Fitness trackers.

Everywhere you look these days, it seems like someone is wearing a fitness tracker of some sort. From the less advanced pedometer to the highly functional Apple Watch, the masses have spoken and they love keeping track.

I’ll admit, I wanted one for a while before I finally made the jump. I didn’t want to have that bulky thing on my wrist all the time. Gosh, it just doesn’t match anything, does it? It certainly doesn’t seem professional with a suit. And honestly, it’s a bit ‘mark of the beast’ for this church girl. C’mon, you know you’ve considered that, too.

Well, now that I’ve happily been wearing my Jawbone Up since September, I have a few things to tell the naysayers.

Who Cares? Well, millions of Americans care. We’ve been told to care. The obesity in our country is out of control and one of the many ways to combat it is by keeping track of your steps, exercise, etc.

What does it do for you? Well, I am so much smarter about what makes me tick. For instance, I was going to bed and trying to sleep 8 hours every night only to lay there for a long time worried about not being able to fall asleep. Guess what I learned! I only need about 7 hours and 15-22 minutes of sleep every night. And….I can function perfectly fine on one night of 5 hours of sleep during the week. I have to catch up on sleep on the weekends, even though scientists debunked that theory years ago. When I catch up on the weekends, I’m far more active than I am when I don’t. In my opinion, just the sleep tracking is worth the $100 I spent on it.

How does it actually make you more active? Mine came complete with a great app that throws out challenges of all sorts during the week, like ‘drink more water’ or ‘most women your age have walked 800 more steps by this time of day’—you get the picture. Plus, I have my timer set to wake me up, go off when I’ve been inactive for 45 minutes, remind me to do crunches at night, and so on. In order to keep it quiet, I get up and move. It’s not really that I’m going great guns and running laps around the building, but I am so much more aware of what I need each and every day.

What’s funny is that I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I think it’s because it’s so slim and comfortable, but also because I enjoy the knowledge. Normally, I’d be bored with something like this by now. Each night, I find myself curiously checking the app to see where I’m at for the day. Mid-day, when my eyes start drooping, I like to check on the amount of sleep I got.

So, if you’ve been on the verge of purchasing one, I’d definitely check into it. You never know what it can do for you.