Addicted to my Smartwatch

Recently I made two changes in my life and now find myself losing weight. One is a stricter control on how much sugar I eat. The second is my smartwatch. It is the Suunto Baro 9 and has the primary function of helping me to exercise more regularly. Yes it has a number of smartwatch functions such as displaying my text messages or letting me know who is calling without having to pull out my phone but its real strength lies elsewhere.

It has 2 alarms that I try to trigger every day. The first is the 10,000-step alarm. I always try to get 10,000 steps every day. Sometimes that can be difficult as often I only have half that many by dinner. That means a long walk in the cold-dark night after my evening meal. Several nights ago I ended up walking for 2 miles just to ensure I get my step goal for the day.

The second alarm I try to trigger the number of calories I have burned during the day. Just breathing and minimal activity burns a significant number of calories and so my watch prompts me to try and get an additional 500 calories. I usually exercise daily and don't have much trouble hitting that number. On occasion my evening walk will push me over my goal.

My watch has another feature that I didn't think I would use but do: sleep monitor. Every night my watch tracks my heart rate and movement to determine my sleep quality. Some nights I know I have not slept well but every morning I check how I did. I enjoy seeing how long I spent in deep sleep or just the overall general quality.

My most favorite feature of my smartwatch is that it tracks my ski runs. The GPS does a great job and overlays my path over a map of the ski area on my smartphone log that it syncs with at the end of my ski day. It tells me how many miles I have skied as well as many other statistics. Naturally my favorite stat is my maximum speed. For the past week that number has held steady at around 50 miles per hour. That surprises me as I didn't think I went that fast all the time.

My son who recommended the watch asked me today what I think of it. I have to report that I really like it. I highly recommend one, especially if you are trying to lose a little weight or increase your daily physical activity.