Tag / GlobalFit

by admin

15 Years Of Step Tracking

Fifteen years ago, I started a program through work that “encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  They gave us a tracker, which attached to your shoe and used “an accelerometer to accurately calculate the number of steps, distance walked, calories burned and time of activity.”  I received that first tracker fifteen years ago today.  After a little more than three and a half years, the program shut down and I finished with a little more than 6.5 million steps.

That same week, I ordered my first Fitbit, looking to continue tracking my steps.  Which worked out well, at least until March of 2020 when a global pandemic caused the world to shut down for a year or so and for me to become a remote worker.

I crossed the 10 million step plateau in 2016, 15 million in 2018, 20 million in 2020, 25 million in 2023, and 30 million earlier this year.  To date, my total is 30,439,765 steps over 15 years, which averages out to a little over 2 million steps per year and 5600 steps per day.  In the early days, this was well above my goals, but I’ve been hoping for more for quite some time now.  I started looking to get 2,000,000 steps in those first few years, which I had a difficult time making.  As I moved over to the Fitbit from the Global Fit tracker, I started meeting those goals and, subsequently, increasing them each year.  These last six years have seen incredible backslides, but I’ve started to inch back upwards this year thanks to some weight loss and increased energy and stamina.

Along the way, I participated in some 5Ks, hiked up a mountain, traveled the world, and endured a global pandemic, racking up steps along the way.  Now that my world is opening back up again, here’s hoping the next 15 years are even better.

by admin

And I Would Walk 30,000,000 More

Nearly fifteen years ago, I started participating in a step tracking program through work that ““encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  That program, utilizing the GlobalFit tracker, ran through February of 2015, where I finished more than three and a half years in the program with over 6.5 million steps.

That same week, I ordered the first of multiple Fitbits I would wear, continuing the project for myself in hopes of getting into better shape and improving my health.  Things were going well enough until 2020, when a global pandemic transitioned me to a home-based worker and my daily activity took a big hit.  Thanks to some recent weight loss, I’ve started ramping things back up recently and, yesterday, I surpassed an overall total of 30 million steps.  That averages out to a little over 2 million steps per year, which, considering it has been seven years since I’ve surpassed that total, isn’t too shabby.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another fifteen years to get to 60 million.

by admin

Fitbit Year 8

A year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks to the ongoing pandemic and a summer where I did very little to take advantage of no longer having to go to work, I fell quite a bit short of my challenge, finishing more than a million steps behind with only 1,663,7491, the fourth straight year I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal and the only times I’ve failed aside from 2014 under the old GlobalFit program.  My average step total per week was 31,995.98, which comes out to about 4570.9 steps per day. The median weekly step total was 30,221.  My best week was Week 2, where my vacation in Hawaii led to seven straight 10,000 step days, propelling me over to 77,000 steps for the week.  My worst week was Week 49, although that was caused more by my Fitbit dying an unexpected death and needing a few days to acquire a new one.

For the upcoming year, I’m going to keep things as is, in the hopes that I can finally reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully this fifth attempt, now that I’ve got this WFH thing down pat, is the one that sticks.

by admin

Fitbit Year 7

A year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks to the ongoing pandemic and a summer where I did very little to take advantage of much of the country still being shut down and no longer having to go to work, I fell quite a bit short of my challenge, finishing more than a million steps behind with only 1,689,490, the third straight year I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal and the only times I’ve failed aside from 2014 under the old GlobalFit program.  My average step total per week was 32,490.19, which comes out to about 4641.5 per day. The median weekly total was 31,544.5.  My best week was Week 8, where three 9000 step days, including a trip to Indianapolis for the NCAA Tournament, propelled me over to 55,500 steps for the week.  My worst week was Week 32, although that was caused more by my losing access to my charger for a few days and ending up with a dead Fitbit.

For the upcoming year, I’m going to keep things as is, in the hopes that I can finally reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully this fourth attempt, now that I’ve got this WFH thing down pat, is the one that sticks.

by admin

10 Years Of Step Tracking

10 years ago, I started a program through work that “encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  They gave us a tracker, which attached to your shoe and used “an accelerometer to accurately calculate the number of steps, distance walked, calories burned and time of activity.”  I received that first tracker 10 years ago today.  After a little more than 3 1/2 years, the program shut down and I finished with a little more than 6.5 million steps.That same week, I ordered my first Fitbit, looking to continue tracking my steps.  Which worked out well, at least until last March when the global pandemic caused by the corona virus shut everything down.

That is a total of 22,247,266 steps over 10 years, which averages out to a little over 2.2 million steps per year and 6095 steps per day.  In the early days, this was well above my goals.  I started looking to get 2,000,000 steps in those first few years, which I had a difficult time making.  As I moved over to the Fitbit from the Global Fit tracker, I started meeting those goals and, subsequently, increasing them each year.  These last 2 years have seen some backslides, as I try to get into a sustainable rhythm while working remotely.

