My Mi Band 4 watch and meditation app.

So as I am writing this England did not bring the cup home, gutted of course, but I am so so proud of the team, to come this far, they should be very proud

 Moving onto other topics which will include a mix of sleep, exercise and increased steps I am going to discuss this lovely little piece of equipment which I picked up on amazon for £25. 

Let me start from the very beginning into why I am mentioning this wonderful watch. A few years ago I was really suffering from lack of sleep. I was going through diagnosed clinical depression, which included not sleeping at all at nighttime. I would wake up in the middle of night and have high sugary foods to help me to get to sleep. When I do wake up the following morning I would feel absolutely exhausted, miserable and moody. I became disinterested in food, and would eat anything. I started to see the counsellor and they advised to try a sleep meditation app. I have tried headspace but its only free for a certain period of time , and then you have to pay. I love a freebie, so I tend to try free apps on You Tube alot. The one I use very often are Michael Sealey and Jason Stephenson. The links are below, let me know your thoughts on these. I think they are great as I have been using them for a very long time. They both posts videos quite regularly and are really useful. When I use them, the next morning I feel refreshed, and ready to start the day, and take on new challenges. 

Sleep Meditation 

Sleep Meditation

It took a few weeks for me to realise that the amount of sleep I was receiving daily was increasing from 3 hours to 7-8 hours every single day. I was even making sure I would make an effort to prepare to get to sleep i.e doing beauty rituals, face masks etc  to get ready for bed. However I was not recording this on paper or anything. I like to record and make notes of things, because that is what motivates me to do better. To be honest I was not really sure how much sleep I was getting, but I was definitely sure that this was more than four hours for sure! 

I needed evidence of progress, so I was researching and saw the Apple watch/Samsung watches. They are great and look fantastic, however they are expensive and I wanted something that was more cost effective. I saw the Mi-band watch on amazon, had great reviews, and thought let me give this a go. I bought it, and it arrived within the next few days. This watch has the following monitors which I will go through each of this in detail:

• Sleep
• Exercise
• Heart Rate
• Stepometer

Sleep- It records my sleep pattern the minute the "do not disturb button" is pressed. It records the amount of deep sleep and light sleep that I did for that night. I have attached one here so that you can see. Light sleep is not ideal personally, it is better to increase the deep sleep. That is where the body and the brain are both trying to recover after a stressful day. Finally I just to draw the attention to the time awake, that is when we are in bed but not actually asleep. It could be a time where our minds can be racing, trying to get to sleep. The watch monitors this time.  It really does motivate me to do more when I check the amount of sleep I get, sleep is so important for our bodies to recover during a hectic day, and for our brain to charge up again ready for the following days challenges. 

Exercise: There are only a few exercise modes here on the watch which is disappointing however the new MI band 6 watch ( which hopefully I will get) has more exercise options. So on the Mi Band 4 it has Freestyle exercise option, treadmill, running, cycling and rowing. So what I do is if I am doing free weights at the gym I will select the freestyle option. I do not use the treadmill but if I am doing the stair climber equipment I will select that. Whichever option I choose the watch will record the heart rate on it, the time that I spent on this, and amount of calories that was burnt whilst I was on that equipment. On the Mi Band app I can see my progress, how much calories I have used over the last few days, and which exercise equipment I have used previously as well. The picture attached you can see that I do mostly free weights, and it records how long I do this, and the amount of calories that was used. 

Heart Rate: The watch monitors the heart rate at all times, I have attached a picture to breakdown the details. If we look at the bottom of the picture there are three figures: maximum heart rate, minimum heart rate and average heart rate. Maximum heart rate is the amount the heart beats per minute when exercising at high intensity. Minimum heart rate is when the heart is at rest, and there is no exercise involved. The average is both the maximum and the minimum together. My resting heart rate is high at 80 beats per minute, I need to lower this, as I have just returned to exercise from Lockdown I have a bit of work to do to improve this figure, 

 

Stepometer: This is my favourite option because it is so easy to do. All I need to do is to walk! I do not need to select anything at all, the watch automatically tracks the steps that has been done for the day. When I look at the app and notice that I have only done 4,000 steps but the other day I did 12,000 steps, it motivates me to do more steps the next day.

Overall I think this is a great little piece of equipment, for £25. It really does motivate me to exercise, sleep and to increase my steps more, in order to improve my overall health. Once I started to increase my sleep, that was the beginning of my health journey. This watch teaches me that how can I do better than yesterday

Now I feel more confident to take on new challenges, I can think clearly, and it makes me get outdoors a bit more, as covid restrictions has now been removed completely in England. 

I think I am going to get the Mi-Band 6 and do another product review, it would be good to compare the two and see if there are any more differences, and see which one is better, as sometimes just because something is more expensive does not necessarily  mean it is any better I believe.