There’s so much more to your fitness journey than what’s displayed in your smartwatch…

Today, I want to talk about smartwatches and how these can be bad for your fitness journey and mental health.

Keep reading below to know why smartwatches can make you stress over your fitness journey and what you can do to avoid it!

There’s so much more to your fitness journey than what’s displayed in your smartwatch…

Picture this: You’ve embarked on your fitness journey after deciding to take a more active role in improving your health.

During the first few months of this journey, you’ve made great strides in becoming more active and healthy.

As a result, your confidence has soared and you’ve become more invested in your fitness.

This showed not only in your daily routine but also in your commitment to get better gear for your workouts.

One of the things you bought was a smartwatch—a device that enabled you to gain better insights into your fitness progress. 

With this device, you’re able to monitor your vitals, track the calories you need and have burned, and even set up reminders for you throughout the day.

These are all great features… however, over time, you realize that your days started to revolve around the numbers flashed in your smartwatch, leaving you pressured to hit the daily fitness goals you’ve set—even at the expense of rest and sleep.

So, what should you do?

In today’s  “Mindfulness by Miles,”  we’re going to answer that question!

An All-in-One Fitness Companion

A smartwatch is an indispensable tool for many, including those who want to track their health and fitness progress.

This tool has revolutionized the world of fitness since it provides real-time health monitoring, continuous tracking of vital signs such as heart rate and blood oxygen, sleep duration, location data, and other metrics such as distance traveled, calories burned, and steps taken. 

Additionally, a smartwatch can be customized to provide health- and fitness-related information to its user throughout the day.

Simply said, this is an all-in-one device that can serve as a personal trainer and health monitor.

However, while a smartwatch is a powerful fitness companion, it can also be a source of distraction and harmful obsession.

You see, smartwatches have gamified fitness through features like achievement badges, workout-related notifications, exercise reminders, and daily fitness targets.

While these functions are immensely useful, they can also lead users to feel pressured to complete their daily fitness goals or targets due to the stream of notifications sent their way.

As a result, instead of pursuing genuine health and fitness, users  can  be pressured into prioritizing metrics and chasing fitness targets. 

We’re not saying that you should avoid the use of smartwatches entirely, though; all we’re saying is that overreliance can lead to negative psychological outcomes. 

So, to avoid this from happening, don’t hesitate to ditch your smartwatch every once in a while… or better yet, reduce the notifications and reminders you’ve set throughout the day and the rest of your week. 

This way, you’ll be able to take a breather and focus on your overall health.

— 

Smartwatches have, and will continue, to offer valuable insights into our overall health, especially as the technologies surrounding it get better.

However, these devices should be treated as guides, instead of the end-all and be-all of our fitness journeys.

So, the next time you plan your workout routine for the week, consider ditching your smartwatch and other wearables, and focus on your actual workout instead!

You never know, unplugging from your tech just might be what you need to hype yourself up to do better in your fitness journey!

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