Track Your Health and Reach Your Goals

It can feel overwhelming to stay on top of all the numbers and data related to your health. But tracking just a few key areas can help you make progress toward improved well-being. By monitoring things like activity, weight, water intake, and sleep, you can see your health changing in real time. And when you start to have successes—however small they may be at first—it can motivate you to do even more. If you need help getting started, MOBE is here to support you with one-to-one encouragement from a MOBE Guide or Pharmacist, plus additional tools and resources in the MOBE Health Guide app.

Why tracking works.

How can keeping tabs on a few health metrics be so valuable? Here are some important ways that tracking supports you in reaching your goals:

• Makes you more likely to succeed. Studies have shown that people trying to maintain a healthy weight, drink less alcohol, or increase their steps each day were more likely to reach their goals if they monitored their progress regularly.¹
• Helps you take action. Tracking lets you see what you’ve accomplished and follow your progress—so you can celebrate how far you’ve come. It also gives you the information you need to make adjustments and improve.
• Gives you the big picture. When you look at several measurements of your health and habits, you get a whole-person view of your lifestyle and well-being.

Measure what matters.

There’s almost no end to the health metrics you could measure. Here are a few areas where tracking can really make a difference:

• Height and weight. When you track your height and weight along with other things like nutrition and physical activity, you can get a clearer picture of patterns that affect weight loss or gain—and how your body reacts to certain situations.
• Movement. Low-impact activities like walking can help maintain or improve your health. Tracking your steps, for example, can help you understand your level of physical activity and help you think about ways to make movement a regular part of your life.
• Sleep. When you sleep, your body restores and rejuvenates. Good sleep habits allow you to maintain physical, mental, and emotional health. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night.² You can track your sleep manually with a sleep journal or automatically using a wearable health tracker such as an Apple Watch or Fitbit—you can even sync these popular platforms with the MOBE Health Guide app.
• Additional health metrics. To get a more complete picture of your overall well-being, track metrics like blood pressure, blood sugar, pain or pain triggers, migraines, and many more.
  

Bring it all together with help from MOBE.

Another way to maximize the power of tracking is to see all your information in one place. The MOBE Health Guide app lets you do just that. Not only can you track steps, sleep, weight, social relationships, and hydration in the app itself, but you can connect to popular tracking platforms like Apple Health or Fitbit. This enables you to notice trends in your health, make changes, and set new goals.

Want even more support for better well-being? A MOBE Guide or Pharmacist can help you find new ways to move toward better health and more happiness. Get started today.

References:

1. Benjamin Harkin et al., “Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence,” Psychological Bulletin 142, no. 2 (2016), 198–229, https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000025.pdf.

2. Max Hirshkowitz et al., “National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep Time Duration Recommendations: Methodology and Results Summary,” Sleep Health 1, no. 1 (March 2015): 40–43, DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2014.12.010. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352721815000157?via%3Dihub.

Fitbit is a registered trademark of Fitbit LLC. Apple Health is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.