I treated myself to a mint green Jawbone Up (these are not my hands in the photo, though – they’re Ryan’s!). Last year I was training for a 10K and only having one cheat day a week. I was in the best shape I ever have been. This year, my willpower with food has disappeared (I can’t say NO!), and I’ve mostly given up on cardio in favour for lifting. Truthfully, I don’t like the way my body looks. More importantly, however, I don’t feel as good as I did this time last year. I figured that having a Jawbone Up in my life would encourage me to move more (it has), as well as truthfully log my diet (still getting into the routine of that). It’s provided me with an incentive each day to get off my arse. By the time I go to the gym and walk the 2 miles to the studio for 10am, I’ve logged my recommended 10,000 steps a day. By the end of the day I am often at 232% of my goal! However, I don’t always go to the gym and – very occasionally – I may drive to work. On those days my activity is hovering around the 6,000 steps mark by evening, so I make sure I get out and work it up to at least 10,000 steps. I didn’t do this prior to having a Jawbone Up.
I was intrigued to see how much activity it would log on days I shoot weddings. Shooting weddings is tiring; you’re on your feet all day with very little breaks, and – using solely primes – I depend on my position to compose the shot as opposed to zoom lenses doing the work for me. I was quite shocked to see, though, that shooting a full day wedding just clocked in at 10,000 steps!
Anyway, it’s 1pm and – despite a 3 mile jog – I’m still only at 63% of my goal. I better move.
now i have to buy one too 🙂
Food is my weakness and I have a terrible time logging food. I know diet is a very important part but for me personally, I’d rather spend a few hours at the gym 5x a week than stress over every damn calorie. I go through weeks where I can log food with no problem and then I have a few days of bad food choices and I take a break from it for a bit.
I don’t have an Up but I have something similar and I really don’t think I would’ve accomplished as much if I didn’t. I like seeing all of my data and not having to log it manually!
I completely know what you mean about it not counting everything. I typically feel like strength training has been a waste (I know it’s not) because it doesn’t really contribute to my step goal. Thankfully, I wear a heart rate monitor and feel better when I see the calorie burn at the end. That’s probably not something you could wear to a wedding though! ;-D