When you take a glance at the bottom of this post to see how I did last week, you’ll see that the results are exactly the opposite of what I wanted. In other words, my weight was up a bit and my steps per day were down. Today I’m going to talk about motivation to exercise and eat correctly, something that I apparently lack.
Motivation
The entire idea behind becoming more fit is to essentially do two things — eat less and exercise more. There are points in your life where everything is going to conspire against your achievement of those simple goals, and for me, this last week was one of them. So what are my excuses? The weather has been soggy here in Colorado with lots of rain muddying my favorite hiking path. As many of my Apple World Today friends know, I’m in an elder care situation with my parents right now that takes a surprising amount of time and energy. And finally, the stress from that situation makes me want to eat comfort food and drink more!
Our devices try to motivate us in a variety of ways. The Activity app on the Apple Watch is good for reminding me to get my arse out of my chair once an hour. Apps like Carrot FIT tries to insult me into following an agonizingly difficult workout routine, and just about every other fitness app — Witnings Healt Mate, Breeze, RunKeeper, you name it — has its own method of urging you to do certain things and not do what you shouldn’t be doing.
I personally love how Breeze motivates me; getting a comment like the one seen at the top of this post is more motivational than something that just tells me that I failed yesterday. It has a great way of saying “You were soooo close yesterday, I bet you can do it today!” That does encourage me to do more.
Motivation to eat less or to eat more slowly (which helps in terms of making you feel full before you’re done) is something I wish more apps would do. There are a few apps that basically set you on a timer, telling you when to eat and when to pause (Eat Slower and 20 Minute Eating). However, I am not Pavlov’s dog and I really do not want to hear a “ding” every few minutes that I associate with eating. This is one case where a Watch app providing a tap on the wrist would be a much better idea.
Now I want to turn this over to you, the readers. What motivates you, and what is it that turns you off when it comes to getting motivated? Are you more motivated by the stick (getting yelled at) or the carrot (the idea of a reward)? Would you find a live community of others struggling to exercise more and eat less to be a better way to motivate your healthy habits?
You can leave your comments below or in our private AWT Health Club group.
Health Club Members!
Rather than having to post your progress (or in my case, the lack thereof) on the Apple World Today Facebook page, I’ve created a group that’s strictly set up for us. You’ll need to be invited to the group; please use the email button on the right sidebar to send me the email address you use for Facebook so I can invite you.
My weekly stats:
- Weight: 194.1 lbs
- Change from last week: +0.6 lbs
- Steps taken each day: M-2042,T-3006, W-2400, TH-2889, F-1733, SA-7512, SU-3836
- Average steps per day last week: 3345 (-365 from previous week)
Let’s hear how you did! Let’s get moving!
