For a person who hates numbers as much as I do I am a bit obsessed with them. You could say I have a bit of an obsession with counting while at the same time harbouring a deep and genuine hatred for any form of mathematics or sentences containing numbers. It’s a constant battle in my head between calming myself with sequences and loathing the thought of numbers swilling about in my head.
And, even though some would try to teach me not to rely on the repetition of words between one and one hundred, the listing of numbers in chronological order brings me a great sense of comfort. It’s my “coping mechanism”, my crutch – it’s also my fixation and possibly one of the only things that really motivates me to exercise.
The pursuit of sequences and the attention to changing numbers and reaching predetermined goals used to ensure that my main form of exercise was the treadmill. I can stay on the treadmill for hours 40 minutes reaching all sorts of makeshift goals – one more km (counted down in metres) or 10 more minutes (counted down in one minute increments of course). I can run for another two minutes and then walk for three – every single step measured against an achievable number. It’s kept me treadmill fit for years.
But now, thanks to my newest obsession with fitness trackers, I am finally being released from my one-meter space at the gym and I am unleashing my counting and goal setting all over the place.
I bought myself a FitBit after much research and agonising and borrowing of my son’s Nike Fuel Band. At first I was only interested in counting my steps. It was all about getting to 10 000 steps in a day. But that turned out to be a bit too simple – the early morning walk with Fluffy Pencil takes care of at least 5 000 steps so by 7am I am half way there. It’s been upped to 15 000. 20 000 on a day that I go back to the treadmill.
But I quickly learned there is so much that a middle-aged hypochondriac with a FitBit can obsess over. When my husband asks me how I slept the night before I can bring up a graph to show him in detail. I understand that this can seem boring but I have very restless nights so my graphs are quite lovely to look at – I just have to convince anyone other than myself of that fact.
I can track my heart rate at any time – and I do. I have discovered that the doctor was right, my heart does beat a little fast – cue a million other things to worry about which in turn will cause my heart to beat faster, but niftily I can watch that rise.
I can map the route that I walk to bore people with at a later stage, see how many steps that walk was, what my heart was doing during all that step taking and how many calories I burned. In fact I can see how many calories I have burned over a day and I can compare that to how many I have eaten – the difference is not currently pointing to any weight loss. Damn.
I can see how many kilometres I’ve walked in a day, how many flights of stairs I’ve climbed and I can even track how much water I drink. Unfortunately I haven’t worked out how to set the alarm and I find it a bit irritating as a watch, but who needs time when you can track your heart beats per minute over a period of seven days?
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Since I got this nifty device I have parked further from my destination, I have walked to places I would normally drive to and I have studied my sleep in the way that only a person who actually understands sleep cycles would normally do.
It would be all good except for one thing – I have become a total bore.
Today over breakfast I found myself telling someone what my heart rate was, how many hours I slept last night and how many steps I had taken this morning. Worse than that was when I actually showed her in graph form. I would have seen her eyes glaze over but I was to busy looking at how many calories I had burned.
Do you wear a fitness tracker? How many steps do you do in a day?
PS Just reread this post and it reads like it was sponsored by FitBit – it’s not but if they want to pay me I will happily put the data into a nifty graph on my dashboard.
Ummm I think you just described me ! I got mine after Xmas initially to get me back to a healthy fitness plan and to track my sleeping to show hubby just how much he disturbs me each night ( he has an illness and his meds totally mess his sleeping hence he disturbs me )
Then I discovered how it graphs everything , how easy 10,000 steps were and upped the anti by parking further away , taking the steps instead if the escalator or lift . I would decide to walk to the next suburb for milk instead of the convenient corner shop ! Yes I’ve experienced the eye roll from friends too when I show a graph !
Funny thing about it is how many friends who mocked and criticised my purchase of Fitband have since bought one too but are secret about their graphs !!
Sounds like we are both doing well Diana *pats backs* xxx
I’ve thought about it. Really thought about it. But really concerned that I’ll get obsessed and then add onto my many neuroses. I really don’t need to do that…. xo
Of all my neuroses (and there are many) this is quite a good one xx
So you set the alarm on the app on your phone! I have an alarm that goes off 3 times a day in order to remind myself to do my pelvic floors! Love my Charge HR but it’s a bit of an addiction I have to say. I too seem to have a high resting heart rate but it’s probably because I’m not very fit anymore! The sleep tracker informs me I get an average of 5 hours a night, boo. Getting the app on your phone is WAY more addictive as it sends you a texts of encouragement etc!
You are way more clever than me Emily, I set the alarm on the laptop and it shows on my Fitbit for Thursday at 6am but it never went off on Thursday last week. It did go off this morning though.
Of course I have the app on my phone – I am a full blown addict xxx
I got one for Christmas and I love it too! I went with the fitbit one and clip it to my bra because I didn’t want anything on my wrist so I had to forgo the heart rate element but I love that it’s hidden away. I don’t always use the sleep tracker but I really should, thanks for the reminder!
The clip to the bra is actually a brilliant idea!