I was listening to a podcast the other day about New Year’s resolutions and goal setting, and the conversation turned to tools one can use to help create and maintain healthy habits. One of the gentlemen referred to an app he uses that helps him stay on track with his habits called the Way of Life app. I was like, “Hey, I recommend that app to my clients all the time, and yes, it is good!”. Now, not everyone that reads my blog has necessarily worked with me, or if you are a client, maybe this app hasn’t come up in our conversation. So I thought I’d let you know about it, so you can start using it to help you.
The Way of Life app is downloaded to your smart phone through the app store. There is a free version which allows you to track three habits, or you can upgrade to the premium version to track as many habits as you want for $4.99.
It is simple to use, and can have a profound impact on your follow-through with habits and thereby the achievement of your goals. It basically gives you a platform to track your habits each day with a simple “yes” or “no” system. You can schedule a notification on your phone, which will alert you to update your daily success. I like to have my notification go off in the early evening, the time of day when I can lose focus. You tell the app, “yes” you achieved the habit, or “no” you didn’t. Simple. After you have had success on a habit for three days in a row, it creates a “streak”, which psychologically helps keep you going because, after all, you don’t want to break your streak!
Habits you might want to work on from a health and nutrition perspective could include:
- Eat 5 servings of veggies a day
- Take my multi-vitamin
- Drink 64 ounces of water
- Get 8 hours of sleep
- Exercise for 30 minutes
Best of all, it tracks your results over time to show your success. For those who like to see trends and track metrics, this is a great tool. It isn’t overly time consuming – it only takes a minute per day. Yet, it gives you that little nudge to keep you attentive and engaged in creating new healthy habits and breaking unhealthy ones.
In a nutshell:
- You can choose habits you want to create or habits you want to limit or break.
- Let the app know if the habit is “good” or “bad”.
- Set up a notification to go off during the day, so you can update your data on a daily basis.
- Follow your progress over time in the “trend” section.
You get the gist. Check it out, and if you download it and start to use it, drop me a line to let me know how you like it.
Do you have a favorite app that supports your health goals that you love? Share below in the comment section so we can all learn about it, and try it out!
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