We all know it’s not easy thinking of a gift to give Dad, especially since you want to make it a special one for the man who’s been there for you, every step of the way that you took on your own. Even if you may not have caught him checking on you, or your progress through out your life. But he’s always been there for you and now its time to say a big Thank You to Dad on this Father’s Day!

But what to get him? If your lucky, your dad has taken on the responsibility of keeping himself in good shape, both physically and mentally. A good tip may be to help him stay in shape, and if he’s not, then now is a good time to offer a little “nudge” in the right direction so he gets off the couch, putting down that bag of buttery popcorn, along with that sugar soda beverage.

Whichever type of father you have, athletic, couch potato, or one who wants to test himself by taking on a triathlon event, there are plenty of gift possibilities out there, you just need to decide which one is the best fit for YOUR Dad!

No matter what condition your father is in, a good way to help him get in better shape, or add a couple of miles onto his run is a good smartwatch! One that ranks right up there with the best is the Garmin Forerunner 245 GPS Running Smartwatch  Your dad can run, walk or jog safely with the Garmin Forerunner 245, because of its advanced safety and tracking features, including incident detection, which can send your real-time location to emergency contacts through your paired compatible smartphone!

And while your dad is out there, putting himself through the paces he can track his progress, the 245 Smartwatch evaluates his/yours current training status to indicate if he’s undertraining or overdoing it. And he won’t feel like he’s doing it alone either, because he can get free adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach, or create your own custom workouts on our Garmin Connect™ online fitness community. While providing advanced running dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio and more (When used with Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Run™or HRM-Tri™monitors (sold separately).

And not to have him feeling daunted, this smartwatch is easy to use and can provide him with all the stats he’s ever going to need to up his game as far as fitness goes. All he needs to do is put one foot in front of the other and rely on the Garmin Forerunner 245 to keep him on track with his distance, pace and calories he’s burning!

This makes it even a great incentive for your father to get moving, even if he’s never taken his health and fitness seriously! It’s a great easy to use a smartwatch, even for a beginner to fitness. But it’s just the kind you want if you want him to take his fitness seriously and its all he’s going to need as he progresses and gets the fitness bug and wants to test himself again and again!

So what are you waiting for, after all, Father’s day is just about here, so why not click on the link below to go to HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com and order one today!

With their Free Shipping on a purchase like this, you can put a smile on your Father’s face knowing that he’s getting what he really wants, and not just another tie!

This may be just the ticket to get you off of the couch and out on the road and giving you the incentive, you need to make being active your NEW norm!

The Garmin Forerunner 45 hits the mark as one of Garmin’s most capable running watches.
The 45 does a great job of being the smartwatch to go with if you’re into tracking your sports activities. If you’re looking for a running or sport specific watch, then this is the one for you.

The Forerunner 45 also has another selling point, it's price structure of being around $200. While letting you have the ability to download structured workouts, including those from the company’s free ‘Garmin Coach’ adaptive/dynamic training programs, as well as incident detection and assistance (which notifies friends/family if you get into trouble). Just the ticket if you're heading off the regular running tracks and off into the hilly mountain paths.

It has an optical HR sensor on it for tracking 24×7 HR and stress. It supports more than just running, with other sports including cycling, treadmills, and yoga, but doesn’t have quite the number of sports their other units have. And finally, it adds Connect IQ custom watch faces but stops short of allowing full Connect IQ apps or data fields.

Below are the specs on what's improved with the 45 over the Garmin 35.
– Added two sizes: 39mm (Forerunner 45S) and 42mm (Forerunner 45)
– Added color display
– Added structured workout support
– Added training plans support (including calendar/scheduled workouts)
– Added Garmin Coach compatibility
– Added Connect IQ Watch Face support
– Added incident (crash/fall) detection
– Added safety tracking/assistance
– Added Pace/Speed alerts
– Added stress widget/tracking
– Added VO2Max calculation
– Added 24×7 HR tracking widget/tracking
– Added body battery widget/tracking
– Added new Garmin Gen3 ELEVATE optical HR sensor
– Added more sport modes
– Changed from square watch to round watch
– Changed from 4 to 5 buttons (which actually makes a world of difference)
– Changed all-day battery from 9 days down to 7 days
– Of note: GPS-on battery life remains the same at 13 hours (GPS-mode)

