Family Healthy Living Challenge (with free Excel Points Tracker!)

I have never been a super healthy person.  I will admit, I have rather couch-potato-ish tendencies. The only time I've been good about exercising regularly was for about a year or two in high school. And then I went to college and was embarrassed to work out in front of my roommates and thus destroyed all the good habits I had developed. I love binging on ice cream, cookies and Netflix and I'd rather have a brownie than some kale. I've never been fond of scales and may have had an unkind thought or two as I pleaded with the gods of shopping that I could find a size 14 buried deep behind all the 0s and 2s on the rack. As I've gotten older, I've tried to eat better but have never been motivated enough to really change my habits. I still love ice cream and hate running. I think I've finally found a combination to help get me on the right track though: our Family Healthy Living Challenge and my Up24 by Jawbone fitness tracker.

Let me start off by saying I am not a dietician or a doctor and this is not a diet. The Healthy Living Challenge is a simple, fun program you can do with you family, friends or even colleagues to encourage you all to make healthier choices for eight weeks (or really however long you want to make it). I didn't make it up (my sisters-in-law adapted it from a program their friend had used) but I did make a wicked awesome spreadsheet to help calculate your points throughout the competition.

So how does it work?

Last year my husband's family decided it would be fun (not to mention good for us) to try a Family Healthy Living Challenge. Each day we could earn points by completing healthy living requirements like eating three servings of vegetables, exercising for 45 minutes, taking a multivitamin, drinking 48 oz water, etc. We each had a partner (outside of our household) that we were supposed to contact each day. Contact could be a text of support (How did today go?), a phone call in distress (I REALLY WANT A COOKIE!), you could work out together - whatever you wanted, we just had to make some type of contact each day. Each week we'd total up and report our points using a simple Google Spreadsheet and by the end of eight weeks whoever had earned the most points would win. The first time around, the challenge went well but had a few kinks. We decided to make a few tweaks and do another challenge a couple months later. This time around, the points work as follows:

• Vegetables: three servings a day earns 5 points, two servings earns 1 pt
• Fruit: two servings a day earns 3 points
• Dairy: two servings a day (or taking a calcium supplement) earns 3 points
• No sugary treats/sweets: Consuming less than 100 calories in sugary treats/sweets in the day earns 5 points, less than 200 calories earns 2 points. Sugar points are only counted for 6 days a week though so you can have a "Sugar Day!" each week
• Water: Drinking at least 48 oz of water earns 4 points
• Exercise: Exercising for under 30 minutes earns 2 points, 30-44 minutes earns 5 points and 45+ minutes earns 7 points. Exercise points can only be counted 5 days a week
• Food journal: Keeping a food journal throughout the day earns 5 points
• Multivitamin: Taking a daily multivitamin earns 1 point
• Contacting your partner: Contacting your partner earns 1 point
• Don't eat after 9pm: Abstaining from eating after 9pm earns 3 points
• Eat within 12-hour period: Eating all food within a 12-hour period earns 2 points

Each week we also highlight one of the requirements and make it worth double the points to help add extra incentive. For example, the first week taking a multivitamin was worth double points, earning you two points instead of one. The second week was fruit, etc.

Keeping Track of Points

We originally had a simple Word doc to keep track of our points each week. I got sick of adding my points up after a week or two so I designed an Excel workbook to track and add up the points for me. Because I am so gracious and kind I'm providing you with both ways to track your points.

To download both the Excel and the Word doc click below. 

Excel Spreadsheet Points Tracker     Word doc Points Tracker 

For instructions on how to use the Excel Spreadsheet, refer to the "Directions" sheet in the Excel file. It should be the first sheet in the workbook when you open the file.


My not-so-secret weapon: My Up24 by Jawbone

 

The first time around my husband and I did a pretty good job meeting the food requirements.  We made sure we were getting at least three veggies a day, two fruit servings, two dairy and although it was hard, we were pretty good about avoiding sugar. We even managed to kick our nightly ice cream habit. But we were still horrible about exercising. I think some of the only times I actually got my exercise points were when I counted walking around the grocery store for an hour. The second time around my husband and I decided to give ourselves a little more motivation.  We decided to each get Up24 Fitness Trackers by Jawbone. It's made the world of difference for both of us. We just finished Week 3 and I haven't lost an exercise point yet!

What is it?

