Nike+ Fuel Band - Principle #1 done right

The build up
Principle 1 from "newbodi.es core principles to change your body & life" is "track it".  Tracking it is all about following some metric about your life that reflects your health, fitness - whatever it is you are trying to affect change in.  It can be your weight, minutes of cardio, steps taken per day, etc.  There's lots of research out there that shows that the simple act of tracking something - anything - will result in improvement.  Tim Ferriss shares examples of a guy who tracked his body weight every day without purposefully changing anything in his daily life other doing this tracking.  Guess what - he lost weight.   He shares the story of someone who takes pictures of what they're about to eat on their smart phone.  Guess what - they lost weight.  Why?  Tracking things makes you conscious of them - perhaps even subconsciously.  The guy tracking his weight became aware of his weight and probably obsessed about it a little bit.  Not a lot, but just enough to subconsciously make shifts he wasn't aware of that started to bring his weight down.  The food photographer started thinking twice before shoving cake down their gullet.  They were tracking their food intake (they were also giving themselves moments to pause and think about what they were about to do - another great idea). It also adds a bit of game to process to keep it fun and energized.

What it is
Enter Nike, or, more precisely, Nike+.  The company has done a great job making tracking working out (and running, in particular) easier through their Nike+ sensors, sport bands, sport watches, iPod integration and website.  Nike has gone one step further with their Nike+ Fuel Band.  It still tracks standard things like calories and steps, but is the first to use Nike's "Fuel" concept.  It's less dependent on the size/build of the individual or the exercise being done, and is based on science.  As the user, you don't care about any of that, but instead are focused on the metric it provides, and how you're doing vs. a daily goal.  You set your goal, and then sync to Nike+ (through a computer via the built-in USB plug on the band, or via an iOS device by using Bluetooth) to see how you're doing.  There is an animated character, Fuelie, who motivates you with little videos when you get milestones and achievements, and it even pegs your performance against Facebook friends (I'm kicking butt, by the way).  It sounded silly, but I have to tell you, I'm totally hooked, and have stayed up walking around when I was near but not quite at my goal just to keep my streak alive.

So, with that background, let me go into a bit of a review.  This review may not be as rich as many of the ones out there from folks who went to Nike marketing events for journalists to get to know the unit.  I didn't get to work out with any celebrities, but I did earn a ton of Fuel playing with my 3 year old (plus working out a lot).  This is also likely to be a brief but honest take on the Nike+ Fuel Band.  I'll go into details by section below, but I'll sum it up with a story.

My unit broke (it wouldn't sync anymore).  I was so bummed.  Honestly, I felt as if I was heart broken. How pathetic is that? I got a replacement quickly, but it wasn't quick enough to sooth my broken heart.  If that doesn't tell you overall how I feel about this thing, you read too quickly.  Go back and read again.  Now do you see what I mean?

OK, now you can read on for more details.

What it's like
The unit is pretty understated, yet stylish.  It's like a thick LIVESTRONG bracelet, but black with a discrete button and matte silver buckle (that hides the USB adapter).  Whether it's rubber or TPU (or if TPU is just a kind of rubber) is beyond me, but it's a versatile finish that's held up well throughout my testing despite nearly 24/7 wearing through lots of workouts and other less than clean and safe situations.

It comes in three sizes (S/M/L), and each ships with two adapters (small and large), giving you three fits per size (none, small, large), though I'm guessing you could combine the two adapters to get a fourth, larger size.  I found I'm sort of in between a 'raw' medium and using the small adapter.  This is my main gripe with the unit.  I wish it was just a hair looser without any adapters, or a bit tighter than with the small adapter.  I find that my wrist hurts when using it without an adapter. That's not a warning to people, though, as I've had two wrist surgeries including a bone removal, so my wrist is weird and sensitive.  I use the small adapter to avoid pain, but just find that the band moves around a bit more than I'd like when running.  No biggie.
In the box, you get the unit with a sizing adapter installed already, plus the larger adapter and a removal tool, a USB extension cable/dock thing, manuals that don't tell you much more than that you need to sync the device, and that's about it.  It's all very jazzy looking, and the USB dock is nice.  Do I wish there was a how-to manual?  Yes, but it's really ok that it doesn't have it.  The whole thing becomes very self-evident quickly enough.

