Fitness Bracelets

George's bracelet, $15

Louise's Fitbit Flex bracelet, $90

Fitness bracelets.  RVers need good health too!

Well, here’s something I thought I’d never own.  I’ll blame Louise because she said she wanted one so I ordered a knock off bracelet for $15, shipping included,  (I can be so cheap) and was prepared to order a brand name if failure appeared.  Well, she ordered herself a Fitbit Flex bracelet ($90) unit for herself unbeknownst to me.   So much for my surprise for her!  Guess who ended up with the $15 bracelet?

Both are comfortable to wear and we’re able to compare notes and capabilities with the different bracelets.  Both units seem to provide similar functionality. Sleep plays a pivotal part of our health.  Calculating your sleep hours, both deep sleep and light sleep and their durations, can be useful information. I can’t fool myself about my sleep times with these units and it allows me to adjust my bedtime hours to improve my sleeping habits.

     Tracking my daily steps, the other main function, and the calories I burn are calculated in some mysterious manner and transferred to the app I downloaded to my phone.  The apps are free. There are apps for both iphones and android phones.  It all has worked seamlessly for both of us.  The setup is minimal… but the use is yet to be determined.  What will I do with this new information I receive daily and totaled weekly in graph form.  These units do not have the heart monitoring ability; those come on the more expensive units (Fitbit Charge HR $150, Fitbit Surge $250).  So if you’re a runner or exercise heavily and need or want to know your heart rate you will need to purchase one of those bracelets.

    We have black units, but Louise’s more expensive bracelet allows you to purchase other color bracelets to keep yourself in fashion.  I’m happy with my black unit.  Blue and orange bands were available on mine but not interchangeable.  I hope to use this new found information to improve and maintain better health.  You need to take this information as estimates and not the absolute truths.  You can sit and twirl your arm (both units) and add steps to your daily totals.  But they do provide you with, what I believe to be, useful info about your daily physical activity and your sleep duration and patterns.  The value comes with what you do with that information.  It will not prepare meals for you but it could help you make better choices for yourself and help keep your health on track.  The bracelets have created a focus for us both to use to improve our health.   Be prepared to have a little fun with this concept and new gadget.

George Bogosian

Pittsfield, NH