I realize I’m kind of going against the grain here, especially since I’m normally an Apple fan for many reasons. But you’ll see in the next few paragraphs why I’m not just blindly supporting Apple with everything. I take a careful, objective approach to technology and health.

Apple Watches in particular, while they are very popular, are designed to be really cool smartwatches, not health and fitness trackers. Anything that is designed for the “coolness factor” as the first priority is probably not going to be the best bang for your buck, as we see with cheap smartphones. This may be one of the few Apple devices that was designed this way. In fact, the Apple Watch was designed to be a health tracker as an afterthought. This is probably why they only have an 18-hour battery life; a lot of the battery power is going to the cool, unnecessary smart features instead.

I’ve heard from many, many people who wear their Apple Watch everyday that they are annoyed with having to charge it every night. That means they can’t track their sleep, which is a very important part of your health metrics! But I’ve also noticed that most people don’t even look at their health metrics on an Apple Watch. They just wanted to call and text from their wrist and have cute, custom watch faces.

After much contemplation, I chose Garmin (and I wear one myself). Yes, some of their models are also feature-heavy and superfluous, but their battery life is much longer, which means you can track your sleep without worrying about charging. For a consumer device, their health metrics are relatively accurate. 

And yes, for this giveaway, I chose a simpler model, but that’s on-purpose. But it is not their cheapest option. It still tracks heart rate, sleep, steps, and other things. 

Ideally, we want a smaller device, without WiFi or cellular, to reduce EMF exposure. We want to track the most important health metrics and avoid any unnecessary features. We want our health tracker to not be addictive, but simply useful.

This particular Garmin model is small, simple, and provides the most important metrics. The black and white screen makes it much less addictive so you won’t just sit and play with it on the couch. The battery lasts a week. And while an Oura ring is another excellent option, having some type of screen can be helpful so you can glance at your data without connecting to your phone first, ultimately making it more motivating.

The idea with this giveaway is to improve health, not just focus on coolness. So yes, you might already have an Apple Watch, but winning this Garmin may be better for your health because it’ll keep you focused on the more important data rather than trendy distractions! If you are totally set on your current device, you can give this tracker away to someone who could use it and enjoy the free nutrition sessions or Restart program.