Feet and Fit

I think it was on my first visit to the Wisconsin State Capitol, as a child, that I noticed the marble floors, particularly the entry steps had been worn and had become somewhat concave.  I was rather impressed by how such a hard surface can be worn by feet.  It is not that old of a building, as it opened 100 years ago this year.  Over the years, I have noticed it at other places, monuments in Washington, D.C., at churches and historical sites in Rome, and the Holy Land.  I have even noticed it to a lesser extent on rocks of some hiking trails, although not on the hard quartzite rocks present at Devil's Lake State Park.  Feet are a major part of our movement.  There now exists devices to track the steps you walk a day.  My wife had been using a hand-me-up device for a couple years or more, but more recently received a brand new Fitbit from one of our children for Mother's Day. Of course, being the good Mother martyr that she is, she first had to succinctly state that this was too much of a gift.  He assuaged her martyrdom by telling her it was for both Mother's Day and her birthday.  From that day forward the world of our household has changed.

Fitbit, 

This new device links to her smartphone, and low and behold, she can get a message on her Fitbit that a message has arrived.  But, it gets better, it tracks a whole bunch of things.  It tracks heart rate, the number of steps, miles walked, date and time, calories burned, cardio-minutes (what this is, I am not sure, but it may be continuous activity), set alarms, let you know you have a call coming in and who it is from, as well as part of message received and  who that is from.  A look at the phone will show daily history.  You can look to see what your pulse was at varied times of the day.  It is conveniently worn on the wrist, so it is easy to look at, and does much more than my simple watch, which still has numerals, but does gave day and date, although I have to manually adjust the date for months that have less than 31 days.  That may be as advanced as I wish to be when it comes to a watch.  The whole idea of the Fitbit is to get you moving, and I think it works.  Let me provide a few examples of this remarkable device.

If one were to have looked in our house this past weekend, and a few weeknights they would have witnessed an odd site--three to four times an hour we would pace back and forth in the family room, kitchen/dinette and dining room. At times we would loop around tables, or other times head to the front hall.  We would have the game of chicken to see who could get through the dining room entrance first.  We may need a stop light, or perhaps put in a round-about, and yield to the left.  My smart wife decided to put TV commercial time to good use by getting up and pacing the house.  She has programmed her Fitbit to target 250 steps during most wake hours of the day.  What one quickly learns is how long, and often commercials are in a program, and that walking the house is a good use of time.  Although it eats into my reading of varied websites on my I-pad.  It gets even better, however.  With her overall and hourly targets set when she beat her goal, she said fireworks went off. She was excited to see fireworks on her little device.  But, it gets even better.

Woman wearing a Fitbit

Last Saturday it was a rainy cold afternoon and we decided to go to church at 4:00 pm to be able to get home, eat and watch the Preakness.  It was about a twenty minute drive to church, and with the large crowd, mass went over an hour.  Well, during, or just after mass, her Fitbit goes off, saying to her:  "feed me."  The Fitbit wanted her to get in steps, after all it was more than an hour and she did not reach her target.  Obtaining 250 steps an hour may not seem very high, but when you spend over an hour in church, with the only steps pretty much going to communion, you get the idea.  It of course, does not track the ups, downs, and kneeling of the Catholic aerobics of attending mass. One may not get a great number of steps in, but you can work other parts of your body.

Since it also tracks sleep patterns, she wears it to bed at night.  When it occasionally lights and her hand and wrist is under the sheet it emits an ET finger glow.  The first time I saw this it was a little disconcerting until I recalled that she wears this to bed. The second time the light went on I thought it was time for her to get up for her three day a week outdoor walk, but after asking her, she said no, she had just moved.  I think it was about 4:30 am.  I do not think she liked being disturbed.

Smartphone and a Fitbit

It is claimed that the number of steps a person is supposed to get in every day is 10,000.  This, however, is a legend based not on science, but on the translation into English of the name of the first step tracking device, which was made in Japan.  Fitness geeks, being fitness geeks, say that one needs more than 10,000, but don't really have a constant recommendation, although 13,000 seems to have some congruence among those who say they know.  Other persons are more pragmatic and say that whatever amount can get you moving is better than not moving at all.

What I do know is that Fitbits, or other similar devices are currently big business.  Some people at work have these massive watches with a round face larger than their wrist that are similar to a Fitbit, it may be a Google product.  If we keep up walking in the house during commercials, we may just see our wood or tile floors be worn not unlike the marble in the Wisconsin State Capitol building.  In any event, my wife seems to relish the challenge, prodding, and rewards provided by her Fitbit.