Why I Broke Up with My Fitness Tracker

Months ago, I thought that getting a fitness tracker would be a fun way to encourage extra movement during the day. I was already active (or so I thought) and it seemed like everyone was doing it.

Don’t lie to yourself, you’d jump too

Like most people who are alive and somewhat functional adults, my life is pretty busy and has some stress. I work full time, I have two young kids, a house, a dog, a cat, an emu, and I still make time for near daily exercise. I’m basically a super hero, I know.

Surprise Emu

I wore a Fitbit every day for months. At first, I enjoyed it. Then it started to bug me. I would have a busy day at work, and I’d sit at my desk all day…doing work. This is a good thing. But my Fitbit would push out “Shame Notifications” to my phone to remind me that I’m X amount of steps away from my goal.

One day my Fitbit fell off (which happened all the time because the wrist latch wasn’t great) and I didn’t have time to look for it before I left the house to take the kids to school. That day was fantastic. I didn’t guilt myself into walking to the farther away bathroom (why would this make any noticeable difference in my health anyway?) and I didn’t try to balance papers in one arm so I could still get “credit” for steps.

Even though I found my Fitbit, or more accurately my 3-year-old found and proudly returned it to me, I’m not wearing it anymore. I already know that I’m doing all I can every day, and I don’t need some watch to tell me that I somehow failed at some arbitrary goal.

The funniest part of this entire fitness tracker experiment was realizing that it was changing the way I walked. Since ditching it, I sometimes still catch myself dramatically swinging my arms when I’m walking by myself.

This means I’ve entered my “Hipster Phase” of exercise because I’ve ditched my Garmin for running and my Fitbit for daily life. I’m basically like the Laura Ingalls of fitness. Just yesterday I worked on my deltoids with a vigorous butter churning exercise set.*

Has anyone else “broken up” with their fitness tracker? —Kara

*Potentially a lie