EP#11- Making Better Choices with Rachel Fawcett, Thrive ZP Star Program Director

[MUSIC] Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. That's a quote by the famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle. I want you to remember that as you listen to this week's episode, since Rachel and I chat about the importance of making small, incremental, better choices. Rachel is the winner of the Thrive Zip Challenge, which is a 21-day challenge focused on improving an aspect of well-being. The Thrive Zip app was created by Thrive Global, a behavior-change technology firm founded by Ariana Huffington that focuses on reducing burnout in the workplace. Habit formation and decision-making is incredibly interesting, and I think a lot of people are under the impression that it's so much harder to form a good habit than it is to break a bad one. But at the end of the day, forming a good habit is the same thing as forming a bad habit. Habits form in the same exact way. It's just a matter of whether or not you're implementing something that's going to be beneficial for you in the long term or if it won't be. I'm so excited to share our conversation, and I'm very happy that I was able to sit down with Rachel to hear more about her experience using the Thrive Zip app. To really see how just making small choices every single day through the use of micro steps can really make a large and lasting impact on one's overall health and well-being. This episode is sponsored by Inker and Strive Coffee. If you love coffee and you're looking to get a boost of energy and endorphins in the morning, you can use the code Endorphins for 10% off of your coffee order. Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for coming on to the podcast this afternoon. I'm really excited to connect about Thrive and talk about the Thrive Zip Challenge and the importance of making better choices that are sustainable and really impactful in the long term. I'd love to get started by talking a little bit about what the Thrive Zip Challenge is. Thanks, Stella. Thanks for having me on the Thrive Zip Challenge is a 21 day wellness challenge that focused on better choices. It was put out by Walmart and Sam's Club for their associates and their friends and family and customers to help them learn and see that they could improve their life by making small better choices at a time. And so it can be a better choice around anything related to food, fitness, family, gratitude, sleep, or money and all of those things add up to our really our overall well-being and how do we feel if we're financially stressed or we're not eating right or not getting enough sleep then it impacts our life. And so I, if it's something I love, I love the model. I think it's very useful for anyone. Yeah, definitely. And it seems like a 21 day challenge is very easy to accomplish. It's not like a two-year challenge. It's really only three weeks. You're focusing on these smaller changes and maybe that makes you feel a bit more empowered to actually feel confident in making those small changes on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, it's such a good point. 21 days, I think, can be so much less intimidating, right? You've probably heard a lot of people talk about the whole 30. And it's 30 days of only eating these whole foods and then it's a really big event. And at the end of the 30 days, everyone I know personally that is done, if they go back to, you know, like they've dropped 10 pounds in the 30 days and then they go back to you, whatever they were eating before, because they haven't really changed their mindset behind what they're doing. It was more about, well, do this for 30 days, but it wasn't sustainable. And so the 21 days of any better choice really trained and changed my own mindset to celebrating and recognizing those small better choices are still a good thing. Like, for example, if it's like, well, your better choice was that you could have parked much closer to the door, but you decided to park at the back of the parking lot. No, I didn't go to the gym, but I still got more steps in and I can celebrate that better choice. Yeah, exactly. It's really in those really small changes when they aggregate, they really add up to make a huge impact. And I know that you come from a exercise physiology background, very well educated and passionate about fitness and nutrition. So I'm curious to learn a bit more about which area in the Thrive zip challenge that you've focused on to make better choices. Yeah, like you said, I have a background in exercise science. I've always been really passionate and also interested in new ideas around how do we, as a community, or as a population impact and influence our wellness and overall health. And I learned about the Thrive zip challenge and I thought this is really cool. This is amazing for other people, but is it? And so I thought I'll tell everyone about it. And I can share it with students and I can share it with my friends and family or members of the gym. And I was really curious as I kept talking about it with other people about the family aspect to it because I married, I work full time, I have two young children. And I felt great about like I'm exercising five or six days a week when I tap my lunch and I'm eating pretty healthy. So I'll tell everyone else about this, but then I realized I need to make a change in my own life. I need to make time for my husband. I need to make time for my kids. They're growing up and I don't want to look back 20 years from now and think where did the time go? I am missing birthdays. I'm not even, you know, it's like, oh, that'll work today. Still going to take my daughter to take her on her birthday. And I decided I am going to really focus on my family for my 21 days. And the better choice, the small thing I decided I wanted to try was not answering work phone calls at home and not answering work emails at home. And so when I came home from work, I would take my phone and I would put it upstairs and I wouldn't look at it again until I went to bed. And even then I found myself not even wanting to come back to my phone after having this like screen addiction and, you know, constant connection to the world. I was able to see that I was appreciating the time with my kids more. I was more present in their lives. I was