Yeah, it is a picture of the Garmin Vivofit, my husband gave me for our
anniversary earlier this year. Nope, I was not upset (well, I was but
that was because I couldn't get the damn thing to talk to my iPad,
but that is a long story) as I had been using a similar app on my
mobile phone since I got my Samsung S5.
Problem with the phone app
The
trouble with the mobile phone app was that it only recorded
information while I was carrying it around with me. Being of the
female persuasion, I do wear a skirt or a dress upon occasion, and
then my phone might be laying on my desk while I walked around at
work. Sure, when I wear jeans, it fits nicely in my pocket and away
it went recording its little butt of. I like the bigger phone, but
there is no way I am going to wear it around my neck. So pocket, or
hand it had to be.
But with
this band, I could now carry the monitor all the time and literally
everywhere, even to bed. And that is where I got the most valuable
information, my sleeping patterns.
That thing about sleeping
While the
Garmin app allows you to program your sleeping times, it also detects
it automatically from you activity levels. If I decide to take a nap
in the middle of the day, I just push the button to tell it that I am
sleeping, then it records it as such.
Now to
the iPad. The app synchronises the monitor with a profile you create
with your personal details such as sleep time, and your goal for the
number of steps everyday. Thank goodness for the iPad's pin code
thing, because I am not particularly in favour of someone finding out
how much I weigh. Yep, state secret that thing!
As I
mentioned my sleeping patterns provided a lot of insight.
With a
blood sugar issue, I have been known to visit the bathroom at least
twice every night, unless I drink a lot of coffee before bedtime,
then that number could be higher.
Since I
would be relatively awake for that activity, I can see that on the
records from the monitor. So lots of coffee = bathroom visits at
night = medium level of activity.
If I get
to bed at my normal time, don't drink litres of coffee, and wasn't
doing jumping Jacks before I got into bed, my sleeping pattern would
be much the same. No activity interspersed with low level activity
which I have to assume was when I was dreaming, or my husband turned
over and the mattress moved a little.
What I
did notice was that on good days, I would sleep exactly 5 hours and
45 minutes. Okay, it might vary with a minute or two, but that was
it.
I learned something about me!
This past
weekend, I slept in, and what a damn mistake that turned out to be. I
am not a morning person, but I had realised a few years ago that if I
sleep beyond a certain time, I would be in really bad mood for hours
after waking up. It later dawned on me that it was not the time of
waking up that was the problem, but the number of hours I slept.
This past
Saturday, I put in 7 hours and 35 minutes. What a mistake not to set
that alarm clock! I felt miserable, and I am sure my husband was glad
that he had other obligations that kept him from home until lunch
time. I turned back from witch to wife after lunch. Trust me, it
wasn't the food, since a good breakfast had made no difference to my
nasty disposition.
So I
learned that not only was my writing time an important part of my
schedule everyday, keeping to my sleeping routine turned out to be
the best thing I could possibly do for myself.