Ringing in 2017 with my Fitbit!

“It’s all fun and games until your pants don’t fit”.

I’ve seen that meme floating around on Facebook a couple of times, and perhaps you have as well.  My only honest response that I can make to that sentence is “yeah, don’t you hate it when you’ve been exercising so much that your pants are falling off of you?

Fitbit Zip (Magenta)
My Fitbit. Thanks to my kitty for allowing me to use her black fur as the background.

Right now, that’s about where I am.  Half of my pants are falling off me, and whenever I go to the store to get new pants, it seems like one size is ready to fall off, and the next size down is too tight.  Maybe I’m just so used to my pants being loose that I don’t want anything that is too tight fitting?  I don’t know.  I even ended up putting a shirt that was too big into the Goodwill box for the first of the year :-).

At any rate, my pants aren’t fitting very well, and I can partially thank my Fitbit for that.  My parents got me a Fitbit Zip for Christmas a year ago, and it’s a nice little motivator (they got me the magenta one, but it comes in other colors as well).

Before I got my Fitbit, I was using a Wii Fit Pedometer.  The Wii Fit pedometer is fun to use, and I like the way that it syncs with Wii Fit and has your Mii walk around virtual tracks or climb virtual towers, but it does have some drawbacks.

One advantage of the Fitbit pedometer is that it stays attached to your clothes a lot easier than the Wii Fit pedometer.  The Wii Fit pedometer fell off of my clothes on multiple occasions (usually when I was getting in or out of the car).  The clip just doesn’t grip tightly to your clothes.  This caused me on more than one occasion to walk around frantically trying to find it.  Although it did cause me to walk more steps, those steps weren’t counted.

Pokémon Kitty in the snow
I rescued this poor kitty from the cold while having fun with my Fitbit.

Another advantage that the Fitbit has is that it can connect to a lot more applications that are fun to use.  For example, I participate in virtual walks at Walking 4 Fun.com.  I’ve been doing the Pacific Crest Trail for a while now, and I’m almost out of California.  My Fitbit syncs automatically, so even if I forget to log into Walking 4 Fun, it counts my steps anyway.  Fitbit also connects to Sparkpeople.

I almost always remember to put my Fitbit on (even when I’m trying to fall asleep and I have to use the bathroom… don’t want to miss out on those extra 25 steps).  I’ve thought about getting one of the Fitbit watches before, but I hate the fact that they have “silent” alarms and I don’t trust them to not wake me up in the morning (maybe somebody has experience using those; if you do, please leave a comment).  I don’t really want to have to wear a watch and a Fitbit.  Maybe, since I’m good about taking off and putting on my Fitbit at night, I would remember to put on my watch before I went to bed.  Maybe I’ll try that one of these days.  I do have a loud backup alarm clock just in case anyway.

My Fitbit takes one of those little flat batteries (CR2025).  They aren’t rechargeable, but they do last for several months.  I’ve found that once the batteries start going, they will go fast, and you’ll want to have an extra on hand to replace it as soon as possible.  I bought a 10-pack of these batteries for pretty cheap on Amazon.com; I think I’ve had to replace the battery four times in the last year of constant use.

The Fitbit App that works for your iOS device (and I’m assuming Android devices too, but I’ve never used it) allows you to easily track your steps for the day, see how far you’ve walked, and participate in challenges with your friends.  You can also earn badges for losing weight, and hitting different walking milestones.  You can also log into Fitbit on your PC.

If you’re looking to move more in the New Year, and you’re hoping that you’re having so much fun and games that your pants don’t fit any more (too big, of course, not too small), then maybe you want to try out a Fitbit.