While visiting the babies and family (shameless picture to the right of us on our bike ride) in Dallas a couple of weekends ago I was introduce to two new fitness apps that I think are awesome and that now I’m slightly obsessed with. Let me tell you about them and why I like them so much 🙂
I blame Kim for my new obsession. Not only did she introduce me to Fitbit, but she added me to all of the challenges with her. I use to have a VERY basic garmin that I used to track steps. It connected with my insurance and I could earn points blah blah blah. Plus I would challenge a buddy of mine in steps, etc. Well, I switched insurance and my competition kept forgetting to update his so I fell off the garmin bandwagon. After Kim showed me all the ins and outs of hers AND told me they were on sale via Amazon…I quickly became the owner of a Fitbit Flex 2. It arrived on a Monday and I quickly set it up joining all kinds of communities (Healthy Eating & Austin) as well as joining in on challenges with Kim and her family…Weekend Warriors, Daily Showdowns and Workweek Hustles. I like the fitbit app better than the garmin for a few reasons. The interface of the app is beautiful. It is clean, basic and pretty simple to get around on (I use my phone mostly). I can “check in” (meaning open the app which updates your steps) and see where others are in their steps for that day. I earn badges for various things which I post about in the communities I have joined. Fitbit also does a great job at encouraging you and letting you know where you stand in the challenges and they you can go into the challenge and “cheer” on others. I really like it and have become quite obsessed with checking in etc. PLUS there are lots of fun accessories you can get to “dress up” your fitbit so it doesn’t look so athletic when you are dressed up but want every step to count. I wear mine on my ankle so it looks a little weird, but I’m in the fitness world so it works fine.
PS Fitbit works with Alexa, connect your fitbit in your Alexa App using the skills and then ask her, “Alexa, ask fitbit how many steps I have”.
Strava is an app Pop, Kim’s Dad, showed me. He uses it when he bikes. After our 15mile bike ride one evening while I was visiting, he sat down and showed me all the cool things it offered so I quickly downloaded it and used it for our ride the following morning and was super happy with it. As a former, map my run girl I like this one better. It can do bike or run which is I like. I simply turned it on and put it in my pouch under my seat and left it there for the full ride. When we got done not only can you upload a picture, but it shows distance, time, elevation, max speed and a map of where all you went. You can also add lots of little “notes” such as “lunch ride with the Weavers in Dallas” etc. Like the Fitbit, there is a community aspect to it. You can follow people and have friends through the app. you can see what they do and when. I have connected my instagram to it but but be honest I’m not sure what that did/does. I’m sure I don’t use it to its full potential but I really like the FREE app and would recommend it!
