Tim's blog, week 3: Choosing the right tools

Tim Castallo

As usual, let’s start off with my numbers for the week.

• 94,286 steps;
• 107 floors;
• 42.93 miles;
• 20,316 calories burned;
• 9,297 calories consumed; and
• 1.6 lbs. lost

I’m feeling great – stronger, more energetic and more productive. It is impossible to believe that three-plus weeks of very manageable change in my eating and exercise patterns have made such a big difference in the way I feel every day.

This week I thought I would take a break from writing about my personal process and talk a little about this health monitoring device that has helped me make some big changes in the last few weeks. As I wrote weeks ago, I will not be revealing the device I’m using, but many of these devices work the same way, so finding the type of device you want to use only involves an easy search on the Internet.

In a nutshell, these devices are a modern-day version of a pedometer and have added functionality that has taken this simple idea and brought it into the 21st Century.

My particular device will monitor steps walked, distance traveled, calories burned and number of floors climbed. The device also tabulates an “active score,” which gives you an idea of how active you’ve been over the course of the day. And finally, my particular device will also monitor sleep patterns.

This data is then uploaded to my personal web account using a docking device or is transmitted directly to my web account if I’m within 15 feet of the computer.

This device’s power lies in an integrated web interface that tracks the food you eat, your activities, weight and sleep patterns and also has a journal. It also includes a place to enter your blood glucose levels and a place to track heart rate and blood pressure.

In addition, data can be shared through social media with various levels of privacy, and the web service also creates a personal web link to your data so that healthcare workers, family or friends can be given access to share in your progress.

The company that makes my device also has an APP that allows me to keep up with my logs during the day.  Finally, I haven’t tried this yet, but as I understand it, there are other APPs that will interface with the website.

I’m not a tech guru and you’re certainly not going to find me on a list of the nation’s most eligible fitness professionals, but as someone who works in the world of mobile health technology and has struggled most of my adult life with my weight, I think I’m qualified to make an assessment of what I think works or doesn’t work in this venue. These companies have created something transformative in the world of personal health for one reason: There is nothing complicated about using these devices or their accompanying processes. This little thumb-sized computer has answered three simple data points that I believe to be at the source of every person’s health – how active have I been today, how many calories have I consumed, and how many calories have I burned? From there, improving one’s health is a very simple, step-by-step, day-to-day process.

I go food shopping tomorrow. It’s time to take this little experiment to the next level. More about that next week.

Tim Castallo is a coordinator for mHIMSS