My Principal Lifestyle success stories

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the My Principal Lifestyle app (MPL) in the beginning. I’ve had experience with these apps before and if there was a reward you could earn they ended up being more advertisement or not user friendly and I ended up not using them. And the apps that did not have a reward you could work up to did not incentivize me to push myself to meet goals I wasn’t already meeting. Also, I have to admit, I as a bit concerned that since it was through my life insurance company they were going to monitor my activity and increase my rates or something if I didn’t meet some invisible metrics; although, I wouldn’t mind if my rate decreased by meeting those same invisible metrics. Double standard I know, but who doesn’t like to save money.

I have always been in decent shape and try to stay active and eat healthy, but that started going downhill when I started a new job. Before the new job, I used to work out at the gym every day at lunch and run sporadically during the week in the morning. After, my commute was longer and the gym I belong to wasn’t close enough to get a lunch workout, and after work I wanted to spend time with my beautiful daughter. Slowly but surely: my workout routine started to diminish, my eating habits slowly got worse and I started to slowly gain weight and body fat.

Approximately one year after I started my new job and I was in middle my temporary healthy lifestyle “funk,” I got a message about the launch of MPL. After battling my skepticism, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot. The only problem was I discovered I had to have a fitness tracker to participate and here came the next battle, “do I really want to spend money on a fitness tracker?” So for about a month I had MPL on my phone and didn’t do anything with it. I thought it was a great idea but I just didn’t want to spend $100 plus on a fitness tracker for an app. Did I mention I am frugal? Anyhow, I happened to mention to a co-worker how neat I thought the idea of MPL was and my struggle with purchasing a health tracker just for a phone app. He said he just purchased a new apple watch and he had no use for his old Fitbit and gave it to me.

So here begins my story with MPL...

MPL was easy to set up and link my Fitbit account. Additionally, I signed up all available challenges, I don’t remember what they were at the time, on MPL and set my Floors and Steps goals: I chose 20 and 10,000 respectively. I found the immediate psychological effect it had interesting: as soon as it was set up I wanted to earn the points for meeting my Floors and Steps goals. Since I started, approximately end of July 2017, I have achieved those set daily goals, except when I got a nasty flu bug in December. To meet the Floors and Steps goals I had to establish a Monday – Friday daily lunchtime running routine, which included running the stairs in my building. On the weekends, I re-established my old running routine that included hills to meet the Floors and Steps goals. Even on vacations I find myself taking the stairs instead of the elevator to get my Floors and Steps in.

The challenges helped me re-establish my workout routines. There were many that had you burn so many active calories over a certain timeframe. Since I wanted to meet those challenges, I started waking up early and go to the gym before work. Slowly but steadily, I got into a routine and out of my fitness “funk.” I started feeling better and didn’t want to waste the calories burned working out and my eating improved.

I’m not saying that MPL is a miracle app and just by downloading it you will change your life, but it helped me get out of my “funk.” For reference, when I started MPL I was 194 pounds at 15.8% body fat and worked out sporadically. Today, I average 175 pounds at 6.5% body fat and I am active 7 days a week. I like where I am and I’m positive that MPL will help me stay that way because I want to earn points for great rewards.

I have been using this app since it first started. I figured since I use a Fitbit anyways, why not try it out? I must say that the incentives have been a big motivator for me to complete challenges and to get my steps in every day. I initially only had my Fitbit set to a goal of 5,500 steps a day, but with the My Principal Lifestyle app, it's 6,000 which forces me to get that extra 500 steps a day. I used to ignore the notifications on my Fitbit telling me that I had 78 steps left to meet my active requirement for the hour, but now I will get up from my desk or walk around my house to get those few extra steps. I am much more aware of my activity levels and completing the challenges.

When I first started this, I wasn't looking to lose weight or anything, I just want to be healthy and reach some fitness goals. I feel like the incentives that I earn through the My Principal Lifestyle app help me to keep moving, stay active, and not "ignore" my Fitbit notifications. I like being a part of something that encourages people to be healthy and active, because health is so important to me. Thank you, Principal, for making health important to others! :)

Just about three years ago I quit my corporate job so that I could be home with my son, Leo. I decided to take a few daycare kids to help make ends meet, but I’d cut my salary in half so cutbacks were inevitable. I love that using this app allows me to get gift cards things I wouldn’t otherwise, like coffee! It feels like such a treat. The app has also been an added incentive for me to be more active—something that was already important to me, but became more difficult after kids. Using My Principal Lifestyle has been a great motivator for me. Love it!