2012 Gift Guide: High-Tech Fitness Monitors

 

High-Tech Fitness Monitors

After some recent surgery my doctor gave me an ultimatum. “Get the weight off NOW!”. I was/am having some health complications due to my weight and while I have known I needed to lose the extra weight for years, his order finally got my off my butt and back out walking and working out.

Once I started working out, and monitoring my calorie intake, I wanted to apply some high-tech to the process. It is great to be able to track your actual activity level and calories burned on a regular basis so you can use it in calculations about what to eat, when to work out and how to work out. All three of these devices fit the bill by providing not only a large amount of data and stats, but they also provide social media linkage to share your results, and compete with, your friends and family. In some cases, these devices can also track your sleeping habits and provide some help if you are having issues in that regard.

As is always the case, the easier it is to grab data, the more likely we are to do it. All these devices connect to your computer and the Internet automatically to download and process the data created.

I haven’t made my decision about which device to get just yet, although the BodyMedia FIT LINK Armband comes with a high recommendation from a good friend who is using it. Check out the options available and find the one that works best for you. More importantly, of course, get out there and DO something — TODAY!

  

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
2. Bulb Planting Tools
3. Blue Snowball Microphone
4. Seagate Backup Plus 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive
5. Logitech C920 HD Web Cam
6. We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
7. Sunset Western Garden Book – New Edition for 2012
8. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings
9. Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
10. The Creative Habit/The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp
11. Moleskeine Journals
12. Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening (3rd Edition): Month by Month
13. Podcasting for Dummies/Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies
14. Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Tablet
15. Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead
16. The $64 Tomato
17. Blue Yeti Microphone
18. BioLite CampStove/HomeStove
19. Getting Things Done by David Allen
20. The Curious Gardener
21. Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
22. GoPro HD HERO 3
23. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
24. The Starfish and the Spider by Orj Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
25. Microphone Boom Arms
26. The Information by James Gleick
27. Handy Farm Devices And How To Make Them (1909)
28. Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas
29. Apple iPhone 5
30. Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
31. Killer Ratings by Lisa Seidman
32. Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon
33. Zoom Portable Recorders (H1, H2, H2n, H4n)
34. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
35. My Teenager’s Favorite Games
36. The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness
37. In a Mexican Garden: courtyards, pools and open-air living rooms
38. Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
39. Apple iPad/iPad Mini
40. The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
41. Cucina Rustica
42. The Great Potato Book
43. Rode Podcaster Microphone