clip, as I lost my previous unit by wearing it on my belt I now just carry my FitBit in my front pants pocket. I’ve also added a lanyard to it to make it harder to misplace.

Summary: If you need to get more exercise, walking more is a great place to start. And as the FitBit does a great job of monitoring your progress, and syncs your data automatically, I think it’s a great motivational device to help you get to your daily fitness goal!

By Shawn M Tierney