Fitbits and Mood

I love my Fitbit. I rarely take it off, other than to charge it and to shower. I wear it to bed to track my sleep. I track my workouts. I track my steps. I have been known to wear it to weddings, as you can earn a lot of steps from dancing. It may land up in my purse during picture time, as it doesn’t go with many of my dresses.

I wear it to all of my aerial classes. It’s cut into my wrist before when doing drops on the silks and the magnetic band has attached itself to the metal Lyra (hoop), making certain moves more challenging. However, if I don’t wear it for a workout, it’s like the workout never happened. Please note- I do take it off for certain moves, as safety does comes first.

I have found there are things besides exercise and sleep that can be tracked on a Fitbit. The device also allows you to track water intake, weight, and your menstrual cycle. This is not a featured use of the Fitbit, however, I have found it helpful for tracking my mood. Physical activity is a huge source of happiness for me & has been a factor in regulating my mood. After all, endorphins from exercising are a natural mood enhancer. Chances are if I reached my goal of 10,000 steps or have gone beyond, I am having a pretty good day. Occasionally, it may just mean that I am busy & didn’t have many opportunities to sit down.

Fitbit allows you to connect with friends who also have Fitbits. You can compete with and support one another through their fitness journey. Fitbit allows you to view your friends’ weekly total steps. During a time when I wasn’t getting many steps in, an intuitive Fitbit wearing friend reached out to me to see if I was alright. She was spot on with her concern. My lack of movement, as evidenced by my low step count, indicated that I was not in a great place. A low step count for someone who typically is very active may be a sign of Depression. I wouldn’t necessarily jump to this conclusion all of the time. It could also mean that they are physically ill, stuck in the car for a long drive, or sitting all day at work or in a seminar.

Other signs of Depression include:

– Diminished interest in activities (hobbies, sports, spending time with friends/family, etc)

– Changes in appetite and sleep patterns

– Fatigue/loss of energy to complete tasks

– Agitation

– Difficulty concentrating

– Recurrent thoughts of death

Please seek help from a licensed mental health provider if you are experiencing these symptoms for an ongoing period of time (ex- two weeks or more).

Fitbit has also been a helpful tool for tracking anger. According to Fitbit’s help page, “active minutes are awarded once you have reached 10 minutes of moderate to intense activity.” I have noticed at rare times that I have earned active minutes when I was not exercising. When I looked back at the time period that this was occurring, I realized that I was yelling at the kids or worked up about something else. If I start to feel my heart race when angry in the same manner it does when I exercise, it means that I need to calm down. This could be done by walking away from the trigger, taking deep breaths to calm myself, counting backwards from 10 before responding, or finding someone to talk to.

I love that Fitbit has features beyond exercise tracking. I have been addicted to wearing it since I received one as a birthday gift three years ago. I bet I’ll find more useful features as time goes on!