It's been awhile since I tried to lose weight (or even thought about maintenance).
A lot has changed in that time.........who knew there were so very many devices and apps to help us stay on the straight and narrow? Or, at least, that's what they are professing to do, anyhow.
I had been planning to go back to Overeaters Anonymous for awhile, but it really just didn't work with my schedule. I had also been loosely adhering to The Beck Thin for Life plan, which recommends having both a tool-kit, and a weight-loss buddy. Can you imagine, then, how excited I was when I read about a couple of on-line websites professing to give folks the incentive to stay with some sort of consistent program?
I had read about Lose It in the latest Atlantic Monthly, and immediately thought "great, this could work really well". The biggest drawback for me in shedding weight is the isolation I tend to be in, so having some online buddies in the same situation might actually satisfy both recommendations. Cool.
So, I joined for free and started seeing other members with something called: "A Fitbit Adjustment". It sounded good, so I did some research, only to find that in the last 5 years, or so, the device market has become saturated with some pretty "Inspector Gadget" type appliances.
Hmmmm.......I thought........it would be nice to have some more accurate data, on the hills out behind my house..........well, so after I asked other members for input, I picked up the one (yes, that's it's name, the Fitbit one), thinking that I would immediately start getting some adjustments because of all the exercise I do, as a matter of course. (I'm no slacker, chronic pain, or not.)
Well, as it turns out, in order to use the appliance, you have to upgrade to the paid premium account. Okay, I'm fine with that; it's only $39.00 bucks, (out of my $50.00 yearly excess fund). It's worth it to finally have a place where all my daily information will be seamlessly integrated with only a few inputs; terrific!
NOT.
I was dismayed to find that while you can tell Lose It, to go to Fitbit, and swap data; the ONLY data that is truly swapped, is your food logs and some complicated form of calorie count, that's rather hard to understand. (Give me funny little pie charts any day, and please don't ask me to do math. My brain's on drugs because of my chronic pain.....that's sooooo not gonna work. Harumph!)
What this means for me, is that along with my input in my BP Journal, Exercise Journal, Mental Health Journal, Pain Journal and the two websites, which don't really talk to each other in a way that's particularly user friendly, I am still recording information daily, in six separate places. GAH.
So, I got to thinking about it, and it occurred to me that here's no way, in today's algorithm heavy environment, that the exercise, blood pressure, heart rate, altitude and all other stats, couldn't be programmed into one device and integrated onto a single online website.
I understand there may be some privacy issues with having all daily health data in one place (due to those same aforementioned algorithms) but it just doesn't make sense to me that if Lose It and Fitbit are 'swapping' diet stats, that they can't find a way to'swap' all those nifty exercise charts and other data, equally as easily.
From my armchair, I think they don't because of plain old-fashioned greed. It kinda' reminds me of Sony, when they refused to manufacture and release the little cd's, because they had warehouses of the bigger ones to sell, first. Can you say: Price Fixing? GAH.
Because, of course, when you want to hook up any other monitor, to your FitBit account, (such as a Withings pulse-ometer), you also need to buy their premium package.
REALLY??? SERIOUSLY???
I feel like writing a letter to the President of both companies (FitBit & LoseIt) and just tell them...........um...........you know........there's lots of peeps out there like me, who would be more then happy to pay perhaps 2/3's of the combined total, for each websites annual fees, just to have everything we record each day, in the same darn place, for crying out loud!
I'm sure when Lose It marketed the swap with FitBit; they were saying how much of a time-saver it would be to have the two accounts mingle, so why didn't they make them mingle, really and truly?
HONESTLY. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
I know there must be folks out there like me, who have to live on a budget and only have 50 bucks a year to spend on things like this. I'm equally as sure there are an awfully lot of busy peeps out there, trying to juggle good self-care, families and extended families, who would be keen to only have to record things a single time.
Other Gripes.
• While it's kinda' fun to take out the One, and test-drive it, I would have saved myself some money, if I'd known how it actually worked. I really don't have any need for a glorified pedometer/watch, since I already had an Ipod that has the Nike+ app. on it.
• Turns out that the only way to get 'adjustments' is to exceed your daily caloric use. Which means you almost have to wear it non-stop. Because it's transmitting wirelessly, that means you will be subjecting yourself to almost constant EMF's (electromagnetic frequencies). There is loads of controversy out there, having to do with associated health risks and EMF's.
• While it's true that the appliance WILL sync with it's home site (fibit.com), and shows the stats in a fun format, I still have to go to Lose It and add all of my exercise, manually. That isn't much help to me in logging everything in one place. That's certainly an unexpected drag.
• Both sites give you fun badges and awards, but these don't sync. either. Motivating, but somewhat hokey, too. It'd be nice for all my buddies on Lose It, to be able to see my achievements on FitBit, as well.
• The wrist/sleep band, is hot, sweaty, and annoying, to take out exercising. They could have made a liner out of Terrycloth for it, and made a closing slit, so that it could do double duty; as a sleep AND exercise, band. That would be a very easy fix.
• It's hard to read in daylight, no matter where you carry it, on your body. It's also small and slippery, and I can see it disappearing, if one should drop it in our nice fall leaf litter.
