For the past 2 years, I have been dutifully tracking my steps with a Jawbone tracker, first the UP24 and then UP Move.

As much as I liked my Jawbone, I had a lot of technical issues with it: within a few months, the mode button fell off so Jawbone sent me a new tracker. A few months after that, while clipping the end cap on, something happened and it was no longer staying on. Jawbone sent over a new end cap. Then a few months after that, the mode button fell off my replacement tracker but since they were transitioning away from the UP24, I was given a credit towards the purchase of a new tracker. I picked the UP Move and was really happy with it until the hook closure on the strap broke over the weekend. Sigh.

The quality of the trackers has not lived up to my expectations, especially considering the price. For something I wear EVERYDAY, I expected the equipment to be more durable. Seeing how it wasn’t, I had to decide if it was worth investing more money in a new strap just for this to happen again (based on historical data, the likelihood of it happening again was very high).

In the end, I decided to quit Jawbone and step tracking completely.

I loved seeing how many steps I took (I killed my goals while on vacation in Las Vegas and Hawaii and on travel days to Michigan) and how many hours I actually slept. I dutifully logged every workout and nap but then I started obsessing over it; going as far as to wandering around the house just to get those last few steps to reach my goal and, because I wore it on my wrist, I made sure to have it free so I could swing it while walking to get my steps counted.

Don’t get me started on those days when I knew I would have reached my goal but somehow came short. All those wasted steps!

And we’ve found the crux: the fitness tracker is supposed to encourage me to get active but I was acting as if my activity didn’t count if it wasn’t counted. That’s a huge disconnect.

After deciding to ditch the trackers, I feel more relaxed. Sure I don’t know how many steps I’ve taken or how many hours of deep sleep I got last night, but I also don’t worry about it either. The pressure to care and not care about my step counts is gone. Plus, I can wear my bracelets now! Life is better without the tracker.

I don’t need technology to validate me.