Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends. This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better. Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.
Together we can do this!
Hey friends – Happy Monday. How are you doing today? How was your week?
I’m learning to be nice to myself. To take care of me first and then let others fall closely behind. It’s a hard thing to do but I’m trying and it’s a step by step process. Speaking of step by steps – LOL – I want to talk about something I got last week. It’s a knock off of the Fitbit. You know the little band you wear on your arm day and night that monitors your steps. I can’t say enough nice things about this. It’s awesome. I charged it up Tuesday morning when I got it. The only bad thing I can say is when you charge it, it pops into the charger and getting it out of the charger takes a little flexing. After 45 minutes, it was ready to go.
I put it in the band, downloaded the app to my iPhone, made some updates on the app and there you go – time to forget about it and get on with your day. Now the only time you take the band off is if you are showering (you don’t want to get it wet) or charging it. It connects on your cell phone over Bluetooth. Usually the face is black but I turned it on by a gentle touch to show you how it looks with the time. It shows you the time, the date, steps you have taken and converts the steps into miles for the day. At night, you turn it on sleep mode and it monitors your sleep patterns – how cool is that huh? AND, it has an alarm that vibrates on your wrist every 2-3 hours to remind you to get up and move around if you are to sedentary.
Now, I’m a true lover of this watch and in no way got paid for saying any of these things. I think this ‘knock off’ is ideal – especially when normal Fitbits go for around $130.00 and up. Since I’m a bargain buyer you know that’s just too much for me. I got this sweet band on sale from amazon for – are you ready for this – less than $20.00! It is totally awesome and I’m hoping that it reminds me to move it – move it. In fact the second day I wore it, I was up to over 3,000 steps which is great to me. My goal is to eventually get to 10,000 steps a day.
So my friends, what have you done lately to help yourself out? Have an awesome week – remember WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!
Piglove 
kandykid
05/16/2016 at 1:26 am
I used to wear a pedometer at work. in tracking my steps over a period of time I walked the equivalent of around the US. It made the program interesting!
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 9:58 am
Cool!! I love this concept of keeping up with how much I’m walking. I think it does help to ‘remind’ me too at times to get up and move. I forget to do that when I’m involved in working.
onespoiledcat
05/16/2016 at 4:34 am
Good for you! Those Fitbits are too pricey for me – I’m a “knock off” kind of girl too. If it works for you – THAT’s what’s important…….!
Hugs, Pam
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 9:59 am
Amen to that! I couldn’t see spending that much money but for something less than $20, I’m so in!
onespoiledcat
05/16/2016 at 10:30 am
Absolutely!
hailey and Zaphod
05/16/2016 at 6:03 am
My friends and family who have these things love them! I hope it is helpful for you too!
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 9:59 am
It really has been an encouragement. I have found myself looking down at it several times and saying to myself, “Gotta get those numbers up.”
easyweimaraner
05/16/2016 at 6:14 am
the mama bugged the dad since christmas for a fitbit… we had no clue that there are knockoffs too…. we will look at amazon immediately, thanks for the tip!!!!!!!!!!!!
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 10:01 am
Sending you an email 🙂 XOXO – Bacon
Cupcake
05/16/2016 at 6:33 am
Great idea. That will SURELY make you aware of moving more which is healthy – weight loss or no weight loss. Mom had a FitBit, and even though 10,000 steps is considered normal, Mom does not consider herself normal, so she aimed for 5,000 steps, which is fine for her age and her replacement knee. The problem was her curiousity. She wanted to see if she could record mileage in the pool, so she put her FitBit into a Ziplock bag, tucked it into her bathing suit and went swimming at the gym. That would be a hard NO. The FitBit is dead. RIP, FitBit.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 10:02 am
Oh no! Poor Fitbit. I’m setting a goal for myself right now at 5,000 steps a day. I’ve gotten close – one day I got 4,700 steps. It’s a work in progress. And just the entire thought of hey get up and move retirement is awesome for me.
Charles Huss
05/16/2016 at 6:50 am
I got a Misfit Shine for my birthday almost two years ago. It is a great little device and uses throw away batteries that last three months so you don’t have to keep charging it. The only problem was, it didn’t really affect my activity level so after the battery died it went into my drawer, never to be seen again.
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 10:03 am
Oh no! This one charges in to your iPhone adapter and takes less than 30 minutes to charge maybe once a week. Not bad… if I remember to charge it – 🙂
sheilaenglehart
05/16/2016 at 7:29 am
I had once tried a step counter that you clipped to your belt. Turns out, doesn’t do much good if you forget to put it on. And it was powered by a watch battery you couldn’t get to without surgical instruments. My husband uses an egg timer to tell him to get up and move every two hours. I have a sciatic nerve that does that for me.
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 10:05 am
My hub walks in place twice a day while I’m a work to get up and move. I get so involved in paperwork throughout the day sitting in front of the computer that I have a tendency to ‘forget’ to get up and move. So this one has been very helpful in reminding me to do it. I guess I could have set a reminder timer on my iPhone to do the same thing but seeing this on my wrist pushes me more which is what is awesome in the long run, right?
Fozziemum
05/16/2016 at 8:49 am
I tried a pedometer once..it was super dodgy..so i gave up..but i would love to know my daily mileage…pretty high i would think…:) xxxx Bev
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 10:19 am
I’m sure it would be high. I find it fascinating to see every day what I’m walking. I’m testing this right now and then the first week of June I’m hitting it hard.
Skyler Braveheart
05/16/2016 at 1:23 pm
Mama usually walks me one mile in the AM. Then she walks herself two miles…in the same amount of time it takes for one mile…but hey, I am a Terrier, and we like so sniff and pee on everything. Then, in the afternoon, she walks me another mile. So there’s her 10k steps. Beach walk, her’s and mine take about 30 minute each. We had a Fitbit for 24 hours. It never got taken out of it’s box. Mama took it back because she thought we really couldn’t afford it. So your device is very interesting. Keep up the good work! You’ll get there in no time!
Piglove
05/16/2016 at 2:50 pm
Thanks so much! And if you are anything like my little Terrier, you like to take walks but you are going to carry him back – LOL. And yes the knock off Fitbit is just fine and dandy. For what it does and what it cost, it’s perfect. XOXO – Bacon’s MOM
pattisj
05/17/2016 at 3:58 pm
I got in a 6-mile hike last week! Other days it was the treadmill and/or hand weights. And I lost two pounds, confirmed by my doctor’s scale this morning. Finally! Now to keep it moving. I find an activity tracker helps me stay focused.
Piglove
05/17/2016 at 4:00 pm
Congratulations!! That is so wonderful my friend. I think the activity trackers are awesome as well. I’m prepping myself because 06/01/2016 – it’s GO time. I gotta wait until after my holiday next week 🙂
pattisj
05/17/2016 at 4:03 pm
Thanks! Prep is a good thing, you’ve got this!