THE BACKGROUND
It has been a while that I started to work on my fitness.
I can say 3 years now. And for these last three 3 years, I have been quite consistent with my fitness and overall well-being. Lack of consistency is the major challenge that the large majority of us face. We start with a lot of hopes on the first day of the year. But, that fizzles out quite soon.
HAVE YOU EVER GUESSED WHY?
There are several reasons. Lack of Accountability is one of them. I have felt that personal and social accountability can help us reach work on our fitness goals better. The personal and social accountability helps us to bring inconsistency.
And the personal and social consistency is attained by a powerful tool: Measurement. So much so that I have now a phrase for that:
“MEASURE WHAT MATTERS.”
I have used different tools to follow metrics that matter to me. Like when I am running, I have distance goals for the year. So, let us learn how do we measure our personal progress and keep ourselves on track.
ABOUT Google Fit APP
Google Fit was the first fitness tracker I started to use in 2018. It is a simple tracking App that is available on your Android Phone. There is an iOS version as well as the wearable version in the form of Smart Watches. I will restrict myself to talking about the Android Version.
First things first: It’s free!
Level of Difficulty: Simple to use.
So, this was the natural choice for me to start with.
Google Fit is a tracking app that helps you track your:
Distance & time
Calories Intake
Heart Rate
So, let’s hop on to getting it on our Phone now.
HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND REGISTER:
Go to your Google Play Store and download the app: Google Fit: Health and Activity Tracking
Figure 1: Searching in Google Play Store
Figure 2: Installation
Figure 3. The Welcome Screen
Figure 4: About You page: Here you need to enter your
Gender
DOB
Weight
Height
I recommend you fill them up mandatorily. The tracker will use your age, weight and height to suggest the fitness benchmarks that you should set your goals as. So, they are a MUST.
Figure 5: Auto Mode Turn On Screen
HOW TO USE Google Fit
Here I need to tell you that you have two ways to use the Google Fit App:
Manual Mode
Auto Mode
Manual Mode lets you enable the syncing mode. For example, you use your GARMIN Smartwatch to look at your data. The same can be imported here to Google Fit.
Auto Mode: Turn On button on the right when enabled will let you use Google Fit as your GPS Device.
It will then ask you to enable the Google Maps on your device. So, just click, “Turn On”
It will ask your permission. So, just click on “Allow” and now you have the screen that shows:
Heart Points
Steps
Km
Move Min
Below that you will find the WHO guidelines and recommendations. You can use those to understand your health. So, do give it a read.
Below the advisory, you will see:
4 metrics showing up:
Sleep
Heart Rate
Weight
Blood Pressure
HOW TO INPUT DATA INTO Google fit
Let us Explore these Features in Details now:
Sleep:
Here you can make manual entries. For example, when you will go into the Sleep field, it will take you to this screen:
Add Sleep:
Here you can Add your Sleep data: I went to bed at 22:16 on Oct 1, 2020, and woke up at 06:16 on October 2, 2020. So, I will add this here. And click on Save.
It tracks your sleep patterns in terms of:
Bedtime Routine &
Duration of your Sleep
Figure:
Bedtime Routine:
Duration:
In the same way, you can use your Google Fit App to note diarize your Heart Rate, Weight, and Blood Pressure.
On the further right, you would see that there is a Plus Sign. Use this Plus Sign to add the BP and Weight Directly.
ACTIVITY TRACKING
The Plus Sign also lets you with two important options:
Track your Activity and
Add your Activity
Track Activity allows you to go with your Google Fit Tracker: For example, If I choose walking. It will start with a countdown of 3, 2, 1, and Start.
Add Activity allows you to add the activity manually. For example, if you had been outside walking and the phone was left at home, you can come back and add the activity here. It allows you to put down some notes regarding your activity.
In the notes, you can pen down your feelings after the walk. Or you may choose to write down some walk related info that may be helpful in the future.
THE JOURNAL
Right at the bottom below the plus sign, you will notice the Journal option. Clicking on this option lets you see the data you have fed into your different metrics and read all of them at one go. So, we just did the noting of our Walk. Here is how it looks:
And if you click on the different notes( either the name of the activity or the icon), you will be able to see more detailed notes.
The Google Fit has one very unique feature that I personally love: Heart Points
Heart Points are rewarded to you for the kind of activity that you undertake. So Google Fit says,
“Your Score Heart Points for doing activities at a higher pace like taking a brisk walk. Increase the intensity to earn more points.”
Google Fit
In this post, we learned about using the Auto Mode features and how you can input data manually. This is one of the most wonderful fitness trackers. ALL FOR FREE.
So, What are you waiting for! If you do not have Google Fit, get it on your mobile today. And if you have been using, I would love to know your feedback in the comments below:
This looks very easy to use. Thanks for breaking down simply how to use google fit.