[spoiler title=’Click for transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] walking six miles a day every day almost every day for the past two years has been I think a very very important part of both my weight loss and maintaining that weight loss so losing the sixty-five pounds I think was definitely a combination of the eating and the walking it kind of reinforced the habit and then you know the maintaining I found it very important to continue walking I landed on walking as my excuse proof form of exercise it didn’t matter how tired I was I could always get up and get some steps in and I do it in my house so again there are no excuses if I don’t get my steps in there are absolutely no excuses if you’re looking to start walking every day as your form of exercise you’re probably considering buying a Fitbit or other kind of fitness tracker but odds are you already have a fitness tracker I’ve used both a Fitbit and a phone as my pedometer and they each have their pros and their cons so today’s video it’s just gonna be about the pros and cons of each and what my conclusions are so first let’s talk about the benefits that you’ll get whether you use your phone or you buy a fitness tracker first of all they’re both going to give you an accurate count of your steps they’re both simple to use most apps will let you track your steps and your weight in the same app and that’s very important to track both your weight and your steps so if you’re not weighing yourself every day you should check out my other video on why you should that being said there are some differences so first let’s talk about the Fitbit the Fitbit is amazing I loved loved loved my Fitbit I cherished that thing I got it in December of 2014 and if anything if nothing else the one thing the one big realization that I got from it was I was sedentary I did not realize how little I moved until I had a Fitbit on my wrist showing me just how few steps I got there were days I would only get like Association says you should get 10,000 steps a day so it made me that may be my lifestyle was also partly to blame for my weight gain and the Fitbit is really fun it’s got a whole community so when you’re on the app you can be friends with both people who just have Fitbits and your friends in real life who have Fitbits and you can do challenges and you can have contests and it’s a lot of fun you can see how you know kind of keep each other accountable which is good so another really cool thing that I liked about the Fitbit and maybe not everybody would like was the badges I love earning things like that even though they have no value in real life like for example they had the Sahara badge which you earn after you’ve walked Sahara Desert another cool feature is that it keeps track of your personal bests which I found to be very motivating back in 2016 when I really got serious about I’m going to walk six miles every day I told myself I would also beat my personal bests every month and so that was helpful because it really showed me what I was capable of like I got over 40,000 steps in a single day and then that made that being said you’ll notice I’m not wearing one and the reason for that is after I’d owned it for a year and nine months it broke now I bought mine in December of 2014 and I paid $80 for it and I just felt like something that I paid $80 for should last for longer than that I don’t know maybe I was wrong and maybe at my standards were too high but at that point I just felt like that was a lot of money to spend on a pedometer that broke after not even two years of use so I did contact their support team and they were very nice they basically said you know we only have a one-year warranty and so here’s a discount code if you want to you know have like I don’t know didn’t buy another one after that there are a couple of other cons it can be kind of pricey for what it is and they’re not the prettiest things you know like if you’re and you’re dressed up if you’ve got your Fitbit on it’s just kind of sporty looking although there are some options out there some independent crafters have really started to make some cute things like on Etsy and some other companies have started to make a little Fitbit holders some people have an issue with trying to remember to charge the battery but what I found with that is if I could just charge it miles in the shower I never ran out of battery it always was charged I never had to deal with it so now let’s talk about using your phone I’ve been doing this for the past year now and I will say whether you use a Fitbit or you use your phone either way you can get your steps in one thing that I was concerned about was that I would somehow not be as motivated to get my steps in if I only use my phone but I found that it was actually just as easy to stay motivated because at that point the habit had been ingrained and that’s something to consider the Fitbit was fun and engaging and everything and while I was forming my habit after I had formed the habit then I used my phone so I saw no difference and you know my consistency a big reason why I just started to use my phone was because I already had it with me when I was walking anyway so you know normally now I just listen to podcasts so I’ve always got my phone in my pocket while I’m listening to the podcast and in the beginning a lot of times I was just watching Netflix just you know walking around my house watching Netflix so I thought what’s the point of having a Fitbit when I’m already carrying around a thing that is a pedometer so there’s just one less thing to have to worry about on the flip side of that there are some not so nice things about using your phone as a pedometer first of all the battery drains really fast so you’re gonna have to be really diligent about keeping your phone charged so that when you are ready to go get your steps in you have it charged up and ready to go and if you’re watching TV with your phone while you’re getting your steps in your battery’s gonna drain quicker so just be aware of that and you have to remember to put the phone in your pocket if you want your steps to count which I’ve had to learn the hard way before also pockets ok phones are getting bigger pockets are tiny it’s a problem also my athletic shorts which I’m usually wearing don’t have pockets so with that I tried you know buying one of those dorky belt Clippy things and strapping it to and clipping it to my hip but I stopped that because it broke but what I do now is I just stick my phone in between my hip and my waistband and just let the shorts hold it there but that’s probably a bad plan and I’ll probably drop my phone and break it at some point so bottom line my suggestion would be if you want a Fitbit go get a Fitbit you’ll enjoy it it’ll probably help motivate you more when you’re getting in the habit of starting to walk also it’s cool to have a community around you and it’s just more motivating in general but if you don’t have the budget for it still no excuse you can still totally do this with your phone and you know if you’re kind of in that middle like you don’t really have a budget for a new one but you think it would help you go get a used one on eBay like just find a reputable seller and go get you a used one okay so hopefully that helps if you’ve had a Fitbit tell me did you love it did you hate it did you use it did it break I would love to know because I’m looking to maybe buy another one in the near future maybe I just got a bad one [/spoiler]
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I forgot to mention it in the video, but the Fitbit I owned was a Flex. The comparable product nowadays would be a Flex 2 ($59.94 currently with Prime on Amazon)
Here’s a link to a used Charge HR on ebay that’s only $38 in Used/Good condition that I’ve got my own eye on.
Here’s a really cute leather Fitbit Flex 2 Bracelet I found on Etsy: (Click the image for the seller’s page)