The buckle is pretty solid, and has a proper release button that seems to hold up well.  My first unit actually didn't, as I'd find it had popped open quite a bit.  My second one has done better, but this could also be due to my not using an adapter/spacer with the first unit, so being tighter, the buckle was under more tension.  The thing that plugs into the buckle is the USB adapter, which is really clever of Nike.  I never liked how I needed a cap and a special adapter to sync and charge my Jawbone Up.  Having it all self-contained is great.

Nicely done, Nike.

How you use it
The Fuel Band is pretty technically sound.  As a former Jawbone Up owner (well, actually, I had four that all died within their first 10 days (at most), and still have the last one that died since they offered you money back without a return when they pulled it from the market), there's only one thing I wish the Fuel Band could do, and several it does that the Up couldn't.  The Up's best feature in my eyes was its ability to wake you from sleep with a vibration within a window of your wake up time by sensing when you're at the right part of the sleep cycle to awaken and not feel miserable.  This is so great for waking you gently and not having your spouse or partner kill you for waking them up with an obnoxious alarm when you want to get up at 4-something to work out.  I've started using the app Sleep Cycle on my iPhone to get the same effect, but it's not quite as easy to deal with as the Up was (have to plug the phone in, have it on the mattress while hoping you don't knock it off or cover it with the pillow, and I'd recommend putting the phone on airplane mode so you aren't frying your brain all night).

The Fuel Band has 2 batteries, and seems to hold up nicely charge-wise. I'm sensitive to this given my experience with my Up.  It can display Nike Fuel, calories, steps and the current time.  You push a little button on top, and there's a really neat array of LEDs that display info while a multicolored line fills in as you approach your goal (red LEDs give way to orange, yellow and green for the goal).  When you hit your goal, a "GOAL" animation is played as an option whenever you hit the button.  It varies the animation to keep things fresh.  This display can be configured through the Nike+ Connect app on your computer or via the iOS app by using Bluetooth (whether steps and cals are shown, whether the Goal animation is shown, and whether the band is on your left or right wrist (also called flipping the display 180 degrees in the Connect app - odd that they don't refer to this the same way in iOS as on your computer).

Speaking of Bluetooth, you can also turn BT on and off by entering airplane mode, pair with a new device, initiative a sync with the iOS app, reset the device or turn the device off completely - all by holding down the little button.

My impressions - Motivational
This is what the Fuel Band is really all about.  It's not about the technical side of the Fuel metric, or the accuracy of it per se.  It's about the motivation you get by following Principle #1 - track it!  You will have a motivator with you at all times.  I dare you to get a Fuel Band and not hit the button regularly.  You can't help it. Not only is the display cool, but you'll find that you just want to know how much closer you are to your goal.  You'll feel like a giant when you're blowing through it quickly on great days.  You'll feel a little worried on days when you're not going fast enough to hit it.  Some guy tweeted to Nike+ that he was doing air punches at Starbucks to get more Fuel.  You can laugh at him.  Then you get a Fuel Band and you will do them to.  I won't hide it.  I went for a run at lunch one day at work, and when I got back into the elevator to go to my office, I turned to the mirror in the back of the elevator starting punching, looking like Billy Blanks in a Tae Bo video.  Yes, I was alone.  Yes, I felt great. Yes, I earned more Fuel.

