I love gadgets. No..really...I LOVE GADGETS!
If there is a gadget out there that will make my life easier or if it's just plain cool, I immediately want it. I may not ever be able to afford it...but I want it! Then there are those that I eventually afford and I get...and they turn out to be not as useful or cool as they looked on the infomercial.
Point in case: The Bullet Express. Not the Magic Bullet. I love my Magic Bullet blender. I have three of them. I'm talking about the big, huge gazillion piece food processor, chopper, salad maker, etc that I used to watch the informercial for over and over and be in awe of what this thing does. Well..a couple of Christmases back, my Mom and her boyfriend bought me one for Christmas because it was all I talked about for months. Well....two years later, I think I have used it twice. One practially needs an engineering degree just to put the thing together and there is no way that the huge thing fits on the counters in my kitchen. It's massive...and now it sits in the front hall closet collecting dust. What a waste of $100.
Then there are the gadgets that really do work and I love them. Our digital weather station. Love it! I can tell the outdoor temperature at a glance. The aforementions Magic Bullet blender...Awesome! Use it every single day! I have countless gadgets around the house that are amazing and make my life better each time I use them.
Another gadget that I had to have when it was introuduced a few years back was the FitBit. I am talking about the little digital gadget that you carry in your pocket and it magically counts your steps, stairs climbed, distance walked, calories burned with impeccable precision. I'm sure there's probably a feature on it that will tell me the temperature of my liver...but I haven't found that yet. You get my point, anyway.
I bought the FitBit when it came out and I loved it! I used it every day. It tracked my every step and it uploaded it to my profile online and gave me charts and graphs and data about my daily movements. I loved it! I still love it! So much so that I bought a second one when my first one broke (my fault totally). It's a wonderful product.
So when I was on the FitBit website ordering my original FitBit, I noticed a product that was, at that time, Coming Soon. It was the FitBit Aria WiFi Smart Scale. Now...my $20 glass WalMart scale works perfectly...so why would I need a new FitBit Aria WiFi Smart Scale, you ask? Well, first of all, it has WiFi in the name. That makes it a tech gadget. That means it connects wirelessly to the internet...which makes it super cool..and who doesn't want a super cool internet connected WiFi scale?!? This guy wanted one! It would automatically track my weight on my online profile every time I weighed in. It would show me graphs and charts and I'd earn cool virtual badges for my weigh-loss accomplishements. Who doesn't need cool virtual achievment badges? This guy needs virtual badges, dammit! :) Plus...it's Smart! The friggin' scale is SMART! Now that's a scale that I need!!
Well...at that time, it wasn't for sale yet. It was almost ready for sale to the public. I checked the price. It was $150 Canadian dollars....plus about $40 for standard shipping. You see, for some reason, companies back home in the USA (I'm originally from Boston but now live in Prince Edward Island, Canada)...well these companies back home in the USA think that Canada is in the Arctic Circle..or somewhere over near Siberia...and if they have to ship something to us, they feel they have to charge 1000 times as much for shipping as they do for domestic customers in the USA. For example, if they ship the scale to Detroit, they'd charge $10 for regular shipping. If the ship the same scale to Windsor, Ontario Canada, they charge $50 shipping. The two towns are separated by a bridge and a river! Probably 4 minutes apart by car. But because they cross that imaginary invisible line called the International Border...they feel they have to jack up the shipping costs. *deeeeeep breath* But I digresss...
So...flash forward (or back, I guess..depending on whether you're living in the time of my story..or the time right now when you're reading this)...and I get an email from Fitbit saying Cyber Monday Sale! FitBit Aria WiFi Smart Scale ...FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING! ONE DAY ONLY! Holy crap! Free OVERNIGHT shipping!? What should I do? Should I buy it? I break out in a cold sweat. Panic sets in. I mean, should I pull the trigger on a $150 scale? Oh..the pressure! I need to make the decision immediately...after all...it's for one day only! So...I whip out the trusty credit card and I make the purchase. There...I feel better. I bought it. "Nothing I can do to undo this. It's on it's way to me now and it'll be here tomorrow!" I thought to myself as I slipped the credit card back into my wallet.
The next day, the big brown UPS truck arrived at my door. Actually, it parked on the street and the little man in the brown shorts (he was in brown pants because it is winter here, after all..but we all say brown shorts because that makes us feel warmer, right?). He hands me my Smart scale and wishes me a Merry Christmas and he trots back to his brown truck and drives off to deliver a whole bunch of stuff that other people probably can't afford either.
At this point, I'm pumped! For the first time in 25 years, I can't wait to step my ass on that scale and be wowed but the awesome blue LED display. The way it will display my name on it before it weighs me. The way it connects via WiFi and sends my weight and BMI and bodyfat % magically through the air in a cloud of pixie dust to the interwebs and place it magically on my charts on my web profile for FitBit.
I opened the box and it was beautiful. This magificent piece of black glass and plastic almost glowed as I removed it from the box. Did I mention that my scale is Smart..and that it connects to WiFi?
I followed the instructions to the letter. I hooked it to my WiFi network..and it connected first try! I set up my web account on the FitBit website and set it up so it would display MY name on the scale when I wanted to weigh myself (and up to 7 other family members' names, if I so choose to share my scale at some point with a family member or two who deem themselves worthy of stepping onto my new FitBit Aria WiFi Smart Scale...after washing their feet first, of course).
Then came that magical moment I had been waiting for two whole years to happen! It was time to step on my new scale and do my first ever weigh-in on this incredible gadget. The gadget that will change the way I look at my weight loss journey. After all...the website said things like:
Get where you want to be. Aria™ tracks your weight, body fat percentage, and BMI, painting a picture of your long-term progress. It wirelessly syncs your stats with online graph and mobile tools that help you stay motivated and on track. When you're in control, stepping on the scale feels good.
Do you hear that? Stepping on the scale will feel good! The FitBit Aria will help me stay motivated and on track! I need to stay motivated and on track! I need to feel good! I have made a smart purchase! My life is about to change in an amazing way...all because of this incredible Smart WiFi Scale!!
So, I read further on the website....
It's one sharp scale
Like any scale, Aria™ measures your weight. That's only half the story. Aria™ also contains advanced technology to accurately assess your weight as well as your body fat % and BMI. Day after day, it helps you focus on results.
Well holy 5#!t!! Advanced technology that accurately assesses my weight and body fat % and BMI and helps me focus on results! I can feel the pounds melting off of me already and I haven't even stepped on the scale for the first time yet! This is going to be awesome!!
Tracks your data for you
Gain insights and
take control
Aria™ helps you focus on long-term trends, rather than
short-term blips (hello, coconut cream pie).
Analyze your weight, body fat %, and BMI trends with
easy-to-understand graphs and charts — or keep tabs on
the go with Fitbit's free mobile app. Either way, you'll gain
an understanding of what drives you.
Stay Tuned! ;-)
