Silver Lining: park dates with Jawbone UP MOVE

As the weather heats up and it's light late into the night, our new favorite thing is to go on walks and park dates late in the evening. The Squishy One is just barely starting to enjoy parks. Swinging is her favorite, and if there's another little friend at the park, she will jump off a ledge just to try and catch up to someone! Today I'm here to share a review of what has been my favorite collaboration in a long time. The Jawbone UP MOVE activity tracker. Seriously, I have loved this. All I do is clip the tracker on my clothes or wear it around my wrist, and my tracker does all the rest of the work.

First of all, it tracks my sleep. It charts when I fall asleep, how many periods of light and deep sleep I have, and how long each period is. It knows when I'm restless and when I wake up. Now all I have to do is get it to help me stay asleep when my husband sleep talks in the middle of the night. (But seriously, the sleep talking has been increasing exponentially lately. I should start keeping track of everything Sam says, because it's absolutely golden.)

My UP MOVE also tracks my activity. You guys, this has surprised me so much. First of all, even though I feel like I'm constantly chasing after my baby, I definitely don't move as much as I thought I did! And all that time spent blogging and tutoring is pretty sedentary. This tracker has helped me get up and moving every day. Mostly because when I reach my movement goal for the day, it displays this awesome light show. Apparently I'm ten years old still, because that cool light show is actually a huge motivator for me haha.

It turns out that tracking my activity level for this past month has helped me become much more self-aware about my habits and how to improve them. Sometimes I intentionally take a walk or exercise again at the end of the day because I don't have all my steps yet, and I really want to get it. My activity level has definitely improved in the past month because I'm more aware of how much I'm moving.

I was worried that the bracelet tracking band would really bug me, because I usually can't stand watches or bracelets around my wrist. But I honestly don't notice the band at all when I have it on! It's lightweight and comfortable. I also like to clip the tracker to my clothes. I got the plain black and white, but I'm also crushing on the bright purple color here.

The Smart Coach app feature has really helped me become better. It gives you insights about your activity, and suggests improvements in small, manageable increments. One morning, when I had just woken up and was lying in bed, it sent me a notification that said. "Good morning! On the days when you get out of bed before 7am, you move an average of 1,409 steps more than when you get up later. So get out of bed and get moving!" Womp womp. Fine. I guess I'll get up.

Now I want to put the tracker on Claire, because I'm pretty sure my wiggly girl goes like 10,000 steps an hour.