Building better fitness apps

[wshaffer]

Lots of food for thought in this article. I don't entirely agree with it - I think the author doesn't recognize the extent to which competing against oneself and setting and exceeding goals can be an empowering experience for someone who's always struggled with fitness or exercise. Certainly, for me personally, being able to track my progress has

Comments

[swan_tower]

I like the notion of a story I only get to hear when I walk around more.

For a little while I did the food-logging thing on Fitbit, but I gave it up pretty fast. Figuring out what I ate and how much of it was too much effort -- and I knew that if I got myself into the gear where I was willing to put in that work, I would be in a very unhealthy headspace. So I stopped. The only thing I really track with my Fitbit these days is steps, and every so often I weigh myself to see what effect it's having.

(I confess myself curious as to how you get so many steps in. You're regularly up around or above me on the list . . . but I stuck a frickin' treadmill under my desk to make that total happen. Do you just take a lot of short walks, or what?)

[wshaffer]

Back when I was in grad school, I used to get audiobooks from the library and only listen to them when I was walking or riding a stationary bike. Provided that I liked the book, it was a pretty effective motivator