The above are the new features which enhance the Garmin 45. But just in case your not as familiar with Garmin’s previously included functionality, we’ve listed the noteworthy ones here below.
– Built-in GPS (no reliance on phone for GPS)
– Workout support for a few sports, with customizable pages/fields
– 24×7 activity tracking, including sleep
– Optical heart rate sensor in the watch
– Smartphone notifications
– Live tracking when paired with a smartphone
– Weather/calendar widgets
– Vibration/Audio alerts
– Uploading to Garmin Connect Training Log website via phone or USB
– Broadcasting of your HR over ANT+ (from wrist to other devices)
– Automatic sync to 3rd party sites like Strava, MyFitnessPal, TrainingPeaks and many more

Probably the biggest difference between the new Forerunner 45/45S and the Forerunner 35 is the basics of the device. While the interface of the Forerunner 35 was roughly based on past budget Garmin watches, the new FR45 instead lends itself to Garmin’s higher end watches. Which, we think makes it easier to use. Note that anytime we refer to the FR45, we’re referring to both FR45 and FR45S. They’re technologically identical in every way except the bezel is simply larger on the FR45 (not the screen size, just the bezel).

Now with that screen, you can toggle between a couple of different stock watch faces. Though unlike Garmin’s higher end units, you can’t customize the stock watch faces (changing data and such). You can only tweak the accent color. But you can download thousands of custom watch faces from Garmin Connect IQ store, which is Garmin’s free app store. You can even make your own watch faces, including adding in photos as the background. Not bad for an activity watch at this price point.

The Garmin Forerunner45 captures all the normal activity tracking metrics you’d expect, including steps (as well as distance), sleep, and heart rate. It doesn’t capture stairs, however, as it lacks a barometric altimeter to measure height.
These metrics are consolidated into widgets, which you can display on the watch by pressing the up/down buttons. Note that the FR45 doesn’t support downloading Connect IQ Widgets like some of Garmin’s higher end watches, but there’s plenty of stock ones to choose from on the watch itself. Here’s a gallery of some of those.

Keep in mind that the 45 is now tracking your activity constantly, it’s also sending that over to Garmin Connect Mobile (the smartphone app) via Bluetooth Smart. From there, you can view these activity stats, challenge friends/family, and also see the stats on the Garmin Connect website. In addition, some 3rd party sites and healthcare providers can also receive this data if you’ve authorized them to. Which helps if you get into an uncomfortable place and need help right away. This is one feature that can provide you with some peace of mind that you are never truly alone, especially if your out on a remote running trail!

Say Good Night!
It will automatically track your sleep if you wear it at night. Technically you can set your regular sleep timeframe to any portion of the day, though it will only track one ‘sleep’ per day. Meaning – it doesn’t track naps. In my experience, it does a pretty good job of nailing my sleep, even with having toddlers running around and waking us at all sorts of random hours. The unit will track the exact sleep cycle, and then log it into Garmin Connect. You can plot and trend this over various timeframes.

The Garmin 45 benefits from a new optical HR sensor ‘package’, the same exact package as the Forerunner 245/945/MARQ. This is used to track your heart rate 24×7, as well as during workouts. For heart rate, it includes modest updates over the sensors used about a year ago, though a bit more significant update over the much older Forerunner 35 sensors. Note that while the sensor hardware itself on the FR45 compared to that of the other new units noted, it doesn’t have PulseOx enabled.

From a continuous heart rate standpoint, it tracks this constantly and then uploads it into Garmin Connect mobile as well. Using your resting HR is a great indicator of when you’re over-trained, fatigued, or when sickness is on the way.

