[Buff]

I have the Fitbit Flex. It was great for me at first. It kept me active throughout the day and was great for me to get my steps in and get some kind of exercise, especially when I was limited in my workouts due to a separated shoulder.

I would rather have the Charge, or some other model that can show me the time as well as my steps. The Flex just shows dots. If my goal is 10,000 steps, then one solid dot means I've reached 2,000 steps, two dots mean 4,000 and so on. I never know if I have 2001, or 3000 or maybe 3,999. It would be nice to have a more accurate reading without pulling out my phone.

Battery charge lasted 6 or 7 days at first but a year later I'm down to about 5 days of charge.

It doesn't give an accurate picture of your sleep but it is a good indicator of how much sleep you're getting. I have been exhausted lately and it shows that I have been getting 5, maybe 5.5 hours of sleep per night. That helps me to kick myself in the pants to get more sleep.

The Flex is water resistant. I can wear it in the shower, but I can't submerge it.

For a while I was able to resume workouts so I decided I only needed 8,000 steps per day so I can have time to get my regular workouts done. But I restrained my injury and had to go back to walking, but I couldn't get back into the routine immediately and went away for training for a week and that hampered my motivation to get back on track. So I haven't consistently been hitting my goal each day.

With the Fitbit you can add friends and challenge them. My wife and I and my best friend and his wife all have each other as Fitbit Friends, but we don't do the actual challenges, it helps to look and see what the others are doing, and try to keep up with or keep ahead of them.

I tried to do more steps in a week than my friend. I was getting 15,000 steps per day and I thought I had him. Then I looked at his progress at the end of the week and he beat me by 30,000 steps! I had to ask him how he does it... they were training for a marathon!

I did get over 27,000 steps one day. On Street Machine Weekend in Lethbridge everybody pulls out their lawnchairs and sit on the strip and watch the cool cars cruise all night long. Well, having the FitBit inspired me to be more active. I took the kids out and we sat for an hour, then I took them home and I walked back to the strip but I left the lawn-chair at home and I walked up and down the for four hours. Stopping to talk to people whenever I saw somebody I knew. I still got to see the cars, I got exercise while doing it, and I saw more friends than I normally would on that night.