putting them to bed at night. And then my husband and I were going to sleep together at night then because we started doing life together. And I slept better. I was sleeping more than I had slept in years. Just having that routine and not having that constant screen and outside connection to work. So it was that small choice that I the next day then I would go to the app and I clicked that better choice. I made a better family choice. I made better sleep choices too. And we started doing workouts together as a family. So those things really were adding up to big results and changing their relationship and my entire family. Yeah, you know, and I think that small choice that you made is so relevant, especially in the current times that we're living in with COVID, everything being virtual, working from home. It's really hard to find that boundary where you are devoting your time to work versus being in your space at home and actually utilizing that space as just home. When now we're working from our home environment. So I think that's a great choice that you made to immediately just put your phone away after the work day was over so that you could really create that separation, the distinction between your work environment and then the environment in which you relax and prioritize your family and your children and your personal life. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I so when COVID hit in the pandemic hit, it was about the time when I was finishing my first challenge. And so I've already gone through this life. Well, I'm making these small better choices. And I didn't know at the time it was really transforming my brain in the way that I thought about things and did things. And I think it would have been so hard for me and such a emotional battle that I not started making those better choices around family before the pandemic really hit hard in our community and everything was shut down and we were totally locked down because we went eight weeks about really seen anyone and it just being family time and I was able to really have this mindset around treasuring that and enjoying all of that time. I felt more afraid of it ending in some ways because I now have shifted my mindset to being so family focused that I thought, well, when this is over, how am I ever going to go back to working full time again and go back to not just having all this time with my family where if I wouldn't have done the thrives of challenge beforehand, I don't know that I could have been in an emotionally good space. I don't know what would have happened, but I can just imagine like deep dark depression and like where is my value, where is my worth, how do I define that? I work all the time and now I'm not working and all of my volunteer projects and all the things I do were gone but I recognize that I had a place in a role and a value and time to cherish with my family. - Yeah, and something that I love about the Thrive zip app is that, first of all, it's digital, so it's very accessible, and it's a 21-day challenge, so it's not incredibly daunting. You feel like you can really tackle these goals and really meet your aspirations. And I know that you did this challenge and you ultimately won a $15,000 cash prize, which is incredible. I'm curious to know how you logged in your daily goals and how you kind of kept yourself accountable to working on that family aspect of the different well-being challenges you could adopt in the app. - Yeah, yeah, so I did end up winning. There is winners every month, and I originally going into it never thought in a million years that I would be one of the winners, but alone to be winning $15,000. But for me, and I've heard this from so many other friends and from Walmart employees and team members there, that as you start doing it, you start looking, or I did at least, it's like, okay, I'm looking for that better choice. I'm looking for that better choice around family. And what I did is I belated every app off my home screen, and I even uninstalled some that I knew were just time-wasters. They were, I didn't want to look back and think, I spend an hour everyday on social media, or I missed those moments of enjoyment because I was looking at something on my phone, so I took everything off my home screen except the thrives at that. I had that there, and then if I would pull my phone out to look at it, that would be the first thing I saw, and it made me think, is this really a better choice? Am I pulling my phone off for a purpose, or am I just like hanging out with my kids watching a movie, and I'm not even being present because I'm getting on my phone? One of the things that my husband and I started doing when, at that time, because I wasn't on my phone, it was upstairs after work, is every day, if we like put our kids to bed, and it might be our normal kind of relaxed time, you might watch a TV show, instead of looking at our phones, we were playing a board game instead. So even if we were watching a movie or TV show that we like doing together, we kept this game on the end table and between the sofa chairs, and we would play a game while watching a movie so that we weren't looking at our phones, and it was really fun to have that connection and so much more valuable. - Yeah, definitely, and I also really love how the small change also stemmed from just getting your phone in a separate room or a different area, like not on your person. And I think, for college age students or recent graduates, our phones were glued to them, and especially with our classes now being virtual for the semester, we're always on our computers, we're always around technology, and it's really this double-edged sword. And I think maybe college kids wouldn't necessarily, if they were to use the Thrive zip app, they wouldn't necessarily prioritize the family challenge because we're all at school. But there are definitely other ways to limit our social media and technology usage, and if we're able to do that, we can be more present in the moment with our friends and our peers on campus or off campus. So I think, for you, putting your phone away allowed you to have more family time, more quality time with your husband and your children, whereas young adults or college students, if they just put their phone in a separate room while having a friend over for dinner, it