Recovery, Inspiration, Fitbit Charge HR and post-surgery me!

Disclosure: As a member of a great group of Verizon influencers, I occasionally receive cool products to test drive and share my honest thoughts on. No additional compensation is provided, neither were any favorable comments promised. All opinions are my own.

As many of you know, I had lung surgery last year. All is okay and ended well with the best results I could ask for, but it was a real wake-up call to me. Health is a funny thing – you don’t think about it much until you don’t have it. Certain habits in my life weren’t conducive to maintaining good health, and I’m on a mission to reverse that and be as healthy as I can be at this point. My ultimate goal is to be healthier and in better shape post-surgery than I was pre-surgery.

Fitbit & Me

For that reason, I am so thrilled to be testing the Fitbit Charge HR! It’s a nice way for me to monitor my progress toward having a more active and healthy lifestyle. I’ve really been enamored with Fitbit since the very first model came out. Fitbit has several different kinds of fitness trackers, and they all track steps, but some track other things as well like sleep and heart rate for a bigger picture of your health. Some are worn on the wrist and some are clipped to your clothing. The right tracker for you will really depend on your lifestyle.

My pretty little #FitbitChargeHR and I are ready to head out on a new adventure thanks to @Verizon #VZWBuzz #ad This is not just an accessory to me, it’s a new, exciting part of my path to recovery and hopefully, a tool that helps push onward towards the next positve phase of wellbeing! #Fitbit www.vz.to/1rXeeUJ

A photo posted by Barb Webb (@barb_webb) on May 14, 2016 at 3:59am PDT

The Charge HR is the cream of the crop when it comes to fitness trackers. It does everything you’d expect – tracks steps, heart rate, active minutes, sleep cycles, calories burned…and has caller ID. Yes. Caller ID. It also wirelessly syncs to your Verizon smartphone and computer to monitor your trends.

Features I love

Another cool and unexpected feature of the HR is the alarm clock. If you like to get out of bed early and get your workout in before your brain knows it’s awake, you’ll appreciate the silent vibrating alarm on your wrist that will wake you but not your spouse. Working out first thing in the morning is hard enough without battling a grumbling husband!

The tracker is also completely comfortable to wear. It’s actually so comfortable that I have to try to remember to take it off when I swim or shower. It’s water resistant, so a few splashes won’t hurt it, but I wouldn’t attempt to submerge it even though I’ve heard wonderful things about Fitbit’s replacement policy.

How does it work?

I’m not going to get into all the technicalities of it, but basically, you go about your business and the tracker keeps track of your movements and heart rate, whether you’re sleeping, working out, or working in the garden. It syncs with your computer or phone to keep all of your information in a safe place, and then you can use the Fitbit app to keep logs of other things like calorie intake and your goals and progress – the app even has a convenient barcode scanner to log foods! You can also use the Fitbit app to compete with your friends and family. It truly gives new meaning to “healthy competition”.

How far will you go?

The user-friendly dashboard allows you to quickly glance and see how things are going in real time. It gives you a pretty complete picture of your health at the moment, and as you progress, you earn badges that you can share with friends and family. For example, it will tell you when you’ve climbed enough steps to reach a hot air balloon (2,000 floors).

So far, I’ve managed the Lighthouse badge by climbing a lighthouse!… and for someone that wasn’t able to walk around the yard a year ago, that’s huge for me.  It was such a thrill to have my Fitbit Charge HR record the milestone moment.  Hoping to get that hot air balloon award some day soon as I keep adding flights each day!

I climbed 50 flights of stairs and earned the Lighthouse badge! #Fitbit @verizon #VZWBuzz #ad Woot!! pic.twitter.com/FhjxJdtQXp

— Rural Mom (@ruralmoms) May 16, 2016

Apps, apps, and more apps

Charge HR works with many fitness apps you might already be using, like SparkPeople or MyFitness Pal, so if you’re active in an online fitness community, it will enhance your experience. Additionally, the tracker will work with the Aria WiFi Smart Scale.

Thanks to technology, there is little guesswork anymore when it comes to fitness. Sure, there is more to getting fit than calories in vs calories out, but with the Fitbit Charge HR, you’ll always know if you’re moving enough! I have certainly learned that ten thousand steps a day is a lot more than I thought it was!

Fitbit Charge HR retails for around $149, find out more about this and other exciting Fitbit products available via Verizon at http://vz.to/1rXeeUJ

Do you track your fitness? How close do you come to getting the recommended 10,000 steps daily?