Gen 5 suggesting how you could meet your health goals

Is there an UN-FIT BIT?

 

maybe they should start with locations and directions to a chiropractor after you've been in their drivers seat for awhile.

 

I've been called worse, you know!

 

As long as the car doesn't shut down if you don't abide by its "hints."

This would be one of the first things I'd disable if I bought a car with these :features."

 

i wonder if it weighs you every time you get in, before making suggestions.

 

Since we're on the subject of Fitbit...

 

Sometimes as I age, and technology marches on, I feel like someone swimming in the ocean as the tide slowly pulls them farther and farther from the coast.

As more and more technology interconnects with other technology...Fitbit with Smart Phone...Smart Phone with your Vehicle....Etc, Etc, Etc...I sometimes feel overwhelmed.

I know it's just me.

But my brother just recently got a "Fitbit" and he was telling me all the "wonderful" things it did. Number of steps taken in a day, Calories Burned, reminders to "move", goals set, goals reached...when to bloody breath...and it would even E-Mail you with encouraging statements of congratulations when goals are met. Oh and it even monitors sleep patterns.

I can't argue it's not a good thing. I really can't.

But it seemed to me he had just strapped an Electronic Task Master- 1984 Big Brother is Watching- onto his wrist.

But I realize it's not going to reverse. We buy one tool....then now...we buy others...and sync them, to combine them into a synergy of wonderful electronic Nannies...all telling us where to park, where to eat, when to walk, when to sleep...what games to play..what walks to find Pokemon we should take....

You know what I wear on my wrist?
A watch...I've had for decades.
You know what it tells me?
The Time..and The Date. And since it's mechanical...sometimes the date get's off, if I forget to reset it after a 30 day month.

Oh well....I can barely see the shoreline now. Keeping up with all the tools and gadgets and combination of tools and gadgets...and downloadable apps....Text this to get this...scan this...to get this....press this to get this...

You know....if I ever reached my Daughters wedding day, and the thing telling me to breath was some device on my wrist?
Well....I'll just let the Fitbit have the first dance with the bride and make the Best Man Toast...because humanity is becoming far too dialed in for me.

 

No! Not another entity complaining about flatulence in the car?

Synergy, you say? Now, where have I seen that recently????

 

I was listening to an innovations Podcast this week which talked about "connected shoes" - somehow connected to a FITBIT, as well as a "connected TOOTHBRUSH" which will somehow communicate with my dentist.

 

if she finds i'm not flossing...

 

This could be seen as loitering with inDENT. or within dent!

 

Well when I was discussing The Fitbit with my brother I joked that I had bought a "Fatbutt"....

A similar device that monitors and encourages Recliner Time, Snack Intake...and constantly encourages slowing down and taking it easy.

 

I use a Polar V800 that has many of the functions of a FitBit. It regularly tells me "It's time to move", and it's right. Not that I have any choice while stuck in traffic.

I usually wear three electronic gizmos when I do lap swimming. Add another GPS in my cap or swim buoy for open water. There's this guy who harasses me about all the equipment I wear. Really shut him up when I pointed out that you don't need equipment to count the 6 laps he usually does. Accurately counting the 70-150 laps that I do is a lot easier with a lap counting device.

The Polar has several functions that are supposed to automatically count laps. The thing can recognize crawl versus breast versus backstroke, and counts turns. Sounds useful, except it's wildly wrong. Change stroke mid lap, or kick only on your back and it's totally confused. Take an early turn to pass a boulder (slow swimmer who won't wait for you to pass on a turn), and it doesn't have a clue. Use the GPS function, and it can't even recognize lap endpoints. GPS doesn't work underwater, and needs a few seconds sky view to get a useful fix. Thus the manual lap counter...

I use all the equipment for tracking and metering my exercise. It can be used for motivation, like a coach yelling to go faster, but that's not my style. I do whatever feels right at the time, and observe what numbers go with that feeling. My operating range is generally 120-140 bpm heart rate. On a really good day, I've hit 165. And on a crappy day, I may run 105-120 with rest breaks. Another measure I sometimes watch is how long it takes after the swim session for my heart rate to go back under 100. I think it was about half hour after a 2 mile session. On a slow day, it may be as soon as I get out of the pool.

The Polar does a fairly good job of classifying a workout according to how many hours of recovery are required before the next workout. It thought that 2 miles deserved the next day off, and I agreed...

Here's the track of a swim I did at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. It was the first (and only) time I've ever been outside the breakwater. Usually there's a mob of faster swimmers, but this particular day there were only a few and I had my own personal kayaker on safety watch.

 

Here's my kind of exercise...

 

LOL. At my last dental visit, which has become more and more like the up-sell in a car dealer finance office, I brought up the following article when flossing was mentioned. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/health/flossing-teeth-cavities.html.

I asked the hygienist not to suggest remedies unless they were backed by science, not fiction. The same strategy worked to shut down the sales pitch on the extended warranty on the crown I needed, as well as offers for laser-enhanced cleaning, ultrasonic something, etc.