Kicking Off Summer – From Thick To Thin!

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I’ve been serious about getting fit for a while now, tried almost everything to maintain and tighten up floppy muscles but I never intended on getting excited about it. That is until I was introduced to the Fitbit Charge HR, the perfect companion for people like me. Slightly lazy, very competitive and sometimes excuse filled people like me.

What’s worse about people like me, is people like me who vacation….can we say LAZIEST!??

So, here’s the challenge I was set up with from my friends at Telus: To stay active and stick to my plan while on vacation with my family this summer. Sounds easy enough right -NOPE – We are of European decent so carbs and pasta are a huge part of our diet, and lounging beach side while only getting up for a drink or more snacks are our pastime.

This was going to be a challenge.

Since I got my package early, I had time to play around with it for a little while before actually descending on our adventurous trip. The adorable purple band was comfortable to wear, with a perfect fit sightly above my wrist bone. Bonus points for chic design on physical appearance and set up was easy too! Simply downloaded the app and I was good to go! If you’d like help setting up the Fitbit and learning how best to use it, you can book a session with TELUS Health Tech trainers, they are a godsend (visit: Get Help). The first days I decided to just wear my Fitbit Charge HR without a set challenge or paying attention to what I was actually doing before putting my mind on a mission.

What I realized was that I barely took 4000 steps a day! I thought for sure I would have taken more since I am afterall a mother of 2 active boys and I tend to run around all day long doing errands and cleaning. So, that being said I decided to up my step game to 10,000 and wow- was it ever hard to get those last steps in everyday. The Fitbit ChargeHR is more than just a fitness monitoring tool though,it is a fitness monitoring took too – like a friend that keeps you on track to meet your goals. I just love that you can input food and see how many calories you are actually consuming while taking your health and daily activities into consideration. This really pushed me harder, we all know that more exercise means more pizza at the end of the day, too right?

The breakdown:

• Steps
• Heart Rate
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Calories
• Stair Count

Extras for when I get a little better at this fitness thing:

• Real time run route
• Track workouts

My most favorite feature is the challenge network, since my husband and I both received Fitbit HR’s we thought it would be fun to challenge one another while on vacay and keep each-other motivated. WOW is all I can say, it is super hard to keep up with a man who walks practically all day for work, but I did pretty well. Every time I saw that I was falling behind I would go for a tiny trek in the woods or jog a little on the spot. Since your  goals can include weight loss (daily plan and  estimated achievement date) it was even more motivating to get there. Guess what? I did not gain 1lb in my entire week vacation as a result. Keeping the pace and staying active payed off – especially when eating lasagna and marshmallows for snack 😉 Knowing my calorie intake and weighing out my exercise  helped me balance it all out and stay focused. Even my husband uses the calorie feature now – it’s amazing! You can even scan foods for on the go input.

Battery Life

The battery will last about 5 days and takes about an hr or so to charge fully, so I only had to charge it once while away – how perfect is that?

Since the band connects to your app on your phone via Bluetooth, we all know it can lessen battery life so I just turn my Bluetooth off during the day and then pull data from it at night.

Now what?

Since taking this challenge with my husband, I have become really good friends with my Fitbit HR and I see amazing things in our fitness future! I can’t wait to drop the last 5lbs and get fit while having fun. The fact that this makes activity easy and a challenge between friends and family keeps me motivated and sure that we will have a long lasting relationship – especially because I can eat all the food I want while keeping my body in check 😉 To see more of TELUS’ lineup of super-cool accessories, visit: telus.com/betteryou

Do you have a Fitbit? What is your favorite feature?