Beating the pregnancy bloat! Fitbit Review

It’s Friday! Hubby tells me to download an app… Some 30 day miracle to get my flabadabs in shape. I patiently download it, just to find that I have to pay £49.99 to exercise past day 2?? -.- . App swiftly deleted. During pregnancy, my body went through various changes. It was amazing to see my belly growing in front of my eyes, but then it hit me – my belly was expanding! Would it ever deflate? Would I beat the pregnancy bloat? Now, I definitely didn’t have an ironing board stomach before getting pregnant, so imagine when my mind spiralled knowing I was carrying twins. I wasn’t sure whether my body would ever be the same again.

“Would it ever deflate?”

Fast forward to post-birth, and with the added element of having a C-Section. Not only did I have to deal with losing the baby weight, but I had heard that it could be harder to do if you’ve had a CS. A few months down the line and I CAN say that I have been lucky enough to shed the weight! I actually weigh less now than I did before I became pregnant; nevertheless, that does not mean that my body is the same shape as it used to be! No sir. The flabadabs are back and it brought the dreaded overhang. Great.

If I’m honest, I haven’t really had a chance to exercise. Call me a procrastinator or just plain lazy, but multi-tasking the gym with twin feedings would not have come easy to me. Of course, this meant that it would take me longer to get into shape or improve my fitness. I attempted to do floor exercises at home, this lasted a day or two. The app was obviously a ridiculous expense in my opinion. And then I received the most thoughtful gift!

I was so chuffed to receive a FitBit for Mother’s Day! On behalf of my daughters, I had been gifted a self-help motivator to fitness in a watch lol. I’ve been wearing it regularly and it’s great being able to monitor my movements throughout the days or weeks!

Here is my review of the FitBit Alta HR

Honest rating: ✦✦✦✧✧

Highlights

• Fashionable

• Step counter

• Sleep and heart rate monitoring

• Daily/ weekly goals

• iPhone notifications

Challenges

• Step counter

• Not waterproof

• No call answering

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Price

Smart watches and activity trackers seem to be the new tech everyone is raging about. With a retail price at around £119.99, the Fitbit Alta HR is decently priced addition to your watch collection, but with the added bonus of fitness tracking. Fitbit have a huge range of fitness watches to suit your budget and needs, although in comparison to the Apple watch, of course this product is much cheaper.

Design

I love the design of this Fitbit! It's sleek and very lightweight to wear.

As a fashionable accessory it also has the added bonus of interchangeable watch straps. I am yet to buy one; however, I like having the option to change the simple black strap to a colour of my choosing.

Before purchasing, check the side of the packaging. It has a handy wrist sizing tool to help you decide which size watch to buy! This is great as I have tiny wrists and in the past I have bought watches that have been either too tight or too lose.

The Fitbit Alta HR is designed quite well to be slim and discreet. The screen size is large enough to display the various functions e.g. time/date, your heart rate, steps, battery life. These readings can be displayed easily by tapping the screen a few times, although unfortunately it can be a bit slow to respond.

A disadvantage to this watch is that it is not waterproof. As a busy mother I play with water way too much; whether it's washing bottles, washing the babies, doing the washing up...The watch is splash proof but not swim proof. Thankfully, I don't intend to go swimming with this watch, but for those of you looking for a fitness watch you could wear in the water or the shower, this is not the one for you.

Functionality

I love that this watch reminds me how lazy i get sometimes. The Fitbit records your hourly activity and stationary time with notifications to keep moving if you've been sitting down watching TV for however long. The watch actually gets me up of the off the sofa with regular prompts to complete another 50 steps to reach my target for the hour. Oooh, the sense of satisfaction when it congratulates you for not being a lazy bum! Nevertheless, I found out that maybe I've actually been cheating?? The main limitation of this watch is that it counts your steps from the movement of your arm rather than your feet. This means that whilst burping my babies i've walked an extra 40 steps. Similarly, I have been out pushing the pram for an hour and I know for a fact, I must have walked off a few hundred calories; however as my arms have been glued to the pram and not naturally swinging as they would when you walk, the steps are not recorded accurately. The step-counter finds it difficult to differentiate real steps which could definitely be improved.

A significant feature of the FitBit is it's heart rate tracking. It enables the watch to determine how active you've been by determining your resting heart rate, in comparison to when you're walking about for instance. It monitors your cardio fitness level, as well assessing your sleep stages. My favourite is waking up in the morning and checking the app to see the length and quality of my sleep; and whether the babies allowed me to enjoy a deep sleep without interruption. It's great that you can also set a silent alarm on the watch; a subtle vibration that would wake you from your nap but not the kids!

Furthermore, for some the app is convenient for inputting details for female health tracking. Practically, in addition to setting fitness goals, you can also record your meal prep and weight changes as you go along.

The battery life is so so in my opinion. Though the charging time is fast overall, the battery only lasts a few days on average. If you have a smartphone, you can sync your watch easily to the app on the phone. Likewise, with the bluetooth connectivity, you receive notifications for texts and calls on your watch; however it's let down by the fact you can't actually answer the call or reply to the text, and still have to bring out your phone in the end.

Would I recommend this?

Overall, I really enjoy using the FitBit Alta HR. It's simple, easy to use and does exactly what I need it for - it keeps me on my toes. I would definitely recommend this watch for those on the go who are starting their fitness journey or simply want a smart-ish watch. For those who are looking for more zest with regards to tech, apps, water-proofing or sporting modes...perhaps check out the other Fitbit models.

For now, I’ll continue my smooth sailing journey to fitness and see where it takes me. In the meantime, here’s some honest thoughts i've had during my recent experience. I know self-love is not always easy and we always seek ways in which to change our bodies; however we should continue trying to accept that our bodies will always naturally change over time, because that's just what life throws at us. If for instance, through pregnancy you carried cargo for 9 months - that’s worthy of praise and your new body shape is your trophy *insert irony*!

I am personally trying to build up the confidence to be proud of flabadabs and focus more on my fitness than anything. In reality, self-confidence will make us happier than any diet will, because life is much more complex than numbers on a scale! Every size is beautiful and we need to celebrate this more!

H x