If I keep this up I am going to become known as the needy Fitbit blogger. Please bear with me. I set a goal this week to walk 10,000 steps each day. I have to be honest, it hasn't been as difficult as I expected...until today. I have had this nagging feeling when I am reading about all the activity people do to get in their steps that something wasn't right. I have an office job so there are not a lot of steps involved. We have a small house and it doesn't take very many steps to move about the house.
Earlier in the week I had an incident at Walmart. I had taken a couple of purposeful laps around the store and didn't get as many steps as I expected. A reader confirmed that pushing the cart kept my arm still and therefore, would have affected the effectiveness of the Fitbit on my wrist. I started to think if that were the case maybe my Fitbit was tracking steps from my arm motion when steps weren't being taken...for example, when I am doing dishes or brushing my teeth.
I decided to experiment by putting the Fitbit on my left wrist. My thought was that I do less with my left hand so my results wouldn't be as skewed. Today was the first day I made the switch and suddenly getting all the steps in seems a greater challenge.
Today that meant many trips down this hall...
Twice this week I have come home from work, in the door, changed shoes and headed straight out for a little walk with Millie. I knew if I didn't do it immediately I wouldn't do it. And I really didn't want to fail my 10,000 step challenge!
Today Millie was a little distracted by the squirrels enjoying the 40+ degree weather.
I was a little distracted by the geese. They were headed north...did the 40+ degrees confuse them??
The reminds me of one of my favorite factoids. When geese are flying in a V do you know why one side is always longer than the other? Because there are more geese in it. Yep, I can hear your groans from here...and that makes me smile :)
Someone also suggested putting the Fitbit in my pocket and it would work off the motion of my hips (will I get more steps if I really sashay those hips?) When I am at home I tend to wear pocketless pants (read lounge pants) so that isn't always an option, but I might try doing that during the day at work.
Last night I had to finish the last 800 or so steps by marching in front of the tv while we watched our show. My husband found that a little amusing. I might have to do a little of that tonight. As I write this I have about 1000 steps left for the day...even after all that hall walking, Millie walking, etc.
I will admit, I may be abnormally consumed by trying to figure out the accuracy of my Fitbit. But in the end, regardless of how many steps I am actually taking, I am clearly moving more intentionally throughout the day and that, I believe, is the point.
What does your Fitbit have you doing?
Ha! I love this one. I pace around my office all day long. I only work with a handful of people so they all know what I am doing and tease me. BUT, like you said, without it, I wouldn't ever think to do any extra moving so it helps. It's gott abe better than sitting on the couch.
ReplyDeleteI am okay with a couple of people at work, but can't make myself do it when the boss is in :)
DeleteLOL about the geese. Ok so according to my garmin, if I do my morning and afternoon walks (15 minutes each) and one 30 minute walk at lunch, I usually am right at about 9000 steps. So it takes me roughly a little over an hour to get them in. I wonder if that is about the same with the fitbit?
ReplyDeleteThis weekend I am going to try a "real" walk and see how many steps I get in 2 or 3 miles. I will let you know.
DeleteOne of the things with the fitbit is that you can tell it whether it is on your dominant hand or your non-dominant hand. It basically tells it to be less sensitive on your dominant hand since you'll be using it more. Little tricks :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that. I might want it to be more sensitive again...insensitive fitbits are more work :)
DeleteI feel like my Jawbone is mad at me, because I swear it doesn't give me as many steps as it used to. I love Millie, she is so cute!
ReplyDeleteI hope my Fitbit doesn't turn on me more than it already has :)
DeleteI just ordered a FitBit today. I'm anxious to see how many - or probably how few - steps I take on a regular day. I'm in a similar situation as you - small house & desk job.
ReplyDeleteI wore it for the first few days and didn't try to get extra steps....I got around 5000 on a regular day. Definitely gets you moving (or thinking about moving!)
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