I can’t tell you the amount of money I have wasted buying gadgets which, in my mind, were going to transform my life but in reality just gathered dust. I even considered launching a reviews website called “Two Week Test”, the premise of which would be that if I was still using a gadget after two weeks, then it was worth buying. Could still do that.
Me measuring everything started like that. I saw a review of a hair-curlingly expensive smart watch, called a Garmin Fenix 5, and decided it would change my life. My reasoning was that it basically did everything my cycling computer did (also a Garmin) but with the advantage of being strapped to my wrist, meaning I would not forget to bring it with me. Forgetting the computer, attaching it and removing it and turning it on and off meant that I only logged a few of my rides.
So I bought a Fenix 5. Two weeks later, it was still strapped to my wrist and there it has stayed for, I think, about 30 months so far. It started the transformation.
Now I knew how much cycling I had done. How many calories I had burned. How many steps I had taken. I fely good about it, and started to compete with myself. Could I do more distance this week than last week? Could I go harder and faster, beat my own times on the regular commute back and forth? I started to understand my heart rate and saw it improve over time. I now know what V02Max is and have seen that so amazing things too.
The watch hooks up to my phone automatically, and syncs data with Garmin’s system, and shares it with things like Strava if you want it to. It gets my weight from my smart scales, it knows what I have eaten from MyFitnessPal and everything just works automatically.
At the start, when you do this, you beat your own records all the time. It’s motivatonal and addictive in a way I never imagined it would be. After a lifetime of pointedly ignoring my own reality and existing in a state of denial, it was incredibly positive.
I have only ever used my Garmin, so I can’t really say which one you should get. The Garmin is great – the one I have is overkill and does way more than I need. I thought, for example, that having a little tiny map on my wrist and being able to use it too navigate would be cool, and will be the first time I use it, but that moment is still in the future. I always have my phone. What can I say, I always like to head for the top of the range, it’s a bad and expensive habit. The Fenix watches are up to version 6 now, I think, essentially the same but better. There are loads of other Garmins, mostly cheaper, and plenty of other brands too. For exhaustively detailed reviews, look here https://www.dcrainmaker.com/
If you’re buying a watch for the same reason I did, I would say get one with GPS at least, and my experience with Garmin has been all good. If I was buying one today I might give an Apple Watch some thought.
So, I recommend a smartwatch. Get one, use it, start to compete with yourself. Since I got it there have been very few days when I haven’t logged some proper exercise – usually cycling or running. I am fit, now. Actually decently fit. That hasn’t been true since I was at school. It feels good.
Suddenly thinner 