The app I'd like to talk about is a step-counting and walking app on my phone. I'm a forty-four-year-old accountant in Karachi, and about two years ago my doctor told me my blood sugar was getting too high and that I needed to be more active.
I found out about it from my daughter, who's at university. After my check-up, she downloaded it for me and set it up, because I'm not very good with technology. She set a daily target of eight thousand steps and turned on reminders.
The app uses the phone's sensors to count how many steps I take, and it shows the total on a simple graph. If I haven't moved for an hour, it sends me a gentle reminder to get up. I usually check it after lunch, and if I'm far behind, I take a walk around the office building or use the stairs instead of the lift. In the evenings I walk with my wife in the park near our house, and the app records the route. Every Sunday it shows me a weekly summary, which I find quite motivating.
Has it really helped? I'd say yes, but with some honesty. The app itself doesn't make you healthy. You still have to do the walking. What it does is make my activity visible. Before, I genuinely thought I was quite active, but when I saw I was only doing about two thousand steps a day, I was shocked. Now I average around seven thousand, and at my last check-up my blood sugar had improved, and I'd lost a few kilos. I also cut down on sweets, which my doctor says probably helped as much as the walking.