There’s no doubt fitness trackers have had a positive effect on our health, in part because they tap into the competitive spirit – with ourselves and others. It’s funny, though, how some people can get a little obsessed with these goals. We’ve even heard tall tales of people attaching their tracker to a dog’s collar to rack up the steps and beat their friends’ totals. Let’s face it, that’s taking it too far – and not just because we suspect Geoff in accounts is using that trick on us.
Don’t fall prey to such obsessive behaviour – watch out for these warning signs that fitness tech is taking over your life:
- You cycle in circles around your block at the end of a six-hour bike ride to hit the magic 100km mark on your Garmin GPS computer.
- You leave your niece in tears at her birthday party because your Snack app says you must reject a slice of her Frozen birthday cake.
- You walk out of a critical business meeting because your Polar heart-rate watch says the stress has pushed you into Zone 4 on a rest day.
- You wreck the mood of a stag party by using the My Macros+ app to analyse the protein content of every cocktail on the menu.
- You carefully plot your MapMyRun routes to draw the shape of a giant horse on the app’s digital map of your neighbourhood.
- You perform a pre-bed jogging on the spot ritual in order to clock Fitbit’s 10,000-step daily target.
- You draft a Porsche 911 to set a new Strava record on the 1km segment to your favourite rural café.
- Deliberately, you leave your house late so you have to beat your 5km PB on your Nike+ Running app or miss your 9am appraisal with your boss.
- You create a 40-deep queue in your local deli by using your Calorie Counter app to calculate the vitamin content of every ingredient in your focaccia.
- You cut short a date because your Apple Watch says you’ve been sitting down too long.
RECOMMENDED: Do you really need to take 10,000 steps a day to be fit?
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