Health and Fitness | Gear Diary

Editorials, Health and Fitness, News & Features

It’s Wednesday, So It Must Be Time for New Garmin GPS Watches?!?

Doesn’t it feel like I was just writing about the Garmin Forerunner 225 announcement? While it has actually been 5 months since the FR 225 reveal, since then they also added the FR 25 entry level GPS watch and each slowly trickled into availability. This year has been all about big new launches and slow product roll-outs that have left me scratching my head wondering what is happening with Garmin. Today Garmin announced three new watches that should have me excited, but instead resulted in a cynical eye-roll and vague interest in when they might hit stores – but why…

Health and Fitness, News & Features

Android Wear Marches on at IFA With New Offerings from Motorola, Huawei, and Asus!

Apple Watch has been stealing much of the wearable thunder since it debuted, but Android Wear isn’t cowering in the corner. Motorola, Huawei, and Asus all showed off new versions of their Android Wear watches at IFA this week. From budget-minded to extravagant, there appears to be an Android Wear watch for all tastes!

Health and Fitness, News & Features

Runtastic Announces the Moment Fitness Watch!

I was a big fan of the Runtastic Orbit – a simple fitness wearable that met my ‘just work’ criteria for these devices: it fit well, tracked well, and instantly connected to my phone via Bluetooth and never failed to sync. Now they are announcing the Moment, which takes their solid fitness tracking and wraps it up with an attractive series of watch designs. Designed to meet the needs of all types of users, the Runtastic Moment is available in four unique styles that offer different size watch faces, types of bands and colors. Simply sync it with the Runtastic…

Health and Fitness

McDonalds All Day Breakfast Will Ruin Eggs For Everyone

I can count on one hand the number of times I have eaten at McDonalds in the last several years. So at first the “all day breakfast” news didn’t phase me. But according to The Consumerist, McD’s needs so many eggs that it could exacerbate the egg shortage and drive up prices!

Editorials, Health and Fitness

I Love The Garmin VivoActive … So Why Did I Dump It?

Back in April I reviewed the Garmin VivoActive GPS Smartwatch, listing five reasons I loved it and three concerns. After a couple of months I started drafting a follow-up about how I STILL loved the VivoActive – but stopped when an update caused issues. The next update resolved the issues, but by early July I was done. Why? Read on!

Health and Fitness, News & Features

Polar Announces the Polar Loop 2

Polar is well-known for being the gold standard in athletic heart rate monitors, and in the last few years they’ve expanded into activity trackers as well. Their first pure activity tracker, the Polar Loop, was well received, and now they’re building on that with the Polar Loop 2, adding new colors and smart notifications to the mix.

Health and Fitness, Outdoors, Reviews, Yum Log

Stay Hydrated With the Vapur Element Anti-Water Bottle!

Proper summer hydration is must. That’s especially true if, like me, you are headed to Israel and Greece in a few weeks. And while Raina and I both tend to carry a Nalgene Water Bottle with us everywhere, the thought of traveling with a big, bulky water bottle doesn’t appeal to me. That’s where the Vapur Element Anti-Bottle comes in. Unlike a traditional water bottle, the Vapur Element is collapsible, packable, and clippable. It has an unusual design that makes it ideal for long trips but will also work just fine as your daily go-to hydration system. The company explains…

Health and Fitness

Garmin Announces the ForeRunner 225 with Wrist-Based Heart Rate from Mio

For years Garmin had an unassailable position with their GPS watches representing the ‘gold standard’ for runners. The move to low-cost Bluetooth activity trackers rocked the industry as it pushed manufacturers to include more features, wireless syncing, and lower prices. Garmin pushes the envelope again with ForeRunner 225, the first major running watch with integrated optical heart-rate sensor from Mio.

Health and Fitness, Reviews

TCL Pulse – Small, But Powerful Enough to Wake a Sleeping Teenager!

If you have teenagers, you’ve probably struggled with getting them out of bed in the morning. With my older son, it’s like an arms race of alarms vs. his ability to sleep through them! So when I had the chance to check out the TCL Pulse, I was skeptical – ok, downright dubious – that it would actually work.

Health and Fitness, Reviews

5 Reasons I Love the Garmin VivoActive SmartWatch & 3 Reasons I Don’t

Just as Apple Watch opened for pre-orders, the Garmin VivoActive arrived in stores and the hands of runners and athletes everywhere. I had written up announcement at CES, so I was thrilled to get one in my hands to play around with. Now after a week, I want to check in with my initial likes and dislikes of the VivoActive.

