Progress is a key influencer when it comes to health and fitness. It’s a great motivator, but it can also be defeated if progress isn’t happening fast enough or in the way you want — understandably so, considering that progress is how we know if our new diet, workout, and lifestyle are actually working in our favor. Still, frustrating enough, progress takes patience — a lot of it.
It can be easy to give up if you can’t see any sort of that positive change you’re looking for. However, new wearable technology monitors are here to help track, monitor, and most importantly, provide important insight of the progress you’ve been making, even if you can’t see it in the mirror yet.
A New Way to Track
The technology found within health trackers such as Fitbit and Apple Watch allows users a better understanding of their health and how it’s improving, and it helps promote a generally healthier lifestyle. Furthermore, the apps used in conjunction with these health monitors give an even clearer picture. According to Arizona State University, “A wide variety of wellness apps and mobile health monitors are empowering individuals to monitor and analyze key health indicators like heart rate and activity and stress levels.” Some of these benefits include:
- Encouragement of healthy behaviors
- Accurate records of diet, exercise, and condition monitoring
- Lifestyle analysis
- Easily available educational tools for patients and professionals
- Convenient access to doctors and healthcare professionals
Understanding how your lifestyle changes are affecting your health, both positively and negatively, can give you that boost of motivation each day, creating an overall stronger commitment to staying healthy. This technology also goes beyond diet and exercise.
The Future of Health
Wearable technology is working to fill in a few of those missing gaps within our health. Generally speaking, patients only pay their doctor a visit once a year for an annual checkup, but what about the time in between each visit? Considering that wearable technology essentially goes with you everywhere — except the shower or pool — you are able to keep track of important health data, such as your heart rate, throughout the entire year. Moreover, you’ll have a better understanding of your health, which can help you communicate even better with your doctor.
As experts at George Washington University point out, “Wearable technologies are the future. They can help gather accurate data, detect issues early, help medical workers provide better treatment, save you money on health insurance, and streamline operations at a facility level. Most people have a smartphone attached to their hands for the better part of the day. Using that habit to monitor their health is the next logical step.” Having a record of your progress can give your doctor a clearer understanding of your wellness goals and provide additional advice and assistance to help you achieve them.
Mental Motivator
At the end of the day, sometimes the biggest obstacle standing in the way of your health and fitness goals is yourself. The mental strength it takes to commit each day to make better choices and push through those excruciating workouts has to be just as strong as the physical strength. Progress is, for a lot of people, how they measure their success. With wearable technology, your progress is more visible than the scale or mirror, transforming the way we self-monitor our goals and successes.
As experts at Medical News Today explain, “People who have been self-tracking for a while and are getting something out of it, find that the mindset they bring to looking at the data they collect has a big influence on their ability to make changes in their lives … It is important to be able to step back and detach yourself from the negative self-talk and see the bigger picture the data is showing.” Having the right mindset can be difficult at times if you’re continually frustrated, believing your new healthy lifestyle isn’t working as it should.
However, it’s important to realize that progress is likely happening, you just might not be able to see it. Wearable technology is fixing that problem by giving users personal, useful data that helps with the mental strength necessary to take on new health and wellness challenges.
When it comes to working on a new, healthier lifestyle, understanding the data is half the battle. Wearable technology is helping users track their progress and when you have a clearer idea of how your body is responding to new choices you are able to stay motivated and work even harder for those important wellness goals. Good luck!
Tags: equipment, exercise, fitness, health, heart rate, monitor, Motivation, technology, workout
