We figured out who did it, but what was the motive?

Earlier this week, I wrote about my Fitbit and how I’m not using it right now.  I’m exploring different ways of motivating myself.  All of us need to figure out what works in our individual cases.  Here are some suggestions.

• Yes, the Fitbit.  Or other tracker.  Maybe you want to go all elementary school on yourself and make yourself a chart with stickers.  If it makes you feel good, go nuts.

• Rewards.  If you want to walk, but you don’t really feel like it, pick a destination that is a reward, like your favorite café or your friend’s house or the beach.  Make yourself a preferred customer card and when you get ten punches, get yourself a present.  Make a list of things you want and pair them up with target weights on the scale or new weight lifting records.

• Pick something you like in the first place.  If you love to dance, it’s not hard to get out and boogie.  If you live for pedaling, biking is a no-brainer.

• Do it socially.  Maybe you don’t love yoga, but you love your friend who loves yoga.  Go to hang out with her and get bonus points for working out.

Four things

I am good at getting stuff done.  What I’m not good at is getting it done with a sense of calm.  I think I am not alone in this and that it is an issue for our fitness.

Not everything we do has to be accomplished with gritted teeth at Threat Level 500.  We need simple, guilt-free rubrics to encourage us to do enough and then let go.

I am always coming up with a new system to track what I need to do without making myself feel overwhelmed and hopeless.  Here’s what I’m trying right now.  I have a post-it note on my computer with four words on it (well, plus a couple of other notes that I jotted there).  They are:  body, mind, creation, connection.  If I do one thing for each of those categories every day, I win.

So maybe I do a weight workout, take some notes for my nutrition class, work on a quilt, and trade jokes with my kid.  Or maybe I walk with a friend (hey!  That works for two things!), knit, and read a book with my lunch.  Some days the emphasis will be more on the body part, some days more on something else, but if I do something in every category, it’s enough.

What is working for you right now?

What is the step count for rebooting?

My Fitbit is in time out.  It got back from vacation and felt a little squirrelly after all the dust and adventure and decided it didn’t want to talk to my phone or my computer for a while.  I decided, after a certain amount of swearing and rebooting, that time out was a good idea for me, too.  After all, it’s just a Fitbit, right?

Well.

I am more addicted to the little stick of chewing gum than I thought.  I almost automatically check my daily total until I remember that I’m not wearing the thing.  I wonder if my walk today took 26 minutes or 30.  How much of my swim counted?

I have decided to leave it in time out for a little longer.  It is supposed to be helping me, not controlling me.  It’s not like I don’t know whether or not I’m getting enough exercise.  I can tune into my breath, my muscle soreness, my fatigue level to figure that out.  And maybe that extra mindfulness will help me when I do get back to wearing it.