My Fitbit Versa Lite is here!

I got my new Fitbit Versa Lite, which is replacing my Fitbit Alta. The latter can't hold a charge. For the past two days, it died while I drove home from work. Not good!

I do love my Versa Lite so far. It was easy to set up. Like my old Pebble watch, this Fitbit watch allows me to customize the watch face.

I'm getting used to the heart rate monitor. I'm off to bed soon, so I'll see how it monitors my sleep.

Depleted battery on my Fitbit Alta leads to a new Versa Lite

I have had my Fitbit Alta for nearly three years. While in the Twin Cities, it died on me. It had a full charge the night before.

I worked with support. Sure enough, after a full charge, without any notifications or fancy, draining functionality, the battery depletes roughly 1.75 days later. It's supposed to last at least four days on a full charge.

Unfortunately, my Alta is no longer covered by the limited warranty. However, I do get a discount on my next device. It's a nice way to keep me as a customer.

I will get the Versa Lite and see how it goes. I get 40% off its regular price. Not too shabby!

Bye bye, Fitbit! Google Fit now get sleep information from my Sleep app

A few months ago, I got a Fossil Sport smartwatch. I love it. The only downside is that it doesn't track my sleep time.

My Fitbit Alta does track my sleeping time, as does my Fossil hybrid smartwatch. There are pros and cons with all three devices. I ended up wearing both of these devices, as the step counts differ between the two devices.

Well, great news for me. I use a sleep app that didn't sync with Google Fit for years. It finally does!

I am involved in a corporate health app. That app requires step and sleep information from Google Fit. I can finally get this data to this app with either Fossil smartwatch. Yay!

I am so happy.

Buying items that I need

It's nice when it's payday and I can get items that I have been waiting to buy. I'm either replacing broken items or am about to run out of essentials.

I went ahead and bought two Fitbit Alta chargers. I spent a good $10 on them. I need a backup in case it breaks on me again.

I also ordered two boxes of contact lenses. My usual brand isn't available, so I'm trying a different brand. I'll see how it goes. I'm currently using my last pair.

It's time to go to bed. It has been a long, but good week. Here's to the weekend!

Fitbit Alta charger died and thinking about my next Fitbit product

I have been using a Fitbit Alta for over a couple of years. The battery is starting to not hold a charge as long as it used to.

The charger has a clip that secures the Alta while it charges. The clip broke.

Part of me is thinking about getting either the Versa Lite or Versa 2. Part of me wants to continue using the Alta until it truly does not function anymore.

I can't afford to get a new watch right now. Perhaps in a few months, I will be able to save enough for it then. Leasing a car wasn't on my radar in August. I thought that I would be doing it in January!

In the meantime, I have found a charger for my Alta for $8. I'm good with this cheaper solution.

Steps, payout, and bills

I have mentioned being a part of the health program at work. You take a certain number of steps and you get money every quarter. I track my steps with my Fitbit Alta.

Potentially, in a year, you can rack up $300 if you reach the points goal for each quarter. I am fortunate that I work hard and hit this mark. I max out this payout.

It's great that I win no matter what. I feel good about myself because I exercise. It's a bonus that I get paid to exercise.

I welcome the money. I put it towards bill payments these days. It's not the most glamourous thing to do. However, I do feel good about paying off my debt. It's all about feeling good on so many levels.

Allergic reactions, leather, and silicone

It has been an interesting week as far as odd allergic reactions go. I typically don't have any. This week, I had two.

On Monday, my left eye was itchy. It then decided to go into discharge mode. My contact lens hadn't torn, and I didn't have an eyelash caught between it and my eyeball.

It was snowing on my way home. I remembered that I had a small bottle of lubricating drops in my purse. Traffic was stop and go. When my car was at a full stop at a red light, I got some relief putting some drops in both eyes.

I got home and took my contacts out. My left eye had more of the itchy discharge than my right. The latter was starting. I had discharge all evening. Oh, fun! I did some research and it was an allergic reaction. What I was doing, which was putting moisturizing drops in my eyes, was the best solution.

Right now, I have a slight rash on my wrist. I have been using a stainless steel band on my Fitbit Alta. I have a feeling that I am allergic to it.

I changed my band to the replacement silicone one that Fitbit replaced. My original one broke and it was under warranty. We'll see if my rash will go away. 

