More Yakking with DirectLife Coach Jen

As I may have already mentioned, I'm currently giving a trial run to the Philips DirectLife activity monitor, a little electronic doomahichey that comes with your own personal coach to aid you in your quest to ratchet up your activity. Please don't leave any mean comments about her, because I'm pretty sure she's reading my blog.

Hi Jack,

Let me begin by saying an enormous congratulations for all of your work on increasing your health over the past 13 months. It is a fantastic achievement and I am really happy for you!

Now, to help me coach you can you please dock your device so that I can see your activity levels? Thank you! Peeing in a cup is not necessary, of course. I look forward to seeing those results and after the weekend I will get back to you with feedback on your activity levels so that we can really get this Jack-coach Jen team started.

Enjoy the weekend!

Jen

PS. Google treadmill desk and you will indeed find that it's out there - and in use! I notice you've stopped docking your Activity Monitor after your Assessment Week. Unfortunately I can't see if you've just postponed starting your program or if there's another issue at hand.

Dear DirectLife Coach Jen,

C'mon, DirectLife Coach Jen! It was my birthday... and Memorial Day weekend. Can't you give me a break from your reckless pursuit of trying to make me the most active man on earth?

I was getting back after it today, but the worst thing happened. Are you ready for this, DirectLife Coach Jen? I was wrapping up a 30-minute, 5K treadmill run when it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have my activity monitor in my pocket! AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

One of the women at the fitness center rushed over with a defribulator and was about to zap me with it when I convinced her I wasn't having a heart attack, but was distraught over having performed activity that wasn't going to count toward my daily totals. What are we going to do about THAT, DirectLife Coach Jen? I thought about taping the monitor to the wheel of my car and making you think that I did somersaults all the way back to my office. Better that then you thinking that I was sitting in a locker for an hour!

Speaking of activity that's not getting counted, what about you-know-what, DirectLife Coach Jen? I mean, I don't have a pocket when my wife Anita and I are rockin' the casbah, so what's your suggestion for claiming full credit for ALL of my activity?

We're really getting to be good friends, DirectLife Coach Jen. Except that I think you should have made more of a big deal about my kick-ass assessment.

Anyway... I'll try to remember to get my lil' activity doodad on me as much as I can, and thanks for all the tips on incorporating more activity into my day. My poor old body's not going to know what hit it....

Take care,

Jack


Hi Jack,

Happy belated birthday! I'm sorry that I missed it but I hope that you had a fantastic celebration. and THANK YOU for docking your device. I can now see your Activity Data and indeed you had a fantastic week of activity!

When I look at your Activity History I notice several hours with hardly any movement like Monday the 24th from 7am to 6pm. Yes, you were really active from 6 - 8 but these hours of inactivity still stand out. Since you already do activities in which you burn a lot of calories and seem to be very consistent with them, how you look at the periods of lowest activity in your daily routine is very relevant. Are you concerned about your activity at these times?

During registration you mentioned that you would like to be more active. Are you open to looking at those times of less activity to see how we can increase your overall daily activity? If possible, take a moment and have a look at what your graphs show on Sunday May 23rd and your activity levels throughout the day. What pattern do you see? Do you see this on other days of the week too? What does it, if anything, make you think?

Again, you are really active and did indeed have a kick-ass Assessment so I don't want to take any of that away from you. You are already very active. What I am hoping to do is to help you see an opportunity to be active in a different way, throughout the day.

Until soon,

Jen

Hi DirectLife Coach Jen,

It's a shame that Philips doesn't make a device that measures brain activity, DirectLife Coach Jen. Those big gaps in my day that look like I've lapsed into a coma are periods that are choc-full of brain synapses firing off in every-which direction.

Did you see that movie Good Will Hunting about the guy that could do crazy hard math equations that stumped even the most learned professors? Well, I'm kind of like that (except I'm really bad at math). My point is that I'm often holed up thinking big thoughts (or stuck in budget meetings) and can't be as active as you and I would like. If you think I can get everyone in a budget meeting to agree to take a break and riverdance, well, you're living in a dream world, DirectLife Coach Jen.

I want to run something else by you, DirectlLife Coach Jen. Tell me if this statement is true or false: "This sentence is false."

If "This sentence is false" is true, then it's actually false, which would in turn mean that it's actually true, but this would mean that it is false, etc. Why do I ask you this, DirectLife Coach Jen? I know that Philips is one of the leading companies in the field of robotics, and I've been a little bit worried that I'm corresponding with a robot trainer. After all, you can't possibly coach all the people who are no doubt signing up for this activity-boosting service. So I figure this exercise will blow your robotic brain up if, indeed, you are a robot. If you're not, well, better safe than sorry, huh?

And I noticed that you skirted the sex question ("Where do you put the monitor when you don't have pockets?"). I agree... it's too soon.

Thanks for the fantastic activity monitoring!

Jack