Just a Few More Basic Functions:
The Forerunner 45 supports smartphone notifications like all previous Garmin watches. You’ll see the notifications based on how you’ve configured them on your smartphone via the normal phone notification center, and then they show up on the unit itself. You can then open up a given notification to get more detail about it (such as a longer text message): You can also check missed/past notifications in the notification’s widget seen in the widget gallery a bit earlier in this section. Note that unlike the higher end Forerunner watches, the FR45 doesn’t support a privacy mode for smartphone notifications.

Now Let the Sports Begin!
The Forerunner 45 is all about being a sports watch, or at least, a running-specific watch. But it does monitor other workouts, including cycling and yoga. But face facts, you’re buying it for running (or perhaps walking).

To begin with sports, you do indeed have a few options when it comes to which sports are on the device. By default, that’s: Running (outdoors), Treadmill, Cycling (outdoors), Walk, and Cardio (catch-all bucket).

However, you can use the Garmin Connect Mobile app to add other sports, which include: Indoor Track, Bike Indoor, Walk Indoor, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Yoga, and the mythical ‘Other’. You can have a max of 6 activities loaded onto the watch at any one point in time. In other words, they duplicated what Fitbit does here (for no particularly good reason).

No matter whether you’ve modified the sports or just kept with the defaults, to start recording a new workout you’ll simply tap the upper right button and then select the sport. Once you’ve done that, it’ll ask you if you want to execute any scheduled workouts for that day. So if you had something loaded up from Garmin Coach for example, or something else on your calendar, it’ll offer those to you first (which you can skip).
After that, you’re at the GPS and HR waiting screen. It’s here that it’ll go off and find GPS. This Sony GPS chipset supports GPS, GPS+GLONASS, and GPS+Galileo.

As part of this, the 45 will also ensure it has a lock on your heart rate via the optical HR sensor on the back of the unit. Generally, that’s instantaneous since it’s constantly tracking HR 24×7 anyway.

If you press down again before you start the workout you can tweak some of the settings for that sport, in this case – running. First is the ability to select a structured workout. While before, it asked us if we wanted to do the day’s scheduled workout if you had nothing scheduled/setup – then this is a chance to select one from your library of workouts. Or, you can just do a one-off interval session where you define the duration of the interval, the repeats, the rest, and the cool-down/warm-up.

Next, you can customize your data screens during the workout. The FR45 is pretty basic, mirroring that of the FR30/35 before it. Here’s what you get to start with (all are three-field pages by default). All of these are customizable:
Data Page 1: Distance, Timer, Pace
Data Page 2: HR Zone, Heart Rate, Calories
Data Page 3: Lap Time, Lap Distance, Lap Pace
Data Page 4: Time of day clock page
Data Page 5 (Optional): 1, 2, or 3 metrics each of your choosing

Available Data Metrics: Timer, Distance, Pace, Calories, Heart Rate, HR Zone, Lap Time, Lap Distance, Lap Pace, Average Pace, Cadence, Steps, Time of Day.

In the case of cycling, you’ll get the speed variants of each of the above (i.e., MPH/KPH) instead of pace.

Next, you can configure alerts. Options include heart rate (zone, or custom BPM range), run/walk (time-based), time, distance, pace (specific pace), or calories. What’s nice is that you can configure alerts but toggle them on/off quickly to use on different runs. For example, you might setup run/walk for your long run, but then toggle it off for your other runs that week. It’s a single toggle, versus having to set it up again.

You can also configure laps. By default, auto-lap is enabled at 1-mile (or 1-kilometer depending on if you use statute or metric). But you can manually lap at any time with the lap key. Or you can turn auto-lap off.

Finally, there’s auto pause, which is off by default but can be enabled to automatically pause the timer when you stop. Unlike some of Garmin’s higher end watches though – there’s no configurable threshold on this though. Also, the GPS options are in here as well, where you can toggle between the aforementioned GPS modes (GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO).

With the setup process complete you’re ready to get moving and then you can see your results displayed on the various screens. If you’re running a custom, structured training session, you’ll also get a custom workout screen which shows the specific targets of your workout. Say you're doing a run, it will give you a 5-second beeping countdown to each segment of your workout followed by the specific targets for that portion. It’ll also give a guide chart while doing that section with the target, as well as the specific time/distance/etc remaining for that portion.

