Day Six: Favorite Fun Fitness Gadgets
January 12, 2009
When Dawn, my personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness, mentioned a month ago that Ali Vincent, a past winner from the Biggest Loser was coming to the gym on a promotional tour I immediately knew I had to meet her. D and I have been fans of the show since the beginning and with D already on the fast for nearly a month, I thought it would be fun to have Ali autograph an encouraging note for her.
When my trainer (left) introduced me to Ali she was all hugs and smiles and more than willing to write a note to D. and as she did I told her a bit of my weight story, the weight I’d lost and the weight I still wanted to lose. That’s when she saw the tiny digital camera in my hand and said, “Let’s take a photo and the next time we’ll be able to see your progress the next time we meet.” Ali was adorable and gracious and as far as semi-celebrity encounters go it was an inspiring one. As I was leaving the gym I glanced over her note to D: “D, You can do it! Remember just believe it and you will be it. Now go get a BodyBugg!”
BodyBugg
The BodyBugg by Apex has been one of my favorite fitness gadgets for the past couple years. The BB is an electronic device you strap onto your arm. On the back side against your skin are sensors that utilize several methods (skin temperature, electrical energy, movement) for accumulating daily calorie expenditure. The BB collects the information throughout the day which can be viewed by the wearer immediately by a continual datafeed that’s sent to the optional digital watch or by downloading the information from the BB into the online software program through a USB hookup. While the BB automatically tracks calorie expenditure throughout the day it’s up to the user to enter their daily food into the online program to track their calorie intake.
The BodyBugg program is the best way I’ve found to accurately track calories in and out, keep an eye on my nutritional intake and watch my energy output throughout the day. The full bundle including the BodyBugg, the optional display watch (a must in my book), and a six-month online subscription to their web-based program comes with a price tag of 350 dollars. That’s a hefty price but if a commitment to diet and exercise is a priority then the Body Bugg is worth it. It’s a bright and shiny, bells and whistles kind of motivator to help me stay focused and aware of my fitness goals.
Overall I recommend the BodyBugg but at the same time there are a couple significant complaints I have with the BodyBugg program. The first is that I’m less than thrilled with the moderated membership forums as a) their moderators are often extremely slow in approving posts which limits the ability for any smooth flow in the interactions with other members and b) they don’t approve posts that contain a criticism or complaint about any aspect of the Body Bugg system. This isn’t my take alone. I’ve been active in several other online health and fitness forums and heard similar experiences voiced by others. At this point I don’t even bother to access the membership forums though access and participation in them is included in the annual membership fee.
The other problem is with the web-based program. There’s a good chance the APEX IT department is still listening to music on cassette tape since it was only this January with their release of v. 3 that they made the online software both PC and Mac compatible. With my original BodyBugg I had to purchase and install Windows on my Mac computer, an added expense of several hundred dollars and even now their online program only works on Mac using the Safari browser rather than the much preferred Mozilla Firefox. Far and away my main issue is that I’ve never worked with an online software program that has stalled or shut down as often as their program. While I’ve always been able to record my food (shakes) and download the data from my Body Bugg through the USB, it’s never happened without multiple shutdowns restarts of the browser. It’s workable but frustrating and I’m just hoping by the time they go to turn the cassette tape over to the other side they’ll have come up with some much needed software updates.
OMROM POCKET PEDOMETER
Walking has been my main form of cardio exercise for the past four years and for the first two I was involved in training to walk in half and full marathons so recording my distance and speed, along with keeping an eye on my heart rate were all important to me. For the purpose of training I initially had a Garmin Forerunner 305 with GPS which was great for gauging my progress but when I moved from race training to walking for cardio and pleasure, the bells and whistles weren’t necessary. All I wanted to do was track my mileage, time and steps. After trying a series of pedometers I discovered the Omron Pocket Pedometer HJ-112. With a price tag of just over 20 dollars the Omron had everything I wanted in a pedometer and more. It tracks distance, time, calories burned and steps taken, and provides a 7 day memory for tracking the weeks’ total and daily progress. While most pedometers require being clipped on the hip, the Omron HJ-112 can be carried in your pocket or clipped on your shoes. I marked off a 5 mile route and the Omron measured the mileage, calories burned, and time almost as accurately as my expensive GPS device. It’s an easy pedometer to use both in function and in the physical design of the device and Consumer Reports rates it number 1 but more importantly, I do.
FITBIT
The Fitbit is scheduled for release this month that’s so full of promise I’ve already pre-ordered mine. The Fitbit is a 100 dollar device you can clip on or carry loosely in your pants pocket, on a shirt pocket or wear on a provided wristband. The Fitbit tracks calories burned, steps walked, distance covered and then using a small base station that’s attached to your computer will automatically sync the info onto their free online program. The online program appears to offer many of the same features provided by the BodyBugg online program with the bonus that there’s no annual fee. Another feature I haven’t seen anywhere else is that the Fitbit also tracks sleep patterns including how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up during the night and how long you really slept versus just laid in bed wishing you were asleep. I’ll let you know if it lives up to all it’s promises once it arrives.
Posted in Fitness and Exercise
