Motivation. It’s something that you NEED in order to lose weight, maintain your weight, and just be healthy! The older we get, the harder all of that becomes. I’ve struggled with weight for a long time. As a mom it’s easy to take care of everyone else except yourself and after years of doing that…it catches up to you. I can no longer blame extra weight on the babies…I mean, my “baby” is 4.  This year was the first year all of my kids were in school and I decided, enough was enough. It was time to quit the excuses and just get it done because I know it will be worth it in the end. So I needed to find my motivation. A few years ago, I jumped on the fitness watch train, thinking that alone was going to be my motivation. I honestly don’t think I was quite ready mentally to take the plunge but when the motivation kicked in strong this year….that stupid watch has been my bff.

If you’re into competition, you might like the fitness watch craze that has been happening for a while.  I started out with the original Fitbit. The one where you only saw dots light up on your screen and that mean you had gone 2000 steps for every dot that came up. Then I realized, you could be friends with people who also had a Fitbit. That was the moment I was hooked to the fitness watch.

I’ll be honest, I’m a competitive person. Not to the point, where I want to make others feel bad…but it gives me motivation to do more for myself because….I *need* to win! Am I a sore loser? When it comes to the fitness watch, not so much. But make me play a game with my husband and I’ll pout like a two year old if I lose. Or I’ll just make up my own rules.

But back to these watches…I love them! I eventually bought myself an upgraded fitbit that had the digital screen, the Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband, Plum, Small (US Version). I believe it was around $130 when I bought it and it was great! I’ve always been impressed with how durable those things are because I am not a graceful person. I beat the crap out of watches when I workout. I can’t even tell you how many times I hit the side of my treadmill while walking and you can barely tell. If you’re not an Apple person, Fitbit is really the way to go.

Now, my sweet husband, who is currently deployed, decided to trick me for Christmas. Since I’m a photographer, I’ve recently jumped into Apple products. As much as I do not want to…I can’t deny how good they are when you do what I do. So when I thought all the presents were done with, my brother-in-law pulls out one more present for me. You guessed it….the hubby bought me an Apple watch!

Please don’t judge my Christmas morning look. This is the “we have 5 kids (1 niece) on Christmas morning and I need coffee” look. 😉

It really was a surprise and I have loved the Apple Watch even more than the Fitbit since I got it. So now I’ll stop with the story-telling, and give you some facts about both devices.

Fitbit:

• It’s obviously going to be cheaper.
• I liked how mine tracked stairs and sleep.
• I feel like more of my friends have these because of the price range, so you’d probably get more friends to follow.
• You can do group challenges with the Fitbit app.
• You can track calories, exercise minutes, steps, weight, water drank, calories consumed all in the app.

Apple Watch:

• It’s faaaaancy and colorful. It really brightens my day looking at all the colors…I know I’m crazy.
• It tracks your move (calories), exercise, and stand goals.
• You can track you workouts, heart rate, active calories and total calories.
• It’s basically like a mini phone – you can install certain apps, make calls, texts and check many different things. If you don’t have a data plan on it, you will need your phone nearby so bluetooth can connect.

Here is what the sharing screen looks like from both:

This is just a small piece of what both watches can do for you. There are definitely pros and cons for each one and I’ve enjoyed both versions. But in the end, I’m extremely happy with my Apple Watch right now. So happy that I have become obsessed with closing the rings and even have a few others jumping in with me. It’s a fun challenge to do! If you have an Apple Watch, join in with us and see if you can close all your rings for a week! If you have a Fitbit, pick 3 things and see if you can accomplish the goal for a week! You can complete the goals and get motivation no matter what you have!

Now go get it done!