Living Up!

In the beginning of 2013, I was trying to find ways to increase my fitness, lower my weight and maximize my energy. I stumbled upon the Up Band by Jawbone online and was intrigued by it. I asked Evan if it could be my Valentine's Day present and on February 14th, 2013 (along with flowers and the contradicting chocolates) I got my Up Band.

My Up Band! (Evan got it in black hoping it would go with everything. Retrospectively, I'd prefer white or mint but I didn't get this for fashion!)

The Up Band is a water-proof bracelet that you wear 24/7 and it can log your food, sleep and activity levels. It's best used if you do step-based workouts like the treadmill however it is possible to log other exercise. The app probably isn't as accurate on calculating the calorie burn. It connects to your phone via the headphone jack and uploads your data everytime it syncs using the free downloadable app. 

A sample day where I was on target with my nutritional goals, but not my calories. (I try to eat 1200 calories a day.) I added some fruit at the end of the night for dessert to bring my calorie count up.

For me, this was a turning point nutritionally. I used to judge foods basely solely on their calorie content, but this app helped (almost forced) me to think deeper about my nutrition. For instance, if I'm starved at 3PM I was able to correllate it to not eating enough fiber at breakfast & lunch. When I stay on target with these goals, I feel better and more satisfied with food. It's really been a help and I can see myself sticking with this eating plan long-term.

Sample calorie burn for a day. The big orange lines are my workouts. My goal is to be active for 1 hour and 15 minutes everyday with atleast 7,500 steps. 

My sleep data for last night. Not too shabby.

The band also tracks my sleep when I set it to "night mode". I like this feature, but it could be more sensitive. Sometimes I don't think it tracks when I wake up earlier than my alarm in the morning. However, I love the alarm feature on the band. You can set a time in the app - say I need to wake up at 8:00AM. The Up Band claims to track your light and deep sleep phases and wake you up at the correct time during your light sleep phase. The light sleep phases are represented by the light blue bars, the deep sleep by the darker blue. Orange is the awake time. I have a window of 30 minutes open before 8AM and the band tries to wake me up at the optimal time and the optimal way by having the bracelet vibrate. As a person who hates the grating noise of a audible alarm, it's a much more pleasant way to wake up. So although the sleep tracking could be better (sometimes when I'm very still but unable to fall asleep, it thinks I have) I love this feature as well. 

So all in all, if you are looking to get a handle on your nutrition and calorie burn, I would highly recommend the Up Band by Jawbone. I'd suggest buying this product in person instead of online (it is available at Best Buy) so you can determine which size band you need. It comes in different ones since the bracelet is meant to fit snugly on each person. 

If you want to try the app first without making the financial commitment, download the Up app on your iPhone or Android. You can use the nutritional tracking to start off. 

Hope this information helped you! Have an awesome Sunday!