Healthy Tips Challenge

Week 3

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You're halfway through the Healthy Tips Challenge! This is week three of six.

Week 3: Find accountability for your goals from a buddy or app

Setting achievable goals is hard and holding yourself to them is even harder. Our suggestion? Find a person or tool to help keep you accountable for your goals, whether it's a family member, co-worker, friend, or an online group of supporters. We call these accountability buddies. These should be people who are also motivated and will challenge you in your health and wellness goals. You provide mutual accountability and motivation in both directions and then share in each's successes.

In the age of smartphones and technology, your accountability buddy can be an app or website! There are numerous free and low-cost apps and digital tools designed specifically to help keep you accountable for the goals you want to achieve. Some of our favorites are included below.

Research shows that having another person involved in setting and meeting goals can significantly increase your success rate. To improve that success even more, when making goals, write them down including your reasons for making them. Note specific milestones and schedule time to work on your goals on your calendar. This will set clear expectations of what's required so you aren't tempted to let other obligations get in the way.

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Join a class together, sign up for a 5K, or set a joint, recurring appointment to hit the gym, go for a walk or run, hold a plank in the office, etc. Arrange to carpool or meet somewhere beforehand and hold each other to that schedule. Work together to set small, attainable goals throughout your progress—you'll be surprised at how rewarding it can feel to share those small victories as a team.

Another great way to use accountability as a motivation tool is to team up with a co-worker to meet for 5 to 10 minute breaks during the work day. Decide on a daily activity like office yoga, stretching, lunges, or stair climbs. Bonus points if you switch it up! Doing these activities together adds a social component to your breaks, which you'll likely find yourself looking forward to each day.

Fitbit Challenges
Fitbit Challenges

Attention Fitbit wearers! Fitbit Challenges are an exciting way to stay movement-motivated by competing along with your Fitbit friends. Challenges put you in a head-to-head competition on daily steps, most steps over the weekend, and most steps during the workday.

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HabitShare App
HabitShare App

A habit tracker app that allows you to track habits with friends for extra accountability. You can use HabitShare alone, but it works best when you add friends. Want to share your exercise habits with your running club and other habits with your family? No problem! You can even keep a habit 100% private.

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Get Motivated Buddies
Get Motivated Buddies

GetMotivatedBuddies is a community to help people stay on track with those behaviors that can change our lives for the better. Answer a few basic questions, and you'll be instantly connected to someone working on the same habits you're trying to sustain and the same important goals you're trying to achieve.

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Here are several ways you can use your smartphone to help you recharge with sleep:

  • Use built-in sleep scheduling and alarm tools on your smartphone to monitor your sleep habits and remind yourself to get ready for bed on time. You can also use the alarm feature for waking up in the morning, or if you have trouble getting out of bed try downloading an app that requires you to do an activity, (we recommend the Alarmy app below.) There are also many apps that provide sleep tracking tools so you can monitor your sleep quality and consistency over time.
  • Most smartphones have a blue light filter you can set to automatically screen out energizing blue light in the evenings and throughout the night. This will help your mind relax before bedtime even if you need to look at your phone.
  • Many smart phones also have 'Do Not Disturb' modes that can be scheduled to send non-urgent calls to voicemail and silence mobile alerts and notification sounds. Here are set-up instructions for iPhones & iPads, Android phones, and Samsung phones.
Alarmy App
Alarmy App

Called the “the world’s most annoying alarm," this app has been designed to force you to get out of bed. You set it up by registering a photo of an area or room in your house. Then once the alarm is set, the ONLY way to make it stop ringing is to get out of bed and go take a photo of the registered area.

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Calm Guidebooks
Calm Guidebooks

Whether your 2019 is about prioritizing sleep, exploring meditation or changing a habit, these free guide books will help you discover the small, doable shifts that will add up to more profound changes.

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If you often get lunch with a friend or coworker, challenge them to join you for healthy lunch dates. Alternate packing healthy lunches for each other, or if you go out, choose restaurants that offer nutritious options. There are many smartphone apps that can help you hone in on healthy choices when eating out (such as opting for dressing on the side or ordering an appetizer portion) and keep track of the calories and nutrients consumed. For iOS users, HealthyOut (see below) is a great tool that provides detailed nutrition information for restaurant menus and offers modifications to make your meals even healthier.

Finally, change up the usual coffee-and-pastry run with coworkers for a visit to the local raw juice or smoothie bar. Be careful though, not all juices are created equal! Make sure that what you order doesn't have any added sugar. If you're looking to incorporate healthy fats into your smoothie, avocado and coconut are great choices.

Lose It! App
Lose It! App

Lose It! empowers people to reach their weight-loss goals, regardless of age or lifestyle. Members track their daily food intake and fitness activity, and can create goals, start or join community activities and competitive challenges, connect activity trackers, access coaches, and more.

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ShopWell App
ShopWell App

Shopwell provides personalized nutrition scores when you create a Food Profile with your dietary goals, health concerns, allergies and dislikes. Simply scan any item to see quick nutritional information and learn how it matches with your needs.

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HealthyOut App
HealthyOut App (iOS only)

Quickly find and order healthy restaurant dishes across the country, in over 500 cities. Search by calories, nutrition tags like heart healthy and paleo, cuisines and more.

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Great job! You're on your way to completing this week's Healthy Tips Challenge. Keep an eye out next week for the next email with new tips, tools, and prizes.

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