I can tell you that I look towards the holiday with trepidation. I have been slowly chipping away the pounds throughout the year and am now looking down the barrel of some great "eating" opportunities.

I have my favorite side dishes for Thanksgiving and know some great breakfast spots that I like to hit over that long weekend. And then we enter the end of the year celebrations with Christmas and New Years. Again, there is tons of great snacking opportunities and big dinners with friends and family!

Did I mention that I love food?

So I will need every tool I can muster to help fight these pounds from building up. Sure, I will try to eat in moderation but lets look at some great tools and potential gift ideas for friends and family to help encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Probably my favorite tool for keeping me focused is my trusty Fitbit. And the crew at Fitbit has introduced a new version called the Fitbit One ($99). This device is a little thing you clip onto your belt or pocket and it monitors your activity level throughout the day. It will measure the number of steps, calories burned, distance traveled and the number of flights of stairs you climb. If you wear it at night, it will tell you number of hours you slept and will even measure the quality of your sleep.

The original version required you to dock to your computer to charge and transfer your data to Fitbit.com's data tracking site. This new version accomplishes this wirelessly and can even talk directly to your Bluetooth 4.0 enable device like the latest iPhone and iPads.

I really find this device is a motivator that helps you keep yourself active. But if you need extra encouragement, you can share and compete with your friends on your progress.

The Fitbit One has just begun shipping as I write this. You can order it on Amazon.

While I am talking about FitBit, they have also introduced their new Aria Smart WiFi body weight scale that can track your weight, body mass index (BMI) and percent of body fat. The scale allows you to track trends, set weight goals, earn badges online or via your smarthphone.

The Aria automatically recognizes up to 8 users and interfaces with the above mentioned FitBit.com website. The site can also help you log food, workouts and set weight goals with daily calorie planning.

Fitbit has also released a lower-cost version called the Fitbit Zip that comes in five fun colors and relies on a replaceable coin-type battery for $59.

There are other products in the category that track your activity that you could checkout such as the Nike Fuel Band and Jawbone UP (2.0) but neither of these have knocked my socks off from the quality of execution between the hardware features and software.

Some other great fitness product recommendations:

Polar FT Fitness Watch

Fitness Videogames

Dance Videogames

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry