My Experience with The Garmin Venu
If you've been following for awhile, you will probably remember that I quit wearing my Apple watch awhile back. In full transparency, I just needed a break from the numbers game.
I was so caught up in the calories I was burning that I didn't care about anything else. It didn't matter how good my workout was, how much I enjoyed it, or how it made me feel. All that mattered to me was the number of calories burned after I had hit, "end workout".
However, about 18 months has passed now, and I was approached by Garmin to promote one of their watches. I sat on their email for a couple of days and thought about whether or not I wanted to start wearing a watch again.
After thinking on it for a couple of days, I realized how many other amazing features Garmin watches have. I realized that even if I never used the calorie burn feature, there were so many other health benefits to using their watches, so I decided to go for it.
So I said yes, and here we are. I've worn the watch for about three weeks now, and I can honestly say I love it. As I've said many times before, I only promote products I 100% stand behind, and I'm not afraid to tell a company otherwise. So rest assured, you can trust that this is my honest opinion.
I'm also happy to report that having the calorie burn feature of the watch hasn't bothered me a bit. I've realized that over the last 18 months, I've found my love for working out again, aside from the calories I burn while doing them. I work out to feel good, to better my mental and physical health, regardless of calorie burn.
While the calorie burn can be a helpful tool, the Venu is about so much more than that, and that is truly one of the reasons I love this watch so much. Its focus is so much more lifestyle, and overall health and wellness, rather than just workouts or fitness, and that is exactly what I needed.
The Features
BATTERY LIFE
The battery life on the Venu is 5 days, which is incredible. I can't tell you how nice it is not to charge my watch every single night. This is also helpful because it measures the quality of your sleep. It can't do that while on the charger so that's why it's able to go so long without charges; its expecting you to sleep with it on!
A longer battery life also means more accurate metrics!
COMPATIBILITY
The Venu is compatible with not only Apple, but Samsung too!
FIND MY PHONE
Like the Apple watch, it does have the "Find My Phone" feature, so you're able to locate your phone by using your watch if it's within 10 meters.
NOTIFICATIONS
The Venu does have the ability to have your notifications sent to your watch screen. You can see and read alerts, but you can't respond.
PHONE CALLS
The Venu notifies you when you're getting a call, but it uses Bluetooth to answer the call on your phone instead of allowing you to speak into the watch itself.
SLEEP TRACKING
While you are sleeping, the device automatically detects your sleep and monitors your movement during your normal sleep hours. You can set your normal sleep hours in the user settings.. Sleep statistics include total hours of sleep, sleep levels, and sleep movement. You can view your sleep statistics on your Garmin Connect account.
NAVIGATION
You can use the GPS navigation feature on your device to save locations, navigate to locations, and find your way home.
PULSE OXIMETER
The Venu has a wrist-based pulse oximeter to gauge the saturation of oxygen in your blood. Knowing your oxygen saturation can help you determine how your body is adapting to exercise and stress. Your device gauges your blood oxygen level by shining light into the skin and checking how much light is absorbed.
INCIDENT DETECTION
If you have GPS enabled and an incident is detected by the Venu, the Garmin Connect app can send an automated text message and email with your name and GPS location to your emergency contacts.
GARMIN PAY
The Garmin Pay feature allows you to use your watch to pay for purchases in participating stores using credit or debit cards from a participating financial institution.
HEART RATE MONITOR
Because the Venu is always tracking your heart rate, not just during a workout, this means the data being collected is much more accurate!
BODY BATTERY
The Venu analyzes your heart rate variability, stress level, sleep quality, and activity data to determine your overall Body Battery level. Like a gas gauge on a car, it indicates your amount of available reserve energy. The Body Battery level range is from 0 to 100, where 0 to 25 is low reserve energy, 26 to 50 is medium reserve energy, 51 to 75 is high reserve energy, and 76 to 100 is very high reserve energy.
Shop The Venu
CLICK THIS PHOTO TO SHOP THE VENU, AND VIEW ITS STATS!
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This blog post was sponsored by Garmin but all thoughts and opinions are my own.