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Moving More with an Activity Tracker

I tend to be an over-scheduler. When I finish one activity or goal, I find myself seeking out the next thing to replace that. Add to that regular business travel and you’ll rarely find me with nothing to do.

But with all that busyness, hours can go by without much physical movement. Since much of my busyness involves a computer, physical movement just isn’t required. Of course I make fitness a priority, but studies still point to a number of negative health effects of sitting for long periods of time.

Garmin Activity Tracker -- Tips to use an activity tracker to move more.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Garmin through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about vívofit 2, all opinions are my own.

This is exactly why I appreciate activity trackers. And when I had the chance to try out the Garmin vívofit 2, I was thrilled to give it a try!

Moving More with an Activity Tracker

If you relate to my description of sitting still for hours, then you’re probably looking for ways to break that habit. This is where an activity tracker helps me!

  1.  It’s FUN seeing your daily steps

On the days I rack up some steps, it’s encouraging and satisfying to see that number on my vívofit 2! It’s a small success that I get to celebrate! When I don’t move as much as I should, it encourages me to make it more of a priority tomorrow.

Garmin Activity Tracker -- Tips to use an activity tracker to move more.

  1.  Remember to move

When I’m sitting too long, typically the issue is time slipped away. If someone had reminded me to move, I would have. You can set reminders on your calendar, but you may start to ignore them if there are too many that are unnecessary.

Here’s where the activity tracker is super helpful. After 1 hour of inactivity, the vívofit 2 makes a noise and starts building a visual bar that grows over time. The longer the bar when I get up to move, I know how long I was sitting still. Oops! So you don’t get unnecessary reminders that you learn to tune out!

  1. Wear it as often as possible

Of course, these tools only work if you’re actually wearing it, so you want to keep it on your wrist as often as possible. If you don’t need to take it off, there’s less chance you’ll forget to put it on. Thankfully, you can wear the vívofit 2 in the shower, so you won’t forget it on the bathroom sink. And since the battery lasts a full year, you don’t have to take it off for weekly recharges (or remember the plug when you travel). Those have been issues for me in the past. 

Garmin Activity Tracker -- Tips to use an activity tracker to move more.

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What other ideas do you have to reduce the time you spend sitting each day?