Get UP

Jawbone UP Review

All the talk about sitting being the new smoking has really gotten to me. I spend my days sitting in front of my computer at work, and then come home and sit on the sofa for a few more hours, watching TV and cruising the internet. I cringed as one story after another reported on the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, and felt robbed when they said that even regular exercise is not enough to protect you if you spend most of your day sitting down.

I tried to be more active at work. I tried to remember to stand up to read papers or proofread briefs. I tried to remember to take more breaks to get water. I starting walking files back and forth to my assistant and visiting people in person instead of always sending emails. But I found that I often got so wrapped up in my project, or got chained to my desk by one phone call after another, I hadn’t managed to budge at all.

When I heard about the Jawbone UP® I thought maybe that held the key to helping me change my sedentary habits at work. I know there are several fantastic personal activity trackers out there, but as far as I know, the the Jawbone UP® is the only one that lets you set an alarm to go off after a set period of inactivity. I quickly added it to my birthday list, and have been tracking my activity–and lamenting my inactivity–ever since.

Click through to see the Jawbone UP® on Amazon

This is what the Jawbone UP® looks like. This model comes in several colors, but I chose basic black in size small (using the sizing guide on their website). The small button on one end is used to toggle between awake and sleep mode, time an activity, and time a power nap. The large silver piece covers the jack that plugs into your smartphone to upload your data. (Another model uses Bluetooth technology to automatically “push” the data to the App on your smartphone.)

This is a view of a typical sedentary work day.

The first red peak is my morning dog walk, the next orange peak matches when I did a strength workout, and the other peaks show walks around my office and–the biggest midday peak–a trip to Starbucks.

This is a view of a workday when I ran on the treadmill in the morning.

On this day I spent three hours on a train to New Jersey to speak at a conference,
and then spent three hours on the train to come home–those last peaks at the end of the day must show where I got off the train and walked to my car.

This is a view of a typical night’s sleep.

The dark blue is supposed to show periods of deep sleep, while the light blue is supposed to show periods of light sleep. I’m not sure how it can figure all that out based on just its motion sensor, but I have felt less rested when I had less deep sleep.

In the “lifeline” view, you can scroll through your data
to see when you reached certain benchmarks.

On this day I timed and recorded my strength workout, but that’s only important if you are using the app to track calories burned.

In the “trends” view you can get a bigger picture of your data.

Basically, if I run, I meet my 10,000 step goal, and if I don’t, I don’t.

I don’t track my food, but there is a way to do that in the Jawbone UP app.  You also can connect it to other apps, such as these:

 To use the “idle alert,” you choose a time period of inactivity (I chose 1 hour) and hours of the day for the alarm to be in effect (I chose 8:00 am to 8:00 pm). If you are “idle” for longer than your selected time period, the UP® will vibrate (mine also seems to have a slightly audible buzz).

So, is the UP® working for me?

Yes, I love it.  When I am not too busy at work, I keep an eye on the clock and try to “beat the buzzer” by getting up before the idle alarm goes off. When I am busy, I try to get up and move as soon as possible after the alarm goes off. And, if I’m having a really grueling day and it goes off twice in a row, I try to make up for it by taking an extra-long walk around the office–or making a Starbucks run–as soon as I can.  While I still have trouble reaching my steps goal on days I don’t run, I am moving more.

So, what bothers me about the UP®?

The thing that bothers me about the UP® is how much I love the idle alarm–the physical vibration/buzz on my wrist that tells me that I need to move. It bothers me because I know it would not be as effective as an App that simply sounds an alarm on my phone. I am responding to having something happen on my body–to my body–that prompts me to take action. That makes me think of the mind control technology in George Orwell’s 1984, and that bothers me.

Of course, the UP® isn’t in my head and isn’t responding to my thoughts, but it makes me realize that we probably are pretty close to being able to have that technology, if we don’t already. It also makes me realize that I might be enticed into giving a device more influence over my life, as long as I was ultimately in control.

What if the next model has GPS capabilities with a food alarm that would go off if I was in the kitchen after meal time, or when I’ve already exceeded my calorie budget for the day? Or a grocery store alarm that would go off if I ventured down the snack food aisle? Or a fast food alarm that would go off if I was pulling into a fast food restaurant?

With technology advancing by leaps and bounds, I don’t think the question is how far could they go. I think the question is, how far do we want them to go?

Do you have a personal activity tracker? 

Does it motivate you to be more active?