A few small steps for Ali, a giant leap for her health!

Some games you can get to know within a few minutes, some take hours and in the case of My Health Coach it takes days. My Health Coach isn’t so much a game as a helping hand to change your attitude towards your current lifestyle. The key theme throughout My Health Coach is that small changes can add up to a big difference. Unlike celebs in magazines making us think we can lose weight overnight, My Health Coach teaches that if you want to be healthy you need to take it slowly and not cut out too much too quickly so you can create new healthy habits. With this in mind I embarked on a week of walking, water drinking and pedometer wearing to see what difference it can make.

Day 1

I work in an office and like most people am partial to the odd takeaway, so I’m not looking forward to being chastised about my lifestyle.

Turning on My Health Coach a friendly face appeared and told me that they are going to help me along the way to healthiness. Before they even ask me anything however they instruct me to drink a glass of water. As with all things in My Health Coach you have the option not to take its advice all the time and, slouched on the sofa at the time that thought did occur to me. However like Wii Fit, if you want to benefit from My Health Coach you have to put some effort in. So I got up and drank the glass. The happy little stick figure was very pleased with me. Apparently this is how things will always be, with My Health Coach giving me tips and me deciding if I want to do it.

Feeling fitter already, I’m walked through all the areas of My Health Coach and given a quick quiz to see how healthy I currently am. Apparently I’m a Walk N’ Roller, due to me loving my car but still managing to walk without getting too out of breath. I’m not sure how that makes me feel but I press on. From this info I have a selection of challenges. I can do up to six a day and can choose which one’s I do. I pick a couple of My Health Coach‘s “Minute” challenges (these need to be done straight away) and a couple of 24 hour ones.

The minute ones are pretty easy. My Health Coach wants me to stand up and sit down 10 times (hardly difficult even for a couch potato like me) and then make myself a cup of herbal tea. The 24 hour ones are a mixture. I need to hide my salt shaker (which is ok) and I have 24 hours to walk 10,000 steps. Being a bit of a cheat I equipped the My Health Coach pedometer a day early to get an idea and only managed 4,000 (and most of that was shopping after work) so this should be interesting. Still the little stick figure seemed to believe in me so I decided to give it a go.

Day 2

Well I didn’t even come close to my 10,000 steps which had worried me all day. However, Bob (I got sick of not having a name for the little stick figure) wasn’t the slightest bit mad at me. He assured me that lots of people find it difficult to increase their activity when they first start and I would soon get the hang of it. My new target from My Health Coach is 6,000 steps which means I just need to increase by 500 from today’s effort. My Health Coach advises me to find some stairs to walk up and down, avoid soft drinks and try a different type of bread in my sandwich. I think I may have a walk at lunch time to see how that helps. Can’t hurt and it’s nice and sunny outside. This could become a new office trend.

Day 3

Woohoo! I managed to complete every one of My Health Coach’s goals. The 6,000 steps was the hardest but I had help from the smokers in the team who encouraged me to pace around them while they were sunning themselves outside. Not the healthiest way to do things but much better than me not walking at all. I also freaked out my boss by pacing in the office for 10mins during my lunch break but hey it’s all in the name of fitness.

Bob was very happy with my efforts and I was very pleased to hear My Health Coach tell me I have now effectively walked up and down Mount Everest! Hearing that spurred me on and my task for the evening was to do some sit ups. I only had to do 5 but since I can clearly tackle Everest without breaking a sweat I did 10. I then just had to make myself some herbal tea and do the dishes (I am beginning to notice that My Health Coach is slightly more concerned with my housework than is welcome.)

Day 4

Yesterday My Health Coach instructed me to go for a walk in the park. While that didn’t seem too hard a task (there is a park right behind my house) the thought of wandering aimlessly didn’t really appeal so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and walk to the local shop to buy breakfast. Being an MMO addict there were several things that I didn’t consider before this. 1, I have long hair and it’s windy outside (not a good look) 2, I have hay fever and there is pollen outside (tissues anyone?) 3, I’m going shopping and there is no car outside. (fabulous) This aside I did enjoy the walk and it was 2,000 steps for just 20mins there and back and a full fridge.

Day 5

I was rubbish today. It was Sunday and after all I had walked for a whole 20mins yesterday. I felt I deserved a break. Well at least that’s what I told myself as I failed most of My Health Coach’s tasks. On the bright side I did take some instant ones which were sit ups, jumping jacks and walking up and down some stairs 10 times.

Most of the day I was packing for my holiday so My Health Coach’s stairs task was not hard. I am completely disorganised when it comes to these things so while my case was upstairs everything else was downstairs. This could explain my achy legs at the end of the day. To make up for the complete lack of trying though I decided I would be brave and try to 10,000 steps on Monday. Let’s hope I have a lot of meetings on the other side of the office.

Day 6

To cut a long story short I smashed my target steps today. However I did have to shop to within an inch of my life. I spent my working day dividing my time between meetings and breaks to take walks and then spent three hours trying to finish my holiday shopping. When I got home I was exhausted so I didn’t do any My Health Coach instant tasks however I did commit to walk up and down some stairs and avoid salt for 24 hours.

My crazed shopping, apart from making me a lot poorer had taken me past two milestones! My Health Coach informed me I had now walked the length of an F1 race track and then on to the length of the Panama Canal! One more day to go and I’m feeling great.

Day 7

I was rewarded for my efforts with some new My Health Coach coaching sessions which revealed that I wasn’t giving enough time to choosing and cooking my dinner. I agreed to try to spend more time on my meals and try to avoid junk food. As part of this new task list I took up the challenge to eat lunch with some friends. Luckily my new non-smoking partners also eat food so this was a nice sociable way to complete a task and a nice way to complete my week with My Health Coach.

My Health Coach in Conclusion

All in all I really enjoyed my week with My Health Coach. The pedometer was a constant reminder to walk more and created conversation which led to spending less time tied to my desk stressing and more time enjoying my day. When I started playing on day one I was told that it was all about little things making a big difference with My Health Coach and sticking to that mentality has meant that, even though it’s only lunchtime while I write this, I have already walked more steps than I would normally have done before I go to bed at night. I think I will make myself a cup of herbal tea to celebrate!

Preview by: Ali 'Everest' Worrow
Review Published: 27.06.08