My New Toy

I’ve been obsessing about the FitBit for weeks, as I often do with things right before I find a way to purchase them. Just as I was starting to believe I couldn’t live one more minute without knowing precisely how many calories I’m burning at any given moment, it arrived!

It’s cute! It’s pink! It spells my name correctly! I’m in love.

The arrival was Thursday afternoon. Friday morning at 8:26 I was front and center in spin class at the Y, ready to burn an excessive number of calories and finally know for sure what that number was. Not knowing exactly how many calories I burn during spin frustrates me. Calorie estimators will give you anything from 500 to 1000 depending on your level of intensity. “Vigorous” versus “highly vigorous” can mean a difference of hundreds and hundreds of calories. How the heck do I know?! Yes, there are times in spin where the vigorous is so high I’m sure I’m going to realize my great fear of falling off the bike while my feet stay attached to the pedal straps. There are also times (many) where I choose to completely ignore the instructor’s suggestion to add tension in favor of a few minutes to catch my breath.

So Friday morning I was so ready to put an end to the mystery. I rode with all I had, and even participated in (most of) the tension increases. I resisted checking my FitBit until the end of stretching. Fully expecting, knowing, I reached a burn of at least 700 calories. The grand total?

208 calories.

Shock. Betrayal. Adorable little gadget of lies!

208! Impossible. I burn 208 just getting myself and the kids ready and to the gym!

After a quick conversation with the instructor and confirming my rage is well placed, she suggests maybe I’m wearing my FitBit in the wrong place for cycling and it’s just not picking up my pedal strokes. I had it clipped on the waistband of my shorts. Had to be.

Further research at home reveals cycling is one of FitBit’s least accurate activities when it comes to capturing calories burned. Great. I did read in the online community section that a few users had good luck clipping it to their sock, so I’ll try that next time.

Ok, so even though I still don’t know exactly how many calories spin class burns me, I’ve made peace with FitBit and have really enjoyed its benefits. I have made a conscious effort to reach 10,000 steps in a day (though I’ve yet to), and I like seeing how a few minutes running around the house playing with the kids translates into calories burned. I absolutely love the sleep tracker. Every morning it tells me how long it took me to fall asleep, the efficiency of my sleep, and how many times (and when) I woke. Though when I woke up this morning my readout said I had taken 52 steps since midnight. A tad alarming. Where did I go? I’m definitely a crazy psycho sleep talker, but sleep walking? A whole new thing. At least I’m getting added exercise, I guess.

I imagine I’ll learn tons more about my new toy as I continue to use it. In the meantime, let’s hope I don’t walk out the front door in my sleep.

I love technology…but not as much as you, you see.

I got a new cell phone last weekend, which has prompted me to be curious about my first cell phone, which I haven’t really thought about in years. A 4 minute google search later, I present to you in all its glory…….the Nokia 2160:

This little baby…er, I mean big baby, officially made me the coolest kid at Northeast High.  And oh yes, I had it in this ultra radical purple marble color too.  Move over Zack Morris, my awesome purple high school cell phone was way better than your dumb grey one. Oooh you know what would have been way cool? If I would have gotten Mr. Belding to sign this phone when I met him. I will always regret not having my Nokia 2160 with me that night at Planet Hollywood in Atlanta.

Anyway, I wonder whatever became of my first cell phone. Tyson says he remembers seeing it in person at some point, so I had it in my poession until at least 2001. I probably dropped it in the phone recycling bin at Best Buy or something. It would have been nice to hold onto it and show Wilson when he gets older what cell phones used to lo0k like. Since by then humans will most likely have internet-cell phone chips implanted in their teeth. Course, Walt Disney thought we’d all be jetting around in our own personal rocket backpacks by 1985, and we missed that mark BIG time. It’s even 24 years after that and all we’ve got is fashionable Jansport backpacks.  I hate disappointing Walt.