Feeling The FitBit Love

So in case you hadn't heard, I got a FitBit last week. I've now been wearing it for an entire week and I thought I'd give you the report.

The first thing to report is that I'm a little obsessed with it. I also can't go to bed if things aren't at an even number. I've been known to run up and down the stairs a few times so that my "floors climbed" ends in a 0 or a 5.

Although most days I've been struggling to hit 10,000 steps, if I ever have a day where I have 14,200 steps, you can bet I'll go for a (before) midnight stroll around the block to hit 15,000.

I had my best ever FitBit day on Monday when I volunteered at VBS, took a walk with Sam after supper, and walked with Sam and Rachel over to the house where they will be in childcare a few days this summer. When I saw how close I was to 20,000 steps, I took a quick walk to Sam and Rachel's school at 9:30pm, just to see how many steps I can count on once school's back in session. Since I will never have this awesome of a day again, I thought I'd post my stats.

Go me! And then yesterday I hit 50 floors. Thank you housecleaning and watching my friends' fussy baby who wasn't sleeping well, which necessitated running up and down the stairs a few times.

Just for interest's sake, I've kept track of a few other statistics. Here, for your reading pleasure, are a few of the things I've done this past week, and how many steps (and in some cases, active minutes and floors climbed) I gained.

Hanging out a rather large load of laundry -- 225 steps

Cooking supper -- 372 steps

Walking to Tessa's grandma's house to meet Tessa to borrow a book -- 3166 steps

Reading said book in one sitting with two bathroom breaks -- 27 steps

Watering all the flowers on our yard from the rain barrel -- 630 steps (and 9 active minutes)

Putting both kids to bed -- 700 steps, 3 floors climbed
Going to church and walking in and out of the service thirteen million times with a child's indecisive bladder -- 1087 steps
Going to our CSA and back twice, because we forgot the eggs the first time -- 5532 steps (and 52 active minutes)
Going to Costco -- 1424 steps
Doing the weekly flyer route by myself -- 3068 steps (and 32 active minutes)

Cleaning the kitchen, dining room, and half the playroom -- 1048 steps (and 3 floors)

I upped the floors climbed goal to 20 (from 10) after the first day, when I'd only worn it for six hours and hit 15 floors. Most days I'm doing between 25 and 35 floors climbed a day. Thank you living in a two story house with the only bathroom being located upstairs.

I also upped my water goal to 3 litres a day, since all that floor climbing makes me thirsty! And then the water drinking means I have to climb more floors to go to the bathroom and it's a neverending, floor climbing cycle. Ha!

The one thing that has happened is that we are definitely making a point of going for more walks after supper. This has been a lovely way to kill the hour between supper and bedtime to spend time together as a family.

After a few days I started wearing it at night to track my sleep. It's been interesting to see what my sleep patterns are. I also set the alarm every morning, and although I was skeptical that a silently vibrating alarm would wake me up, it's actually been working (most of the time). I still set my (really loud, obnoxious) alarm every morning, but usually I turn it off before it actually goes off.

I have a FitBit One and I wear it inside my bra, or on the waistband of my pajamas. I am so glad I got this before I started working a desk job 37 hours a week, because now I will be able to track how much my fitness level goes down. I've already decided to take walks around the block every couple of hours to get my blood moving. Dave has the Flex, which he bought about a week before I got mine, and is super-envious of my snazzy One which tells me how many floors I've climbed.

If you have a FitBit and want to be friends (because as of right now I only have two!), let me know. I'm happy to have more friends to spur me on to even greater fitness. Because I might be a bit competitive that way. (Don't ask how many times I've "taunted" Dave this week because, while it might spur him on to greater fitness, it's probably not the best way to improve our marriage.)

To sum up, I really love my FitBit and am glad I bought it.

*FitBit (sadly) did not compensate me to write this post. They probably don't even know that I exist :)