It’s not just about wearables
Process to success: Behavioural change requires more than just collecting data, we must turn that information into action
The road to weight loss is paved with good intentions.
That might not be a direct quotation of the original proverb, but it resonates too in this context.
Most of us set well meaning – and not to mention ambitious – weight loss and fitness goals but are unable to achieve them without clear guidelines and obedient tracking.
As the great data scientist Edward Deming said ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’
And that aphorism applies to our health and fitness journey too.
It’s all very well having virtuous goals and ‘eating clean’ alongside training, but if we’re not regulating what goes into our body and what energy goes out, then it’s all a bit futile. This is why wearable activity trackers like Apple Watch Fitbit and CorLife Partner Garmin are a fundamental (one of your 10,000) step(s) towards improving your physical health.
Though indeed the first step along the ‘road to weight loss’ is collating your data, if you don’t understand how to process that information then it’s all just numbers!
An effective behavioural change journey requires insight, motivation, education and iteration of new behaviours – which quite counter intuitively competes with human nature’s predisposition to resist change!
When presented with better lifestyle choices, the logic of change can be clear and the intent to change firm. However, quite paradoxically and unhelpfully, the subconscious instinctively recoils from adapting. We innately feel the impulse to create obstacles and excuse the persistence of old behaviours.
Steve Peters provides a clear analogy of this embattled psychology with his Chimp Paradox theory.
The Chimp in our deep brain represents the ancient cerebrum preoccupied with living in the moment. It is impulsive and resistant to change, making it disinclined to stick to new resolutions.
Whereas the Human brain is more strategic and logical, it competes with our less evolved Chimp side for control of behaviour and forward progression. Which is why by repeating new habits, long-term behaviours are able to become ingrained and accepted by the resistant Chimp counterpart.
As established, it’s universally acknowledged that humans dislike adjustment, but alas great progress requires great change! The very process of evolution involves movement and progression, which means that in order to evolve we must battle against the Chimp side of our brains that tells us to stay put.
A successful programme of change must be founded on an individual’s unique mechanics and motivations and laid out as a clear, personalised and logical path of action. And to be clear and logical, we need tangible figures to track – this is why consistently interacting with data from wearables is key to establishing new lifestyle patterns.
CorLife has been developed to guide and support your weight loss journey with a clear path of action. The programme provides direction based on the individual’s initial wellness as well as their future disease risk.
And a constant stream of data provides signposts along the way to help navigate programme users, keeping them informed and educated on their journey to a healthier state of mind and body.
This is after all how sustainable habits are formed – and how you can ensure that the road to weight loss is not just paved with good intentions but is directed towards success!
-
The Growth House Podcast Interviews Dr Adam Carey
-
The 2020 Rebalance: Positive health behaviour changes we’ll take into 2021
-
Testing our patients (and our patience): Coronavirus tests
-
Is sitting the new smoking?
-
Controlled Overreaching – Do one thing you didn’t yesterday…
-
The last taboo, sexism and ageism rolled into one – The Menopause
-
The Perils of WFH: The future’s not so bright, the future’s Susan…
-
CorLife Announces Collaboration with Garmin®, Global Leader in Fitness Devices
-
Modern Life is Sweet…
-
Shall we have a drink? Alcohol and Covid19
-
We’re not designed to be this stressed
-
Working Out Working Post-Lockdown
-
How to avoid a life threatening “Cytokine Storm”
-
Fat chance: Reducing the risks of obesity and coronavirus in the workplace
-
Work in a post-Covid World
-
Vitamin D Power
-
Exercise during lockdown
-
Protecting your sleep in lockdown…
-
Fusing medical and sporting excellence
-
Lockdown Nutrition: Gut health!
-
The importance of mental health – tips for a COVID-19 world
-
Introvert or extrovert? We are all in this together…
-
Great Teams are made of Great Individuals…
-
Spirit Energy continues its relentless commitment to all its people by rolling out the game changing CorLife health and wellbeing app to the entire workforce
-
CorLife improves the mental and physical health of the whole workforce
-
No gimmicks – let’s really sort wellness