Activity trackers: friend or foe?
Are activity trackers actually that useful? Yes, they certainly are: they help us become aware of our daily activities, they are an effective tool for achieving exercise and health goals, and they can greatly increase our motivation. Even within Healthcoin's vitality program - as you probably already figured out - we like to use activity trackers to measure health data. Still, we think it's important to emphasize that a health tracker is a useful tool, but certainly not a panacea we can blindly rely on. After all, no tracker can measure how you really feel; you know that best yourself. Also, using a tracker incorrectly or not sensibly can cause problems and even hinder you from achieving your health goals. Therefore, we list 5 tips for you to make sure your activity tracker remains your friend and not your enemy!
1. Follow your gut
"Follow your gut" is advice that applies to many things in life and certainly to activity trackers as well. It's not wise to answer the question "How are you feeling?" using health data from trackers - you can really only answer that question yourself. If your health meters suggest that you can still kick it up a notch, but your body says "stop," then you should always listen to that. Not for nothing do many elite athletes still choose to train with activity trackers temporarily or not at all. They want to stay in touch with their bodies and feelings and not be led by numbers and data.
2. Keep your focus
These days there are so many devices collecting data about your health that sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. All this health data should encourage us to live even healthier lives, but it can also lead to data obesity: there is simply too much information. To avoid this, it is wise to focus as much as possible on one goal. For example, if your goal is "get more exercise," then focus on the data that is important for that goal and feel free to ignore the other health data.
3. Set realistic goals
Setting realistic goals is incredibly important to keep yourself motivated and not let health data become your enemy. For example, you want to walk more, and in all your enthusiasm you set yourself a challenging goal of 15,000 steps a day - that should be doable, right? Then when your goal turns out to be overly optimistic and your activity tracker reminds you every day that you haven't achieved it again, it can trigger negative feelings. We need to avoid that. It is therefore advisable to set yourself realistic, achievable goals. You can always adjust your goals upwards!
4. Call in a professional helpline
If your goal is to walk more every day, a pedometer is the perfect way to do that. But if you want to use an activity tracker as a tool for recovering from an illness or psychological complaints, for example, it is advisable to discuss this with your doctor or psychologist. We also see more and more doctors using activity trackers themselves as an aid, for example for people who need to exercise more for health reasons. If you do not have physical or psychological complaints, but would like professional help in using an activity tracker, a vitality coach can help you make a plan of action based on your health profile.
5. Not right now!
Measuring health data can be very motivating, especially if you are making nice progress. But it's good to keep in mind that getting data is not the main goal. Therefore, sometimes it can be very refreshing to take a long walk in the woods and leave all your trackers at home for once. Enjoy the environment around you without distractions. No data for once, but a wonderfully empty head.
Sources:
As an organization, would you like to invest in workplace vitality, would you like to learn more about our approach or would you like to test our product without any obligation? Schedule an appointment right awaywith our team and you will get a demo and a specific proposal within half an hour! Do you have any other questions? Feel free tocontactwith us.