My new marvel: My @myBasis Carbon Steel Edition

Posted In: Fitness June 23rd, 2014 divider No Comments »

This thing is awesome! And I’m not getting paid to say this. I actually had to pay for this tool but I don’t regret the time and money I spent acquiring it.

It all got started when I started more and more people with all these fitness tracker things. I wondered if they worked and if it would actually be useful for someone active like myself.

As usual, I did my research and found out the top band with all the features I wanted. It was a bit more expensive but it looked worth it. The Basis band. Target acquired.

It was a bit of an adventure since Basis doesn’t ship to Canada for some odd reason. I had it shipped to a border service and then picked it up, but only after a bit of a logistical mishap on my part. And the border guy didn’t charge me duty fees so there’s a win for Eric!

I’ve fallen in love with my Basis and I tell a lot of people about it. How could I not? Not only does it count my steps and my calories (most fitness trackers do that), it also gives me an instant heart rate reading, without the need for those annoying chest straps. One of the other cool features is it automatically picks up the fact you are running, cycling or walking. Cool stuff!

But the coolest feature by far, and what sold me in the first place, is the sleep monitoring it provides. It lets you know how much time you spend in light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. It also gives you a sleep score out of 100 every night you wear the watch. And how many sleep interruptions you have and how often you toss and turn. Check out the web interface above. How cool is that?

Fitness trackers are a bit of a gadget, I get it. They’ve also been proven to get people more active. Like the great management consultant Peter Drucker once said, what gets measured gets done.

It’s a bit addictive but in a good way. And it’s fun! How can I be a bit more active in my day? How can I have a better night sleep? These are not bad questions to ask yourself on a daily basis, n’est ce pas?