Fitness Wearable OBSESSIONS.

by

Once upon a time I shared the story of The Walking Princess.

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like this…but much different.

I draped the tale in lighthearted prose, but underneath the levity it saddened and disturbed me.

The story’s short version is there once was a woman who walked our Austin neighborhood.

She paced our ‘hood all day, every day.

Literally all day (not in the figurative sense the kids are using the word these days).

Id pass her as I drove to run errands and, invariably, she’d still be walking when I returned hours later.

Years passed.

The Walking Princess (as the then four year old called her) still lived up to her moniker and had graduated from listening to something via earbuds to carrying a book  and reading.

While walking.

Arms extended.

For hours upon end.

We, her neighbors, worried.

We, her neighbors, wondered where parents were in this scenario.

We, her neighbors, thought her hours of ambling were at best quirky at worst downright disordered.

Flash forward a few years and we’ve become a nation of Walking Princesses (and Princes).

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We’re all pacing and house walking and stepping and shuffling veritable slaves to the numbers on our wearable pedometers.

I’m the first to agree owning a pedometer made me a better mother.

I readily surrender I encourage fitting in fitness and snagging extra steps where we can.

And, even with that #wycwyc philosophy, I had an experience yesterday which sparked me to wonder if  in the name of healthy living we’ve gone too far.

Yesterday I watched a woman in the grocery checkout line.

I observed as she stood impatiently fidgeting and shifting her weight from foot to foot in a kind of dance.

I noticed as she appeared to repeatedly check the time as if late for a meeting or appointment.

I listened as she sighed deeply at the s-l-o-w customers ahead of her.

After she cycled through her routine a few times I realized what she was checking was not a watch, but a wearable.

Obsessively peeking to see if the number had changed as she almost imperceptibly shuffled in place.

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filled with information. blessing & curse.

We’ve morphed into a nation of wiggling, shuffling, freaking out if we lose /forget our wearables *obsessed* Princesses & Princes.

And Ive begun to wonder if this is a good thing?

To question if this isn’t the American way?

We seize a positive (goal of 10,000 daily steps!), super size it, and somehow turn it into a darker obsession.

Friends tell me I’m lucky. They inform me I’m not wearable-addicted only because I’m not numbers driven.

(google analytics to calorie counting to the scale this is an apt description of me)

Are they right?

I might buy into the frenzy if the damn counter didn’t revert to zero each night.

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number of steps to morning coffee.

Or if a wearable registered absolutely everything fun and PLAYout in my day.

headstand

wearables can’t measure this!

But the gadgets do reset and can’t count my fave stuff.

And perhaps that is why, when I see exorbitantly high, publicly-shared step-counts or encounter someone like the grocery-woman, I wonder:

Have we shifted from pedometer-positive into pacing, exhausting negative?

Or is it merely my wonky perspective as a non-numbers driven, PLAYout loving, girl-raising, soft-core, obsession-fearing Mama?

I look to you to decide.

  • Have we gone too far in our wearables obsession?
  • Is too much of a good thing never bad?

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Comments

  1. I threw out my Fitbit one day when I was sure I had gotten so many more steps than it indicated. I think I had a problem LOL

  2. I just got my first fitness tracker that I have any intention of wearing on a regular basis mostly because it is a tiny watch and I am not exercising like a regular person. I think it is cheating me, lol. I am not going to swing my arm like an idiot.
    But I am also NOT ruled by it. It is there, like a watch. If I don’t get as many steps, whatever. The obsession with numbers in our day and age is insane.

  3. This post hit home with me and only because of the world today. I need to sit with this, but I think I’ve become obsessed with my step count as a way to lessen the political stress I’m feeling
    :/

  4. I wear an iFit Classic watch that is a really cool looking watch and a fitness tracker. It has a dial, so I can’t get exact numbers without going to the app. I never remember to sync with the app and then battery dies and the info is gone. LOL

    I think fitness trackers are great tools for reminding us to move in a sedentary lifestyle. But I do think many people get obsessed with them. (But I’m obsessed with how many miles I run, so maybe I’m just as bad.) All that to say I hit 5000 some days and 20000 on others and I usually don’t bother to find out.

