Texting for weight loss and fitness? Yes!

We’ve been told that if someone diets or exercises with you, you’re more likely to stick with it, but everyone is so busy nowadays, it’s tough to coordinate schedules and hardly anyone seems to talk on the phone anymore. To solve this dilemma, I came up with the idea of staying in touch two to three times a week by encouraging people to keep eating well and exercising via text messaging. I’ve used this technique in the past and still use it today and am not only amazed that it works, but that it’s really easy to stick to our goals with this method. One person I’m working with now, I text him to do specific exercises and he’s to text me back after he completes them. He said the messages are very motivating, he’s stopped drinking soda and he’s finally starting to get in shape.

The first person I contacted was a friend. We both wanted to eat better. My vice was tortilla chips and hers was potato chips. We agreed to stop eating chips right then. Whenever I got or sent her a text I boasted that I haven’t eaten any chips and she proudly replied, “me too!” When I was craving those delicious, salty, crunchy chips, I grabbed the phone instead of the bag and texted her “no chips J.” The interesting phenomenon is that after I sent that text message, I felt good and no longer craved tortilla chips.

It’s now been seven weeks and I haven’t eaten one tortilla chip and don’t have any desire to. I’ve tried texting for health with other people too. The key is to find someone that agrees to do this challenge with you. Give it a try and let me know how you do. It’s not only much easier to stick to one goal with a friend, but this trick is also a lot of fun.