In honour of my Nike Fuelband!

I have decided to hijack my poker blog to capture some data and thoughts on my current health-kick.

As there are less than 5 people in in the World who actually read my blog, this is entirely for my own benefit. However, it will prove interesting for me to look back on in future years, to see whether I can actually break the habit of a 46-year lifetime and stick to a diet/exercise plan for more than a couple of months, before inevitably sliding back to my starting point!

I am not sure which smart-ass said that "to repeat previous behaviour whilst expecting a different result is a sure sign of madness", but it is a great quote!

With this in mind, my new gimmick this year is a Nike Fuelband, purchased for £149 from Niketown (the World's largest Nike Store, for what that is worth) at Oxford Circus in London.

The Fuelband is a black wristband which contains accelerometers which monitor one's level of activity throughout the day. It has a neat multi-colour LED display, which doubles as a watch.

It is not the device which is the real genius in play here, so much as the concept and the supporting app.

The idea is that you set yourself a daily goal of Fuelpoints, and then you have to make sure that you exceed that goal. Doing so earns digital rewards which can be shared via Twitter and Facebook.

It is this gamification of the exercise process which is the real genius behind the device.

At the time of writing, I have a streak of 29 consecutive daily goals working, and I can't imagine the circumstances which would cause me to let that streak whither and die.

I am now well into the routine of doing 30 mins on my elliptical cross-trainer first thing in the morning. This earns me around 850 Fuelpoints, towards my current daily target of 2,800. (I am increasing the target by 100 each week, so from tomorrow the daily target will be 2,900.)

The Fuelband just sits there on your wrist as a nagging reminder of how active (or inactive) you have been today. Late last week, I had spent a sedentary day in the office and so was short of points. I got home, put my boots on and went for a one hour walk in the pouring rain to get me to my Fuel target.

One very neat thing about the Fuelband is that you can't cheat. It is possible to change the daily target at any time, but it only takes effect from tomorrow. If you get to midnight and you haven't earned the points, the streak dies.

So far, so good. I am one month into the new me, and I am exercising daily and eating sensibly, but not obsessively. I have lost 7Kg and I could do with losing at least another 10Kg.