I suppose that I am simply either a leather or silicone strap person. It seems to be the case for watches, Fitbit devices, and perhaps spanking implements.

New smartwatch with new syncing challenges

I recently went back into the world of smartwatches.

For over a year, I had a Pebble Time Round watch. It's a smartwatch that looks like a regular watch. I loved that it would keep track of my steps.

Sadly, Pebble went away. Fitbit bought the company. The app that used to count my steps died. So, I had to go back and use my Fitbit.

Don't get me wrong. I love my Fitbit Alta. However, I hate tapping the screen to figure out what time it is or how many steps I have taken. It's not the most sensitive screen. I would sooner have a button to cycle through the data.

It was one of those fluky moments. I was in my guy's neck of the woods. I decided to visit Fossil at one of the local malls. I have wallets, jewellery, and cell phone cases from that store. I never really looked at watches.

The young saleswoman showed me the hybrid smartwatches. They look like regular, classy watches, but they are indeed smartwatches that sync to your phone through an app. Instead of charging the watch, it runs on a battery. She gave me a thorough demo of both the watch on her wrist and the app that she had on her phone.

I loved the watch that the woman had on. I loved the concept. I even had one that I had in mind to purchase, but had to think about it.

I am such a geek. I sat in the mall and researched this watch. Was there a way to sync the steps over to my corporate health app? I need to have this feature, as you earn cash incentives for exercising with my company.

Sure enough, I figured out that I could get it to work. So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought my hybrid smartwatch in rose gold. It's nice. I love it. My guy smiled at me when I first told him about it. He loves when I get excited over technology.

The trick is that the Fossil Q app needs to sync with the Up by Jawbone app first. My company uses the Virgin Pulse app for our health program, which Up links to.

I couldn't get any of my steps to sync properly from Q to Up. I contacted Fossil support. It is slow, but they are friendly.

I am a decent troubleshooter. I decided to unlink and link Up from my Q app first. I then went into the Up app and removed the link to Virgin Pulse. Finally, I went into my Virgin Pulse app, disconnected and reconnected the link to my Up account.

The last step was verifying that my Up app had the Virgin Pulse app links again. It was.

Guess what? All of these actions got my steps to sync properly. Go, me! I still have yet to hear from the support guy.

The best part of this exercise is that I do not have to wear my watch and my Fitbit Alta on each wrist.

J stands for jumping out of bed to talk to my guy #AtoZchallenge

My guy and I had talked about meeting on Saturday for some quality time. I was expecting to talk to him. However, things changed a bit.

I tend to sleep in on weekends. I enjoy it more these days, especially when work drains me.

Last Saturday, I woke up briefly at 09:30. I looked at the clock and went back to sleep.

I wear a Fitbit Alta tracker on my wrist. I get notifications whenever my cell phone rings.

I woke up just after 10:00 to my Alta vibrating on my wrist. I looked at my cell phone. It was my guy. I felt like I had jumped out of bed.

"Hey," I said, in a sleepy tone.
"Hey," he replied. "Did I wake you up?"
"Yep," I said.
"Sorry," he apologized.
"It's okay. What's up?" I asked him, trying to snap out of being in snoozyland.
"I was wondering if we could meet for breakfast instead. Unfortunately, I have to pick up my cousin downtown after my course," he explained.
"Okay. Where did you want to meet?" I asked him.
"I can come pick you up," he insisted. "We can have breakfast in your area."
"Okay. Let me think of a place to go," I replied.
"Great. I will start my drive," he said.

My guy was in downtown Toronto. It would take him about forty minutes to drive up to see me. I told him that it was sweet of him to come pick me up. It would also give me time to wake up and look presentable.

Sure enough, he called me once he was outside my house. I came outside and walked over to his car. He looked good in his blue sweater, jeans, and black coat.

We agreed to go to my local Starbucks, which was a five-minute drive away. It feels like my second home, as he knows how much I like frequenting the place. I had to give him turn-by-turn instructions while trying to snap out of sleepy mode. We held hands all the way.

When he parked, I gave him his belated birthday present. Coincidentally, I couldn't find a decent gift bag to fit all his goodies. Instead, I used a Starbucks paper bag.

He thanked me for the gifts and we kissed.

"Woo hoo! Woo hoo!" said the noise coming out of my coat pocket.
"Someone is happy," my guy said, smiling.
"It's my owl LED light on my keychain," I said, pulling it out and demonstrating.
"Woo hoo!"

