In case you haven't noticed, there is a cost of living crisis going on, at least here in the UK, where inflation is rising at the fastest rate in 40 years. And since I'm not made of money, there are a few tough calls to make: do I want to keep streaming movies and TV shows on Netflix, or should I rather keep my Fitbit Premium subscription instead and focus on my physical and mental wellbeing?
I love Netflix as much as the next person as I can watch tons of stuff that interests me on it. I love Bojack Horseman, and I appreciate seeing movies such as Arrival, Whiplash and Blade Runner 2049 on it. I recently rewatched There Will Be Blood, and it was just as good to see Daniel Day-Lewis go bananas as it was the first time I saw the movie.
On the other hand, I'm a total fitness buff and love my fitness apps. Well, I don't use many paid apps; my most used fitness apps are Garmin Connect, Polar Flow, Huawei Health and the likes, all of them providing data for free (well, for now, anyway). Fitbit is a bit different as it puts some features behind the Fitbit Premium paywall, such as advanced health metrics and workout/meditation content.
Do I like Netflix shows enough to keep paying for them?
Most importantly, advanced sleeping metrics are also part of Fitbit Premium, including the new Sleep Profile that assigns a Fitbit Sleep Animal to you that most closely matches your sleeping style. And since I'm doing a bit of an experiment by wearing the Fitbit Charge 5 for a month to sleep, it would be silly not to have Premium to see all my sleep stats in their full glory.
Sadly, I can't afford to pay for all the services I want to use anymore. I foolishly subscribed to Disney Plus for a year, so I'm locked into that one, but the rest of the stuff I pay for monthly; I can cancel/resubscribe wherever I want. And this is probably what I'll have to do unless I drastically scale down my food consumption, which I'm not willing to do, so I can pay for app subscriptions.
I'm leaning towards cancelling Netflix as I think I can live without TV shows for a bit, but I don't want to live without detailed health insights. I exercise every day – recovery for me is of utmost importance, and sleep is a big part of that. Knowing how I sleep and how I can optimise my sleep is worth the money as it helps me avoid injuring myself.
Of course, even the best Fitbits aren't the most accurate fitness trackers, but they do track a lot of stuff, including heart rate variability, which is a good indicator of ready your body is to exercise correctly. Through Fitbit Premium, I can also see details on my restlessness and sleeping heart rate – that's a lot of data to work with.
So, for now, I'll bid farewell to Netflix so I can focus on my health and sleep. That said, I don't want to be forever removed from streaming so I might resubscribe later when I get bored of Fitbit Premium or, more likely when I find other ways to optimise my budget. Bye-bye, Bojack, hello Fitbit Sleep Animals!
Find out more about Fitbit Premium (opens in new tab) by clicking on the link (retailer link). You get Fitbit Premium for free when you buy certain Fitbit products, such as the Fitbit Inspire 2 and Fitbit Versa 3.
