If you go on vacation and end up feeling like a slug because you’re missing your usual exercise routine, you need a Striiv. What’s a Striiv?  It’s a souped up super-duper high tech digital pedometer that logs every step you take, and tells you how far you’ve gone and how many calories you’ve burned.  On a cruise?  Walk around the boat a few times and see how far you’ve gone before you head to the buffet.  Stiiv will even let you know if you’ve burned the calories of a cupcake!  In a foreign city?  You may not count all that museum and sightseeing walking as exercise, but Striiv does.

Every step you take – to the supermarket, to a museum, to climb to the top of Notre Dame, “counts” as activity.  And all that activity earns you trophies or badges or points in the included game (a simple virtual world you can add plants and buildings to by spending your activity earned points). It also lets you set challenges for yourself – from easy to hard.  You can aim for 250 steps in ten minutes (easy) – or for 10,000 steps during the day.(not so much)

And all of it is tracked with so many cool charts and graphs that I have become obsessed – OBSESSED! – with checking. “Look! It’s exactly .9 miles to school!”  “Look, the grocery store is a .7 mile walk in each direction!”  It’s ridiculous!  Striiv even knows if you’re walking, running, or climbing stairs.

Striiv says they’re  “creating a movement around movement,” and I am loving it.

One of the absolute coolest things about the Striiv is the “Walkathon in your Pocket” feature, in which every step you take counts toward a donation to charity, at no cost to you!  I’ve given clean water to a village in South Africa and even saved a little piece of rainforest.  Talk about motivation to move.

So the next time you’re on vacation, don’t feel like you’re not getting exercise – look at your Striiv and see that you are!

I received a Striiv for  testing and review.