My guy let me know that he had visited our favourite liquidation place on Friday and it finally had almond beverage in stock.

"I'm glad that it took the place a year to restock," I replied.
"I got you some boxes," he said.
"You're so sweet," I replied. "Oh, no. That means that you are going to upsell and make me pay $30! Stress!"
"I was joking back then. It's free for you, sweetie," he insisted.
"Okay. Thanks!" I said, smiling at him.
"I will bring your gift into Starbucks."

We both got out of the car, he grabbed my hand, and we walked over to Starbucks for breakfast. It was a nice way to start the day.

Switching fitness trackers and enticing my guy to exercise for money

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my Pebble watch was not recording my steps correctly. The app that helped track my steps was not working properly.

Fitbit bought Pebble. All support for Pebble pretty much disappeared.

I love my Pebble watch, but I needed to track my steps. I went back to my Fitbit One. The downside was that the band that I had purchased to wear it around my wrist wasn't comfortable. The Fitbit One is normally worn clip-style. However, I broke several of them, which prompted me to try wearing it as a wrist bracelet.

The One is accurate and reliable. I determined that I wanted the best of both worlds -- a fitness tracker that provides some alerts that I love, such as phone calls and text messages, and accurately track my steps.

I settled for the Fitbit Alta. It is stylish and comfortable. You can actually change the bands. Mine is purple, which is my favourite colour.

The Fitbit Alta is equally as accurate as my One. The difference is that the Alta has to be charged after nearly a week. My One can last for two weeks before I need to charge it. The Alta is still better that charging my Pebble Time Round watch every night.

I do love my Alta. It buzzes when I have an incoming call and when I receive text messages. I don't have to deal with the various notifications that I can customize on my Pebble.

At work, we got fitness trackers. I didn't like it because you have to physically get a battery once it dies. My guy put it away after trying it out for a month. He told me that I am polite for not calling him lazy. I simply said that he got bored with it.

Well, I told him about our health program at work. You exercise in three months periods. Depending on how many points you accumulate, you earn money towards getting a prepaid credit card.

I told my sweet guy, whose nickname is Cheap Bastard, that we get money to spend on whatever we'd like when we reach certain fitness goals. He perked up. 

He's sweet. He is my Cheap Bastard.

Watch-syncing issues with steps and my trusty Fitbit One

I bought a Pebble Time Round watch last year in May. I love the watch. It's functional and pretty.

Unfortunately, the app that I use to sync my steps from this watch is flaky. I suspect that the app isn't supported anymore because Fitbit bought Pebble.

It's funny that I had to go back to my trusty Fitbit One device to be able to track my steps accurately. I'm glad that I can.

Of course, many phones track your steps. The problem is that I do not carry my phone wherever I go, so it is of little use to me.

I love my watch, though. I now have both my Fitbit One and my Pebble Time Round on the same wrist. I don't like the clip that comes with the Fitbit One. I have broken quite a number of them that I prefer having a bracelet band instead.

Ah, the joys of technology both failing and being sturdy.

My guy called me a good girl... for a brief moment, but I'll take it!

I got my first fitness tracker, a Fitbit One, three years ago. I loved it.

I recently retired my Fitbit One for a Pebble Time Round smartwatch. I didn't think that I'd wear a watch again, but this one looks stylish and feminine. It is also practical.

As far as workouts go, I tend to exercise in my basement, where I have a glider, free weights, and a mini trampoline.

This evening, my guy texted me on Skype. He is still in Mexico City, so our time difference is only an hour. I told him that I was exercising. He was okay chatting with me while sounding winded.

I had finished working out. He could tell because I was drinking water.

"You're done working out, exercise girl?" he asked me.
"Yep, I finally am," I replied.
"How many steps did you do today?" he asked me.
"10,280," I read off my watch.
"Good girl," he said.

Hey, he called me a good girl! I pointed that out to him.

"You're only a good girl for reaching that step goal. You're bad otherwise," he corrected himself.
"You said that I'm a good girl. Yay!"

It truly is fun teasing him.

My guy remembered my telling him that I bought a mini trampoline a few months ago. You can get quite the cardio workout on it.

"I picture you wearing a short skirt and bouncing on it, letting me see your cute butt in a nice pair of panties," my guy visualized.
"That's sweet and it's so you," I said, smiling.

That's my guy.