As a teenager waiting tables, one of the most valuable lessons I learned was to save steps. I never went back to the kitchen without taking dirty dishes back with me. It would have to be done eventually and my customers weren’t likely to do it. After that, saving steps became a way of life for me. That’s why I always hauled in five bags of groceries and a gallon of milk at the same time—or tried to.
All that changed a few years ago when some of the employees where I worked started the year with fitness trackers and a step competition. I’m not normally a gizmo gal, but I am interested in fitness; plus the prizes were really good. Overnight, I went from saving steps to getting more of them every chance I got. Incidentally, I got a lot more on days when there were treats in the breakroom.
At home, I started making two trips every time I went to my basement so I could get more steps. Also, because I forgot why I went down there in the first place.
And I didn’t get upset anymore when my grocery store moved everything around. You can get a lot of steps wandering all over the store looking for black olives and peanut butter.
Thanks to my fitness tracker, I was getting into the best shape of my life. But then…I lost it while my husband and I were on a road trip, so I had to quit exercising.
I’m joking. I continued to train like an Olympic athlete; I just couldn’t prove it without my tracker. But then, no one could prove that I didn’t, either.
They’d be able to now, though. After about nine months without a tracker, I bought a Fitbit Inspire HR. And Inspire is a good name for it. When I went shopping for a new fitness device, I was just looking for something to count my steps. Clearly, I lack imagination. My new Fitbit does everything but the dishes. It’s like a coach that follows me everywhere but doesn’t make me run laps, though it would count every step if I did.
Unlike my last tracker, which I wore on my ankle, this is a sporty little doohickey I wear on my wrist. I’m still getting to know all of its capabilities, but it already knows me very well. For example, my tracker knows I’ve burned 1,018 calories thus far today. And it would know how many I’ve consumed, too, if I logged everything I ate into the application—and was honest about it. I don’t do that because taking the time to track all my snacks would take away from my exercise time. Also, I’m not sure I want to know.
It watches me when I’m sleeping, which isn’t as creepy as it sounds. And it gives me a sleep score every morning, which is something no professor ever did for me.
My sleep grades aren’t as good as I’d like them to be, but on the bright side, I toss and turn so much, I routinely rack up two or three hundred steps before I get out of bed in the morning.
Most importantly, my new Fitbit has inspired me to be even more obsessive about getting my steps. It’s never been hard for me to get the recommended 10,000 steps. I took 2,000 steps just looking for my cellphone today. I never found it, which means another easy 2,000 tomorrow.
But just getting 10,000 steps isn’t enough for my fancy new Fitbit. Oh no. It nags me to move throughout the day so that I can stay fit and get even less work done at my computer than I did before.
So, now I two-step while I cook and pirouette while I unload the dishwasher. Then, I waltz with the broom—while I sweep up the dishes I broke two-stepping and pirouetting.
If I haven’t taken at least 250 steps in an hour, my tracker buzzes me at 10 minutes ‘til. I startle easily, so that’s always good for a few steps. Then the words “Feed me” float across the screen. So, I jump up and march straight to the kitchen. I’m kidding! It actually says, “Feed me steps,” but I still think “feed me” is a poor choice of words for a fitness device.
If I hit 250 by the end of the hour, my Fitbit congratulates me. “Strong stepping,” it says. Or “You crushed it.” That seems dramatic. I walked 250 steps in an hour. Some people run marathons.
Fortunately, it says nothing when I don’t get 250 steps in an hour. That’s wise. If it criticized me, I might fling it against the wall and that could affect both its accuracy and its warranty. BHW
(Dorothy Rosby gets 4,000 steps each day looking for her reading glasses.)