Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with Fitbit

Last Updated on 24 September 2025 by Colette

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So it’s December – the only time of year when it’s acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast, the booze is flowing and general feasting is rife . . . Not really a time most of us choose to think about maintaining a healthy lifestyle I’m sure?  Better save that for January right?

I’ve written a few times about the fact I could really do with losing a few pounds.  I want to get back to my wedding weight.  I lost quite a bit of weight before Dave and I got wed (3.5 stone in fact) but I lost my momentum once I didn’t have a dress to worry about, I put a few pounds back on, I got pregnant.  I was back to the start.  Well not quite, once I’d given birth I discovered I had in fact lost 0.5lb over the course of my pregnancy but I soon saw to that with many weeks pinned to the sofa by my section recovery, high blood pressure and breast feeding.

So what do I do to try and be more healthy?

I don’t really drink.  I do like the odd gin & tonic or a cheeky cocktail but for the most part I’m not much of a drinker.  Being drunk doesn’t suit me and being hungover suits me even less.  I can’t say I actively choose not to drink in order to be healthy, I’m not that virtuous, however its certainly a bonus side effect.

Like I said – just the odd cheeky cocktail!

I don’t smoke.  Aside from the fact that it’s expensive, stinks and is generally very bad for you – I’m also really asthmatic so it would be somewhat stupid of me!

I walk.  I’ve never been that good when it comes to exercise.  I hated PE at school (and I don’t particularly enjoy teaching it either) – I love dancing and that certainly served as my exercise in the early twenties, I was a member of a gym in my mid twenties and loved going, managing to go pretty much daily however it was as much a social event as a work out as I went with my best friend!  (We did work hard too!)  But now.  Now its hard to find the time and money required for gym memberships, dance classes or whatever else I fancy.  My exercise comes solely from walking; pushing the pram and walking Thomas.  A couple of miles a day on school runs or trips to Tesco alone and I really notice the difference when I’m not doing that in the school holidays.

Fitbit Flex

I often use an app on my phone to keep a track of how far I’ve walked when I’m out and about but Legal & General recently sent me Fitbit to try out.  The Fitbit is worn pretty much 24 hours a day, working like a super fancy pedometer – monitoring your steps, how many calories you’ve burned and even analysing your sleep patterns (though in fairness I don’t really need an gadget to tell me I’m not getting enough sleep!)  The Fitbit syncs with an app on your phone so you can see how you’re doing, comparing data from different dates, challenging you and motivating you to do just that bit more.  I’ve only had it for a few days so at the moment I’m pretty obsessed with checking it and it is definitely making me walk faster to see if I can meet my daily target of 30 “very active” minutes – so far I’ve not managed more than 14 but I’ll keep trying!

What do you do to try and maintain a healthy lifestyle?  Will you be making any changes in the new year?