As of late, it appears my marathon days are long gone. With my heel spur on the mend, I’m moving a lot less these days. Running, my once beloved fitness, is like dust in the wind with my marathon days a distant memory.

However, the only way to maintain healthy living is to move more. It’s not rocket science. I don’t need to run hours upon hours and tens of miles for optimal wellness. (In fact, no one ever claimed marathoners to be healthy.) For truly healthy living, I only need to MOVE and every little bit of movement should count, be it housework or lifting weights.

Truth be told, with my lack of running, I’m moving a lot less these days. More and more, I find myself sitting at my desk too long and my sleeping habits are horrendous. These days, I know I’m not living my healthiest me, but for some reason, I needed to see the facts in black and white (or in the shape of a black band) to believe it.

A few weeks into my Body Back quest, I had the opportunity to review a FitBit Charge from my friends at AT&T and I learned a lot about my lackluster fitness habits. The FitBit Charge has a built in heart rate monitor and it honestly tracks everything. It is literally on the pulse of your daily routine.

These FitBits have come a long way from the little first generation FitBit clip-ons.  The sleek design fit modestly on my wrist and it’s high-tech durability delivered some noteworthy statistics.

Four Reasons to Choose a FitBit Charge

Steps

You’ve probably seen all the jokes about people obsessing over their steps and trying to hit 10,000 steps in a day. I didn’t get it either until I started using a FitBit. Once I saw the steps tracked in my log, it dawned on me that the steps converted into miles.

As a runner, I preferred the “miles conversion”. In order to hit 10,000 steps, you would need to walk or run five miles. So in running terms if I ran 5 miles, I would hit my daily FitBit goal, however, on a good workout day, I only hit about 7,000 steps. If the goal is to get moving again, then sadly, the FitBit shined the light on the fact I am not moving enough. Honestly, even if I ran 3 miles three times a week, it would do wonders for me.

Fat-Burning

Even if you hit 10,000 steps, it doesn’t mean you actually hit the fat-burning zone. That was another eye-opener for me. Even on the days I worked out and pushed myself, I didn’t really hit the magic fat-burning spot. I’m getting the cardio, but I’m not burning fat. I’m just burning calories, which is good, but I won’t lose weight just burning calories.

When I looked at my FitBit log, I could see that I didn’t spend enough time during my workouts in my Peak Zone  or the Fat Burn Zone. In order to see results over time, I need to move more and work out harder for a longer duration.

Sleep

There are piles of articles on the interwebs that state the importance of sleep for healthy living. Poor sleep patterns can lead to depression and weight gain. I knew my sleep habits were terrible but I had no idea how terrible. Seeing the data of my sleep patterns helped me understand it more. The little sleep I’m getting is very restless and I’m definitely not getting an optimal eight hours of sleep which is so important for reparining and rebuilding muscles, especially for helping to heal my heel spur.

Calorie Tracking

Between a Garmin, a FitBit Charge HR and, MyFitnessPal, all of these apps can be a bit overwhelming, however, I love that they all “talk” to each other and help track my caloric burn and my caloric intake. The FitBit linked right into MyFitnessPal and helped track my caloric burn. Since the FitBit heart rate monitor tracked all of the daily activity including my workouts and cardio burn, I didn’t have to guesstimate my caloric burn. With the two connected apps, every meal I logged in MyFitnessPal would also be logged into my FitBit. No extra meal tracking or logging. It was one stop food journaling!

Fitbit Food Log

MyFitnessPal Food Log

If healthy living is the goal, the FitBit Charge helped guide me toward that goal. Of course, moving more and eating the right foods is always a good start, however, the FitBit Charge simply helped steer me in the right direction and shine a light of some of the wellness areas that I need to improve.

Continue to follow and track my FitBit journey here.