Keep Your Squats Low & Your Standards High

*Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items. 


"Push your butt back and down. Knees don't go over the toes. Keep that chest up! Squat! Squat! Squat!"

 

1 hour a day, 4 days a week this is what my fitness instructor is hollering at me. For years I've been telling you all how much I love to work out, but I really started to push my body about 4 months ago when I decided to add weight training to my workout routine. I felt I had reached my limit on how far cardio alone was going to take me, but still wasn't happy with where my body was fitness wise. It's one thing to look thin and fit, but what I really wanted was muscle tone and definition. When my gym started offering Les Mills Body Pump, I didn't hesitate to jump right in, even opting to go to the 5:30am classes twice a week. (this is where we'd throw in a shocked emoji). 

5 months ago I couldn't even tell you what a dead lift or power press was, now I'm doing about a million of them a day. Okay, maybe not that many, but it sure feels like it! When I first started the classes, I felt so out of my element. Putting 2 5 pound plates on my bar left me struggling to keep up with the other girls in the class. I felt discouraged and even thought about just dropping the class. Then I realized that I'm not in a competition with these other girls. If I drop out, I'm only letting myself down. It didn't matter that they had the largest plates on their bars and I was lifting with the small ones. Every day that I that I went in and pushed through the class meant I was getting stronger than I was before I started. 

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Little by little, those 5 pound weights started to feel too light, which meant it was time to add more pounds to the bar. It's such a wonderful, giddy feeling when you get to bump your bar weight up! After sticking it out for 4 months, I'm able to lift with the large plates and can power through the class, and am finally starting to see the tone and definition take shape in my body. 

However, that doesn't mean that every workout is butterflies and sunshine. Some days I still struggle and that little voice in my head says, "It's okay to be lazy today. Just go through the motions. Who's going to know you didn't give it your all?"  While it can be tempting to give in, I believe in being accountable for my progress. I have goals I want to reach, so I believe the best way to do that is to see with my own eyes how much progress I've made each day reaching those goals. That's why I always wear a fitness tracker. I've used many trackers over the years and can tell you that even though some of them are trendy and popular, that doesn't mean they are giving you the full tracking potential you need to accurately calculate your progress. So, I recently swapped out my current fitness tracker to the Healbe GoBe™ 2, the first and only complete smart-life band. 

 
The GoBe™ 2 fitness tracker is a perfect device for those looking to get a better understanding of their body and how it processes food by monitoring 9 key health perimeters, which is more than any other fitness tracker currently on the market. It measures calorie intake, calories burned, energy and water balance, stress level, emotional state, heart rate, sleep quality, plus distance and number of steps traveled per day.

Healbe’s patented Healbe FLOW™ technology enables GoBe 2 to non-invasively measure the glucose concentration in users’ bloodstreams to automatically determines their calorie and nutrition intake (carbohydrates, fats, sugar, etc.), energy balance and hydration levels. These measurements are also based on personal data input by the user (gender, height, weight, age) into the Healbe GoBe app and Healbe’s model of the body’s natural physiological metabolic processes as monitored by its evolving and proprietary algorithms.

 

While I have always enjoyed being able to count my steps with other fitness trackers before, what sold me on the GoBe™ 2 most was the ability to see my hydration levels and track my food intake. I've used calorie counting apps before, and those prove to be spotty because sometime you are playing a guessing game with how much fat and calories you are actually consuming because of size and volume and how big of a portion I am measuring out may not align with their calculations. However, with the unique Healbe FLOW™ technology sending those non-invasive feelers though my system, I am able to get an accurate measurement of my nutrients all day long. I did compare my calculations against the GoBe™ 2's and it seemed spot on. Thursday is my 2 hour workout day, so I was happy to see I ended the day at -556 calories. Of course, there were a few days where I only had like 20 calories to spare, but as I was able to track my calorie intake, I knew what I was getting myself into before shoving another morsel into my mouth.

You can see from my water intake where I was low. I actually woke up feeling really thirsty and my GoBe™ 2 sent a buzzing through the tracker and the screen lit up telling me my hydration levels were low, giving me a gentle reminder to get some fluids into my system. My tracker even sent a buzz to let me know when I was in an emotional state (I was thinking of something that made me mad at the time and was surprised when it was able to track it). This is a very helpful feature for those who tend to be emotional eaters. 

With all of these amazing Healbe GoBe™ 2 features, I feel confident that I am getting an accurate assessment of my body movement and activity, which will help me map out a better plan of attack in reaching my fitness goals. I'd still love to swap out 10 pounds of fat for 10 pounds of muscle, and I feel that with the right tracking methods now, that goal is more attainable than ever.

The band is super simple to set up, easily syncing to your phone through the Healbe GoBe app. It is lightweight and comfortable to wear, however my only issue with the band would be its size. It's a bit larger than the fitness trackers I've used in the past, and I prefer to keep my accessories discreet. This isn't a deal breaker, but hopefully future designs will be a bit smaller.

The Healbe GoBe™ 2 has a retail of $199 and is now available to purchase on the Healbe website. Be sure to head over to learn more about its amazing features, then pick one up for yourself so you can continue to track your health and wellness New Year, New Me goals efficiently and accurately. 

What's your favorite way to get in exercise daily?