Singing the praises ....

Singing the praises ....

• 5.10.2011

... of my fitbit.

I love leading a data driven life, but as much as I love data I'm not the best at recording my activities. I've often tried to keep track of my workouts in spreadsheets or in a notebook to no avail. I just don't keep at it.

Then the fitbit came into my life.

I first heard about the fitbit when I was making the decision to buy the Wakemate several months back but I didn't take the plunge until I saw Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley tweeting that he had walked 10 miles around NYC one weekend day. I bought it on the spot from Amazon.

Fast forward to today ... and I've been using the fitbit for over a month and I love it. It has totally changed my daily perspective on my activities. I could go on and on about why I love the fitbit but here are just a few reasons why I enjoy it.

activity pie chart. I love and hate this chart. It makes it so clear how sedentary my work-life is ... and that drives me bananas. {check out this scary Mashable infographic about how bad sitting is for you at work}

5 miles a day. Fitbit automatically sets the daily goal to be 5 miles a day - but this is all customizable. When I manage to hit the goal on a workday, I get super excited because I know its not easy. Hello, you just saw my activity pie chart above... not the best on a workday.

pretty blue display. The Fitbit display is hard to see in the sun, but that doesn't stop me from checking it frequently. I've started to measure the number of steps it is between some of my frequent "mini trips". I know its 240 steps roundtrip from my desk to the bathroom/breakroom and back. I know its just under a half-mile from one end of the building to another (yes, this is a huge building).

One thing I am not a huge fan of? Having to pay for better statistics. So, obviously I don't. I have enough "subscriptions" in my life and can't justify another one. But, here is what my activity has looked like for the past month.
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I've been really open about my love of the Fitbit - and have told pretty much anyone that will listen about it since its had such a big impact on me. Just yesterday, the Fitbit "made me" go to the gym after a super long work day. I was up at 4:30 to travel for work, worked till 7pm, but knew that the Fitbit would be super far from the daily goal if I didn't run even just a mile at the gym. So that's what I did. I can't guarantee the Fitbit will change your life, but it will certainly make you one million times more aware of how lazy you have been.