A couple weeks back, I went to a lovely breakfast with the iStore. It was a wonderful morning of getting spoiled, complete with delicious food, and a gorgeous locale. It was for Mother’s Day, and the PR team went out of their way to make us feel special. Everything about the event was fantastic – from the rose gold cutlery to the incredible goody bag. That’s right, we got amazing presents, too. It was such a treat. One of the presents was a Fitbit AltaHR, which I had wanted for a long time and instantly fell in love with. Now that it’s not just love at first sight, I thought I’d share a little bit more about why I like it so much.
First, though, can we all just pause and marvel at how beautiful this cutlery is? I mean, I don’t even care about rose gold in general, but this is really so damn pretty.
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1 – The Fitbit AltaHR is gorgeous
Wearables are strange. They are pieces of tech that we are willing to literally wear on our bodies in the hopes of learning more about ourselves, to get reminders about things that need doing, or whatever else is meant to make our lives better or easier.
But they are first and foremost a fashion accessory. Anything that you’re willing to wear on your wrist all day has to fit in with your style, has to have impeccable design and comfort. Well, the Fitbit AltaHR ticks all those boxes.
I am often reminded just how pretty it is, just how lovely it looks on my wrist – it’s a gorgeous piece of tech that isn’t too much bling or too in your face. It’s understated, comfortable and sleek – plus the black band works with every item of clothing I own. You can change bands if you prefer, but I’m incredibly happy with my black wristband.
2 – Sleep Tracking is so different as a mom
Back in the before times, I tested a wearable tracking device for my day job. It was… okay. It wasn’t particularly accurate, but it was intriguing to get a sense of my sleep patterns or activity levels. Technology has obviously come a long way since then, and my life has changed drastically.
While before it was intriguing to see my natural sleep rhythms, now my sleep tracking is more of a vindication.
I’ll wake up and check my sleep from the night before, finally seeing conclusively how long I was awake in the night taking care of Harley. Most interesting to me? I’ve always felt amazing after an hour-long nap on the couch, and now I can see why – that sleep is the deepest and least interrupted of any other sleep I get. Seems I need to nap more (as if that’s going to happen with a toddler running around).
3 – I’m not as active as I used to be…
Other than a brief period in my life when I was a total gym bunny, I haven’t been a ridiculously active person. I wasn’t the type to go running every morning. I’d hit the gym a few times a week, or whatever activity it was that I enjoyed, but my main source of staying fit and healthy was from leading a generally active lifestyle.
Before I moved to South Africa, I used to walk everywhere – my pedometer back in those days showed that I never struggled to hit 8k steps a day. In fact, most days, I was between 10-12k steps just by going to class, picking up some groceries and maybe meeting up with a friend.
Now, my activities are easily half of that. While my phone was able to log my step count, I’d often attribute the low numbers to leaving my phone on my desk during the day or not carrying it with me for every step I took. With the Fitbit, I can’t make those kinds of excuses, and it’s a real eye-opener.
4 – … But the Fitbit can help
There’s a setting on the device to make it vibrate when I’ve been sedentary for a while. Every hour, I’m meant to take 250 steps. If I haven’t done so by ten minutes before the hour, my Fitbit vibrates and reminds me to move, celebrating when I hit the step count. 250 steps really aren’t that much; I never get the nudge to move in the hours I take Harley to school.
So if walking to the car, dropping her at school and walking back from the car is enough, you can realize that 250 steps are really manageable. Except often I need the reminder because I haven’t taken a single step all hour. It’s nice to get a reminder to get up and move, to stretch and walk and at least feel a little bit less sedentary.
5 – Even when I’m not walking, Fitbit AltaHR knows I’m active
The Fitbit can only really track steps as a general rule. If you go for a walk, it will register the consistent steps and higher heart rate and actually log it as exercise for you so that you don’t have to. It’s a great feature and really helps to encourage me to go for a walk/run/whatever you want to call it.
However, as some of you know, I fell in love with yoga this year and it’s become another way I’m trying to stay in shape. Unfortunately, I did fall off the exercise wagon in Cape Town, and I haven’t quite gotten back into my daily yoga routine again since then. I’m working on it, though, and it’s great to have the Fitbit check my heart rate for me – it knows my heart rate was elevated with all those downward facing dogs and still tracked the higher calorie burn, even if it did still tell me to go for a walk.
There are a ton of other features – you can track your food intake, boost your water, get appointment notifications and even know when your phone is ringing. But these are my top five that have seriously changed my life. I don’t know if I’ve lost any weight yet as a result of the Fitbit AltaHR, but I’m more aware of my health and starting to make better decisions. It’s those small changes that eventually become habits that are the most transformational. Plus it’s really just so pretty!
Full disclosure: This article is not paid for, but I did get the Fitbit AltaHR for free.
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