Accomplishment
September 28, 2012
I recently completed a streak of 32 days in which I got my behind out for a run of at least 1 mi per day.
This followed another streak earlier in the year in which I made it 24 days.
The earlier one, in particular, was sustained through a social media reinforcement meme (#RWRunStreak).
Sustained behavioral change is quite a hurdle for health care, particularly when it comes to exercising regularly, changing food intake and reducing the use of psychoactive substances.
There is a grant application or three in here somewhere.
DrugMonkey 
September 28, 2012 at 3:19 am
What do you think made you able to do it? Bragging about it on twitter? This might be key in your grant application.
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September 28, 2012 at 3:33 am
Yes, deployment of social media to the end of reinforcing behavioral change is the point.
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September 28, 2012 at 4:10 am
I totally agree… the bragging (or the fear that people will notice your lack of bragging) is great. Also don’t forget the influence that your social broadcasting has on other people’s motivations
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September 28, 2012 at 4:37 am
There’s also the threat of public shaming if you don’t follow through on your goals…although maybe that only works for Jessica Simpson.
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September 28, 2012 at 4:59 am
I recently started running and found using an app that tracks runs (by the GPS on your phone) is highly motivating for me to hit goals that I set, pathetic as they are at this stage. For some reason, without this I couldn’t give a shit about running, and the only way to get me motivated to seriously exercise was if it involved chasing balls with racquets.
Now my shoulder’s fucked up, so I need some kind of motivational score keeping for yoga.
I’d imagine social media is even stronger — the shaming.
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September 28, 2012 at 5:16 am
Now my shoulder’s fucked up, so I need some kind of motivational score keeping for yoga
iPhones etc can track orientation, so I feel like there’s an app in there somewhere….
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September 28, 2012 at 5:26 am
1 mile a day? I get more of a workout getting off the couch to make a cup of tea.
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September 28, 2012 at 5:55 am
DB- exactly. Prior to this my friends palmd and drisis referring to workouts were motivational on an ad hoc basis.
pyrope- yes and in the earlier streak there was a group motivatin themselves in an avoidance paradigm in which the stimuli were disgusting web links.
miko- I’ve been using MapMyRun and it is fun and, agreed, motivational. (but then I’ve had exercise logs since I was a preteen)
Dave- it’s the minimum. This is about getting out every day, not maximizing fitness gains. For ex runners like me this has been key to avoiding the injuries that have previously shown up when I got motivated to “start running again”. Also, one of the coolest things I saw was a noob runner who completed a mile without stopping for the first time ever. That is a big deal.
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September 28, 2012 at 6:36 am
I have a yoga app – you can ‘share’ with your friends on social media when you complete a session. (I’ve never actually used that feature of it, don’t know how well it works.)
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September 28, 2012 at 6:37 am
I try to do ~2 miles every other day. On a good week. More often, it comes out to 2-3 miles 2-3 times per week. It seems without the rest day in between, you run the risk of fucking up your knees or some joint that will eventually need to be replaced.
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September 28, 2012 at 6:59 am
I just checked reporter- there’s actually a lot of social media being used in various projects (smoking cessation, risky sexual behaviors in adolescents, weight control, HIV transmission prevention, childhood immunizations).
Somebody ought to do an Ap for bednets, and the military should fund one to get those blasted soldiers to take their freakin anti-malaria meds (whenever I meet ANYONE from the military who has been to a malaria-endemic region, they always mention what a problem this is).
Also, there should be a “wash your goddamn hands” Ap for clinicians. That’d save more lives than the rest of it.
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October 1, 2012 at 4:34 am
Not to minimize what you’ve done, but I’ve run at least one mile per day, five days per week, for the past 3.5 years. The key to my streak is that I get two days off each week. If I’m feeling lazy or I’m too busy, I can take a break and get back to running the next day.
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