The Allure of the Fitbit

Amanda got us Fitbits for our birthdays recently and they’ve taken over our lives. We wanted them to help track our steps for Noom (more on that later) but we didn’t realize how persuasive the little buggers would be.

Fitbit would like us to walk 250 steps every hour during the hours of 9am-6pm. On dye days, that’s not a problem at all but if we’re sewing bags and have a stack ready to go, you can be sedentary for quite some time. Suddenly your wrist is buzzing and telling you that you need 150 more steps within the next 5 minutes to make the 250 mark. Since we are both just a tiny bit competitive, that is a challenge that needs to be met. So at 5 to any particular hour, you may see us high stepping around the house, saying hello to passing creatures, as we try to make up the difference. Who wouldn’t want the “you nailed it” buzz at the end?

They are also tracking our sleeping habits. I am a very restless sleeper it would seem, something I hope is going to change with our other habits.

Helen and I have been trying to get healthier - pretty much our entire adult lives - and when we saw Noom advertised on the Food Network, we thought we’d try it out. The part we liked best was that it wasn’t a diet but more a lifestyle change, which we have tried before, but for some reason, Noom clicked with us.

So we started it about 8 weeks ago and the best thing about it is we don’t think of it as dieting. It doesn’t feel like we’re being denied anything. We’ve only had Gelato once in that time period (which was divine, I’m not going to lie) and we don’t miss it at all, which is crazy considering our feelings about ice cream. The only chocolate we’ve eaten was the little baggie of M&M’s we tried on our last podcast. And again, we’re not craving it at all.

I think part of it is that we can have ice cream whenever we want, as long as it fits with our daily calories, but we’re trying to get healthier choices in there. So instead of a bowl of chocolate on the side board, we keep one of grapes and take a handful of them when we get hungry. And we’re replacing rice with cauliflower rice (I don’t know who I am anymore).

It’s working. We’re both hovering around the 25 pound loss right now. We feel better and are moving easier - not quite so sluggish all the time and clothes are a little looser.

So we will be continuing this, hopefully until we reach our goal weights. I like that Noom shows your weight loss on a graph that shows the approximate date you will reach your goal weight, if you lose at the same rate. Ours right now is next summer which is doable - I like that it’s a date I can see in the future, rather than 5 or 10 years down the road. They give you tricks and ways to keep going when you get stuck and maintaining your weight when you do reach the magic number. 

As my wrist buzzes for my next 250 steps, I wonder does this need to satiate my Fitbit wear off as the newness of it fades?