Case Study #3: How A Self-Employed Business Woman Worked From Home & Doubled Her Exercise.

This blog is the third in BehaviorFit’s: “Case Study” Series.

Last month, I introduced you to Oscar. He went from being a couch potato to becoming an avid runner.

Check out Oscar’s progress here: Case Study 2: From Couch Potato to Running 30+ days Straight!

The month before, you met Ashley. She went from drinking 2-3 sugary sodas every day to NONE in 30 days. Check out her story from two months ago: Case Study 1: Putting Soft Drinks Down and Drinking Less Sugar

Today, I review the progress and success of another BeFit client.

Meet the Client

Let’s meet Bella. She is a businesswoman, mother, and all-around person that gets stuff done. What’s unique about Bella is that she runs her business entirely online, thus, she works from home.

Bella reached out to me to adjust her sedentary lifestyle. She knew that she needed more activity, but didn’t know where and how to start.

Unfortunately, Bella had a close friend lose her life to cancer at a similar age, so she was very motivated to improve her health and become a better role model for her daughter.

What We Did

As a stay-at-home-entrepreneur, naturally, it was harder for Bella to meet the basic recommendation of reaching 10,000 steps per day. Her only activity came from light household chores, checking the mail, and going to her printer.

We started small and slowly chipped away at the 10,000 step goal by planning her day, picking out non-negotiable time, and setting realistic goals based on her recent exercise levels (which were not where she wanted them to be).

What Happened Next: Working with the BehaviorFit Team.

At first, Bella had difficulty reaching her goal. She thought that simply measuring her physical activity and meeting with a coach was enough. It was a start, but not enough.

This was an incredible learning point for Bella and that others can learn from too. You may start with a plan, and it might not work.

That’s ok…that’s why we take data!!!

What did we do next? Did we stay the course? Change the gameplan?

In this case, Bella implemented her own intervention on top of what we were working on together. She decided that for every week she and her daughter met their exercise goals, they would do a fun thing together on the weekend (get nails done, go shopping). We ultimately kept with her current plan, and the combination worked out.

As a coach, I couldn’t be more proud of Bella for taking initiative and doing more.

On Bella’s journey, we targeted increased her overall physical activity (the number of step counts) and specific exercise (intensity minutes tracked by her Garmin).

Bella’s work over a 6-month period looks like this:

Bella DOUBLED her measures of physical activity during the past 6-months!!!

She only took an average of 3,500 steps per day during her initial baseline period but averaged more than 6,700 since working on it.

On top of that, her intensity minutes more than doubled! From 74 to 177 minutes each week!

She racked up most of the minutes by getting on a regular spinning schedule.

Go Bella!

(It’s important to note that these were two completely different targets because you cannot earn any steps when spinning; the Garmin is worn on the wrist).

When prepping this article, I had no idea the level of Bella’s success!

Go Bella!

(and go data!!!)

The intangibles that you cannot plan for:

As a behavior analyst, I love looking at data, but you can’t always track everything…or even know what else might come up when focusing on health and fitness targets.

Through this process, Bella shared that:

She feels more alive and energetic
She has a positive outlook on her progress
Her daughter is increasing her activity too!!! (attending more dance classes)
Minor hip mobility issues/pains that we worked on, are gone
And… she had an “unbelievable feeling” after receiving compliments from her husband!

That’s what behavior change is all about. Targeting small things like steps and exercise produce invaluable and unforeseen meaningful differences in people lives.

Exercise for marriage benefits anyone?!?!

What We Target Now

Since Bella took charge of her physical activity, it is now in maintenance mode, and we have shifted to new targets.

Bella now wants to expand her skills in the gym and work on her first pushup. Another long road, but I believe she can do it!

I Leave Encouraged

Beginning this BehaviorFit blog and journey has taught me a couple things.

Health and fitness can be targeted with behavior analysis
Your fitness journey can be tracked in a meaningful way
Results take time

After 3 case studies, I leave encouraged that sharing the principles of behavior analysis can benefit many, many people.

Maybe you are one of them?

Keep it up Bella!

And as always…

Keep moving,

Nick

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