Alex W
Pork and Beans connoisseur
About a month ago I decided to get a little bit more serious about fitness and getting myself into shape. I gave up red meat, soda, sugar of nearly all varieties (candy, desserts, etc.), and started off with an hour a day workout routine. 2 weeks ago I bought a Misfit Flash (49.99) to keep track of my activity and keep me a little more motivated. My phone can do it, but the screen is massive and it isn't really suited for what I'm doing. Also I can't carry my phone at work.
So this thing keeps track of steps and when you push the face of it, it displays how far you are into your daily goal with flashing LEDs. If you are halfway to your goal 6 LEDs light up clockwise and so on. It reccomends you a step goal of 10,000 per day but it's adjustable to whatever you wanna go for. It also doubles as a watch as it has 12 LEDs. It keeps track of sleep, and this was one of the main features for me because I sleep so poorly. It's dead accurate with it's sleep tracking. It shows how much of your sleep is restful and how much of it was light sleep and has it broken down minute by minute on the phone app. The sleep tracking is automatic too, you don't have to tell it you are about to sleep like some trackers.
Waterproof to 30 meters, so you can swim with it, and it's supposed to automatically track swimming. You can also set it to track certain activities like Basketball or Tennis but it doesn't do that automatically.
Unfortunately mine died on me two weeks into owning it. The battery is supposed to last 6 months with no charging and mine just stopped lighting up. I replaced the battery and two days later it stopped lighting up altogether even with another battery change. Son I am disappoint. I contacted Misfit wearables and they are sending me a replacement unit but I don't know when it will arrive. I tried shaming them on twitter to get it taken care of faster. Mission accomplished. I'm really bummed out because it kept me motivated and pushed me further on days when I was being lazy.
So anyways as impatient as I am I ordered another fitness band that has a lot of hype on youtube, the Xioami Mi Band. It's apparently made by a cell phone/electronics company that's huge in China (Xioami) and is just now becoming available in the US. It does everything that the Misfit Flash does, but it has a few other features that I thought were cool. It has an alarm feature and the band is supposed to try and wake you in light sleep cycles so you don't wake up groggy. It also can unlock your cell phone automatically when it gets near the cell phone. The thing itself has a rechargeable battery that lasts around 30 days a charge, and the best part is they are only $13.
FWIW I had one of the original Fitbits and the thing was garbage and inaccurate. It turned me off to the whole Fitbit brand. The next thing I'm gonna try is th Mio Fuse which tracks your heart rate during workouts. My wife uses a Polar watch but I can't stand the heart rate tracking band you wear around your chest, and the Mio tracks heart rate with a sensor on your wrist.
