Monday Motivation Series: Why I’m Retiring my Fitbit

My Fitbit is Going Into Retirement

I have officially decided to retire my Fitbit and all fitness related watches, bracelets, etc.  I’ve had and used this Fitbit for two years.  I bought it after my last fitness device broke.  Being really into fitness at the time, I was so excited that I allowed myself to splurge on this awesome device.  There is nothing wrong with the device, and after two years and accidentally taking a swim with me, it still works.  The employee at Best Buy tried to scare me into buying the extended warranty on it because “they break all the time.”  Well, he was wrong.  The Fitbit Blaze never let me down.  The great part is, it acts as a watch as well, and I was able to switch out the wrist band whenever I had an event where I wanted it to look like an actual watch.

How Fitness Trackers Ended Up in My Life

I started using fitness trackers back in 2015 when my job at the time had given out ones for free and told us that we would continue to have our health insurance paid for if we signed up for the app and tracked our progress along with taking an annual health assessment test.  The results of the test didn’t factor in on your insurance coverage, and I thought that this was a great idea to help get people into shape.  I then had two more fitness trackers after that, and once the second one broke, I asked my fiance what device was the best.  He’s a big nerd, so he researches everything, even though it doesn’t pertain to him.  We went to Best Buy and I bought the Fitbit Blaze.

Fitbit Blaze Features

The features on this are great.  You can link it to your phone, so any notifications that you get on your phone (email, text, & incoming calls) also alert you on the device.  This was a great way for me to not miss calls when my phone was in the other room on vibrate and I didn’t hear it.  There is an option to link your music, track not only your steps, but your workouts too.  In the settings you can alert yourself to make sure to move around a certain amount of time within an hour, and I used to love getting the “fireworks” alert when I hit my daily step goal.  It basically vibrates and has firework type images show up on the screen of the Fitbit.  You can also link it to your Fitbit Coach app, that way you can use Fitbit to it’s full potential to see what kind of fitness level you are, what’s the best place to start, and what kind of workouts your body reacts better to.  In the app, you can track your progress, track what you eat, how much water you drink, your weight, and for us females, your cycle.

It Served It’s Purpose

The Fitbit Blaze is a great device and definitely served it’s purpose for me and my goals.  I will always recommend this device to anyone out there looking for one because I truly loved it.  I have decided to retire my Fitbit for a few reasons, but the final straw was when I actually got a sore on my wrist.  I’m not sure if it has to do with the Fitbit (I clean it all the time, but who knows if some kind of residue from sweat built up in a little crevice I can’t get to), but I developed a sore right underneath the sensor of the Fitbit.  I take my Fitbit off a lot when I’m not moving or not using it, and I do clean it.  Somehow, I still got a sore.  I had taken it off for my wrist to heal, and decided I wouldn’t be putting it back on.

A few months back I had turned off the notifications feature, because I always forgot to turn it off at night and I’d be woken up by the vibration of it.  I also noticed that even though it tracks my steps, it’s obviously not 100% accurate.  This is pretty much the same for a lot of these types of devices, and it didn’t track my workouts properly because 30 minutes of Yoga may not have lots of steps included but it is considered a workout in my opinion.

My Unhealthy Obsession

The obsession surrounding my Fitbit was a little unhealthy at one point as well.  I would check my steps all the time, and if I didn’t make enough steps within an hour I would literally walk in place just to hit that mark.  I would be constantly looking at everything on the app and would work out just a little harder if I came up short of where I wanted to be for the day.  With all of the craziness that has become my life from the move and everything, I did have that obsession put on the backburner, but in my opinion, it was an unhealthy obsession.  I wasn’t enjoying life to the fullest because I was constantly looking at my Fitbit.

I Feel Free

Now that I stopped wearing it, I feel more free.  I know that, that sounds very strange because how can a Fitbit feel like a ball and chain that much?  However, it was really weighing me down a lot.  Although, now I have a really bad tan line from it haha!

xoxo Monica

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