After neglecting it for the past 6 months, I started using my pedometer again on Friday. I’ve been slacking off in the exercise department and needed a bit of motivation.

I have the Omron HJ-720 Pocket Pedometer. Whenever I need to push myself to get more active, I take along my pedometer and aim for a healthy goal of 10,000 steps a day. Having instant visual feedback of my progress really gets me going.

My Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer

This particular model is one of a few approved devices that work with the Microsoft HealthVault Connection Center.  It’s a service that downloads data from your health device, uploads it to your Microsoft HealthVault account, and then that data can be used in a variety of applications and third-party websites.  There’s only a few that currently use this beta service but the possibilities are very exciting.

Here’s my Microsoft HealthVault data used by a service called WalkMe, which I had created a free account at and then allowed it to access my HealthVault:

WalkMe working with Microsoft HealthVault

It’s trying to be somewhat social with groups and rankings, but there aren’t very many registered users. There’s only a couple hundred from what I could tell.

I tried some of the other websites but nothing interested me until I came across MSN’s My Health Info (beta).  This application has a very sleek interface and though it wouldn’t work in Firefox, it was a pleasure to mess with in IE.

I signed up for a free account and authorized it to access my HealthVault info.  That data was used to populate highly customizable widgets.  I really like having the ability to drag and drop widgets, change the layout, and resize widgets.  Here’s my homepage that I created:

My Health Info (beta) at MSN Health & Fitness

Widgets are easy to customize and drag around.

The Exercise Journal widget lets me add activity not uploaded by my pedometer.

The Food Journal widget tracks meals and calories.

Part of the Food Journal is the option to set a meal plan and get recommendations.

So far, I really like the fluid interface of the My Health Info service but despite the prettiness, I’m not sure if I need all that information. I don’t really track my food or activities and just want to log my daily steps from my pedometer.

I can use WalkMe for that, but the default view shows weekly steps when I prefer to see it on a daily comparison basis. Right now, I’ll probably use My Health Info and maybe force myself to pay a bit more attention to my food and exercise journals.

I love discovering fancy new websites! Now I better make sure I continue to give my pedometer data to upload. I plan to be using this in conjunction with the Nike+ running program to keep track of my walks and runs. Let’s do this!

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