It works well and is easy to follow. And in many ways, this is the most important part of this watch. It’s what fundamentally separates it from the Apple Watch and others which lack the depth and customization of the structured workout program.

You have to do a test workout first (it’s only 9 minutes), and then based on the results of that test workout, it’ll fill in exactly what the structure and intensity is to reach your goal time. You can adjust which days of the week you can work out, and your preference for the long run too.

Once you’re done with your run, you’ll go ahead and press the start button to pause it. At this juncture you can eat some ice cream and then press resume to continue running, or, you can end it. Then you'll get a summary page, including your current VO2Max level.

Then the watch is automatically transmitting this information over to your phone via Bluetooth Smart. It’s there that you can see much more detailed information on Garmin Connect Mobile (the smartphone app). Additionally, you can also look at your workouts on the Garmin Connect website as well.

Further, if you’ve connected Strava, MyFitnessPal, TrainingPeaks or any other sites, all of those will receive a copy of your workout instantly as well. Just remember on Strava to add emoji, it increases your likes (so they say).

The one last thing we want to touch on in the sports section is Garmin’s Incident Detection and Assistance features, which are seeing widespread rollout to Garmin devices – especially with these three (FR45/245/945) product launches. Both features are safety focused and have two slightly different purposes.

Incident Detection: This will automatically detect an incident while running/cycling (in a workout specifically) and notifies your predefined contacts with a text message and a live track link to see exactly where you are.

Safety Assistance: This allows you to, with one button, send a predefined message to emergency contacts with your initial location, followed by a live tracking link. The main scenario here being, you feel unsafe and want someone to be aware of that.

Both of these features depend on you having your phone with you. Since the Forerunner 45 doesn’t have cellular in it, you need to be within range of your phone. Both features can be canceled in the event they’re triggered accidentally. And both features are set up on Garmin Connect Mobile first. It’s here you define emergency contacts.

Once that’s done, the crash detection will occur while cycling or running during a workout. This is different than Apple, which has fall detection 24×7. Essentially, Garmin is looking for forward speed, followed by a significant stopping accelerometer event – and then critically – no further forward progress. Meaning, if you were running along and jumped down a big ledge and kept running, that wouldn’t trigger it, since you continued going. Whereas if you were running, jumped off the ledge and then face-planted, that would likely trigger it since you ceased making forward progress.

Rounding things out – the thing that makes the Forerunner 45 a more capable running watch than the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Active (or Fitbit Versa/Ionic) is the structured workout and complete tie-in with all of the aspects of Garmin Connect/Garmin Connect Mobile. 

To Sum Things Up:
There’s no question that Garmin packed an incredible number of features into the FR45, at least from an upgrade perspective over the FR35. If sports and fitness are what you’re after in a sports activity tracker – then the FR45’s super strong offering is all ready to strap on to your wrist.

Today, more than ever childhood obesity is becoming a real problem with children from every facet of life. Even though schools are making strides to improve the lunch and snack fare available to them during the hours that our children are under their care. It seems like more and more children, from elementary through middle-school are experiencing medical issues such as stage 2 diabetes.

Nearly one in six of all U.S. children and adolescents are obese, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control. And with some struggling schools forgoing traditional physical education classes, health experts view this issue as a growing concern. The regular physical activity encouraged in PE classes not only helps build and maintain healthy bones and muscle, it has also been shown to improve students' academic performance.

"Research shows that school is one of the first places where kids establish health habits," says Jen Ohlson, co-founder of Interactive Health Technologies LLC (IHT), a company pioneering customized P.E. curricula through the use of heart rate monitoring. "As a solution, many health advocates are turning to physical education to positively impact adolescents' overall health. With the right tools and resources available in school that can extend to home, teachers and parents alike can reach students on an individual level, helping them achieve their own fitness goals."

