Fitness Friday + Fitbit Blaze Review

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm trying something new on the blog today - one thing you may not know about me (or maybe you do if you've been following me long enough!) is that I'm just as passionate about health and fitness as I am about fashion. I used to write for the health website Greatist when I was in college. Fun fact: they didn't have a photographer back then, so every article I turned in also had to include pictures. It's actually how I discovered my love for photography! Anyway, I thought I'd do a "Friday Favorites" post but featuring some new and/or trendy health and fitness topics. 

First up, a bunch of you have asked for a review of the Fitbit Blaze. 

I had been wanting an activity tracker watch for quite a while but had NO idea where to start. I decided on the Fitbit Blaze for several reasons...

Large Screen: I love the large face on the Blaze! The large screen makes it really easy to read the time, steps taken, etc. It even connects with your phone and displays text messages on the screen. I had no idea how useful this feature would be, but I LOVE it. If I'm driving or in the middle of something, I can quickly glance down at my watch screen to see the text message instead of opening up my iPhone. 

Activity Tracker: The Fitbit Blaze tracks your heart rate, steps taken and calories burned throughout the day. At any given point in a day, you can look down at your watch and see your heart rate at that moment. Before a pure barre class, I start the "workout" function on my watch that tracks my entire workout, my heart rate throughout the workout and how many calories I burned during it. Sometimes my watch will vibrate and say things like "You need to get in 250 more steps this hour!" Overall I find it incredibly motivating! Since having the watch, I'm more motivated to get in more steps, go on walks with Winnie or work harder during workout classes.

Sleep Tracker: This actually might be my very favorite function of the watch! The watch connects with your iPhone to show you how well you sleep at night. I have trouble sleeping and am trying to get in more of a routine, so this is really helpful for me. At 10 p.m. every night, my watch buzzes to tell me that it's time to start winding down for bed (you can set it to whatever time you'd like it to be). Once I'm asleep, the watch keeps track of how many times I'm restless or wake up during the night and then gives me a "total hours of sleep" number in the morning. I knew I wasn't sleeping well, so this helps me determine the problem and what I can do to fix it.

Alarms: Another cool thing about this watch is that you can set alarms. I set one to wake me up in the morning, and the watch gently vibrates to wake me up. You can set alarms throughout the day as well. 

Interchangeable bands: I'm adding this in because a lot of Fitbits don't have interchangeable bands, but this one does! I ordered this rose gold and white band for a more feminine look (versus the all-black). I like both, but you can switch them out depending on your outfit or how you're feeling that day.  

Next up, some workout gear! I'm really loving these wrapped up leggings that tie at the ankle. First of all, they are THE SOFTEST WORKOUT PANTS of all time. I'm not kidding. I have a zillion pairs of workout pants and these are the softest. They are expensive, but they're the highest quality workout pants I've ever owned. Secondly, the tie detail is so cute and different! Everywhere I go, people ask where they're from - even my checkout lady at the Fresh Market :) They also come in pink, coral and blue. Secondly, how cute is this water bottle?! I love the message because it's totally something I would do haha!