Streamlining: Tracking My Health Goals

Our business has changed a lot in the past year, which I covered in this post if you want to get the backstory there. I've set business goals, restructured my work days and organized the heck out of project production but as a nutrition person I also need to be careful about my health. Because that's kind of part of my job. Realistically, I know myself enough to recognize that I can skew towards workaholic mode. Totally zoned in. Writing and writing and styling and photographing. And to be honest, there are some days where I'm not good about being my true healthy self. Some days we shoot and style the entire day...and the kitchen is steps away from where we shoot! Needless to say the number of steps I actually move can be lame if I'm not watching it. Steps are my focus and man do I need to focus more.

Now, being a non-runner (only if I'm chased or only if it's towards food), I'm not exactly psyched to run around the town. Honestly that's actually the exact opposite of what I want to do. Ever. So I'm more French I suppose in how I get movement and exercise in. I take the long way around the store. I walk to get coffee. I plan content creation around needing to hike to location if I need a beautiful backdrop. But the only way I can be sure I'm getting remotely close to the recommended 10,000 steps a day is by tracking it.

If you guys remember about this time last year I had just gotten my first Jawbone (an Up24) and it blew my mind. BLEW MY MIND. It was such awesome feedback and data. I raved about it so hard at least three other family members bought one and now we're a team and we are ridiculously competitive. Even in sleep statistics (I'm SCHOOLING you Parker. You'll never win.). While I loved my first Jawbone so much, the new Jawbone Up2 has some things that I find are major improvements. The priority mention is the actual band structure. The new version is way more slim, flexible and fitting. Especially for small wrists. It's vastly more comfortable compared to the older version. I'm also finding the charging method is very streamlined and in general, awesome and totally Jetsons. You don't even have to insert the charger to the band or 'eject it'. Plug the charger into the USB, set the Jawbone on top of it and it will be ready to go by the time you stand up after answering emails.  

So in terms of making improvements, the vibrating reminders for water, but especially inactivity are really useful. You can actually set boundaries on the reminders so they don't wake you up or make you feel guilty if you're winding down for the night...or in the car (DC reality).  And of course the cherry on top is the app . If it's not on my phone, I basically am going to have a hard time integrating it into my life. The app is easy to use, track big picture things so you're not laser focused on a single day. Because really, this is about the big picture of your health for long term changes. It's no wonder Jawbone just got named one of Oprah's Favorite Things (YOU GET A JAWBONE. YOU GET A JAWBONE!) 

Once again, I have to hand it to Jawbone. I'm still impressed and each edition keeps getting better and better. For those of you who always struggle with Small Wrist Life, this is your version to try. Am I reaching 10,000 steps everyday? No. But every little bit helps, and this is one way I'm streamlining that goal into my daily life. Baby steps. 

Disclosure: This post is in partnership with Jawbone. All opinions are 100% my own. Congrats Jawbone on making the #FavoriteThings2015 list! #StyleUP

Check out the Jawbone Up2