This is my point.  The thing works for its core purpose.  And it works really well.  Really well.  It just gets you so conscious of movement and activity.  A good friend of mine just got one, and he's decided that he will be trying to do 100 more Fuel points each day as he tries to be more active.  He was originally just curious and interested in the device and didn't go into it with a goal of getting more active so much as being conscious of his activity.  The fact is, you can't help it.  You will get more active.  And you'll love it.  And Fuelie will dance his glowing green Nike's off celebrating with you.  He also has glowing green boxing gloves, ostensibly for getting Ventis or whatever a large size coffee is called.  That's another story, though.

One gripe - the performance is mind boggling inconsistent sometimes.  For example, today, I worked out more than I did on Monday.  However, Monday's Fuel reading was nearly 6500, and today, it's 10:23pm, and I have yet to hit my goal of 5k (I'm about 130 off).  Same for calories.  Two 20 minute runs around Boston yielded 547 calories one time and 390 another.  The 390 is pretty accurate given past experience, and corroborating evidence from my Nike+ GPS app.  I ran faster the second time, too.  I think the unit fit is a part of this.  If the band is swishing around on my wrist more, then the accelerometer is picking up more movement, and thus ticking up the Fuel faster.  Who knows, maybe I was swinging my arms around more one day vs the other.

But, who cares.  Taking each day in and of itself, the little black rubbery thing and its cartoon mascot motivated me.  The days it wasn't reading as aggressively got me pushed even more because I couldn't stand the thought of breaking my streak of hitting my goal.  Plus, my son loves watching the little Fuelie videos, and I would be a horrible father if I disappointed him by not earning new ones from reaching longer streaks and higher goals.

My impressions - Ecosystem & Portal
Nike+ has a really solid ecosystem and great apps to support your activity.  That's no different for the Fuel Band.  They've invested a lot of time and money in making the experience feel very complete and well designed.  Literally - the graphics and UI are really gorgeous.  I also use the Nike+ GPS app on my iPhone, and am really impressed with that, too.  The two parts of Nike+ aren't integrated today, but that's about to change (June 2012), so that just reenforces the value of the ecosystem of the Nike+ program.

For the Fuel Band, there's a dedicated iOS app which works really well.  It's not a universal app, so those with iPads who want to use it will have to make due with one of those little windows or a pixel-doubled experience of running an iPhone/iPod touch app on their iPad.  nikeplus.com mirrors the iOS functionality pretty closely, though with a slightly different user experience.  Both ways of interfacing give you the motivating achievements (including Fuelie videos), and let you post achievements to your Facebook wall or tweet them out.

This last part touches on Principle #2 - go public!  Sharing your successes (and failures) as well as your goals with your social circle (the real kind or the online variety) creates social pressure to deliver on your promises.  If you do this, don't skip posting when you fail.  Tell people that you failed and that you will do better the next day.  Get your friends to pick you back up so you don't fail again.  Or to give you a hard time for failing so you get your butt kicked enough to go at it the next day.

To buy or not to buy
In the end, I'm incredibly happy with this.  It can be corny, it may be sharing a meaningless metric that it tracks inaccurately.  Who cares.  What it really sets out to do, it does, and it does it really well.

An inevitable comparison always comes up in reviews between the Fuel Band at $150 and the FitBit at $99.  Is it better than the FitBit?  I haven't used one, so it's hard to say.  The FitBit does sleep tracking, unlike the Fuel Band.  But the FitBit has a habit of getting lost or falling off the wearer (from what I've read over and over in reviews, and then seen first hand as a friend who has one scrambled around looking for it when he went to reach for it in its belt holster to show it to me).  The FitBit is also $50 cheaper.  From what I've read, though, I'd still go with the Fuel Band as I think the ecosystem Nike has developed around Nike+ is much richer and more motivating.  If I wasn't as into working out as I am, though, I might feel differently.  Also, I believe FitBit's site ties into other devices, making the term 'ecosystem' that much more powerful.  In the end, check 'em both out and decide for yourself.  I did.

While they were in very short supply for a while (it took me 3 months of trying to get mine), they're in stock on Nike's online store and in their NYC NikeTown, with supposedly good quantities of all sizes.  If you can afford the $150, this is a great way to track it!

