Chances are, you or someone you know has a Fitbit.
They are one of the latest fitness gadgets, a little device that you can wear in a band around your wrist, that links up with an app on your phone and tells you how many steps you’ve taken, how active you’ve been and even how you slept last night.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check it out here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3496861031&ref=spkl_6_0_580901867&pf_rd_p=580901867&pf_rd_m=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_s=desktop-auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=0J6V6F6MFWKABAJKV7B3&pf_rd_i=fitbit&qid=1436423921
A couple of my clients have had one for a while and after speaking to another fitness coach who raved about hers, I decided to jump on board too.
I was quite curious to know how many steps I take each day, and something you can wear on your wrist all day seems a lot more convenient than a pedometer or a phone app. Plus the sleep function looked interesting, telling you how much of your time in bed is spent asleep, awake, or being restless.
I went for the fitbit flex which is about £60 on amazon. (There’s more expensive versions that tell you things like heart rate too).  I love it!
Within a day of wearing it I realised that most days I don’t take anywhere near enough steps.
10,000 steps is a target most people should aim to hit, especially personal trainers. On that first day when I was training clients all day at the gym and then did my own weights training session, I was heading for a total step count of around 5000. Not good enough!
So I told my boyfriend that we were going for a walk that evening, and finished the day on around 8000 steps. Still not enough, but more than I would have done otherwise and we got a lovely evening walk out of it too.
The next day I started to do little extra bits of activity, like keeping my food upstairs in the fridge at the gym and going up to get one box at a time when I needed it (I take a lot of lunchboxes).
Clients pointed out I suddenly became extra keen to view their squats and deadlifts from various different angles and positions rather than just standing in one place (haha!)
I became a little more generally active, incorporated another walk in and hit the 10,000 step goal. Woohoo!
I haven’t hit it every day since, but I’ve tried to as much as I can, and if I’m anywhere near 5000 steps or below, I’ll definitely go for a little walk/jog/round of tennis to make sure it’s at least around 7000 steps by the end of the day. And if I’m close to 10,000, it makes me go out and do that little bit more to reach it.
The sleep function is really interesting too and has made me conscious of getting to bed at a good time to get as close to 8 hours sleep as possible.
You can also log food and exercise on there and use it to track your calories, which isn’t something I’ve done but would be useful for some people.
And you can link up with your friends who have fitbits and set each other little step challenges for the week.
Everyone I know who has once has become more active since they’ve got it, which is BRILLIANT.
Incorporating extra activity into your day keeps you fitter, stronger and slimmer, gives your body more energy and protects against a host of illnesses and disease.
Unfortunately I’m not on commission, but I would highly recommend getting one of these cool little gadgets in your life.
July 16