The Power of Streaks (or When Good Habits Go Bad)
When I got my first Apple Watch I was excited to have a fitness tracker in my life. I had tried a Nike Fuel Band before, but like most people the novelty of that single purpose device had worn off after a few months. Given the Apple Watch’s utility outside of fitness I knew I’d be motivated to wear it indefinitely.
In the beginning I occasionally made it a goal to close my rings and felt good when I did, but I didn’t feel compelled to close them every day. Then my daughter started middle school which required a 6:00 wake up time, so I found myself with extra time in the morning which I started using for exercise.
Apple’s Fitness app offers rewards for streaks. At first I made it a goal to earn the perfect week award, which then led to earning the perfect month award. While earning the perfect month daily exercise became part of my routine, and after the month was over I just kept going.
The most insidious award is the Longest Move Streak award which you earn every time you hit a new streak of consecutive days of closing your Move Ring. Every time I saw that award come up I wanted to earn it again.
Obviously regular exercise is a great habit to have, but it can go too far. My main form of exercise is running and I really enjoy it. It wakes me up and helps me to feel good for the rest of the day, plus I appreciate the time to myself to listen to a podcast or an audiobook.
I spent a year and a half closing my rings every day so that I could hit a streak of 500 days, which I figured I didn’t need to top and let the streak end. It didn’t take long however to fall right back into my routine and after another 500 days the Longest Move Streak award started popping up again, so the evil thought crept into my brain, “can I get to 1,000?”
This obsession has led to some dumb choices. On travel days that required us to get up early to catch a flight, I would set my alarm even earlier to get my run in. On snowy mornings (which are rare in Seattle) I would put on my boots on go on long walks (until I got Apple Fitness+ which taught me how to close my Move Ring indoors).
My ultimate low point was when I got food poisoning and spent the day feeling awful. I resigned myself to let the streak end there, but by the end of the day I was feeling a lot better and at that point the streak was around 850 and I really wanted to get to 1,000, so I ran in place until I closed my ring. Emily just stared at me like, “what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Yesterday I hit 1,000 and while that seems cool, I also know that it was stupid. Don’t get me wrong, this routine has been great for my health, my resting heart rate is often in the 40s, but most experts agree that your body needs occasional breaks from exercise and I wasn’t giving myself that.
Today I’m letting the streak end and I don’t want to ever see that Longest Move Streak award pop up again. I’m not sure what the next goal would be because 2,000 days doesn’t sound that much cooler than 1,000 days and 10,000 days would require me to not take a break for over 27 years, which even if I kept the current streak going I’d need to exercise every day until I am 69 years old.
My goal now is to find a healthier relationship with my fitness tracker. I want to keep exercise as an ongoing habit, but I need to take breaks and not let my habit ruin my day. Running shouldn’t run my life.
