Resolutions: Staying on track with fitness trackers
Staying on track with fitness trackers has become much easier since the devices first debuted.
Years ago fitness trackers were essentially just fancy pedometers — they could tell you how many steps you walked in a day but not much more. Now these wearable devices are powerful wellness trackers that can help motivate you to stick to your goals.
If you've made a New Year's resolution to be healthier here are a few tips for staying on track with a fitness tracker.
Let tiny steps add up to big progress
A fitness tracker can help you to see how active you've been day by day. Use the data it collects to set and achieve measurable goals. It's a great idea to set goals for yourself but it's important that they're realistic.
If your tracker tells you that you took 800 steps yesterday make your goal to increase that by 200 steps today. Your tracker will give you immediate feedback that you can use to get moving and stay motivated.
Get into the game with your friends
Many fitness trackers offer a social component so you can share your progress with friends. After you complete a walk or a workout your health metrics — such as the length of time you spent exercising — can be shared with whomever you choose. This neat feature can turn getting healthy into a friendly competition. Set an objective with your friends like most miles walked in a week and let your trackers decide the winner.
Make sure you're getting enough shut-eye
The American Psychological Association noted that sleep is an essential part of health and reported that 40 percent of Americans report daytime sleepiness. If getting enough sleep is part of your New Year's resolution your fitness tracker may be able to help depending on your model.
When you wear your fitness tracker to bed it can monitor your movement to determine how deeply and how long you slept. Data points like these can motivate you to take steps to improve your sleep habits and help correlate poor sleep with other factors in your life.
Use apps to invigorate your habits
Encouraging activity is the key to staying on track with a fitness tracker. Most models come with a companion app you can use with your smartphone or computer. Contained within the app are metrics that reflect your progress as well as fitness programs and challenges (like Fitbit Adventures) designed to make it fun and easy to meet your daily activity goals. Some of these challenges even let you virtually explore landmarks and national parks — you can compare the steps you've taken to the number of steps it would take to hike across Yosemite!
Activity trackers do a lot more than just count your steps and they're great tools to help you keep your New Year's resolutions. Get tracking and kick-start your New Year with healthy habits.
Image source: Flickr