I’ll be honest, I’ve always been a bit skeptical about fitness trackers.  Nothing I can specifically put my finger on about them, just never ‘got’ the appeal of them.

In December I decided to buy one.  It was an impulse purchase, so I didn’t do much by way of research into the best one to get, I just saw it was cheap and bought it (Black Friday has a lot to answer for!)

It’s a Jawbone UP24 – yeah, I’d never heard of them either – and it tracks your steps, looks at the quality of your sleep and your can input your food in to work out calories etc (this list is not exhaustive, but it’s not a review of the product itself).

I always thought I was quite active, but I knew that general daily activity levels are not quite good enough.  Well, the Jawbone certainly pointed that out quickly!  The idea is, that you wear the tracker and then set goals to beat so, over time, you make improvements to your exercise habits, sleeping pattern and know exactly how many calories were in the pepperoni pizza you had for tea last night.

I have to say, my skepticism was short-lived.  I have strong feelings for my Jawbone, and can see the difference it has made to my daily life – I just ‘pop out’ for random walks, I’ve started tracking my calories so I can make sure my eating is as healthy as I can make it, still with the odd treat if I’ve got a few calories spare at the end of the day.

The recommendations are for adults to get 10,000 steps a day, or more if possible, but I knew that I would struggle to get that many. I’m averaging between 8,000 and 9,000 at the moment (my goal is 8,000 per day) but I know I can increase that over time and the other workouts I do add to my activity level.

You don’t necessarily have to pay out for one of these fitness trackers, if you have a smartphone there are a wealth of apps that you can download – think about the information you would want, and make sure you find something suitable.

Remember to keep your targets manageable – if your average daily steps are at 7,000 currently, don’t try and aim for 12,000 straight off!

Have you bought a fitness tracker? Or would you recommend a particular brand?

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