This of course needs to be actively pursued by both parents and the school systems. Today’s children need to be shown that being more physical can help them both in the classroom and out of it as well. Especially if we get them motivated to join in available school sporting venues. We need to get them off the couch and outside participating in physical activities that get them breathing a little hard while using muscles that just aren’t being used when their sitting on a couch watching a movie, playing a video game or simply texting their friends who are also just sitting around their homes.

Physical activity, along with a sensible diet, rich in good proteins, the right carbs and even the right amount of fats will go a long way into allowing your child’s body to function the way it was designed to. You just can’t get fit by playing an action hero in a video game without you taking part in any REAL ACTION!

Set measurable short-term goals.
Motivation is all about goal setting. Teaching your kids to evaluate their habits, showing them just how much out of the day they’re just sitting around, being non-active as sort of a wakeup call, and showing them how they can make little changes that will improve their wellbeing is important and if explained correctly they just may surprise you and start listening to you about how they need to change up their lifestyle.

Setting goals can be a fun project for teachers and parents along with the students so you can all work collaboratively on making sure the goals are measurable, timely and realistically achievable. In order to track everyone’s progress. Yes, we said everyone because its not only the kids that are migrating to a larger pant size, it’s the adults as well. So we can all get on the same bandwagon and start getting in better shape by following through with the goals we mentioned above are so important to make.

Tracking Your Goals:
Use technology to help them understand.
"Research shows kids and adults in the U.S. are spending more than 7.5 hours a day using technology. Alarming as it may sound, we see leveraging that technology as an opportunity to help kids and the adults get and stay active," Ohlson says. Using activity trackers, that also have the functionality of a wrist-based heart rate monitoring device for PE, can make using wearable technology to motivate students and adults to exercise to their own individual potential. Harnessing the power of heart rate zone training, you can reach your goals by running around, jumping, dancing, really any activity that raises the heart rate.

One such tracker, maybe better suited for the adults is the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker. This SmartWatch with GPS, Tracks steps, distance, your sleep and has more than 15 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps, including yoga, running, swimming and more

You can monitor your fitness level with Vo2 Max and fitness made estimates, plus keep an Eye on how you handle stress with the Stress Indicator feature by First-Beat Technology. This little feature alone can help you stay focused on what you need to be able to do in order to reach your fitness goals.

Now depending on the age of your kids, for those aged from 5-10 years old you can look into the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 : Kid's Interactive Activity Tracker  Parents manage their kid’s activity tracker by using the free app. Add multiple children, and see their steps, sleep, daily activities, and chore data when it syncs to your mobile device.

You can, Assign tasks and chores, set schedule alerts, find out how many reward coins each child has, access adventures, and even invite the whole family to compete in daily step challenges together, all from your mobile device.  Keeping track of just how much your kids are actually doing and then offer a reward for good performance.  Making a game out of being active, will jump-start their "Competitiveness-Mode" which will keep them looking to outperform their siblings, and or, friends.

So, now that you have a couple of tools available to you to inspire both your children and yourselves, what are you waiting for. Go on, get yourself motivated and get stepping, as a whole family!

Now that Spring is beginning to make itself felt across the country, you can now get outside and begin working on getting more activity, while enjoying the sun and warming weather. People that know they need to become more active because of yearly visits to their physicians who warn them that their current lifestyle is not providing enough physical activity to get their blood pressure under control. If you don’t know what your numbers are, you should not wait to find out after you’ve experienced a medical incident. Make an appointment with your physician and get an overall physical and let them tell you the results of how you fare and what if anything you need to be aware of.

High blood pressure or hypertension (blood pressure greater than 140/90 over a period of time) affects nearly 78 million Americans. Although it’s the leading cause of death worldwide (13 percent), about 30 percent of adults don’t even know they have high blood pressure. Many of those who are aware aren’t taking control of their disease. If left untreated, hypertension can increase your risk for heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease (decreased blood flow usually to the legs and feet).

If after visiting your physician and you are told that you indeed are part of those 78 million you need to not only work at getting your blood pressure under control but you also need to monitor it so you can react if your blood pressure rises or falls so that you can take necessary action.

