My Choice For Smart Watch – Garmin 5S

I get asked about my smart watch often by readers of the blog, other active people and former clients. Years ago, my father got me a birthday gift I requested, the garmin forerunner 404 I believe it was. Large and rectangular and hardly something I would want to wear everyday. If I had to guess  it was about 14 years ago or more as he passed away from cancer about 9 years ago. It finally konked out and I didn’t have one for a while. It was actually great to just go back to a regular stopwatch or none at all. Since I’ve been running for over 35 years it’s good to take breaks from tracking every now and then and just enjoy nature and listen to your body. I used my iphone for a bit using a run tracking device but I hated being lugging it around & being attached to my phone as I often use exercise as a type of meditation.

My current smart watch I used amex points on amazon to purchase because I am a bit of a spendthrift and it was $500.  It was a Mother’s Day gift that I pulled the trigger on in 2018 and I have loved it ever since. I bought it with a white wrist band but have since changed it to a green one. It’s a Garmin Fenix 5S.

I can get text messages and alerts of incoming calls but can’t text from it which works for me. It tracks many different types of exercise. I used kayak mode on the paddle board whilst using my kayak paddle.

It’s waterproof, tracks your sleep (although I don’t sleep it with). I recently just changed watch faces again and this time I can see my calorie burn which is pretty cool as 2000 calories for me is about 10k steps but not always as it tracks heart rate too. I really like the feature post activity that you can see how many hours it takes your body to recover after your last bout of exercise. Let’s be honest I bypass it’s advice especially when I do 2 a day cardio workouts like running in the morning and swimming in the afternoon.

Whatever motivates and tracks you to improve your habits is what will keep you accountable for the long haul. I don’t obsess over it as it’s just another tool in my toolbox and there when needed and of course keeps me on time for my appointments of keeping others healthy!