Fit-Bit

In the last few weeks, my wife and I bought and started using "Fit-Bits".  This is a new device from the website fitbit.com that automatically tracks the steps you've walked in a day, the miles, the number of flights of stairs (you get credit for hills), how many hours and minutes you slept, how many times you woke up in the middle of the night and when.  There are default daily goals such as 10,000 steps and 15 flights of stairs, but you can update these if they get too easy.  When you just get NEAR your computer, the "FitBit" transmits your latest accomplishments to the website so that you can see charts of your results for the day, the week, or any other time period you like.  For things that are NOT automatically detected by the device, such as your blood pressure, your weight, or what you eat, you can manually log these in so that you have a "one-stop shop" to track your healthy habits and their results.

FitBit sends me e-mails when I reach milestones such as 15,000 steps or 25 flights of stairs.  "Great job, Ben!"  These e-mails have no real value, but--for no good reason--they feel good.

As evening approaches and I'm only at 8,566 steps, I find myself searching for something to push me over the top.  A couple of games of ping-pong?  Run around the house putting things away, praying that something I see downstairs really belongs upstairs so that I'm forced to climb some stairs?  Sometimes I'll even jog in place without shame just to cross over the 10,000 step barrier.

In their book, Switch: How to Change when Change is Hard, authors Chip and Dan Heath refer to a study of hotel maids.  One group of maids was given a lecture on the importance of exercise.  The second group was given a similar lecture with a twist:  they were told that a study had shown that their CURRENT routines, as hotel maids, going from room to room, cleaning and making beds at a fast pace, gave them a very high level of exercise.  They were told that they already were exceeding the exercise recommendations of most medical experts.  In the study, each maid stepped on a scale and had their weight recorded.  Months later, the maids were weighed again.  Those who were told that they ALREADY were exercising a lot just by doing their jobs lost significantly more weight than the other group.  The study concluded that it was likely that they started valuing the impact of their movement at work on their health and were motivated to move more and move more briskly.  I think the FitBit has a similar motivating effect.  It helps me place a lot more value on walking the floors of the building, on doing chores in the house, on taking the stairs to my office instead of the elevator.