Using a home blood pressure monitor is a good idea so that you can track your blood pressure on a regular basis. Your doctor can advise you how often you should check your pressure and what to do if it rises or falls. One such monitor that can easily be used is the LifeSource UB351 Automatic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor  It is a wrist based monitor that will alert you of the presence of an irregular heartbeat and provides blowrist-based and pulse rate measurements even if an irregular heartbeat occurs. It can also calculate the average of the total readings stored in its memory; a convenient way to get a snapshot of your measurements over time and provide you with an average of just what your blood pressure is over a specific timeframe.

How to use a home blood pressure monitor
Be still. Don't smoke, drink caffeinated beverages or exercise within 30 minutes before measuring your blood pressure. Empty your bladder and ensure at least 5 minutes of quiet rest before measurements.

Sit correctly. Sit with your back straight and supported (on a dining chair, rather than a sofa). Your feet should be flat on the floor and your legs should not be crossed. Your arm should be supported on a flat surface (such as a table) with the upper arm at heart level

Measure at the same time every day. It’s important to take the readings at the same time each day, such as morning and evening. It is best to take the readings daily however ideally beginning 2 weeks after a change in treatment and during the week before your next appointment.

Take multiple readings and record the results. Each time you measure, take two or three readings one minute apart and record the results. If your monitor has built-in memory to store your readings, take it with you to your appointments. Some monitors may also allow you to upload your readings to a secure website after you register your profile.

So just what are the numbers to be aware of? We have them listed Below:

NORMAL LESS THAN 120 and LESS THAN 80
ELEVATED 120 – 129 and LESS THAN 80

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 1 130 – 139 or 80 – 89

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
(HYPERTENSION) STAGE 2 140 OR HIGHER or 90 OR HIGHER

If you get a high blood pressure reading:
A single high reading is not an immediate cause for alarm. If you get a reading that is slightly or moderately higher than normal, take your blood pressure a few more times and consult your healthcare professional to verify if there’ s a health concern or whether there may be any issues with your monitor.

If your blood pressure readings suddenly exceed 180/120 mm Hg, wait five minutes and test again. If your readings are still unusually high, contact your doctor immediately. You could be experiencing a hypertensive crisis.
If your blood pressure is higher than 180/120 mm Hg and you are experiencing signs of possible organ damage such as chest pain, shortness of breath, back pain, numbness/weakness, change in vision, difficulty speaking, do not wait to see if your pressure comes down on its own. Call 9-1-1!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the American College of Sports Medicine all recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both for adults.

Intensity – Exercise at a moderate level. Use the “talk test” to help you monitor. For example, even though you may notice a slight rise in your heart rate and breathing, you should be able to carry on a conversation while walking at a moderate pace. As you walk faster, you will begin to breathe faster and have difficulty talking. At that point, you’ve achieved moderate intensity or “somewhat hard.” Vigorous exercise causes a large rise in heart rate and breathing. At this intensity, it would become difficult to talk. Most people would rate this as “hard to very hard.”

Time – Exercise 30-60 minutes per day. You can do it all at once or break it up into a few sessions of at least minutes each.

Type – Do rhythmic exercises using the large muscle groups. Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active
lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to keep your program more enjoyable.

Start by exercising on your own. Begin walking or another form of activity that you can integrate into your daily routine.

Do rhythmic exercises using large muscle groups:
Try brisk walking, cycling, and swimming. Choose activities you enjoy and will do regularly in your new, more active lifestyle. Add variety depending on the day or the season to
keep your program more enjoyable. All you really need, though, is a good pair of shoes
to get started walking. Use a Pedometer or other activity tracker to monitor your progress. Slowly work toward a goal, like maybe 10,000 steps per day.

If you have been inactive for a long time, start with short sessions (ten to 15 minutes). Add five minutes to each session, increasing every two to four weeks. Gradually build up to being active 30 minutes a day for most days of the week. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after exercise, especially if you plan to exercise on a hot day or for a
long time. Always cool down slowly.

