I’ve had the following image on my iphone for over two years. Every time I push the home button, I see it. If it’s one thing I’m gonna look at over and over again during the day, it’s whatever image that I choose for my lock screen. I think I’m ready to change it to something new, but I wanted to highlight how important it’s been to me on a daily basis. The number of times I got on the treadmill, carried my butt to the gym, or ran slogged through a quick slow two miles outside are too many, but I did it because I made it important. Period. And certainly I have days where I make excuses, but I figure if those days are in the minority, I am doing well.

And I’ve used a number of gadgets and apps to help me improve my health & fitness. I’m not going to list them all here, but I do want to write about my favorite after using a number of gadgets over the last two years.

The fitbit has been the most useful to me over the last couple of years. I tried the nike fuel for the first  part of last year, but I went back to the fitbit last summer when they came out with the fitbit flex, which I could wear on my wrist. And this year I started the year with the new fitbit force, and many of my friends and I are really enjoying competing with each other each day. Early on, it documented and showed me visually how much of the day I was sitting. As an academic in an administrative position, meetings and writing don’t allow for much walking especially if meetings are in the same building as my office. I noticed on days where I had meetings all over campus, I got more steps, and while teaching, I was much more active. This little gadget helped me make different choices related to parking and taking longer paths to get where I was going on campus. But what I realized too (and this was quite persuasive) was that it was VERY difficult to achieve 10,000 steps in a day if I didn’t workout. It also helped me realize that small changes that I continued day after day influenced my daily and weekly step totals. The data, graphs, and progress were very persuasive and really motivated me to continue. And just in the last week with my new fitbit force, I’m reminded again how motivating it can be. It syncs to the iphone through bluetooth, which is awesome. A friend has told me I am creating a cult since I’ve given so many of them to friends and encouraged others to purchase them. Ha!

I think the major thing that makes  this technical gadget so persuasive is in its simplicity. Focusing on 10,000 steps a day is one small goal that can really add up over time and help change a sedentary lifestyle without much effort or planning.

Small investment; huge gain! And if you have one already, add me as a friend.