Okay, so what would make me happy? Gloriously, Ecstatically Happy? Besides one single place to record everything? So glad you asked.
Here's what I would want to see in the next version of 'appliance'.
• Altitude: The One has this, the Flex does not. I am told that the Force (a new FitBit release) will have it. Okay, so now it's a glorified altimeter, along with being a glorified pedometer. At the risk of sounding snarly.......I am sooooo not impressed.
• Blood Pressure gauge. Right now, this is a separate purchase (of $50.00 or more). And you also have to buy the FitBit premium account (for another $39.00 bucks, on top of the $75.00 to $100.00 bucks you dished out for the appliance, plus the $39.00 bucks you dished out, to use the appliance on LoseIt.) The only company making a sensor that records BP, is Withings. AND, it's a separate band, so twice as many EMF's on you, all day; plus, all the inconvenience of keeping track of these little do-hickey's. I don't know about you, but I like traveling a bit lighter then that. Seems to me, having two or even 5, separate appliances, would make me more stressed, just keeping track of them. This is a bit sabotaging, isn't it? (Just sayin.)
• Heart Rate gauges. There are many of us who would like to know if we are exercising at the correct 'zone', for our individual levels of fitness. I don't know if there's even an appliance that can do this; but I'd pay a little extra for it, if there was one.
• Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Breakdowns. If not on the appliance, then certainly on the now seamlessly integrated website. This is a good thing to have, in order to NOT get discouraged, if you happen to have a bad day. Most of the time, a weekly calorie count is much handier to have, because it can change that: "oh, I screwed up today, guess my diet is shot" response to the: "Oh, well, I still have 6 days to do better", response. A nice benefit to all the emotional eaters out there.
• Mood Meters. Remember all those funny things in the 60's, that would change color, according to your mood? Nifty. (Sorry, just had to throw that in there!)
• A glucose counter: for all of us pre-diabetics out there. I know, I know, no chance, but hey, wouldn't THAT be handy?
Okay, I guess I'm done ranting, now.
Suffice it to say that it'll be some time, before I purchase any other appliance.
If either FitBit or LoseIt can decide to incorporate this list, then I'll be right there. I may even buy stock in their newly formed venture company.
Until then, FitBit will have to reimburse me for the device, if they want me to buy the additional premium package.
Really, why didn't they just make the two sites truly integrated and charge twice as much? Breaking them out is such a blatantly obvious ploy for more profits, at the risk of penalizing the very sector of society it is professing to help.
It strikes me as somewhat shameless. Just sayin'.
A lot has changed in that time.........who knew there were so very many devices and apps to help us stay on the straight and narrow? Or, at least, that's what they are professing to do, anyhow.
I had been planning to go back to Overeaters Anonymous for awhile, but it really just didn't work with my schedule. I had also been loosely adhering to The Beck Thin for Life plan, which recommends having both a tool-kit, and a weight-loss buddy. Can you imagine, then, how excited I was when I read about a couple of on-line websites professing to give folks the incentive to stay with some sort of consistent program?
I had read about Lose It in the latest Atlantic Monthly, and immediately thought "great, this could work really well". The biggest drawback for me in shedding weight is the isolation I tend to be in, so having some online buddies in the same situation might actually satisfy both recommendations. Cool.
So, I joined for free and started seeing other members with something called: "A Fitbit Adjustment". It sounded good, so I did some research, only to find that in the last 5 years, or so, the device market has become saturated with some pretty "Inspector Gadget" type appliances.
Hmmmm.......I thought........it would be nice to have some more accurate data, on the hills out behind my house..........well, so after I asked other members for input, I picked up the one (yes, that's it's name, the Fitbit one), thinking that I would immediately start getting some adjustments because of all the exercise I do, as a matter of course. (I'm no slacker, chronic pain, or not.)
Well, as it turns out, in order to use the appliance, you have to upgrade to the paid premium account. Okay, I'm fine with that; it's only $39.00 bucks, (out of my $50.00 yearly excess fund). It's worth it to finally have a place where all my daily information will be seamlessly integrated with only a few inputs; terrific!
NOT.
I was dismayed to find that while you can tell Lose It, to go to Fitbit, and swap data; the ONLY data that is truly swapped, is your food logs and some complicated form of calorie count, that's rather hard to understand. (Give me funny little pie charts any day, and please don't ask me to do math. My brain's on drugs because of my chronic pain.....that's sooooo not gonna work. Harumph!)
What this means for me, is that along with my input in my BP Journal, Exercise Journal, Mental Health Journal, Pain Journal and the two websites, which don't really talk to each other in a way that's particularly user friendly, I am still recording information daily, in six separate places. GAH.
So, I got to thinking about it, and it occurred to me that here's no way, in today's algorithm heavy environment, that the exercise, blood pressure, heart rate, altitude and all other stats, couldn't be programmed into one device and integrated onto a single online website.
I understand there may be some privacy issues with having all daily health data in one place (due to those same aforementioned algorithms) but it just doesn't make sense to me that if Lose It and Fitbit are 'swapping' diet stats, that they can't find a way to'swap' all those nifty exercise charts and other data, equally as easily.
