Welcome to June 1, the first day of ACT | The App Association’s 99-Day Wearables Try-on-athon!
What’s that? It’s 99 days of our team setting some personal health and fitness goals, challenging each other, and trying a bunch of different wearable devices with various capabilities to see how they work, and how they might help us meet those goals. And telling you all about it along the way.
We’re a team with diverse lifestyles—have you read the My Life in Apps series?—and each of us has different requirements, needs, and wants from a wearable device. We’re also a bunch of people who already know a lot about devices, apps, and what they’re able to do—and who know about the policy considerations of all this, too. But, we know that other people don’t necessarily know the breadth of devices that are available, what they’re capable of doing, or where they’re headed. (Spoiler alert: it’s not just about steps.) We want our team-building exercise be an educational one for you!
Let me get a little legal talk out of the way: We’re excited about this, and everyone from ACT | The App Association who’s participating is doing so voluntarily. If they share screenshots, data, goals, photos, or other information about themselves along the way, they are doing so with privacy in mind and understand that it can be viewed by the general public. (The privacy policy for We Wear It is here.)
I’ll start by sharing about my goals and devices.
My current level of fitness? Pretty much this:
I’m no athlete, and like a lot of people, I pretty much exercise so that I stay reasonably healthy, hopefully live a long life, and don’t have to eat horrible, bland food. My motto for the try-on-athon is to “slightly un-guilt my guilty pleasures” (I’m looking longingly in your direction, cheeseburgers).
I’ve been wearing a Fitbit Flex for two years, and it’s been a terrific motivator to be more active (and there are days where it’s been a surprise to hit 10,000 steps). I’ll continue to wear it for most of the next 99 days and strive for 10,000 a day, but here’s what I’m adding right now:
- I’d like to get a better picture of calories burned throughout the day (and comparing calories in vs. out), so I’m trying a Microsoft Band, which tracks steps, heart rate, sleep, other workouts, UV, plus the added bonus of alerts for calls, emails, texts, and more. The Band analyzes a workout’s benefit on your day, so I’d like to do three workouts per week that rate as “maintaining” or better. (A good number of my steps are done each day pushing 70 lbs—two kids in a double stroller—so I’m looking for a way to analyze that added effort, which I’ve never been able to do with the Fitbit Flex.)
- I’ve got an achy shoulder that’s partially related to sub-par posture, and our office remodel brought fancy sit-stand desks that should help, so I’m trying a Lumo Lift to help make some corrections..
I’m excited to test some of the smart jewelry that’s on our list of wearables—like the Cuff, Bellabeat’s LEAF, and the Withings Activité Pop—and see how well a few apps like MyFitnessPal and Endomondo combine all of the data together.
And 99 days from now, there will be new devices, apps, and updates for us to consider, showing just how fast the wearables market is growing.
All of our posts and insights will be stored at actonline.org/wearables. You can also follow along and participate on social media using #ACTwearsIt.