June 26th, 2013 Update: Before you buy yours, read first Why I returned my Fuelband
It has been a while since I had my eye on a Nike+ Fuelband. Yesterday, I took the plunge. The reason why I bought a Fuelband is to help be more active. Yes, I wish to look better in my bikini but my real motivation is to stay healthy. Following my toddler boy around helps me but I want to do more. For the past 6 months, I try, without success, to add a daily yoga session to my routine. Between my work schedule, the household tasks and making dinner, I don’t seem to find the time to squeeze a yoga break. I wish that by raising the bar of my Fuel goal, I would have no choice but to integrate yoga in my life.
There are several contenders for activity-tracking bracelets. I read some reviews before making my purchase. I wanted a no-fuss, easy to use activity-tracking bracelet, one that tracks my steps and movements automatically. I don’t have the time nor the desire to photograph my meals. And I don’t want to wear on bracelet when I sleep. For these two reasons, I quickly eliminate the Jawbone Up. Plus, I like the fact that the Nike+ Fuelband is also a watch.
For your information, a Fuel is a unit specific to Nike. Your number of fuels will be a lot larger than your burned calories. Before you first use your Fuelband, you need to record your weight, height, age and gender. Nike developed the fuel metric system to enable people to compare their efforts with an universal value, no matter what height, weight, gender or activity they do. The Fuelband also tells you how much steps you did and your burned calories. At midnight every day, the Fuelband automatically resets the counts to zero. Nice weekly tracking reports give me incentives to continue. I can view my reports online and via an iPhone app. You can set a challenge over a period of time.
After talking to a few friends who told me that their Fuelband continues to motivate them after several months of usage, the choice was a no brainer for me. So far, I like it. It shows me that I am more active that I thought. To make it more challenging, I increased my daily goal at noon. We will see if I am too optimistic.
If you are interested in getting one, I bought mine at an Apple store. Apple carries them in stores and online. There are many Canadian retailers who carry them. The Black looks great on pictures but I heard that it always look dirty. People complained that it is hard to keep the Black band clean. I recommend that you opt for a White Ice or a Black Ice. If you need to know, I bought a small Black Ice (a clear black).
Photos credits: Nike on Facebook and Nike+ Fuelband
