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Have you notice that just about everyone you know is now wearing some type of fitness tracker? They have become a piece of our everyday wear, just like underwear. You take them off when you take a shower and then make sure you have it on when you are done, hopefully the underwear is clean.  When fitness trackers first came out that was what they were used for, FITNESS! Now that technology has improved on the fitness trackers, you can track your sleep, gauge your progress, and see who is messaging or calling you. This last one comes in handy when you have a preteen boy that is all over the place.  To top that off, there are so many to choose from! I don’t know about you, but I found it hard to know which one to get and how to use it to its fullest extent once I did buy one. I knew that I could benefit from one but the selection of fitness trackers was a little overwhelming. Decisions, decisions, decisions!!  What you look for in a fitness tracker should be based on your individual needs and taste, just like picking out the shoes you plan to workout in. There needs to be a good fit to reap the full benefits not just with function but also design. Check out this year’s review of fitness trackers from Review.com to see which ones they recommend. My top four things that I looked at when I finally decided on one was:
Price - Want to make sure I am getting my moneys worth without going over board. Comfort - I like more of a watching looking fitness tracker and not a bracelet style. Ease of use - I don't have a lot of time to be searching through screens and something that pretty much self explanatory. Tracking capabilities - Needed one to track my runs, workouts, sleep and heart rate. I have been totally happy with my choice of the Garmin Forerunner 235 due to all the capabilities it has that fit my needs. You might not need one as fancy as mine or you may need one that does more. Based your decision on your needs, taste and price range. Also do your research. Review.com put out a great article in June on their top 3 picks, take some time and read it over. They go over design, comfort, accuracy, testing they did, and more. Let me know what you look for in a fitness tracker and which one you have. I guess I better get going mine is telling me to move.  In all reality, the days of having 60 minutes to dedicate to our fitness is just about nonexistent for many of us. Commitments to family, friends, work and all the other things that life likes to throw at us keeps us busy. Who has the time or energy to knock out an hour of exercise and not feel guilty about it?  That is part of the problem, right? Not just the time, but the guilt of thinking about yourself instead of your commitments. It is selfish! Many of us have been taught that you need to take care of your responsibilities, family and life situations first. You are last.  Let me poses this question to you. If you don’t take the time to take care of yourself, how can you or anyone else expect you to take care of them or perform at your best? When we are overworked, over committed, stressed, and unfit we do not perform at our best. You don’t have to schedule 60 minutes every day to workout, to reap the benefits that it offers. Fit in what works for you, anything is better than nothing at all. A 15-minute walk or run may not feel like it is doing a lot for you physically wise, which it is, but it does also help with stress levels which can help with your mood. Strength training doesn’t have to take forever, do a circuit that incorporates compound movements to target all your muscle groups to get an effective workout in a shorter amount of time. Do a higher intensity workout for 15 to 20 minutes while the kids are napping or during your lunch break if you are really wanting to feel like you worked out for an hour.  Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68q0Mbq0NaM for a free HIIT video that you can do at your convenience and place of choosing. |