It’s official name is “Nintendo ds Personal Trainer: Walking” but I call it my nugget.
First of all, Whitney got me into pedometers. We share a love of counting that actually turned into this very site you’re reading right now. If we didn’t like to count steps, ounces of milk pumped, or activities that are totally way more fun than wiping someone’s tushy, this site would have never been born. So, blame her.
She got me my first pedometer when we were both child-free. I think we aimed for 10,000 steps per day and it was a tough goal. If you work an office job (like we did), and you drive to work, you’re gonna have to go for a loooong walk to make 10,000. If either of us were near to our goal at the end of the evening, you might see us marching or dancing to make up the last few hundred.
I’m still like that.
I already had a Nintendo DS, so when I opened the mail and saw this little nugget and game cartridge staring back at me, I got pretty excited!
What I like
I pretty much love it. I’ve been wearing it for 40 days straight. Every night when I get into bed, I see whether or not I’ve made my step target (currently set for 5,000 but its adjustable).
It lets me look back in time to different days and compare my relative activity. I can see how long I’ve sat on my ass at a single time (maximum has been over 2 hours). It gives me an animal (“today you were like a LION” or “a busy ant” or “a lazy slug”) and cheers me on when I make my target and other mini-goals.
I was also able to import my Mii from the Wii so the little character looks like me. It’s the small details sometimes, but I like it.
What I don’t like
I understand that part of the appeal is to upload/download my data and be able to play with it, but I don’t like not knowing if I’m close to my goal. It blinks red when I’m under my target steps and then blinks green when I reach my target… but there’s no other indicator to suggest “you’re almost there, just keep marching.”
Also, it falls off easily. I’ve nearly lost it a bunch of times.
When I’m biking rather than walking, I get no credit at all. For all the effort of my triathlon, I got nuthin’.
What I think about the DS
I think it is a swell little toy for new moms who have time to kill when Someone falls asleep in their car seat rather than their crib or for when you get a moment alone and want to be silly or sharpen your brain. Or even while using a breast pump if you have a hands-free thing-a-ma-bob.
If you do not have an iPhone or any plan to get one, I would strongly recommend the DS. If you have an iPhone then I think you do not need this extra toy to carry around. That said, Rookie Dad Alec and I both have iPhones and he uses the DS quite a lot. He has lots of games he likes. And there are only 2 that I like so far.
More info if you want one
If you don’t have a DS get a pink one so your husband won’t steal it. Personal Trainer Walking comes with 2 nuggets so you can compete with someone (I compete with Alec, but I’m sure that one of my kids would crush my numbers if I let them have a go) or even a pet!
Disclaimer
I paid $0 for my Nintendo DS and my pedometer nugget courtesy of Golin Harris, a PR company that randomly sent them to me.
I appreciate that this is a really old review, but just in case you see this PLEASE tell me how to change the target steps? It gave me a default of 3000 to start with, and I’ve done that by lunchtime. I cannot for the life of me find how to change it, by fiddling around with it, or by Googling, so it’s pretty much pointless…