Last June, I purchased an Up band by Jawbone, one of the many fitness trackers on the market. My main motivation was to get a read on my sleep patterns. I was also hoping that my patients would ask about it out of curiosity, perhaps providing some inspiration for others to move more.
Has it been worth it? It's difficult to offer a ringing endorsement for this particular product because it had a tendency to break down. A lot. In fact, I'm wearing my 7th one as I write this. Fortunately, their warranty policy is excellent and getting replacements was a snap. But nonetheless, the Up certainly wasn't built to last.
The band is easy to use. You just plug it into your phone and a program provides you with all sorts of stats and health tips. It can be a nice motivator if you find that you're someone who tends to forget to move much.
Just a couple of days ago, I received a message saying, "Congratulations! You just hit 4,000,000 steps over the past 361 days!". That's roughly 2,000 miles of walking/running, or 12,500 steps per day.
I'm not writing this to pat myself on the back. I'm sharing this because even though I like to lift some weights and run, I'm convinced that my decent health is largely owed to the walking I do, the general cumulative moving around rather than the directed, focused exercising.
My desire to walk and take stairs rather than look for shortcuts is twofold. First, it just feels more natural and gratifying. And secondly, after having the good fortune to have worked with kids with special needs for ten years, many of whom were wheelchair bound, I told myself that I would walk and take stairs simply because I'm blessed to be able to do so. I don't take it for granted.
This is not rocket science. Move more now while you can, and you'll improve your chances of moving on your own well into the future.
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