Every MWF a part of my daily trek is to go to my class on the third floor in Willard. And every MWF I am out of breath by the second set of stairs. I used to be discouraged by this but not anymore.
I recently splurged and bought myself a Garmin vivosmart Hr watch. What is this you ask? Here is a picture. What does it do? Let me tell you. My handy dandy new toy displays steps, distance, calories, heart rate, floors climbed, sleep, and activity intensity. It also receives texts, calls, and shows me all social media alerts and notifications. And it is SOOOO SATISFYING.
Although I do more strength training than cardio it has been very encouraging to see my stats over the last few weeks. Walking around campus MWF I do around 7 miles per day and get around 12,000 steps in. It gives me my avg heart rate during my lifting sessions and can tracks walks and runs with a gps so I can see how long it takes me to get certain places.
The fun thing about this watch is that it tracks progress. It lets you see your stats and have visual satisfaction. It also makes you push yourself further. It’s a subtle reminder to park farther away, walk instead of drive, and take the stairs instead of the elevator.
It also buzzes when you reach your daily step and stair goals which I find really encouraging when you’re half way through the day and you’ve already met your goal. It also is handy because it shows all the notifications you would get on your phone. While you can’t reply to them you can see who snapped, tweeted, or messaged you without having to sneak out your phone in class. 🙂
Something I specifically wanted and which lead me to this purchase was the built in GPS. I have apps that can track my route but that means I need to have my phone on me along with a place to put it and a charged battery. Safe to say this is a lot easier. For all the hiking I do this is really fun to be able to see where I went and how long it took me.
This watch also links to different apps. I have mine connected to Map My Run and My Fitness Pal. Map My Run is another workout tracker that I have been using up until I got the watch and My Fitness Pal I mostly use to track my daily food intake and nutrition. It syncs with my Garmin and Map My Run Apps so it merges all my statistics together which I can view in the Garmin app.
There are many gadgets and toys out there that can track your fitness. Fitbit and Garmin are probably the two most reputable brands and they offer all different types of trackers. It makes it easy to track your workouts and it also is a subtle cheerleader on your wrist.
As a student who has a million plus things to do each day this watch takes out some of the hassle of tracking and recording workouts and food. If you are in the market for a fitness tracker and you’re hesitant. Just do it. Money is meant to be spent. Especially on things that improve your health…..
Emma,
I really enjoyed reading your post! I love how your tone shines through your writing. It makes it really relatable and easy to read. I think I also really enjoyed reading this post in particular, because I have a Fitbit Surge. I used MapMyRun for years to track my runs, but I hated having to bring my phone on my runs. When I decided that buying a watch would be a great idea, I was also interested in purchasing one that had a built in GPS. It’s so convenient to have that feature, and I agree about how satisfying it is. One of my favorite things is feeling my watch buzz when I achieved my step goal! It’s really incredible how quickly these products have caught on. Not only is it beneficial for the companies selling the watches, but also the health of the consumers. I think this product is a simple way for consumers to become more aware of how much they’re exercising. Great post!!
~Taylor M. Young