Back Talk

I talk to my Apple Watch.  Also my spin bike, my weight rack, my dog, and a lot of other things and creatures that don’t often answer me.  Recently, I told my watch that I don’t want to set a different, higher goal for my activity.

Why not?  I mean, doing more is better, right?  I want to do All The Things, All The Time, surely.

Nope.

The way I use my device, its job is to help me take care of my minimums.  Sure, I almost always get a lot more than 30 minutes of exercise a day and burn more than the calorie limit on my move target.  It’s not hard for me to stand up and move around in twelve separate hours of the day.

What is hard is keeping perspective.  Even for me, a fitness professional, fitness is not all of my life.  If I hop on the train of escalating expectations (wow, that is a weird picture…), I am asking for a terrible crash when I hit the wall of time/energy/space limitations.  To use a different, possibly less unwieldy metaphor, life is a long journey with no reward for finishing early.  When I put in my 30 minutes of exercise, I know I’ve made enough progress for this day and I can take care of all the other things with a clear conscience.

I do get that other people may have different perspectives.  Some of us thrive on beating yesterday.  I’m not here to say that my way is best for everyone.

Do what works, no matter what your watch tells you.