Make it fun to make it stick!

Track your progress, to know that you’re… well, actually making progress!

These two pretty simple concepts play a big part of achieving the results you want with Thriving Health.

Here’s why.

When it’s fun you look forward to it, you make time for it, and you actually do it. In exercise and many other areas of life this is the case. But maybe you have a deep seeded belief that exercise is punishment, painful, definitely not fun, and to be avoided. Kind of hard to stick to it or even get started if this is the case. Making it fun can begin to reverse this belief. Activity with a friend or a group is one great way to shift you towards enjoying the activity.

But if you cannot yet think of exercise or physical activity as fun then framing it as satisfying on your path to Thriving Health becomes KEY. Tracking progress while affirming the deep seeded reasons you are doing it brings out satisfaction. Baby steps on the path of something bigger.

Beyond satisfaction the fact of the matter is that when you track your progress you know in a very concrete objective way if you are heading in the direction you want or not. If you also take the time weekly to assess that progress (or lack thereof) you can keep moving forward or shift and re-align to get back on track sooner than later, or never.

I’ve found a great new tool that can support you to make it fun and/or satisfying and allow you to easily track many markers of your progress. It’s FREE too!

It’s MapMyFitness with specific apps for a number of different activities. Here’s my review.

Go to the website that sparks your interest most. Run, cycle, walk, hike, triathlon, or fitness for your specific fitness program. The links are below.

6 MapMyFitness sites to consider:

Map my run: http://www.mapmyrun.com/

Map my ride: http://www.mapmyride.com/

Map my walk: http://www.mapmywalk.com/

Map my hike: http://www.mapmyhike.com/

Map my tri: http://www.mapmytri.com/

Map my fitness: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/

My belief is that to make it stick a mantra of slow and steady made easy is the best way to go. This tool fits my mantra.

Create a profile, download the app to your smartphone, login and press record your workout then start.  That’s it! So simple.

I did a run recently and it tracked and recorded my route, time, distance, pace, calories burned (average based on profile info given), and even elevation change. I could check as I was going along. Pretty cool if you’re an information junkie like me.

After I could go back and review my run. I can use the map to set a next run and progress even further. I know routes based on time and distance for future reference and planning each week.

If you don’t have a smart phone you can use the website to log and track your workouts after you do them so you can compare one to the next as you make progress over time.

You can track your workouts, a daily log and a food log. Be cautious of overly focusing on weight. I will address the reasons why in my upcoming book Make It Stick. For now only track these measures once a week at the most.

You can also connect with friends via Facebook, Twitter or directly with ones you exercise with who also use the app. Track and cheer each other on. Support one another to keep at it. You can go live so others can see your progress as you are doing it. You can see others who are like minded near you and maybe find a new exercise partner.

Get support. Be support. Have fun.

I know I am sounding like a sales pitch. Bottom line here is if this or a similar app is what works to get you consistently and progressively active then GET IT and USE IT.

My 7 Principles of Thriving Health include Assessment, Assistance, and Adherence. Fun, satisfaction, planning, and progress all fit within these 3 principles. Tools like this help integrating all 7 vital Principles of Thriving Health into you lifestyle.  They make the 10% Rule of slow and steady made easy… even easier.

Find the tools that work for you, embrace them, and integrate them as you …..

Release weight, achieve thriving health and begin living your Ideal Life TODAY!

Yours in health,

Brent

How one handed you are could be causing you PAIN!  We live through habit.  We unconsciously create patterns in pretty much every area of daily living and mindlessly live out those patterns in how we do things.  Whether you are right or left handed you likely have created patterns whereby you default to the use of your dominant hand without even thinking about it.  This may be leading to back, neck, or shoulder pain or even recurring headaches that limit your ability to live your Ideal Life.

Lori is one such person.  When she moved into a new office at her work she took over the computer of the previous person, and the way it was set up.  She just sat down, adjusted the chair a bit and started to work.  The mouse was on the right side, as almost all of them are, and was on the desk surface.  The keyboard was on a tray attached below the desk.  Her adding machine was next to the mouse and her phone was to the right of the monitor.  Her job involved 8+ hours a day of data entry, mouse work, email correspondence, and other predominantly computer based tasks. She seldom got out of her chair.  At times the pressure of deadlines meant working through lunch and overtime.  At home Lori connected with friends on Facebook, spent time on various forums, and was generally inactive.  Her computer at home was pretty similar to hers at work.

Lori suffered from headaches, neck and right shoulder pain, and was beginning to experience some tingling and numbness down her right arm and into her hand.

Her one sided existence, when it came to computer work and play, was exceeding the physical threshold her body could withstand and it was breaking down as a result.  While therapy (professional or self given) would help to alleviate some of her symptoms it would not make a lasting difference until the underlying root cause was addressed.

In today’s world technology is a dominant need.  How much we use it may not be as easily limited as is necessary.  We, as humans, are not designed for the volume of sedentary work we do, especially computer work.  Therefore we need to consciously address how we integrate and utilize technology so we can prevent injuries and be able to joyfully live our ideal lives.  Becoming more ambidextrous is one excellent way to prevent exceeding your body’s threshold and minimizing the risk of breakdown of tissues leading to pain as Lori experienced. Your immediate feeling might be that there is no way you could possibly use your non-dominant hand more or maybe at all.  It’s time to stop creating excuses and start making changes that will make a difference.  This one becomes easier over time and will feel natural before long.  It just takes practice.  It can become a supportive habit in your life.  Imagine what you have to gain as it does.

Here are 4 tips for becoming more ambidextrous.

1. Alternate mouse use between the right and left side.

Consciously move your mouse from the right side to the left and back again at regular intervals in your day.  Shifting every 90 minutes would be great.  This includes your home computer and use of the track pad of a laptop if it applies.

If you require more time to adjust and improve your non-dominant hand fine dexterity, no problem.  Baby step to my suggestion above over time.  Begin with 10 minutes per hour on your non-dominant side.  As you get better lengthen the time by 10 minute chunks until you can do equal on each side.  Then extend to 90 minutes.  How long it takes to get there, as long as you are making progress, doesn’t matter.

Remember the marathon approach wins the race of Thriving Health every time!

2. Consider a separate USB number pad that can be changed from right to left side.

If you use the number pad a lot then consider finding a keyboard and number pad that are separate devices attached via USB so you can switch sides as I described above.  If you use an adding machine alternate sides in the same way.

3. Become conscious of everywhere else in your life that you automatically default to using your dominant side and begin to balance using your non-dominant side.

Examples can include carrying things like groceries, eating with your knife and fork, using certain tools, holding a glass, and so many others.

4. Can’t remember.

Set an alarm to remind you to switch.  Do you wear a watch?  Put it on your dominant wrist to act as a reminder every time you look at it.  It will feel weird at the start.  Wear some other symbol bracelet to remind you or have a symbol at your desk.  Anything that will trigger a pattern interrupt leading to change.  Once a new positive habit is formed you won’t need these as much.

A small change such as this can lead to significant transformation towards Thriving Health.  Conscious awareness enables change and so does establishing unconscious patterns that support your big goals.

Release weight, achieve thriving health and begin living your Ideal Life TODAY!

Yours in health,

Brent