Last night, as I was talking to my wife she said something that made me reconsider how I think and talk about myself. She said “You’ve been putting yourself down for years and it’s not helping. Try saying some nice things.”

It’s true. I have. I often think about how I’m unhappy with how I look. I have imposter syndrome at any sign of success, and my ‘typically British’ self-deprecating humour has gone on long enough.

Recently I have been writing about my new year’s resolutions to be a little more selfish and to ensure I’m doing things that bring me happiness, like working on my health, going to the gym, not getting stressed about self-imposed deadlines, and getting enough sleep.

These all come under the same general theme, and 2019’s must-repeat phrase: Self Care. We all need to start looking after ourselves more and watch our happiness spread to those around us.

My daughter always has much more fun when her Daddy comes home from work and is happy and full of energy, rather than miserable and tired. I don’t want to sulk off to bed instead of spending every moment with my family.

For me, self-care starts with my motivation to get healthier. I want to lose 35 lbs by the end of the year and do it by eating real food in moderation. I can’t starve myself (I tried and I just end up binging), and I have to keep moving to keep those calories burning and step count rising.

It’s way too easy to stay sitting down and scroll through my phone. I sit at my desk for the majority of the day and only really move during my lunchtime walks. Unless it’s a gym day, and then I do at least an hour of cardio plus as many weights as I have time for.

The issue of burnout or boredom is another thing I have trouble with. Which is why I’ve started using a fitness and health tracker. It keeps me updated with how I’m sleeping, my steps, my heart rate, and tracks my exercise. What I really love about it is that my watch, the FitBit Versa SE has built-in workouts. It actually shows me the exercises I should be doing to reach my goals.

The Versa Special Edition has another feature that I really love, and that’s tap-to-pay. Instead of squeezing out my credit card from my over-stuffed wallet, I can just put my watch next to the ‘Tap Here’ payment machine and ‘beep’, it’s sorted. It also has a longer-lasting battery than most other smartwatches and gives about 4 days on a single charge rather than the almost-a-day of an Apple Watch. I’ll put a full feature list at the end of this post.

We’re now a couple of weeks into the new year and hopefully the resolutions to better ourselves are still going strong. It’s very easy to reflect in the post-Christmas glow and think about the previous year and how we’d like to see 2019 shape up, but the only thing that can change you is you. January will be over and we need to keep going.

All the good intentions in the world won’t keep me going without my reasons to succeed; my health, my ability to keep up with my very active toddler, and setting a good example to my family for eating proper food and having the energy to play all the way until bedtime.

The only way to improve is to put the work in, so I’m counting steps, hitting the gym, reminding myself why I’m doing this, and keep moving.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing to put some Self Care into your life. Comment below and share your story.

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Fitbit Versa Special Edition Features:

• Fitbit today : see all your daily stats, plus personalized insights and reminders all in one place.
• Heart Rate : get continuous heart rate tracking, follow trends over time & see real-time heart rate zones.
• Automatic activity and sleep tracking : see steps, distance, calories, floors climbed, active minutes & time in light, deep and REM sleep.
• Female Health Tracking : turn on female health tracking to log periods, track your cycle & gauge ovulation. Coming soon.
• Guided Breathing Sessions : find moments of calm throughout the day with personalized breathing sessions based on your heart rate.
• On-screen Workouts : on-screen workouts give you guidance through every move & adapt based on your feedback.
• Exercises mode & GPS : track workouts with 15+ exercise modes & use your smartphone GPS to see real-time pace and distance.
• Swimproof : water-resistant to 50M & tracks laps, duration and calories burned during swim workouts.
• Smarttrack : automatically recognizes and records activities like runs, sports & aerobic workouts.
• Cardio fitness Level : get a personalized Cardio Fitness Score and tips to improve over time.
• Music : store and play 300+ songs on your watch—plus download your favorite Pandora stations or Deezer playlists. Paid subscriptions required. Pandora is US only.
• Apps : instantly access your favorite apps for weather, sports and more.
• Notifications : get call, calendar, text, and app alerts. Send quick replies to messages (Android only—coming soon).
• Wallet-free payments : built-in NFC chip stores credit cards for use on your watch. Available only on special editions.
• Multi day battery : battery of 4+ days lasts day and night without charging. Battery life and charge cycles may vary.
• Design : bright color touchscreen & a slim, lightweight anodized aluminum body.
• Hi-res Touchscreen : amplified brightness up to 1000 nits & durable screen made from Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
• Wireless Syncing : works with Bluetooth headphones & 200+ leading iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Memory:

• Saves 7 days of detailed motion data – minute by minute
• Saves daily totals for past 30 days
• Stores heart rate data at 1 second intervals during exercise tracking and at 5 second intervals all other times

Syncing:

Fitbit Versa syncs automatically and wirelessly to computers and 200+ leading iOS, Android & Windows devices using Bluetooth LE wireless technology.

• Syncing range: Up to 30 feet
• Certain features like smartphone notifications may require Android 5.0+.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Altitude Sports for providing me with my new fitness tracker and keeping me motivated to become my best self.