  5. Being obsessed with anything is a bit on the unhealthy side. A good dose of moderation is helpful — especially for your mental health. You can’t be perfect every moment and being reminded constantly is a bit defeating.

  6. I think they’re really ugly looking and I don’t like being dictated to by a machine. When they make them in pretty colours and patterns, and when they are less like a task master and more like a friend, then I’ll think about getting one. My husband is addicted to his – but he is a fitness nut and I’m at the other end of the scale.

  7. Pretty sure I’m the only person who doesn’t count steps or wear a fitbit. Or so it seems. But I run and I think I get more than enough steps doing that.

    But hey, if it helps get people moving and off their butts, I’m all for that!

  8. I use mine as just another way to asses my daily movement patterns. Only 3000 steps by lunch? Time to push away from the computer and take a little walk outside for some fresh air and a little recharge. Works perfectly for me. But then again, I’ve never been one to obsess over weight or calories or grams of fat…

  9. I have a Garmin vivioactive HR watch that I bought because I wanted to track my exercises and my heart rate. I found the step counter annoying. Sure some days it pushed me to get more active but it was also creating unrealistic expectations of my daily step count. On my running days I could easily log 15000+ steps. However, on my non-running days to do so I would have to add hours of walking to my routine. Each time I hit a massive amount of steps, the watch would set a higher goal for me. I would sometimes try to meet the goal by going for a long walk, other times I would just get frustrated that I didn’t meet the steps. And yes, there were nights that I was so close that I paced around my bedroom before bed, in hindsight that was ridiculous. I think the purpose of the step counters is to encourage people to be more active. I was not being more active by walking around my bedroom, I was just trying to get my watch to say “goal.” I have since abandoned the use of my watch for tracking anything ( partly because of this and partly because I was unsure of how accurate the heartrate function was.) At times, I think about getting a different brand fitness watch and tracker, then remember I do not wear the one I own.

  10. So many comments, so little time! As another sign that we are cosmically connected, my Fitbit battery died to day and I don’t have my charger. I will miss the watch and smart phone notifications. I latch on to the “reminder to move” feature as part of my fantasy that I will get better at moving throughout my day. I am not motivated by the step count, although I do like when I get the fireworks for reaching my goal.

  13. I just never got one.. I do too many differnt things & relay on my clothes & mirror & yes, for me the scale.. I know I move a lot… 🙂

    For some I talk to it does motivate them but not for me…

  14. I enjoy wearing my Fitbit — and great news — it connects to my phone so I can tell when it is ringing, but I see your point. If it becomes a crazy obsession, than is it really helping with overall wellness? I will keep an eye on this.

  15. We’re a divided nation who’s tuned out and plugged into different things, and so much of where our nation is going is “not a good thing.” So for me, no thank you to wearables. I want to spend my time “in the now,” trying to make sense of what both sides of the media are telling me. Brenda

  17. I love my Fitbit but I’m no obsessed with it. I find it’s motivating to check my heart rate once and awhile or keep track of exercise sessions. During the work week, it vibrates if I haven’t been up and away from my desk in an hour. I also use the 2-minute relax breathing mode as a mini-meditation when I’m stressed. I’m not obsessed with reaching a step count but sometimes if I’m close to my goal, it’s enough to get me off the couch and walking the dogs in the evening. I think you can get obsessed with anything…I’ve had friends who were obsessed with going to the gym, for example. It’s all in how you use it.

  18. Perhaps Im lucky with carpal tunnel that I had to leave my Fitbit HR on the desk and now only track via an app on my phone which is carried in my backpack when I walk. I stopped obsessing and actually began to see butterflies! 🙂

  19. Don’t have one- never did. Don’t even know what I rode in the a.m. or how “slow” or “fast” as it’s too dark to see the odometer. I get in my steps daily without even thinking about it because I am having too much fun playing “tag” or “monster” on the playground chasing my preschool kids.

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