Alex and Sanaa PHP 1 Summary
In summary, a partnered personal health project was much more effective than attempting to change our routine alone. We acted as motivators for each other. Alex set out to improve his mile time, and Sanaa focused on routinely working out at the gym.
In our opinion, the key learning point of this project was the value of collecting numbers rather than just qualitative summaries. At first, it was uncomfortable and very tedious to punch in numbers, but the data turned to be very informational and worthwhile in the end. Routinely gathering data was useful in pinpointing accomplishments as well as problems.
A problem we encountered with the project is tangled with a key aspect of health goals— results take time. Alex set a goal to improve both the distance and time aspects of his runs, and only planned to run 3 times a week. Similarly, Sanaa wanted to double the time of her blogilates workouts, which was harder than anticipated in the three week period allotted for this project.
Another problem that Alex faced was being able to manage all of his commitments when adding a physical routine to his agenda. He found that when he added a physically demanding component to his day, he was constantly fatigued, which made completing other homework, attending work and other daily routines hard to complete. Therefore, for the next element of the PHP, he decided that a less demanding physical activity such as daily sit ups may be more realistic at this point in time than running. Sanaa, on the other hand, was much closer to reaching her goal because she found a partner to go to the gym with and stuck to a structured workout plan called “Nike Training.” This plan encouraged her to go to the gym more.
For the next element of the PCP, we also realized that we needed to be more organized and prepared for the data we want to collect. Other than the basic aspects such as the time of our workouts, we did not think about all the data that would be important when we first started. Therefore, for the second part of the PHP, we were much more specific and decided to be more explicit with the data that we expect to collect from each other so that we obtain more meaningful results.
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