Why is being healthy so hard?
Basis started with a mission: To help fit health into our busy lives. But this seemingly simple concept raised some difficult questions. If we know our health is so important, why don't we do more to address it? And when we actually do throw ourselves into a program or shell out the cash for a gym membership, why is it so ridiculously difficult to go the distance?
We just can't cram it all in.
Between work, family, friends and trying to squeeze in some occasional fun, finding the time and energy to get healthy can be challenging. There always feels like there is never enough time and so it's easy to skip the gym or skimp on getting a full night's rest.
Current solutions aren't always
the most user friendly.
Some of us are rock stars with our health—that office Ironman or six-times-per-week yoga mom. But most of us don't have their time, energy or enthusiasm. So it doesn't help that so many health regimens force us to shoehorn our lives into complicated programs rather than the other way around. And this approach is clearly not working: approximately 50% of us starting an exercise plan drop out within six months and cite lack of time as a key reason.
Three discoveries we made.
1. Small changes = big gains.
But it turns out that getting healthier doesn't have to take a ton of time and effort. Studies show that just 30 minutes of daily activity, even in 10-minute blocks, or sleeping 7.5 to 9 hours per night can be boons to our health, including reducing our risk of heart disease and diabetes, helping us lose weight and improving our concentration and mood. And getting the recommended amount of sleep doesn't have to be a huge production. Modifying our behavior, even slightly, by setting a regular bed time, for example, can help get the job done.
2. Knowledge is power.
As the old adage goes, we can't manage what we can't measure. We need information to successfully take care of our health. For example, how much activity and sleep are we actually getting? How do we know if we are making any progress? But the measurements need to be relevant and insightful. If we are bombarded with too much data or the wrong kind, we get overloaded and frustrated.
3. Health needs to be a habit.
After talking to lots of people, diving into the latest research and testing loads of concepts, we can came to one important conclusion: the best way for most of us to get healthy is to seamlessly integrate healthy habits into our daily lives rather than forcing ourselves into time-consuming, life-style altering regimes. Habits can endure a lifetime; programs last only as long as we have the time or energy to carry them out.
Our conclusion:
We needed a system that could motivate us to incorporate simple, lasting changes into our everyday life. This system could monitor our sleep and activity levels and then suggest small but significant daily and weekly lifestyle modifications to help us create better habits that would result in long term improvements to our health.
We couldn't find one.
So we built Basis.
