NaNoWriMo got me interested in tracking my writing activity stats. For Christmas, I received a present that is doing this for physical activity – a fitbit that tracks my daily footsteps.

So far — that, is for six days — my fitbit has encouraged me to walk or jog on the spot when I’d normally be sitting or standing. I have to say this jogging has sometimes been distracting for my family.

Periodically, through the day, I log onto my fitbit computer site and ‘synch’ the steps I’ve walked since I clipped the small device onto my shirt or pants that morning. The site displays graphs that show how close I am to my daily goal of 10,000 steps, the calories needed to lose a pound a week and my minutes of activity, which still seem small compared to my sedentary hours. The dashboard also rates activities by intensity. My basic walking around the house has been low intensity, a quick walk through a grocery store and one riser stair-stepping were medium and on-the-spot  jogging was high. Stair-stepping feels a bit more intense to me than spot jogging, so this might not be completely accurate. While I’ve usually reached my goal for daily steps, my calories burned have yet to hit the mark. It seems to lose my holiday weight I’ll need to increase the minutes of intensity and/or numbers of steps. This might happen, at least some days, when I restart gym classes and do longer walks in the new year.

This fitbit has been fun. I hope I keep going with it and, for once, keep my ususal New Year’s Resolution to exercise more. And one of these days I’ll have to stop eating those chocolates and cookies.

Best wishes to you for your 2016 resolutions and dreams.