I am about as sedentary as you get. I sit on my ass at the computer all day. If I’m not blogging, I’m reading. Having Lyme disease (or fibromyalgia–it’s basically the same) makes motivation to move that much worse, because it hurts to move! But I can’t sit around like a blob forever either.
I picked up the weight watchers ActiveLink at my meeting last week. It measures your activities throughout the day with a full accelerometer. The you plug it into your computer and it assesses your day and awards you points!
For me, it isn’t really the points I was looking for, just some motivation. I am completely sedentary, and this monitors you throughout the day.
First you wear it for 7 days for a baseline reading, then it sets goal for you based on that. Every 12 weeks I think, it resets your goals. But the point is to keep you steadily moving, not just go for a run and sit on your ass all day.
So you choose where you are going to wear it, (it’s waterproof), and it has lights on it to motivate you. You want to get it all lit up by the end of the day (or 4 of 6 lights is 100% of goal)
For me, maybe I’ll set an alarm ever hour and take a 5 minute walk around the house and climb my stairs. ?I hope this motivates me to be active more throughout the day.
The price was $32 plus $5/month added to my WW monthly pass.
There are supposedly better monitors out there, and Fitbit has some amazing stories and ratings. It even monitors your sleep. I would actually have bought Fitbit, but I really like the way Activelink works completely with the WW program and converts activity to points.
Fitbit
I’ll let you know after my 7 days of baseline are up and I do my first day! (But right now, I got an extra 7 days of sitting on my ass.)
Have any of you used fitness monitors?
Kari says
Yay! Let me know how you like this. I was considering it – but, like you, I’m almost totally sedentary. I have my own business so I’m at my computer most of the day/evening. Then I just want to read. The hubs and I are both gym members but I cannot tell you just how much I hate the gym. Like HATE. Stupid, skinny bitches wearing next to nothing, looking all perky and perfect first thing in the morning. Makes me feel violent. LOL! But getting out for 5-10 minutes every few hours is a great idea. I think I might do that. 🙂
Ana says
That’s EXACTLY how I feel about the gym. But this thing doesn’t like the gym that much. It inspires you to be active throughout the day, not just have one spike. So at every hour, I plan on climbing the stairs twice, or spending 5 minutes on my recumbent bike (and reading), or anything that will make these lights light up!
Brooke says
About a year ago, I decided I had to do something, too. So I joined the gym (nope, I am most certainly NOT on of those perfects, skinny girls in the cute pants and to so I joined a gym that was more for real people). But what I did was this: I figured I usually sit and read for hours after my kids go to bed, so instead of sitting and reading in a rocking chair, I sit and read on a recumbant bike. For the first few days, I only let myself read when I was on the bike (very hard to limit it to that, but I did). I then found that I couldn’t wait to get to the gym because I couldn’t wait for the next part of the book. Pretty soon, I think I linked the two and now it is not so hard to go to the gym because I know that even though I have to ride, I will have quiet time all to myself — no kids, no husband, no house work demanding to be done — just me and my book and my MP3 player to drown out all the noise. Might be worth a try. My husband ended up buying a recumb. bike for himself and now he rides it while playing the Playstation 3 at the same time. Whatever works right?
Ana says
I have one next to my bed, currently piled up with clothes. I did buy it initially with the goal of only reading on it, but then the clothes and my laziness took over.
Kerry G says
I think that sounds awesome. When I was a regular at the gym, it often struck me as funny that I would workout for an hour or more, but the rest of the day was sent sitting at my desk or on my couch. So I think its cool that this helps with the get up and get moving aspect. Cant wait to hear how you like it 🙂
Sue says
That sounds like a really cool little gadget. I know you have some medical problems but have you ever thought of yoga. I just got my 92 year old Mom a DVD “Easy Yoga for Arthritis” by Peggy Cappy because she has trouble moving around. Peggy shows everything 3 ways, sitting, standing with a chair and free standing, check it out on You Tube. I bought it at Amazon, but check your library and see If you can rent it first to try it.
Mom has been doing it a few days every week and it has helped.
Ana says
Thanks!
Robin the Book Nerd says
I have an ActiveLink and I was very surprised at how inactive I was. I mean I knew I wasn’t walking/running but wow to not even hit the my baseline ouch. It is a great motivator and the goals gradually increase so you can keep up!