How I started tracking and where I am now - Part 1

In 2012, I bought my first Fitbit. As a tech geek, I was more interested in how the tiny little gadget worked than actually tracking my steps. But that changed real quick.

Once I started wearing the Fitbit my view of the city changed. As a New Yorker, I was already used to walking everywhere. But I had always viewed it more as a chore than something to be enjoyed. How far anything was from the subway stop was generally my number 1 criterion for where I went. But Fitbit changed all of that for me. Now I wanted to walk more to see how many steps I could get in a day. It became a fun game to play whether that was against myself or my friends.

A few years later, Fitbit gave way to the iPhone which ultimately gave way to the Apple Watch. Now 10 years later I still look at the distance I go every day and get happy when I have a big day.

After steps, I started measuring my weight. Post-college I started gaining a lot of weight but never really was aware of how much I weighed. If you ask me how much I weighed before I turned 30 I couldn’t tell you. After my first child was born, I learned I had high cholesterol and that I was allergic to gluten. I embarked on a lifestyle-changing diet change and ended up losing 30 lbs. That is when I started to consistently weigh myself and write it down. These days I weigh myself about once every few days or so and use a smart scale connected to my phone to make it easy.

Around the same time, I started tracking the places I visited on FourSquare. While different from tracking steps or weight, the result was gaining knowledge about how I spent my time which gave me insights into how I wanted to spend my time. All of a sudden I was building up a log of where I went, how far I traveled to get there, and how I could take care of my body to start enjoying a healthier lifestyle.

In part 2 I’ll cover how I started tracking more things about myself and where it all ended up.