Another great way is with trackbodi.es - our iOS app that's all about tracking your workouts, fitness, body stats, etc easily and clearly.  Check it out at http://www.trackbodi.es!

Have you tried it, or used a competitor product?  Let me know your thoughts?

We really are born to run

For those who haven't read it, you have to get Born to Run by Christopher McDougal (Apple iBooks, Amazon print & Kindle).  A coworker who is much more serious about running than I will ever be suggested it to me, and it literally changed my life.  I just finished a run today, and it hit me just how much it changed my life.  No, my run wasn't 25 miles, and no I didn't run each of the 3.2 miles I did in 4 minutes or less (I ran them at a 7:48 pace, if you're wondering).  The change is that I ran today.  By choice.  Just like yesterday.  And every day before that since I got about 1/3 into the book this past February.  I run a little longer and a little faster each time, and I run with better form, too.  But, again, the change isn't performance, it's the fact that I'm performing at all and smiling.  OK, sometimes, I wince when sweat gets in my eyes, but mostly I smile.

The reason?  I always hated running.  Hate's a strong word, and you shouldn't use it.  I hated running.  It hurt.  It hurt bad.  I have bad joints and was overweight and out of shape much of my life, so I was slow, awkward, and the impact on my body was intense.  I have taken to wearing top of the line Nike running shoes for all the extra cushioning, and even then couldn't run more than 30 seconds without my knees suffering from sharp pains (soon to be followed by my ankles and then the rest of the dominos would fall until I reinforced my feelings about running).

Born to Run changed that for two key reasons.  First, it's a fantastic education in how running really is primal.  Humans were literally born to run.  I know what you're thinking - no one likes running except insane athletes, and even then, 90% of runners suffer an injury each year.  Setting that aside for a moment, McDougal goes through human pre-history and arguments around how we really were born to run.  He does it by chronicling the Tarahumara (or Raramuri) of Northern Mexico - a tribe of native runners who run either barefoot or in huarachis (basically, a piece of thin material laced to the foot) for tens or hundreds of miles at a time.  And they're happy.  I know, crazy, right?  This got my ears open, and told me I should think about running a bit more.  Surely I can't be in such a different situation that it would be impossible to apply the concept of human structure being ideal for running to me.

Going back to the stats brings us to the second reason. The injuries from running only really started in the late 1970s and early 1980s - the time when the modern running shoe came into existence with its raised heel and spongy and/or air-infused cushions.  As each new model came out, our feet were getting more and more removed from the 'dangers' of feeling what's under them.  Then, a few short years ago, there was a movement to get running barefoot, or as close to barefoot as possible.  The minimalist running movement came around.  When you see people in Nike Frees, or New Balance Minimus, or Vibram Five Fingers, they're practicing minimalist running.  I tried it.  You run differently - on the front half of your foot rather than striking with your heel.  It's more like how animals walk and running.  Their heels are actually up what looks like their leg (they basically walk on their tip toes).  It took some adjusting, and my calves burned for a few days.  But what didn't burn, or ache or yell at me for self-mutilation was my joints.  They felt fine.  Not 'ok'. Fine.  As in, no problems to report.  No pain, no instability, no nothin'.

I've found this applies to more than just running.  I do 35 minutes on an elliptical each day, and my knees hurt when I wear my Air Max 360s so much that I need knee braces when I do it.  If I wear my Adidas adiPure Trainers or Vibrams, I'm fine.  Not 'ok'. Fine.  As in, no problems to report.

So now I run by choice, and really don't like to miss runs.  I'm about to have double hernia surgery.  I'm already missing doing pull ups because they did wonders for my arms and abs, but I can still run.  I'll have to stop for a bit (maybe 6-8 weeks) after the surgery, and I'm really sad about that.  I'll be ok, and will come back, but I'll miss some great outdoor running weather and some fantastic feelings.  Plus, running has transformed my body in a way nothing else I've ever done has.  Why?  Well, it's great exercise and burns calories, sure, but it's ultimately because this is what we were designed to do.  Feed your body right, and it feels good.  Work it right, and it feels good.  Running is working your body right.