From my armchair, I think they don't because of plain old-fashioned greed. It kinda' reminds me of Sony, when they refused to manufacture and release the little cd's, because they had warehouses of the bigger ones to sell, first. Can you say: Price Fixing? GAH.
Because, of course, when you want to hook up any other monitor, to your FitBit account, (such as a Withings pulse-ometer), you also need to buy their premium package.
REALLY??? SERIOUSLY???
I feel like writing a letter to the President of both companies (FitBit & LoseIt) and just tell them...........um...........you know........there's lots of peeps out there like me, who would be more then happy to pay perhaps 2/3's of the combined total, for each websites annual fees, just to have everything we record each day, in the same darn place, for crying out loud!
I'm sure when Lose It marketed the swap with FitBit; they were saying how much of a time-saver it would be to have the two accounts mingle, so why didn't they make them mingle, really and truly?
HONESTLY. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
I know there must be folks out there like me, who have to live on a budget and only have 50 bucks a year to spend on things like this. I'm equally as sure there are an awfully lot of busy peeps out there, trying to juggle good self-care, families and extended families, who would be keen to only have to record things a single time.
Other Gripes.
• While it's kinda' fun to take out the One, and test-drive it, I would have saved myself some money, if I'd known how it actually worked. I really don't have any need for a glorified pedometer/watch, since I already had an Ipod that has the Nike+ app. on it.
• Turns out that the only way to get 'adjustments' is to exceed your daily caloric use. Which means you almost have to wear it non-stop. Because it's transmitting wirelessly, that means you will be subjecting yourself to almost constant EMF's (electromagnetic frequencies). There is loads of controversy out there, having to do with associated health risks and EMF's.
• While it's true that the appliance WILL sync with it's home site (fibit.com), and shows the stats in a fun format, I still have to go to Lose It and add all of my exercise, manually. That isn't much help to me in logging everything in one place. That's certainly an unexpected drag.
• Both sites give you fun badges and awards, but these don't sync. either. Motivating, but somewhat hokey, too. It'd be nice for all my buddies on Lose It, to be able to see my achievements on FitBit, as well.
• The wrist/sleep band, is hot, sweaty, and annoying, to take out exercising. They could have made a liner out of Terrycloth for it, and made a closing slit, so that it could do double duty; as a sleep AND exercise, band. That would be a very easy fix.
• It's hard to read in daylight, no matter where you carry it, on your body. It's also small and slippery, and I can see it disappearing, if one should drop it in our nice fall leaf litter.
Okay, so what would make me happy? Gloriously, Ecstatically Happy? Besides one single place to record everything? So glad you asked.
Here's what I would want to see in the next version of 'appliance'.
• Altitude: The One has this, the Flex does not. I am told that the Force (a new FitBit release) will have it. Okay, so now it's a glorified altimeter, along with being a glorified pedometer. At the risk of sounding snarly.......I am sooooo not impressed.
• Blood Pressure gauge. Right now, this is a separate purchase (of $50.00 or more). And you also have to buy the FitBit premium account (for another $39.00 bucks, on top of the $75.00 to $100.00 bucks you dished out for the appliance, plus the $39.00 bucks you dished out, to use the appliance on LoseIt.) The only company making a sensor that records BP, is Withings. AND, it's a separate band, so twice as many EMF's on you, all day; plus, all the inconvenience of keeping track of these little do-hickey's. I don't know about you, but I like traveling a bit lighter then that. Seems to me, having two or even 5, separate appliances, would make me more stressed, just keeping track of them. This is a bit sabotaging, isn't it? (Just sayin.)
• Heart Rate gauges. There are many of us who would like to know if we are exercising at the correct 'zone', for our individual levels of fitness. I don't know if there's even an appliance that can do this; but I'd pay a little extra for it, if there was one.
• Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Breakdowns. If not on the appliance, then certainly on the now seamlessly integrated website. This is a good thing to have, in order to NOT get discouraged, if you happen to have a bad day. Most of the time, a weekly calorie count is much handier to have, because it can change that: "oh, I screwed up today, guess my diet is shot" response to the: "Oh, well, I still have 6 days to do better", response. A nice benefit to all the emotional eaters out there.
• Mood Meters. Remember all those funny things in the 60's, that would change color, according to your mood? Nifty. (Sorry, just had to throw that in there!)
• A glucose counter: for all of us pre-diabetics out there. I know, I know, no chance, but hey, wouldn't THAT be handy?
Okay, I guess I'm done ranting, now.
Suffice it to say that it'll be some time, before I purchase any other appliance.
If either FitBit or LoseIt can decide to incorporate this list, then I'll be right there. I may even buy stock in their newly formed venture company.
Until then, FitBit will have to reimburse me for the device, if they want me to buy the additional premium package.
Really, why didn't they just make the two sites truly integrated and charge twice as much? Breaking them out is such a blatantly obvious ploy for more profits, at the risk of penalizing the very sector of society it is professing to help.
It strikes me as somewhat shameless. Just sayin'.
