I like to think of myself as a generally fit person.

I spend 4 to 5 hours each week at the gym, and rarely ever skip a day. I can bust out ten perfect push-ups and barely break sweat. I’m up and at the gym at 5:45 am every single Thursday morning for one of my classes. I drink protein shakes after my workouts. While lecturing my dad about his cigarette addiction on Christmas, he lectured me about my workout addiction.

So, as you can imagine, I was super psyched to receive a new FitBit Alta in ~*gold*~ this Christmas from my boyfriend. Now I can see and track just how healthy af I already know I am.

Yeah, notttt quite.

So, as I’m sure most of you already know (since I’m obviously late to the party on the FitBit craze), the default goals (most as recommended by the American Heart Association) are: 10,000 steps per day; 8 hours of sleep per night; five days of 30+ active minutes per day; and for the hours between 9 am and 6 pm, logging at least 250 steps every hour.

Day 1: Last Monday
I logged a whopping 6,248 steps — 3,752 shy of the goal. Slept a total of 9 hours and 5 minutes Sunday night. Despite my trip to the gym, I managed to log a goose egg on active minutes. And through my 8-hour work day, I got up and took 250+ steps only 4 out of the 9 hours.

So, basically you’re telling me I’m not as *fit* and *fab* as I think I am. More like *lazy* and *sleeps a lot*.

What a humbling experience.

Yes, I work at an office and sit at a computer for a living. Yes, I do more weight training at the gym and avoid cardio. Yes, I despise the treadmill. So after a week of wearing this fitness tracker, I understand why it’s telling me I’m not as active as I think I am. I can do a weight training class at my gym, and since my FitBit does not have a heart rate monitor it likely won’t pick up on active minutes if it isn’t a cardio-based workout. I can be into a project at work and sit for 4 hours straight, ass numb and cross-eyed. I can go home from work, not want to go out, and crash on my couch for the rest of the night and only get half of my recommended steps in for the day. It’s been over a week since I got this and I have yet to hit 10,000 steps.But the most important piece I think this device offers is the awareness of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Instead of using the bathroom that is 20 steps from my cubicle, maybe I can take the stairs down to the next floor and use that bathroom. Instead of finding the closest parking spot because it’s cold outside, maybe I will park a little farther today. On a night that my workout involves entirely weight training, maybe I will jog on the treadmill for 10 minutes prior.

Lesson learned.
So maybe I’m not as active as I thought I was, and maybe I’m not even as inactive as my new FitBit is telling me. But now that I know this, I can make small adjustments here and there and work towards my own personal goals (i.e., not sitting on my ass for four hours straight while I’m at work). In the end, awareness is key. Also did I mention I got it in ~*gold*~ ??

Stay humble, my pretties
xoxox