Along the way, I participated in some 5Ks, hiked up a mountain, and traveled the world, racking up steps along the way.  Now that the world is opening back up again, here’s hoping the next 10 years is even better.

by admin

Fitbit Year 6

A year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks to the corona virus becoming a concern in March and the complete abdication of responsibility for managing the pandemic by the Trump administration that led to much of the country still being shut down today, I fell quite a bit short of my challenge, finishing more than a million steps behind with only 1,711,727, the second straight year I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal for the only times since 2014 under the old GlobalFit program. My average step total per week was 32,917.83, which comes out to about 4702.5 per day. The median weekly total was 31,765.  My best week was Week 27, where a concerted effort to get out during the summer propelled me close over to 56,000 steps for the week.  My worst week was Week 49, the dreaded down week between Christmas and New Year’s.

For the upcoming year, I’m going to keep things as is, in the hopes that I can finally reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully the third attempt, now that I’ve got this WFH thing down pat, is the one that sticks.

by jim

The Decade In Exercise

The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade. Today, we finish off the series with exercise, specifically my step performance between 2010 and 2019. I started tracking my daily step totals in July of 2011, thanks to a program at work that ““encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  The GlobalFit Destination: You program lasted until late January, 2015.  At the point, I had enough invested that I wanted to continue, so, after looking at a couple of options, I purchased my first Fitbit as a replacement option.  The rest of the decade used one of 4 Fitbits I’ve had (with the most recent coming this past Christmas), giving me about 8 1/2 years of data for the decade.

In just over 3 1/2 years on the GlobalFit program, I finished with 6,511,500 steps.  This estimates out to about 35,197 steps per week, or 5028 steps per day.  My best day came during a 2013 trip to Disney World, where excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom ended with 24,988 steps.  I finished with 45 days over 10,000 steps, 4 days over 15,000 steps, and 2 days over 20,000 steps.  Over the last year and a half, my highest weekly total was 60,216, thanks to a trip to southern California in 2014, and my lowest total was a mere 15,800, thanks to a long Christmas vacation that caused me to lose data before I could check back in at work.

 

 

For the nearly 5 years remaining in the decade, I put up 13,041,430 steps tracked with a Fitbit.  That averages out to roughly 2.6 million steps per year, or 50,159 steps per week, or 7165 steps per day, over a 2000 step increase over the GlobalFit program.  My best day came during a 2018 trip to New York, where the day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim museum, and, finally, the Empire State Building.  I finished with 216 days over 10,000 steps, 36 days over 15,000 steps, and 11 days over 20,000 steps.  My highest weekly total was 105,924, thanks to a trip to Washington DC last summer, and my lowest total was a mere 18,510, which really only consisted of 3 days as I switched over from GlobalFit to Fitbit.

Overall, I logged 19,552,930 steps in the 8 1/2 years I was keeping track, with 261 days over 10,000 steps, 40 days over 15,000, and 13 days over 20,000.  I completed 2 BTN 5Ks, 4 Sprint & Strides, 1 hike up a mountain, and numerous trips to foreign countries, amusement parks, and tourist destinations.  My highest step total by locations were: Continue reading →

by admin

Fitbit Year 5

A year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks in part to only 12 weeks where I managed to meet that combined daily goal, I fell 237,254 short of my challenge, the first time I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal since 2014 under the old GlobalFit program. My average step total per week was 47,937.42, which comes out to about 6848.203 per day. The median weekly total was 44,710.  My best week was Week 19, where trips to Baltimore and Washington DC propelled me over 105,900 steps for the week.  My worst week was Week 44, where Thanksgiving left me wanting.

For the upcoming year, I’m going to keep things as is, in the hopes that I can reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully the second attempt is the one that sticks.

by admin

Fitbit V: Week 3

After the best week I’ve ever had (using either GlobalFit or Fitbit), we saw a bit of a slow down, with less than half of the previous week’s steps.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, as I arrived back home from Hawaii and spent the day resting up, finishing up with over 4100 steps.  Things picked up on Monday, as I went back to work and finished with over 7600 steps.  Tuesday was the high point of the week, using multiple trips to North to score nearly 9300 steps.  Wednesday was nearly the same, finishing just 26 steps below Tuesday’s total.  Thursday was Valentine’s Day, and a missing trip for coffee in the morning put me just over 1000 steps below goal.  Friday bounced back, coming in 29 steps over my daily goal of 7500 steps.  Poor weather kept me indoors on Saturday, for a bad end to the week with less than 2500 steps.

Total steps: 46,787

Daily average: 6683.9

by admin

A 10K Step Record

Sunday, after walking around Boston before flying home, I put up a total of 16,577 steps.  While good enough for my 13th highest total of all time, it also put me at 37 10,000 step days in 2017 and 36 during this 3rd year of Fitbit usage.  The 36, through week 28, ties my previous high from the first year with the Fitbit.  Meanwhile, the 37 surpasses the 36 10,000 step days I put up in 2015, not to mention the 36 days l logged between 2012 and 2014 during the GlobalFit era.

With plenty of time left in the year, these numbers are sure to grow, which will make surpassing them again next year another challenge.  I’m sure I’ll be up to it.