Smart products or smart devices, the way we like to call them, are now a need in our lives as they help us work more efficiently in less time, make quick decisions and even take care of our health and security. But they didn’t play much important role in my life until I went for an annual health check up two years back.

The nutritionist asked about my lifestyle, food habits and suggested a few changes here and there. She also mentioned about an app – HealthifyMe and insisted me to download this on my phone. The app, as the name suggests, has been developed to help people in leading a healthy lifestyle.

To be honest, I never took such apps seriously. Open Google play store and you will come across  many such apps.

I was pretty confident of myself never using the app even if I install it. Then what’s the point in wasting space in my smart phone? Hence, the chapter of installing that app ended as soon as I came out of the nutritionist’s cabin.

But one should never say no. My annual health check up reports came as a shocker when I discovered stones in my gall bladder. Having gall stones is not a big deal these days. But it shook me to my core. It is then when I decided to stop taking diet and exercise callously. Not that my galls stones would have disappeared with a healthy lifestyle. But surely I could work more on my body and keep it away from further damage as much as possible.

The thought of giving a try to the app crossed my mind. From whatever I ate in the morning till night to the quantity of water I drank – I recorded everything in that app. And each time, I entered the details of my last meal, the calorie consumption count would flash on the smart device and make me conscious of what I am eating.

Two months later, I got a surprise. The weigh scale showed that I had lost 6 kilos ! Another good thing happened. My brain now automatically works in that app’s mode. Even when I am not using the app, I can still make a fair idea from the invisible display screen in my head on what, how much and when I should eat throughout the day.

My weight loss experience was an eye-opener for me. Feeding the daily calorie intake and activities in the smart phone made me realise that I had lot of areas for improvement. You can have various smart products. But their proper utilisation can be done only when you use them smartly. In my case, I had a pretty good smart phone and it was used in playing online games mostly.

In this 21st century, almost every smart phone has a health monitoring app built in it by default. Like in my case, I have Samsung Health embedded in my OnePlus 6T phone. It is equipped to record the count of calories I intake, quantity of water I drink, number of hours I sleep and even the number of steps I have walked. This is in turn also keeps an eye on how much essential nutrients I have supplied my system throughout the day and recommends the adjustments I should be doing in my diet and workouts. It’s like living with your dietician and physical trainer under the same roof without paying any charges. Thanks to technology !

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However, technology took one more welcoming step inside our lives when husband got a fitness band as a gift from office. The employer’s aim was to encourage it’s employees to move around a bit apart from sitting in front of the computers throughout the day. The employees were divided into teams. Each team member has to involve in some sort of exercise and needed to sync the data  recorded in his fitness band to an app at the end of the day. The team with the highest count of steps will get a prize. I liked the idea.

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Husband usually did physical workouts hardly once or twice a week. The concept of winning-a-prize motivated him to engage into long walks, cycling and badminton at the end of office hours. Reading the step counts from  the fitness band slowly became his regular practice. Prize or no prize, the presence of one of the smart products in my home in the form of a fitness band cultivated the habit of regular physical exercise in husband and helped him to drop a few kilos. Needless to say, this also brought peace in my home. I didn’t need to argue with him anymore regarding his daily exercise needs. Fitness band, the latest innovation in technology has now replaced the regular watch on husband’s wrist. Even I don’t accompany him as much as this smart wearable does.

Talking of innovations in technology reminds me of my friend, Google Assistant. That sight-seeing on a bike in Bali would have been impossible for us if Google Assistant wasn’t there to show us the right direction. It even advised us to avoid the areas that had the highest traffic in Bali.

I would have gone to bed without eating a meal as it was ‘that’ time of the month for me and I was not at all in the mood to cook dinner. Google Assistant helped me to find out some restaurants nearby.

Google Assistant pampers me to an extent of even making a phone call on my behalf or playing my favourite Shape of You. With just a voice command, I can listen to news while I am busy doing some other job. It even entertains me with it’s silly jokes. What more do I need from technology?

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I have not installed a smart speaker or a smart camera yet. Still smart products have found a way inside my living room and helped me in making my humble abode a smart home. Smart phones and the fitness band helps me and my family to track the daily calorie intake and workouts whereas Google Assistant is ever-ready to help us in distress. Evolution of technology has proved to be a boon in my life.

In today’s date, staying fit is the biggest challenge. And we can face this challenge by adapting a healthy lifestyle. Eating healthy, exercising daily and sleeping well. That’s all what we need to do. And smart products can help us in this matter. Health monitoring apps in smart phones and fitness bands have proved to be beneficial for my family. It has made us aware of what we should or shouldn’t do.

I would recommend the combined usage of smart phones and fitness bands for the Indian population to whom diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems have become very common diseases. We can easily avoid these health issues by changing few bad habits and hugging the smart products available in the market.

Start the Fit India Movement and #GetFitWithFlipkart by bringing home a #SmartHomeRevolution.