Health and Fitness

5 Reasons Why Pebble Makes a Fantastic “Jack of all Trades” Fitness Device

I adore my Pebble Smartwatch. When I take it off for a few hours to charge my wrist feels lonely! It’s quickly become an integral part of my daily life, and a big part of that is how I use it to keep myself accountable to fitness goals. It’s not perfect, but what it does do, it does quite well!

Game Diary, Health and Fitness, News & Features

Game Benefits! Dig Rush to Improve Amblyopia

People with amblyopia (“lazy eye”) will soon get treatment from the first therapeutic video game called Dig Rush from Ubisoft and Amblyotech Inc. Amblyopia (“lazy eye”) affects approximately 3% or the U.S. population (about 9 million people). It’s condition where a person sees out of one eye instead of two.

Health and Fitness, News & Features, Outdoors

Why (Running) Milestones Matter: The Monday Mile

Throughout our lives there are transitional moments, starting or ending things like high school or marriages, celebrating awards and achievements. In running it’s no different – we had to start running, and depending on whether we race or not there will be a variety of memorable moments along the way. Running milestones are worth celebrating – let’s talk about why!

Health and Fitness, Outdoors

Anatomy of ‘Extreme Sub-Zero’ Runner – $750 of Winter Running Gear

While it has been more than a week since I wore three layers over my face, I am still layered up against mornings in the teens with wind chills close to 0ºF. At the same time, I am seeing big clearance sales popping up on winter running gear, so I thought it would be fun to look at my gear!

Health and Fitness, Reviews

Shooting Baskets Book Review – Proper ‘Art’ Stops Any Madness

The approaching “March Madness” college basketball playoffs can often ignite our “hoop dream” passion(s). All the new sensor gear, flashy apparel, and web statistics often overshadows the basic skill that World record-holder Ted St. Martin covers in a classic book – shooting the basketball ranging from the free throw to a slam dunk.

Editorials, Health and Fitness

NEDA Eating Disorder Awareness Week – “I Had No Idea”

I wonder how many people all of us look at on a daily basis struggle with an eating disorder? How many people would you look at and say “YOU have an eating disorder? I Had No Idea!” Which is why this year’s NEDA Eating Disorder Awareness theme is perfect – it takes us beyond the skeletal frames and vomiting.

Health and Fitness, News & Features

Love a Smoker? Create a ‘Nobituary’ to Help Them See Life Without Smoking

Everyone of elementary school age knows smoking is bad for you, so the shock-tactic anti-smoking ads often only serve to scare little kids. More effective is thinking of what you might miss, and what you could be doing instead with better health and more money. That is the goal of Nobituary, which creates a celebratory look at your non-smoking future.

Health and Fitness, Outdoors

What I Learned from My 65-Day Running Streak – The Monday Mile

A few weeks ago I got my last ‘running streak’ update from TimeHop on my iPhone, meaning two years ago I stopped my running streak after 65 days. I started the streak because right after my last half-marathon of 2012, I took a couple of days off, didn’t have a goal, and I was concerned I would lose my ‘mojo’.

Health and Fitness

Five Reasons Not to Seek Advice From ‘That Running Guy’ – The Monday Mile

Because I have lost significant amounts of weight not once but twice in my life (almost 200lbs at 23, ~110lbs at 46) and because people have always seen me out running day after day, regardless of the weather, people tend to come to me seeking help or advice. But they really shouldn’t – I’m about the last person to ask.

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Running Visible is More Important Than ‘Looking Cool’ – The Monday Mile

I struggled to believe something I heard a couple of weeks before Christmas from a visiting technical group with a couple of runners. They were not used to being away from a city and indoor track, and were surprised about running in the dark mornings. But they said they wouldn’t wear reflectors or lamps because it ‘didn’t look cool’.

Events, Health and Fitness, News & Features

MIO Announces the Alpha 2 and FUSE Fitness Monitors at CES 2015

MIO Global made a big splash as the first to provide a highly accurate heart-rate monitoring without a chest strap. Now they are back with the MIO Alpha 2, which refines and improves on the original in every way. They also announced the MIO Fuse, which combines their heart rate monitoring technology with an all-day fitness tracker!