Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Motivation to Move

How's it going, y'all?  Today is my LAST DAY of work for the 2013-2014 school year!  I've officially finished my first year as a math coach--woo hoo!  I do have a training tomorrow, 2 trainings next week, then I teach summer school for 3 weeks in July.  Not much of a summer break, but at least we have Fridays off in the summer!

So, in my Currently survey from Friday, I mentioned that I had a FitBit on my wish list.  For those of you who don't know, a FitBit is an activity tracker that measures your steps, active minutes, and sleep patterns.  My sister-in-law got one right before our trip to DC, and I loved hearing how many steps we'd taken, miles we'd walked, and flights of stairs we climbed while sight-seeing in the city.  Every since then, I'd wanted a FitBit of my own.

Well, yesterday, I went ahead and bought a FitBit Flex!
Isn't it pretty?

I completed the initial set-up and downloaded the FitBit app around 1:30 yesterday was so ready to get in a bunch of steps for the rest of the day!  The FitBit syncs automatically when you open up the app on your smartphone, and there is a lot of fun information that you can see on the dashboard.
Not a great night's sleep...
Even though I got a late start on my daily step count yesterday, the FitBit made me SO MOTIVATED to get up and moving.  I love numbers (hello, math nerd here!), so checking the stats and seeing how many more I needed to reach the 10,000 steps/day goal was so exciting for me.  For me, seeing my progress toward a daily goal was just what I needed to get off the couch and move.  I wound up doing 2 things yesterday I probably wouldn't have done without seeing how little movement I had yesterday afternoon:

-Normally, when I get home from work, I just let Tequila out in our back yard so that she can run around.  Sometimes I'll sit out there with her and play with her, but usually it's just her playing by herself.  Yesterday, in order to get more steps, I took her on a 20-minute walk in the afternoon.  I enjoyed the time outside, and I know Tequila had a blast walking around the neighborhood, too!
Yesterday's data
-Even though I have a training schedule for a race, I haven't been super motivated to run lately.  But, in an effort to get more steps, I went for a run before dinner!  I was shocked at how many steps this run added to my total (I should have known--I did run 3 miles!!), and I foresee many more runs on days when I'm a little short on my step count.
As you can see, so far I'm loving my FitBit Flex!  It really is giving me motivation to move, and I hope the excitement and motivation will continue far past the first days, weeks, and months that I have this thing.  Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep y'all updated :)

Question for you: Do you have a FitBit? If so, let's be FitBit friends!  If not, what motivates you to get up and move?

4 comments:

  1. I think I would love having a Fit Bit to see what my normal life is like in terms of activity level (I have a very sedentary job). The color is cute too!

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    1. That's something I'm loving to find out--it's really interesting to see how much moving I do at work! Walking around a pretty big high school is really helpful as far as increasing the steps :)

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  2. I have been seriously thinking about getting one of these (although I'm leaning a little bit more towards the Jawbone UP but I'm still undecided), because I sit for work most of the day and think it would be great motivation to get up and actually move during the work day! Glad to know that you love it already!

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    1. Oh, it would definitely help with that! It helped a lot today :) My sister-in-law told me to look on Brad's Deals (I think is what she called it) for cheaper prices. That's where she got hers!

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