Give anyone in the fitness industry a soapbox and they will likely jump into how important it is to set goals. I agree with this sentiment, but only to a certain point. Just like anything else, when taken to an extreme, even goals can be problematic.
On average, one in every five people in the US use a fitness tracker of some sort. In most trainings we hold at SkellaFiT (and any classes I’ve attended outside of the gym) it’s not uncommon to hear someone say “Ooooh! I forgot to set my workout on my watch!” halfway through the session. (cue the stoic single tear)
And I ask you, with all sincerity, is it really worth disrupting the flow of your vinyasa to hit the “start” button? Should we really be setting down our weights to fumble with our watches? Should we pull off our boxing gloves to see how many calories we are burning?
In short DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
You might be screaming at me right now “But if I don't hit start I won’t hit my goals for the day!! I thought you said goals were important?!?”
Chill, baby. I’ve got you. Come sit next to Mama.
Tracking is a tool that can help you identify patterns. Food logs can occasionally be helpful to track what we eat. If we start feeling crummy or sluggish, we can look back and see “Oh! I’ve been eating super rich foods and haven't had very much water this week”. We take that into consideration and then we adjust where necessary to help ourselves start feeling our best.
Here’s the thing though - it doesn’t have to look perfect.
I said... IT DOESN’T HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT. Why? Because chasing “perfect” will drive you bonkers.
Do you have perfectly balanced Macros? GOOD FOR YOU, but I don’t care. How much time did you spend not being present in your actual life calculating (or worse yet worrying about) that “perfection”? If none, high five! That's extremely hard to do, but the reason we set goals is to have something to aim towards, not to have it rule our lives and become an unhealthy obsession.
Likewise, Fitness Trackers help us track our movement. The closer we can get to our Steps, Stand and Exercise goals, the better…but not always. Not if it robs you of life’s precious moments and replaces them with worry.
I know a woman who used to wave her hands in the air while sitting on the couch at the end of the day just so she could “close her ring” on her Apple watch. Is that REALLY getting you closer to your goal? What exactly are you trying to prove? As a wise woman once said, "You don't have to prove anything to these motherfuckers".
It’s just as insignificant as if you forget to turn on your workout before you begin. Getting the workout in and moving your body is the important part. NOT the 10 minutes of lost data. It is much more healthy for you to focus on being consistent and finding exercises that you like to do. When you truly enjoy your chosen activity, you will be 10x more likely to do it regularly and then you won’t need a fitness tracker to tell you if you’ve been moving or not.
Case in point, this month my husband and I finally took the dream vacation we had been planning since 2019 to the Northern Coast of Spain! We spent hours hiking and walking along the beach, taking in the fresh air, enjoying the amazing food and making each other laugh. It was for all intents and purposes, a very healthy vacation (minus falling in love with Vermouth, but that’s a different topic for another day). However, if you were to ask my fitness tracker, it would tell you that I was a total piece of shit.
Some days I forgot to wear it. Some days I ignored it when it asked if I was on an outdoor walk. Once I wore it for an entire day but it told me my day was "incomplete" because although I had taken over 15,000 steps, climbed three flights of stairs, and hit a distance of over 6 miles hiking, I didn’t stand enough hours to qualify for a “perfect” day.
That is just dumb.
I saw beautiful sights! I drank water at a castle! I spent time with good ol’ mother nature and recharged my batteries. For the love of everything good in the world, I was on vacation! And I was feeling awesome. If I didn’t know better, the reminders from my watch would have made me feel like I hadn’t done “enough” during that day.
Vacations can be active, sure, but believe me when I tell you I got plenty of rest too. My favorite kind of vacation is a well balanced vacation where I get plenty of adventure as well as recovery time.
Sadly, I have had so many clients apologize or tell me they were "bad" because they didn't workout while they were on vacation. On vacation! That's bananas. Rest should also be prioritized as part of our wellness plan, but I digress, that's for another time.
We can’t count on technology to tell us what we know about our own bodies and our own lives. Sure, technology can be helpful in identifying patterns and where we can make adjustments, but there is no need to live and die by the metrics. Live your life and do your best.
After all, it’s just a fucking watch.
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