January 2015

Give yourself a reason to celebrate by repeatedly meeting your goals and getting it done.

Staying on course with your goal commitments is not just about taking the individual steps themselves, but also about providing the most supportive environment possible for success.

As you know, any goal takes work. When you commit to changing a habit, it takes time to establish and really pay off. You literally have to learn it until it becomes natural.

Something that appears to be a small change, like eating more fruit and vegetables, requires changes to many different supporting behaviors. You may have to shift your shopping routines so that you have fresh fruit and vegetables on hand. Perhaps you have to learn new ways of preparing dishes. You might even need some new kitchen equipment. In addition to this, you need to adapt to how your body adjusts to a new diet – maybe you will get hungry more quickly. Break down at any one of these points may lead to not meeting your goal that day.

Read More »Top Twenty Habit and Goal Apps to Support Getting It Done: Part 1 apps for smart devices

How are you doing on those New Year resolutions?

Perhaps you wanted to shed holiday pounds through diet and exercise and have a healthier lifestyle?

If your motivation has taken a hit, these apps for self-coaching provide options for measuring your health-related activities. This type of self-observation provides invaluable feedback and has been labeled the “quantified self” movement.

While I have not had personal experience with all of these, I have seen firsthand how much impact logging your behavior can have. You can no longer hide behind approximations, but find out the truth behind your perceptions of your behavior. By getting data feedback you gain support and accountability. This increases your chances of success in much the same way as life coaching. Any new objective now has additional knowledge behind it that will allow you to make more realistic commitments.

Below, I describe the main features of ten health apps for self-coaching that will support you in establishing new habits.

1. Runkeeper:

This free app for iPhone or Android enables you to map your fitness activities by time, distance, speed, pace, calories, and route. Engagement is also increased through planning, music, progress feedback, and run history.

2. MyFitnessPal:

This free web app uses databases of foods and exercises to track calorie intake and output.

3. 80 Bites:

Read More »Top Ten Health Apps That Allow You to Coach Yourself