The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product at a reduced price or for free. The Misfit Shine is a gorgeous, waterproof activity monitor designed to empower people to be more proactive about their personal health. It comes in a range of colors, including silver, champagne, black, and topaz available exclusively from Best Buy, and can be worn with a wristband, magnetic clip, or as necklace.

Since becoming a mom, I’ve assured myself that while I may not be working out regularly, I’m definitely still active. I mean, chasing two boys around is a lot of work, right? Sure, three days each week I spend the day in front of my laptop at work, getting up only when I need to pour a fresh cup o’  joe. But on my days off, I’m making lunches, running errands, building play-do dinosaurs, and dragging a naked 4-year-old back to his room while I insist he at least wear underwear today.

So when I received the Misfit Shine activity tracker from Best Buy and the Shine phone app asked me to set a “point goal” based on how active I am, I picked “Pretty Active.”  I knew “Very Active” was an overstatement, and  “A Little” just sounded depressing. “Pretty Active” – that’s me, right?  Shine monitors the wearer’s activity level.  The more frequently or intensely I moved, the more points I’d earn. According to Shine, my goal as a “Pretty Active” momma was 1,000 points per day, which is the equivalent of 1.5 hours of walking. Even if I didn’t go for a walk, surely I would hit my goal just doing my normal parenting stuff, right?

Ummmmmmmmmm, no. Day 1 – which I spent at home with my littlest one – looked like this:

Apparently, playing with play dough does not burn a lot of calories. (Yes, this seems kind of obvious now.)

It ends up what does expend a lot of energy is shopping. Especially if you haven’t shopped for yourself in months and bounce around your favorite clothing store like a hyper squirrel. Look, Shine congratulated me for reaching my Personal Best! Clearly I should go shopping more often. For my health’s sake.

A few days into this little project, I was feeling a bit demoralized. The woman who worked out regularly all through graduate school, priding herself on making it to the gym at least 4 or 5 days a week to lift weights or do an aerobics class, couldn’t average a measly 500 points a day?!  Had I really slipped so far? So I headed to yoga class with my sister, sure it would do the trick. But, according to Shine, I should have just gone shopping again. Walking to the coffee shop for a latte after yoga class earned me more points than the class! In hindsight, I suppose that make sense. Shine senses the wearer’s movement and while holding yoga poses requires strength, the movement part wasn’t particularly intense.

At this point, I was determined to earn myself some points. Short of blowing up my credit cards at Banana Republic, how could I reach my 1,000 point goal? I asked my husband to walk me through the “7 minute workout” he’s been doing for the past few months. Have you heard of this? It is high-intensity interval  training, based on research that suggests “even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.”  Sounds like my kind of workout. Seven minutes later I was sure I’d earned myself some serious points. I pulled up the Shine app on my phone and waited for the fireworks. Instead I saw …..  38 points. Seriously? It seems I need to do this workout 26 times to reach my goal.

Shine is intended to empower people to be more proactive about their personal health, and I have to say: Well-done, Shine. I learned a few important lessons, which boil down to a valuable reality check:

1) Busy isn’t active.  Yes, I may be “doing” stuff all day long, but that is clearly not the same as engaging in physical activity that will improve my health and fitness level. Dang.

2) As parents, we need to be honest with ourselves about our current fitness level, even if it disappoints or embarasses us. It ends up I am not “Pretty Active” after all. At least, not the way Shine defines it. I want to be active – I know it is important for my health and for my kids that their momma isn’t a couch potato – but the truth is right now my fitness level is pretty darn low. But acknowledging that is just the impetus I needed to commit to change.

3)  My excuses for not exercising at least 7 minutes a day are just that…excuses. Yes, I’m a busy momma. But I can fit in a 7-minute workout during naptime and still have time for all of the other things I need to get done. Or, even better, I can exercise with my boys. My 7-year-old was more than happy to do lunges and wall squats – at this point, family exercise could be fun and set a good example for them. I’m going to be “busy” for the next 15 years (at least). It’s time to stop using busy as an excuse for not being active.

What about you? Are you honest with yourself about your health and fitness? Are you as active (and healthy) as you want to be?

The 7-minute workout can be found here, if you’d like to join me!

ABOUT ELLIE:  Ellie is the Editor of the Family Room on Bonbon Break and blogs at Musing Momma, where she shares honest and personal stories ranging from reflections on motherhood to tips for raising healthy and (relatively) well-behaved kids, and from research on child development to fun family activities.  As wife and mother in a multiracial family, she often writes about the intersection of race and family, and her experience raising two African-American/white sons.  Ellie has a Ph.D. in psychology and counseled children and families for several years before changing paths to spend more time with her family. She resides in central Pennsylvania with her husband and their two adorably mischievous boys, ages 3 and 7.

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