The Fitbit!

Posted on by Emma

I’ve joined the Fitbit world. Having dipped my toe in the water via the Jawbone Up Activity tracker, I’m now the proud owner of a Fitbit.

My Up activity tracker vanished in January when the device fell out of the wristband. It must be somewhere in the house. Maybe the system thinks I’m dead thanks to my lack of movement. Hey ho! Anyway, by that point I reckoned I knew what you needed to do to cover 10,000 steps a day, and I was quite happy to live tracker-free.

I didn’t stare at my phone so much. My health didn’t take a nosedive, and the world didn’t end.

On Valentine’s Day, however, my husband gave me a Fitbit Charge 2, the reward for staying alcohol-free so far this year. To be honest, when he hinted the other week that he’d got me a pressie for my teetotal efforts, I thought he was talking about champagne. It always makes sense to reward your giving up something with the very substance you’ve been avoiding, hmm?!

And I was grateful and touched that he’d bothered. He’d done the research, he told me happily. This tracker is the all-singing, all-dancing one! It counts your steps, how often you climb up stairs (you should climb ten flights a day for good health, apparently), checks your heart beat, auto-recognises different exercises and monitors your sleep. You can add in a food tracker and monitor your calorie intake if you want to lose weight.

For someone who tends to obsessiveness, this is good and bad news. To prevent myself repeatedly checking my phone, I downloaded the app for Fitbit onto my tablet instead.

Exercise is very good for we folks with diabetes if you are able to be active. If you have type 2, you might be able to control the condition through diet and exercise alone. If you have type 1, exercise will mean you can reduce how much insulin you need to take overall, and it can be used with diet and insulin to keep your blood sugar levels in range.

At some point, perhaps activity trackers will be prescribed for people with diabetes? In the future, the Fitbit could include blood glucose monitoring, as a story earlier this year reported that Fitbit has just invested in a company that’s developing a minimally invasive glucose tracker. Imagine having all that information available in one place.

I, for one, would love that capability, so fingers crossed.

Published by Emma

Emma Baird is a type 1 diabetic and a writer, specialising in romcoms and fiction that focuses on relationships. She is also the co-author of The Diabetes Diet and she runs her own blogging/PR business. Most importantly, she is the guardian of two very spoiled cats…

10 thoughts on “The Fitbit!”

  1. I would love to have a device like this. I’ve noticed at work that people I work around do not seem as active as I am. I’m sure part of this is simply my perspective and personal opinions. When something needs done I don’t tell someone else to do it I just grab my gloves and go do it, others not so much. One young gentleman I work with is almost half my age and I run rings around him most nights. I have been trying o get my doctor on board with the idea that I have such wild swings in sugar level simply from my work ethic. At times after work, at home I just watch news or a prerecorded TV show to unwind but at work I’m a whirlwind. At work my sugar levels drop. Fast and hard they plummet to places I need extra food to get out of. Hence, the constant pushing for me to loose weight is not possible. If I work harder I eat more. If I work less I eat less but burn less off. Catch 22 is in full affect here. One of these devices may someday help me prove what I know and have been telling the doctors for years. I am more active than most people.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi there, you could also try the Jawbone Up device. I had one for a year and it’s only a fraction of the cost of a Fitbit. It tracks your steps so it would show you and your doctor how active you are every day. It’s battery operated too, so no need to charge it like you have to do with the Fitbit.

      Like

  3. I felt a little cheated when after riding 26 miles on my bicycle my fit bit told me I had accomplished 1,700 steps that day. a few days later my fitbit fell out somewhere. I was OK with that. I hope someday we will see a step, pedal, glucose tracking device. Now that I will buy. 🙂

    Like

  4. I love my charge 2! I find it really motivating, especially now I’m ‘friends’ with other family members etc so that we can cheer each other on. Hope you enjoy it, Emma, and I hope it helps with increasing the exercise. (The reminder to move every hour is great!)

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.