After months of having no time, space, or inclination to work out, I’m back on the bandwagon, tiring out my WiiFit Mii on a regular basis and letting my Fitbit encourage me to move more.
There’s a couple of newer capabilities in the Fitbit app that I’ve been making use of.
One is the widget that keeps track of whether I’ve taken a minimum number of steps every hour (250). I like this in theory, but in practice it needs some help.
Like, I have it set to track the 14 hours of the day I’m most active (from when I wake up to a couple hours before bed (when I want to be winding down). The reality is, though, that I keep different hours on different days.
- When I’m working in Wilmington, my day starts at 5 and I lose two 90 minute windows to the commute.
- When I’m working at home, my day starts more like 6:30 or 7:00
- When it’s the weekend, my day starts when I’m good and ready for it to, and not before.
- On any given day, I may have to be in a meeting or whatnot and not be able to just pop up and move around.
I could tweak it day to day, but that’s silly. Unfortunately the app doesn’t let me set variations by day of the week, or better still let me tell it that it’s ok if I don’t move EVERY hour just, I don’t know, 10 out of 14. So I can sleep in, or drive to work, or attend a meeting or whatnot, but still be able to succeed.
While I’m at it, I’d like it it the app would send a notification/reminder each hour (not necessary or desirable to buzz my device or anything) so that when I could get up and move and I should get up and move but I’m deep in the shuffle and losing track of time, I’d know to get up for a few minutes. (Moving throughout the day is good for me but lifting myself out of the crunch is a challenge!)
And then because I do work hard at my job during the day and can’t be just wandering off willy nilly -but I also like my little success awards-it could let me see how many steps I have taken/have left in the current hour. That would be super.
Yeah that was a lot of wishes for something I actually like, in theory.
The other feature I’m trying out for the first time is “Fitbit Adventures.” Basically you select one – I picked one in NYC because it was the shortest one, something I should be able to complete if I hit my daily goal anyway – and as I take X number of steps, Fitbit maps out for me where I would be if I were taking those same steps on a particular course in the City.
There are little treasures (mostly but not exclusively fitness tips) along the way and, on this course, 6 landmarks I can “visit” as I make progress. The one shown above was the third for this course. The next one I’m headed toward is Avenue of the Americas (not exciting for my own reasons) and then 2 in Central Park. (Hey Sis, remember that day?)
Anyway it’s So Far So Fun giving that a try. I might be under enthused about NYC in general but there are also Yosemite treks (hey, hey my friend!). And I’d love to see others in future. To my way of thinking they don’t all need to be running courses… take me on a hike in Kauai, etc! This country alone is FULL of beautiful places and interesting cities, let alone the world, so bring it on!
