For those that may remember, I got a fitbit Flex a few years ago and at first I loved it.  Then I hated it so very much. For starters, it would go to sleep way too easily without my knowing.  I could be driving down a particularly bumpy road and it would go to sleep.  Making a smoothie? Yup, it would go to sleep.  You get the idea.

Plugging in exercises on the app was a pain in the ass.  You would have to create exercises if you did anything other than run or walk.  Then you had to guesstimate how many calories you burned because the app required that you put in some number.  Instead of being easy it became cumbersome and I hated it.  I tossed it back in it’s box as I cursed it and moved on.

Fast forward a few years, once I was doing CrossFit consistently, I wanted to be able to track my workouts, calories burned, and so on.  Wearing a traditional heart rate monitor during the workout was uncomfortable. I also started running again so wearing a GPS plus wearing a HRM was annoying.  Isn’t there something that does all these things? In frustration, I started looking for other options.

I went back to fitbit site and saw that they know have a whole line of devices.  The Blaze is what caught my attention because the features seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.  Plus it connects to your phone (iPhone AND Android) alerting you to text messages and phone calls.

It took me a long time to decide to make the purchase because I was afraid of spending the money then hating the device.  Scott finally convinced me to take the plunge so I purchased the Blaze with a purple band.

Hands down, I am in total love with this fitness tracker.  It has everything I was looking for and fits my needs perfectly.

It has a HRM and while I’m sure it might not be as accurate as the old school ones, I don’t mind. I can go to the “Today” tab and see all my stats which is so handy and much preferred over having to open the app each time.

It does track sleep and it goes to sleep on it’s own.  I assume it detects sleep by lack of movement and slower heart rate.

It has multiple workout modes to choose from:

• Run
• Bike
• Weights
• Treadmill
• Elliptical
• Workout

YEEESSSSSS! Weights is what I use if I’m doing an hour weight session and workout is what I pick for CrossFit workouts.  Run for running, clearly.

The run option does have connected GPS, meaning it uses your phone for that.  I went in with some apprehension on this because I thought that I would have to have my phone out and have to read that for distance.  Nope, the watch just connects to your phone via bluetooth and then mileage is displayed on the watch screen. The watch will buzz when you hit a mile.  Once you’re done, you can check your stats and see pace, distance, splits, and even elevation.  It’s awesome!

And because you are logging the workouts right on your phone, you don’t have to worry about logging them in the app saving lots of time and frustration.

There is a timer on the watch as well if you want to time yourself doing whatever.

There is also an alarm feature so that you can set alarm reminders or sleep alarms.

Plus it connects to your phone so you’ll get buzzes to let you know if you have a text or phone call.  I believe that if you use the calendar and mail program native to your phone, you’ll also get buzz alerts to let you know about mail and events.  I use Gmail and Gcal so I don’t get those.

I was afraid that it was going to be bulky and while it is a bit large, it is not a problem at all.  Sometimes while getting dressed or putting on a jacket, I have to be sure it doesn’t catch on a sleeve but otherwise it is just like wearing a watch.

Seriously, I cannot say enough good things about the Blaze!  If you’re looking for a fitness tracker or perhaps considering gifting a tracker to someone, definitely consider the Blaze.  And if you have any questions about it, give me a shout and I’ll answer them as best I can.

Disclaimer: This post is not associated with fitbit, they don’t even know I exist. I purchased this product myself.