Be Your Best Self With the Help of Others
HOW TO IMPLEMENT A VIRTUAL WELLNESS CHALLENGE
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A lot of people struggle to keep up with a regular wellness routine because they lack accountability to hold them to it. Whether it’s exercise, meditation, or healthy eating, if you go through the process alone, it’s that much harder to will yourself to see it through. But at a time when isolation is still one of the best ways to stay healthy, how can you involve others in your wellness plan? The answer is simple: Create a virtual wellness challenge!
Every challenge should have a quantifiable goal depending on the theme. Challenges like working out for 30 minutes a day, getting seven hours of sleep at night, eating 1 cup of leafy greens with every meal, or meditating for 15 minutes every day are all great examples. Whatever it is, the target should be clear and reasonable in order to encourage maximum participation and low burnout.
Understand the Process
Stay Accountable
A wellness challenge cultivates healthy competition among participants that keeps them motivated to stick with their wellness regimens. Challenges can be fully customized depending on the goals and abilities of those participating, and when the challenge is carried out virtually, participants have more freedom and flexibility in their routines without missing out on any of the social interaction that makes it fun.
Treat the challenge like you would a weekly book club. Set a time every week to meet via a video call to share wins and setbacks, discuss necessary changes to the challenge, plan for the next week’s challenge, and offer encouragement. If you really want to up the inspiration, determine a prize to be awarded to the person who actively participates the most. Just be sure you have a tangible way to record and share those results, like video evidence of the activity.
A wellness challenge shared among friends and family is a great way to work on your physical or mental well-being and stay connected with loved ones when you aren’t able to visit them in person. That kind of consistent personal connection can be wellness in and of itself.
From Debilitating Pain to Running a Marathon
Matt was in pain when he came into our office. He limped in and took off his left shoe. His big toe was red and swollen. It had started hurting him several weeks earlier, yet he was planning on running a marathon the next day. To make matters worse, he was considering cutting part of his shoe to relieve pressure on his toe so he could still run. Matt noted that his toe began hurting during a previous run. At the 10-mile mark, he noticed discomfort. Then every couple of miles, he felt increased pain. But he kept running. By the time he came into the clinic, he couldn’t walk without pain. Much to Matt’s surprise, the problem wasn’t in his toe. The big toe isn’t going to become red and inflamed spontaneously. Something has to cause it. In Matt’s case, it hurt to push off with his left toe. The problem was Matt was pushing off with more force than he should. When you take a full stride while running, your lower trunk rotates and extends one way, your hip extends and rotates another way, your knee extends, and so does the ankle, the foot, and so forth. All
parts of the leg become involved, and if some parts aren’t doing their job — if their motion is limited — you’ll push off your toe with greater force. It will become irritated and inflamed and eventually result in a full-blown injury. We took a close look at Matt’s toe, foot, and knee, etc. There wasn’t one specific thing that was glaringly significant as limitations of motion went, but nearly everything that could be restricted was. After loosening things up and restoring more normal motion, Matt got off the table and walked around barefoot — without a limp! He said he felt a lot better and the pain had subsided. We didn’t do anything to his big toe — we never touched it. We suggested that he tape his toe to protect it and to leave his shoes intact. Three months later, he returned for minor pain in his right knee. During his visit, he told us about the marathon. He ran the first 20 miles without any pain or problems. He only had minor pain the last 6 miles. After doing a few exercises we suggested, he was able to run pain-free within three weeks!
SOLVING MATT’S ‘BIG TOE’ PROBLEM
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