Accountability

Last month I signed up for a series of workshops focused on healthy lifestyles that the university I work for is sponsoring in conjunction with our health insurance provider. There are bi-weekly meetings on various healthy lifestyle aspects--mind, body, and soul--with the addition of accountability projects to promote healthy choices and opportunity to earn prizes.

Through the program, we are encouraged to keep a simple food diary, an activity journal, and to create and track an independent healthy goal. I chose journaling in my prayer journal for the healthy soul aspect. While I haven't done as well with the journaling, (I keep forgetting!) having that incentive and accountability with food and activity has been just what I needed to boost me into action. I noticed where I had started slipping a little more over the past few weeks, slowly reverting to "old Jana" choices.  Having that food journal and seeing those choices shocked me back into action.

It also spurred me into really reaching for those 10,000 steps a day, while making me more aware of what I'm eating. Knowing that I have to record everything I eat and turn it in at our next meeting makes me super conscious of my food choices. It definitely helped me resist the invitation to eat at the local Chinese buffet this past week which was such a huge relief. Even though I allow myself the grace to eat out occasionally, knowing that I'd have to write it down it helped me stop and evaluate if it was even something I wanted to eat. Turns out, it wasn't. I would have only been going for the social aspect but since it was friends I see and spend a lot of time with anyway, I didn't feel as though I missed out on anything. And I had delicious healthy home cooked leftovers to eat anyway!

The thing about accountability...and it's not a new concept to me, for sure, but the trouble I've always had in the past was the judgment that often comes with it. The food policing I've talked about before. With this program, there's no judgment. I don't even know if anyone even actually reads our food or activity journals but even if they do, they don't comment on them. So it's nice to have the non-judgmental accountability.

Another accountability activity associated with the program is to post photos in the Facebook group of healthy choices you make. You're not required to post a photo of EVERY healthy choice--or any post at all, but encouraged to post when you feel really good about what you're doing. The great thing about that is, there's no judgement if you DON'T post, but some really great positive reinforcement when you DO post something because the administrator virtually high fives you and others in the group like or comment on the post in a positive way.

I almost didn't sign up for this program because, honestly, it's not like I don't know HOW to make healthy choices or how to live a healthy lifestyle but I'm really glad I did for the positive accountability aspect alone.