So, a huge thank you to that coworker and her book recommendation.  I'm paying it forward by recommending it to you.  Just go in with an open mind, and then try it out.  I promise, you'll be surprised.  Pleasantly.

Why it's so hard to maintain lost weight

There's a great series on HBO right now called The Weight of the Nation (iTunes, Twitter) that I highly recommend.  Apple has (at this moment) 3 free episodes from the series in iTunes, so there's no excuse for not watching them.

I just watched the second episode, which looks at why it's so hard to keep weight off after you lose it, and goes into the role leptin plays (something I've blogged about before).  One of the two doctors in the episode was part of the team that discovered leptin and its role in the body in 1994.

What the researchers found is that the body has a sort of point of stasis - a weight at which it naturally balances.  It's a function of lifestyle and biology.  When you lose weight from this level, the body goes into a bit of a protection mode, slowing metabolism as it's getting less fuel (and/or keeping less if you up your exercise) to compensate.  They gave a really useful example.  Two women of equal height, weight and build.  One is naturally that way while the other lost some weight to be that way.  If they eat the same type and amount of food, the one who was heavier will start to gain the weight back.  So, even though they look the same, they can't live the same.  The episode then follows a research participant who loses 40 pounds, and needs to eat 300 fewer calories per day to maintain her new weight to make up for her body's shift in burning.

I may be wrong on the exact biology since I'm not a doctor, but the gist of it is that leptin production is reduced (or perhaps the signals it sends to the brain are reduced), so the brain slows down processing fat / calories.  You can do something about it to maintain - either restrict calories like the test subject, or find ways to spike your leptin.  Ideally, you do a bit of both.

This is precisely why the Slow Carb Diet with a Cheat Day works so well.  You go into a restriction of 'bad' calories (I hate that term, but you get what I mean here) while using cheat days to spike your leptin production/signaling to the brain so it doesn't slow metabolism (or not as much).

The only thing it has me thinking is that my plan to ease off the SCD at the 1 year mark really needs to be tempered and controlled.  I don't think I want to be off it completely as I've learned a lot of good, healthy habits (e.g. eating WAY more greens, avoiding processed/refined sugar, reduction/avoidance of high-man-made-chemical foods, etc), but to maintain, I also won't really be able to go back to the Standard American Diet (it's such poetic justice that this abbreviates to 'SAD').

While that may sound terrible to lots of people, but it really isn't to me.  Because I look at my diet as a holistic view of what I eat every day, and not some short term, unnatural, unsustainable crash course to look good for an event or fit in some clothes I've had tucked away in my closet, this is perfectly fine.  I've not been counting down the days until I could eat pizza every day, or when I could stock the pantry with Oreos and Nutter Butters.  I don't care about that anymore.  I feel great, my food makes me feel great (for a change), and I love the message I'm sending to my young son about being healthy.  It's all in framing and attitude.

It's really interesting, and I encourage you to watch this free episode.

Be mindful about...everything, actually

One thing I've learned throughout this journey is the importance of keeping your mind in it.  Not being a passenger or passive about your life and your life choices is really the underlying key to being successful in reshaping your body and ultimately your life.

This means thinking through how you will make it work, what you need to change, etc.  And then actively engaging your mind throughout the process so that you stay on it.

This can be a daunting task, and I think is why some people don't follow through with this.  They think it's all too much of a burden, and they just want to shut off their brain and veg for a bit.  We all need that.  But, you can do that and still stay 'on it'. How?  Think about it (see - even now, you can be mindful).  Figure out times to detach your mind and let it drift.  This gives your mind a chance to relax and re-energize.  A.J. Jacobs makes 10 minutes a day to meditate and talks about the benefits of this in his fantastic book, Drop Dead Healthy, and how easy it can be to work this into your day.  He also talks about how the best meditation isn't thinking about things so much as not thinking about things.  This is what you need for that mental veg session.

