A recent present was one of the Zip devices from Fitbit – its a pedometer for recording your physical activity. Given the static nature of much of my daily work I thought it was a very useful idea to get an actual figure for the number of steps I take in a day and see if I couldn’t improve on to get it somewhere near the daily recommended figures. The set up is very simple = insert the provided battery into the device – plug in the Bluetooth(?) adapter and install the synchronisation software that links the device to the web site. Creating an account with fitbit.com allows you to store and analyse the figures across time. It also gives you a chance to record other information – for example the calories you eat and the other activities you engage in and values such as blood pressure.
I was impressed by the smoothness of the process and the information that is shown by the website and during a recent holiday was able to up my daily activities to something approaching the value it should be. I would definitely recommend this for any IT staffer especially those who are mainly deskbound. Pedometers are nothing new but this may just be the incentive you need to get up from your desk at lunchtime or after work to get more physical activity into your day. For more info take a look at www.fitbit.com