The Up24 is a smart, sleek wristband that tracks your activity throughout the day and your sleep it night. Pairing with your smartphone, it helps you set and reach activity and nutrition goals, giving you reminders and advice throughout the day to help keep you on track. The paired app lets you track your daily nutrition (calories, fiber, unsaturated fats, carbs, protein, sugars, saturated fats, sodium and cholesterol) and gives you food scores from 1-10 to help you make healthier food choices.

What I like about it

• I've found I'm most successful in losing weight when I'm keeping track of calories - both what I've consumed but also what I've burned, too. When I burn at least 500 calories MORE than I eat each day, I'm more likely to lose weight. The UP app helps me keep track of all that. It's easy to use and gives me all sorts of cool data about my sleep, food and daily activity. 
• It syncs wirelessly with my phone, giving me immediate updates. When I was in college my parents bought be a BodyBug to help me lose weight. It was basically a little-ish device I wore on my upper arm that tracked the calories I burned each day. They had an online system to enter your food and track your calories. I loved using it and lost about 20 pounds with it but I had to take it off and plug it in to my computer if I wanted to check my stats or update my system. I love how quick and easy it is to check my stats with the Up24.  I just open and phone and I've got all kinds of data at my fingertips
• No subscription fees. While I loved my BodyBug, I ultimately stopped using it because there was a monthly subscription fee.  I went to Ghana for the summer, canceled my subscription and never renewed it. With the Up24 you buy the band and that's it. 
• Whether it's Smart Coach suggestions or a buzz when I've been sitting for too long, my Up24 gives me that extra boost I need to stay motivated
• It helps me set achievable goals and gives me helpful advice and reminders along the way
• The UP app gives you scores from 1-10 in terms of the healthiness of your meal. Healthier foods get a green score between 8-10, okay foods are yellow and score 5-7.9. Unhealthy foods will get a red score under 5.  As silly as it is, I have definitely avoided eating certain foods because I didn't want a yellow or red score.
• It's comfortable to wear (I don't even notice it) and easy to put on BUT it couldn't ever really fall off either.
• The band's stopwatch feature makes it easy to time my workouts. I can add more details in the app, too, so it can better estimate my calorie burn
• The food journal has a bar code scanner that works pretty well.  Every now and then I'll have to manually enter nutritional info for an item but it recognizes most of our food.
• It's a bit more affordable than some of the competitors. My husband and I did quite a bit of research before settling on our UP24 bands. Right now on Amazon certain colors are selling for about $70. That's about $30 less than Fitbit's comparable model, the Fitbit Flex. Jawbone also offers the Up Move for about $50. It does most of the same things as the Up24, it just doesn't sync wirelessly with your phone 
• It syncs with TONS of additional apps. I haven't really explored this much yet but it seems like a cool feature
• It's just a band. While my husband wishes it had a watch or some kind of screen built into it I like that it's just a band. It just looks like I'm wearing a cool bracelet. No awkward questions. 
• It's splash-proof. I can wear it when I wash my hands, do the dishes or even in the shower. It's not completely waterproof though and cannot be submersed in water.

What I don't like about it

• My biggest complaint is that you can't enter recipes for homemade meals to figure out calories. You can, however, enter custom foods. I usually use another app or website (like MyFitnessPal) to figure out nutritional information and then add it as a custom meal
• It's not perfect. Neither the sleep tracker nor the activity tracker are completely perfect. I've found that if I'm awake in the middle of the night but lying still, the app thinks I'm sleeping. The calories burned is also an estimation based on your weight, steps and activity level. I'm guessing Jawbone's new Up3 which monitors your heart rate, too, provides more accurate data. It's pretty new so I've only be able to find it for sale on Jawbone's website.
• Entering everything you eat can be a pain. This is the case with any calorie counting or food tracking, though. I much prefer using the app to fulfill my Food Journal requirement for the Family Healthy Living Challenge, though. It makes me feel like there's actually a reason I'm keeping track of what I eat. Plus, their system is pretty easy to use
• While splash-proof, completely waterproof sure would be nice. 

While by no means necessary, I've found fitness trackers to be a big help when trying to lose weight and build healthier habits. If you want to learn more about the Up24, I recommend checking out this great review from CNET.  I also recommend learning about other trackers before you make your decision.  This article, also from CNET, helped me a lot when we first started looking.

And that's that! Now you know my healthy living secrets! Now get up and get moving!

*** Although this post was not sponsored it does contain affiliate links.  I make a small profit when you buy products from these links at no additional cost to you***