Trackers have been around for some time now and have helped people become more motivated about staying active. They also bring in an element of competitiveness and allow you to push yourself to perform better with each passing day. However, relying on your fitness tracker can also have a few downsides, especially if you let technology take charge of your life rather than the other way round. Here’s when you know if you’re taking things a bit too far.
Ignoring Your Body
When you get a fitness tracker, you tend to completely rely on it to reach your goals. In a way, the tracker acts like your coach and helps you push yourself if you haven’t reached your goals. But you also need to ask yourself how often you have forced yourself to keep going or to push harder, just so that you could reach a certain value on your watch.
While the number on the watch is one side of the story, you also need to see if you’re feeling too fatigued. While the goal on the watch does not change, not all days are the same. Some days may require you to put in much more effort at your office or you may have had a stressful event. In such cases, if you’re allowing your watch to determine your calorie burn, you just might be pushing yourself too far. The watch is meant for you to keep track but never ignore the signals your body is giving you.
Taking The Data Out Of Context
Are you feeling dejected because the watch is showing that you were slower today than yesterday? The first thing you need to know is the watch is based on a program which cannot take all the details into consideration. The watch doesn’t account for the fact that the run was on trails, with a steep elevation gain in temperatures far hotter than what you have been running in.
There is only so much the watch can record and there is no point beating yourself up for not meeting the numbers when you know you have put in the effort. Treat every day as it comes and do the best you can on that day. Don’t let the watch decide how you feel.
Letting The Tracker Control You
Measuring your active time and the number of steps taken is a fun way to remind you to get off your butt and move. However, things can get out of hand when the tracker dictates your life. How do you know you’ve reached that point?
If you’ve begun declining to hang out with friends in the evening or have started telling your partner you can’t do something just because you’ve not reached you step target, you’re letting the watch tell you how to live your life. You need to take a step back and regain perspective. You can always make up for the step goals you haven’t reached but time lost with friends and loved ones cannot be relived. The tracker is meant to motivate you to live a healthy life, not to revolve your life around it.
Not Taking Circumstances Into Consideration
There are times when your running speed is lower or you haven’t been able to workout as hard as you want. The tracker will show a number that you’re not happy with but that does not mean you need to come down on yourself. There are many situations around you that could have brought your energy levels down.
You could have been working late on a presentation or your child might have been sick leaving you stressed and worried. Looking only at the tracker figures and feeling low won’t help. You need to know that you went out and did something that is more important, and sometimes, meeting your tracker goals is just not a priority.
