Fitbit

Christmas this year was pretty hectic,quiet, but hectic, but I got bought a Fitbit Flex, which I'd recently seen someone else using... I thought it was a great way to track my activity and my sleep!

I got it in black and  I love it. I started using it straight away and asides from the fact that I snapped one of the wrist bands (the larger one - because I wasn't using it properly!) it's done me well so far. :)

Here's a little example of my sleep pattern on a really really good nights sleep for me.

Sorry about the format, it's a screenshot from my phone. The light blue shows the periods that I was awake. If you hover over each part it will show you for how long each period of sleep vs restlessness was. The tracker tracks restlessness by you're movement. If you're a heavy sleeper you can set it on sensitive, or on normal. I currently have it on normal as I felt sensitive was perhaps showing me more restless than I truely was...

Despite the fact that I've slept "well" last night, I'm still absolutely exhausted. No amount of good sleep helps, but I'm sure you all know that anyway...

Here is a graph of activity. I took the screenshot at about half 2 as you can see, before that I spent some time pottering about the house, putting my parrots outside in the sun and trying to rest up. It was basically me getting up, getting food, trips to the bathroom, etc. This is basically a pedometer and it helps me to see what days I've done too much and should expect payback.

My average steps when at work is between 5-7 thousand. On longer days, maybe when I've had to do something before/after I can see how many steps, if it goes over 7 thousand, Ii know to expect a struggle. I do find it very helpful.

I can also set 'step' goals, (mine is generally around 6 thousand), my fitbit will buzz on my wrist when I meet that goal, which is a nice reminder to slow down and to really start pacing myself!

Maybe I'll post some more about my goals/targets etc, some other time, but for now this is just a little insight into my time with the fitbit. :)

It's been a long time, too long, since I last posted on here, I've wanted to post new updates but I've been too fatigued and put it off for a later date... rinse and repeat!

I'm hoping to start again fresh, this year has been traumatic in many ways. From family health, losing my babygirl bunny, dealing with my condition, (turning 21!!), work, etc. So I'm hoping to try again.

I've recently been inspired by other bloggers to get back to it as they knew how it helped me last time to deal with things and accept some changes in my life. I had people message me thanking me for saying some things and how it was nice to hear from my point of view about ME.

First of all, I'd like to clear something up; there is a HUGE debate about the name of the condition that I live with, but I will refer to it as ME, or MECFS (MEcfs, ME/CFS) or any combination of the previous. It does not mean I'm an advocate for keeping ME known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, nor a believer/disbeliever that they are two separate conditions entirely. I know my symptoms, I know what I deal with and at present it is most well known as MECFS in the circles that I come across.

I'm still on twitter, at @catgisicki, it's generally just MECFS stuff with the odd thing about my pets or daily ramblings. It's where I post about blog updates too, so feel free to follow as I become more and more active on here *fingerscrossed*.

I'm a bit late of starting the whole "new year, new me" type thing, but hey, it's a bit cliche to do it on January the 1st anyway isn't it, so I'll do it now!

Here goes....!