Category: Tracking
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Should You Join a Corporate Wellness Program?
Employers, health insurers, and life insurers are rolling out tracked wellness programs in a hope that using “nudge”-style methods can help reduce the costs generated by the people they cover. Health and life insurers have historically collected some medical information, usually records or exam results at the time of application, but newer programs offer discounts…
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The Cost of Getting Lean
Many people begin an exercise program excited to “look like their goal body” — often a celebrity or model. The fitness industry and mass media promote this kind of goal heavily, in the way they market imagery and make claims for the recommendations they give, but they often hand-wave the realities behind the photos. Even…
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Healthy Eating Is Also About “How Much”
Peanut butter and similar foods are very calorie dense. You may want to use a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon to make it easier to measure portions. Every day we see claims for super foods and “healthy options,” but foods that are healthful can still be eaten to excess. This isn’t a moral thing –…
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Rude Treadmills
Dr Lahiri of The Mindy Project is offended when the treadmill asks her how much she weighs, but it thinks it has a good reason. It’s planning to use that information to estimate calories burned during the session. Unfortunately, calorie burn varies so much from person to person that the simple physics-based calculations gym machines…
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Life Hacks and To-Do Lists
“Life hacks” entered the language around a decade ago when Danny O’Brien talked about them in the context of programming. In programming a hack is “a way of cutting through an apparently complex system with a really simple, nonobvious fix.” This idea has exploded in popularity and has inspired contrarians, who deride life hacking as…
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Should I Do a 30-day Challenge?
There are lots of 30-day challenges floating around online, urging people to focus on their abs, “get a beach body,” or practice a skill like planking or bodyweight squats. Are they a good idea? In favor of a 30-day challenge: — Relatively brief, improving likelihood of success — A decent chunk of time, promoting a…
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A Year from Now You’ll Wish You’d Started Today
Maybe. One problem is that we sometimes don’t recognize the future self as “self” — consider the example of the young person who smokes even though they know the health risks. A stronger connection to our future self can help. That doesn’t necessarily mean “visualizing,” which can actually distract us from doing the day-to-day work…
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Are You Enjoying It?
Do you have a particular food you can’t have “just a little bit” of? Some foods are easy to keep eating — not only do they leave you hungry, they may even leave you thinking you want (“need”) more of the same. Candy and chips often have this effect — people will eat as much…