If possible, measure your blood pressure before you exercise. Do not exercise if your resting systolic blood pressure (the top number) is greater than 200 or your diastolic blood pressure
(the bottom number) is greater than 115. Contact your doctor!

So, getting back to where we started, now that you have some beneficial information about how and why you check your blood pressure. It's important that "Knowing" your numbers and keeping them in line will allow you to help yourself by being more active and getting your body in better shape.

And what better time to get started then in the Spring of the new year? By walking at a brisk pace,  eating healthy, lowering your stress all these things combined can help keep you living a more healthy and active life for years to come!
 

It’s Just About Valentine’s Day. How About Giving Your Sweetheart, A Heart-Felt Gift Of Knowing Their Heart Is A Healthy One?

Yes, Valentine’s Day usually brings to mind going out and getting your significant other gifts of the heart. Like boxes of candy, flowers, (roses are the most popular), reserving a table at that great restaurant that she or he likes. Spending a quiet night at home with that special person, maybe giving in and watching her favorite “Chick-Flick” with her, while enjoying a bottle of a wine that you both like. After all, it's all about showing the person you really care about, that you do care about, Them!

And yes, some of the above suggestions can turn out being a little pricy, but heck, it’s Valentines Day, and on this day, you’re not putting a price on your feelings, right?

All of this is fine and dandy but if you really care about each other, then you don’t need to remind each other of this day by giving each other gifts.  And while this day is great for the candy and flower stores playing on your conscious that you're supposed to let your significant other know you care after you give that gift of self-indulgence, it will soon be only a memory, but a nice memory.

Why not give them a gift that really shows you care about them and want them to be around with you for a long, long time? The gift that I’m talking about is really a gift that targets the heart. Their heart, maybe yours too. I’m talking about giving them a heart rate monitoring watch. A fitness tracker, that has the ability to monitor their heart rate as they go about their busy day and hopefully that includes getting in some exercise. Which will help them be around for a long, long time!

This all goes hand in hand with the month of February, besides being the month in which we celebrate our love for our special friend, friends, and family, it’s also Heart Month! Kind of cute how heart month works right in alongside of Valentine’s Day, isn’t it? Which is why we’re choosing to give a gift that monitors their/your hearts, so you/they can know your numbers and hopefully adopt long term healthy habits that can help keep your heart beating strong, for many years to come.

Our hearts are arguably the most important muscle in our bodies, with all the advances in technology today, it would be a shame if we did not take advantage of this "New Wave" of healthy metrics by picking out a fitness monitor that fits your significant others lifestyle.

There are so many wearable fitness monitors on the market right now that are fun and health-promoting. They track heart rate, steps walked, and calories burned throughout the day, which makes it the perfect gift for keeping track of, and making sure that your heart is in tip-top health!

One of the leaders in fitness tracking and now heart rate monitoring is Garmin. Garmin has a very accurate, wrist-based, heart rate monitor. It’s called the Garmin Vívosmart 4 Wellness & Fitness Tracker!  The Garmin Vívosmart 4 will not only track your daily activity, but it will also give smart notifications from your phone, track stress levels and has a pulse ox sensor, and you don't have to worry about it getting wet because it's also waterproof!

This slim, swim-friendly wearable comes loaded with fitness and wellness features to help you make the most of a healthier, more active lifestyle. A wrist-based Pulse Ox sensor lets you estimate blood oxygen saturation while you’re sleeping — or you can spot-check your oxygen levels anytime during the day. The device also monitors heart rate at the wrist and includes helpful tools such as all-day stress tracking, a relaxation breathing timer, and VO2 max readings. Plus, the "Body Battery" energy monitoring helps you know when you’re primed to be active or when you may need to rest.

After all, the gift of good health is a gift that keeps on giving. So why not give your sweetheart a gift this year that puts them on the right track of being healthy, now and for many years to come. I’m sure they and YOU will love this fitness tracker as much as their/your heart does.

Happy American Heart Month and Happy Valentine’s Day!