Living a consistently healthy and active lifestyle is a lot like whistling. It seems pretty simple, but if you don’t have any idea how to do it or where to start, it can be difficult and confusing, resulting in nothing but frustration and a lot of drool on your chin.
For some people, dedicating themselves to health and fitness comes easily, as if they were born understanding how it all works. For others (dare I say most) it is just not that clear-cut. It’s hard to know the right types of exercises to do for what part of the body, or the difference between “good” sugars and “bad” sugars or how much of something healthy turns it into something unhealthy. Not to mention how difficult it is finding a routine or diet that works for you specifically. We all have different bodies, metabolisms, cultures, habits, and so on, so it’s almost impossible to find a “one size fits all” fitness regimen. If only we were all able to hire our own personal trainers to guide us and hold our hands through the process of acquiring and maintaining a life of health.
Our prayers may just be answered in the form of an app, website, and book. You Plus is a healthy lifestyle coaching platform developed by a team of scientists, physicians and software engineers and led by Dr. Steven Willey, a weight loss expert and author of the book on which the program is based. Finally, everyone can have their own portable personal trainer and health coach. You Plus helps people to make healthy food choices, offers instructions on different workouts, and even provides advice for stress management and sleep issues. It’s personalized, too, so every step of the way is designed to fit your own particular fitness and health needs and goals.
THE APP/WEBSITE
Once you sign up for an account on the mobile app or the desktop website, your journey can begin. Based on an algorithm combining Stanford and MIT education and expertise, you are able to get daily personalized advice from physicians, based on the information you provide. It also starts tracking your progress and keeps you updated on how you’re doing, always giving you the option to share your achievements with friends and family members. There is no calorie counting or anything like that, though, which I think will come as a relief to many of us.
You get to choose what your health and fitness goals are and based off of that, you get a custom-designed exercise plan, suitable for wherever you happen to be, whether you’re doing your workouts at the gym, at home, or a mix of both. If it ever gives you exercises you don’t like, you have the option to switch them out for those that you prefer. Pretty convenient, right?
As far as food goes, it works with you to come up with healthy meal options, depending on what YOU want to eat and what you would feel good about eating. If you’re at home, it helps plan a delicious and nutritious meal working with what ingredients you have. If you’re going out, it helps you locate a restaurant that is healthy, but also has the food you enjoy. Because of the extensive research You Plus has done regarding insulin, nutrients, and gastrointestinal hormones, it is able to pick out a healthy meal plan for you, without any restricting or crazy calorie math work.
Since people usually forget that getting adequate sleep is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, it’s awesome to see that You Plus includes it as part of their platform. The app allows you to track your sleeping habits, along with utilizing behavioral therapy in the case that you have trouble sleeping (which most of us do these days).
THE BOOK
Reprogram Your Life: Bioscience for a Healthier You is the book, written by Dr. Steven Willey, which goes hand-in-hand with the You Plus app and website. It basically outlines the core idea behind the platform of You Plus, what separates it from other diet and/or workout plans, and most interestingly, the science that has gone into the discovery of these fitness and meal regimens. His program is simple and easy to understand and follow, so no one will get turned off by impossible-to-comprehend phrases, intensely strenuous workouts, or enjoyment-deprived meals. The changes he encourages people to make within their health and fitness routines are practical ones; ones that mostly everyone will be able to do and will feel good about doing. He isn’t asking anyone to run fifteen miles a day and cut out dairy, sugar, and yeast from their diets (could you imagine?!). Instead, Willey uses science he has studied for years to push people to make the best choices for them, without cutting out anything they love.
He ties diet and exercise in with sleep, which I found to be relatively groundbreaking since many of these types of programs ignore sleep as an aspect of fitness at all. As someone who struggles with falling asleep and staying asleep, I loved the inclusion of this and found it extremely beneficial and helpful. People may not be completely aware of this, but sleep plays such a huge part in our health, aside from the obvious reasons, and it’s a huge aspect of why some people cannot seem to get fit, stick to a fitness regimen, lose weight, or keep weight off.
The best part of this book, and this whole platform in general actually, and what separates it from other fitness or exercise guides, is that it feels as if Dr. Willey understands how the majority of people think and feel about diet and exercise. He speaks in language that is relatable and all the advice given feels like it is coming from your own personal doctor …or trainer, even. He acknowledges that everyone isn’t the same, so there isn’t an all-inclusive health plan. Your diet and workout routine depends on you as a person and what your life is like. All of it feels so personal and trustworthy. What with all the contradicting information and crash diets floating around out there, it was like a breath of fresh air.
Twisted Talk: Does the You Plus app sound like something you’d be interested in using? Will you read Dr. Willey’s book? Discuss below!