So, I say, "Be mindful about everything," because you should even be mindful about not being mindful.  Engage your mind actively in the diet, exercise, learning, etc.  But then engage your mind in finding a way to disengage your mind on a regular basis.  You'll reach your goals, you'll stick with them, and you'll feel mentally refreshed on the regular.

Sustain to Maintain

I was at my 15 year high school reunion last night.  Two things struck me - First, I'm in better shape than I generally was back then, which obviously made me feel good about how I presented myself going back to see everyone.  Second, people still remember me as 'the fat kid' even though I was nearly as thin, though a bit more muscular when we graduated.  Their image of me was set in stone so much so that the recency effect of the last image they had of me wasn't strong enough to overcome that.  The result was lots of comments about how I look great, and 'wow' type comments.  That's awesome, but it's also funny how no one remembers that I looked almost the same 15 years ago.

OK, enough about that - the reason I'm posting is different.  I had a chance to catch up quickly with one of my closest friends from high school who I have been talking to about her diet to try to help her get closer to what she's wanted physically.  And, I have to say, she's doing great.  This is someone who was always athletic, but, by her own admission, struggled to have the body she wanted or that represented her level of fitness.  She also loved and lived on a lot of the things that are not allowed on the Slow Carb Diet.

So, with that background, in very short order, she's really cut out a lot of the key offenders (sugar, bread), and has been upping her intake of the good stuff.  I am really proud of her, and was so incredibly thrilled to see the smile on her face, and the energy that radiated through that smile.

We had a great conversation around how you make this work in the long run.  While you can go super hard core to speed up your results for the short term, the chance of falling off the wagon eventually is fairly high for a lot of people.  I feel very strongly that you have to make this work for you, your preferences, your goals, etc.  I keep telling people that this isn't black and white - if you have yogurt with breakfast, you can still lose weight.  If not having yogurt will lead you to be on the diet for a short term period - thus going to the wrong definition of diet (something you do to lose weight unnaturally and unsustainably vs what you eat day in / day out to be healthy) - then the cost of complying fully with the diet is too high to be worth the benefit.  It's much better to have the results you want on a slower time table that includes the rest of your life and staying on target for that period than to fit into that bathing suit once and never again.

So, find a norm that's better than today and yet still sustainable.  If it's sustainable, you will eventually get to your goal, and it will be maintainable.  Ultimately, that's what you want - something you can live with, be healthy with, and not wake up a year later, and wonder what happened to all that hard work you did in the past.

No cheating on knowledge

Americans have become incredibly used to getting what we want when we want it, and typically with minimal effort expenditure. We seek quick fixes and quick answers. And we generally get them. From the speed with which you can find things out via the web to the hundreds of millions to billions spent on quick weight loss solutions, we can't stand to wait or work for what we want in far too many cases.

But in reality, the work is part of the answer in many of these situations - especially where the mind is involved. See, you need to struggle and think about things to fully understand, appreciate and be able to apply what you learn.

I say this because I am learning and growing immeasurably through reading. I never liked reading, and now find myself unable to stop. I read when commuting on the train and when running, and definitely wouldn't be doing this without my iPad. I'm devouring books on health, self-improvement, business turnarounds, and personal challenge and perseverance. I am applying this stuff every day. It is clearly a huge part of the transformation I have made and why it has stuck and will continue to stick.

The worst way to learn something it through rote memorization.  Getting 'quick fix' knowledge is the same thing.  You need to work your mind like any muscle - it needs to be stressed and strained to grow.  Muscles get torn a little when you lift, and then they repair and come back stronger.  The same for the mind.  You gotta work it.

So, pick up a book. Read. Exercise your mind so you can best exercise your body.  You'll absorb, understand and grow, and then you can get to a whole other level, and feel incredibly enriched and rewarded.