The best thing about them is that unlike more traditional pedometers, they can be dropped into your purse or pocket and will still accurately track your activity. Now you can find out exactly how much exercise you're getting each day, whether it's at work, shopping or walking the dog.

I've got one of these and I find it by far the easiest to use of all the pedometers I've had. Although you can fix it to your belt like a normal pedometer, it's so much easier to drop it in your pocket. I'm not sure how it manages to work so well in my pocket, but it does.

The Omron HJ 720ITC pedometer has got a lovely big display that's really easy to read. When it's not showing you information about your exercise, it's acts as a digital clock, which I found surprisingly useful. It can show you how many steps you've taken, how many calories you've burned, how far you've travelled, or how many aerobic steps you've taken, so long as you've walked for more than 10 minutes without stopping.

This model also has a 7 day history of activity, so at the end of each week you can easily see how much you've done. It's got an even bigger 42 day memory which allows you to transfer the last 6 weeks of data to your computer. This will let you build up a record of how you've changed over weeks or months.

That's good because the 720ITC pedometer comes with the Omron Health Management Software package. Once you've installed this on your computer you'll be able to see your activity trends over time. I also find this helps me a lot with motivation as I can easily see my improvements.

Although this does cost a little bit more than other pedometers, the extra features you get make it easily worth it. I think the best thing is that I can take it with me for the day and then in the evening I can check how many steps I've taken that day, and whether I've reached the recommended 10,000. It's funny, but if I don't make the target one day, I'll find myself doing a bit more walking the next day to try and catch up! It's a great way to get exercise, and lots of fun too.

If you're looking for a Christmas gift that's useful and fun, this is a great choice. Don't be surprised if you start to borrow it from your partner though – they are addictive! And of course this will come in even more useful when Christmas is over and we're all trying to get back into shape. With your Omron HJ 720ITC pedometer at least you'll be well prepared.