Fitbit Hell

Recently I started using a FitBit. I finally gave in to this latest app/gadget, because I finally faced up to the awful truth - that exercising once, vigorously, first thing in the morning, does not entitle you to the life of a slob for the other 23 hours of the day. I am doing a 5k run next week, the Race For Life - I have been doing this run ever since my sister was first diagnosed with breast cancer, and now that she has died, I run it as a way of putting the ongoing, nagging pain of that loss into some sort of perspective. And I know 5k is not a lot for a runner, but then I am not a runner. I am an orthopaedic patient. I have had four rounds of orthopaedic surgery and in fact in Autumn I will be having my fifth, so frankly any kind of distance that I achieve at a pace faster than a cautious two step, is a miraculous victory of bloody minded determination over generic NHS prognoses, and I do tend to get smug satisfaction out of demonstrating my Underdog Status. So. A 5k run coming up, and my training, though helping to increase my pace a bit, was not doing a whole lot for my overall look. Basically, I was still wobbling in places that really shouldn't be wobbling. I figured the answer was, to find gentle ways to be more active throughout the day, rather than just doing one blast of exercise in the morning. Walking had to be the most obvious way of doing this. I easily walk 10000 steps a day just a result of my commute and the frequent back and forth to meetings in different building along the very long road I work at. But getting some consistency in that, plus challenging myself to a higher target, might, I thought, produce a difference. Well, it has. Grudging hats off to the walking advocates. I am almost into my third week and frankly I am a bit stunned to see how much more lithe I feel, how much more easily I zip into my skirts, and how much more easily I am sleeping (huge and unexpected bonus, that last one). But my friends, if you are inspired by this post to buy a FitBit, a word of caution. I had been using my IPod as a pedometer and the problem was, that it ran out of charge too quickly to be effective. The FitBit will last you a good 5 days or more before you have to charge it. Hooray. But by setting yourself up on the App, you join a vast community of people who all appear to have obsessive compulsive disorder. These are people who are logging the quality of their sleep, every millilitre of water drunk, every calorie ingested. People who pore agonizingly over the definitions of their frame and the characterisation of their lifestyle - critical for FitBit's basic stats that then determine what weight loss they calculate your various bits of progress add up to. The chat fora resemble nothing so much as a geeky Good Samaritan conversation. I am mildly horrified to find myself in this world and I try pretty hard not to get sucked into it. For example, the first night I experimented with monitoring my sleep quality, I couldn't sleep. I kept waking up thinking, was that REM or not??? So I stick to aiming for 15000 steps a day. But even then, FitBit tells you which are active steps and which aren't. And you get really, really hooked. I find myself looking at the flashing lights on my wristband and deciding to get off 3, no 4, no 6 stops earlier on the tube so I can add one more flashing light to the mix. It will also add 45 minutes to my commute, but hey, it's got to be worth it for one more flashing light!! Net result: I Am Exhausted. How this is possible for a girl who boxes, swims, pulls weights and is training for a run, I am still struggling to get my head round. Who knew walking so much could be so draining. And these days I am struggling to finish reading my paper on the tube because I keep pulling out my phone to check my fitness status on the FitBit app, which, excitingly, you do not need an internet connection to synch. Yay. So, I am in the Bermuda Triangle. I have been captured by the FitBit police and transported to a world where you obsess over every journey you take, even one to the bins, and value it on the basis of a daily target. But hey. I am back into my turquoise shorts, the ones I shoved to the back of the wardrobe in shame over three years ago because I couldn't zip them up any more. That is a win win.