might really help bolster the quality of that interaction and make it a more pleasurable experience, spending time with your friend or whoever you're with. - Yes, it made me really conscious of it too, if I, because I want to have my phone around, and it's like I don't want to, I don't ever want to pass judgment on my friends or my husband, or the people we love, we don't want to be judging them, but as you go through your own mind that shift, and then now if I'm hanging out with friends, and I'm talking to them, and I see them, like on their phone, kind of just like scrolling through Facebook or something, sometimes I'm like, be here with me, just be here with me. Like, come on, what are you looking at? You know you don't care. If I'm close enough with them that I can say, like, you know you don't care about that? - Yes. - Turn it off, but it in your bed. You're not there to remember any of that. Like if we're sitting there and we're hanging out, maybe whether it's eating dinner or doing an arts and crafts type project together or going on a walk or whatever it is, having that mindset shift knowing I've gone through it and then recognizing things, I don't think I would ever notice before. And that's the same thing when you're looking for those better choices, and you start looking for the better option. Like maybe if you've got a restaurant and you're trying to, you think like, I like this and I like this, those ones probably better choice. So then celebrating that I made the better choice or maybe it's that you ordered the food that you really like and you're just like craving a cheeseburger but the better choice is that you're gonna cut it in half and take the other half home for dinner so that you don't have it all in one setting and you have the better portion size. Those are all great better choices and they add up and so that you aren't like being on a restricted diet or feeling like you're failing just because you are having that chocolate craving or something. You can find a way to make it work. - Exactly and I was gonna say especially with the food better choices, if you make a better choice that's a bit smaller, you're not necessarily restricting the craving or the desire or whatever because oftentimes if you restrict then it can lead to an overindulgence and then there's the cycle of guilt and shame et cetera. So I love how these better choices are really small and really, really sustainable and achievable and they can take form in so many different ways and I'm wondering also when you are doing this challenge did you find it easy to make those better changes on a smaller scale? - I definitely think it was easier on a smaller scale. I will say committing to putting my phone upstairs right after work and not looking at it again is in some ways a much bigger scale for people. I might say give yourself a better choice would be no screen at the dinner table. Give yourself that 30 minute break or something and then it will start adding up. But I kind of, for myself I needed that hard stopping point of work and separation and separation from screens but those better choices like week one were a little harder to look for. And then week two, it got easier and I found, oh I'm marking more and more. Now instead of going to a spin class alone, I'm going on a bike ride with my family. So I'm saying like, ooh, better finish choice. Click the button, ooh, better family time. Click the button. There was just so many options and opportunities been and it became like a treasure hunt for better choices looking for them throughout my day. - Yeah and it seems like it became kind of like more exciting for you to find the better choices even after the completion of the challenge and winning. It seems like now you're, it's kind of more ingrained into your thought pattern to seek the better choices and the way that's fun and engaging instead of something that's really laborious or daunting. - Yes, that is so true. It's totally ingrained. And if I am struggling with one of the better choices for a week, I don't feel bad or I don't feel like I'm failing, I have a support system and community built around the project challenge now. And I connect with people from across the country on our weekly support group like check-ins on Zoom. And I love hearing like their better choice ideas and the things they've tried that week. And then I share, you know, if I am like, okay, listen friends. My sleep has been terrible this week, like it's some accountability, but also like I've tried these better choices. And I'm still struggling with sleep or what might be the things that you've tried. It's definitely ingrained and it's something that you never, you never have to feel like, oh, my challenge ended and now what? I just started a new 20-honda challenge and I could focus on the same things or all of them. But for me, I just am now looking for all any better choices. - Yeah, and I love how the thrive zip challenge and really thrive as a company, as a whole, really understands how holistic health and wellness is. It extends so far beyond just nutrition and exercise. Mental health is incredibly important and it stems into your family and your relationships and your, the choices at the end of the day that you make. And I think it's really great that you focused on the family aspect because, you know, as an exercise physiologist and training, someone who's really passionate about health and nutrition and wellness, you were able to also broaden your perspective about what it means to live a balanced life and make better choices and really support your own wellbeing. - Yes, that is very accurate, Stella. I definitely, it's something I've always had a lot of passion around exercise science and really understanding how does, what type of exercise and how much exercise will, prevent disease and how much will affect blood sugar or diabetes or cholesterol or bone density and understanding that exercise is medicine, the exercise in and by itself is not the full answer because one thing I saw and learned from doing the challenge myself and then with the timing of the pandemic was that you had a couple scenarios for people. There was people who said whether they knew that they're not the mental, the mindset of I go to the gym three days a week or I go to the gym five days a week but I take care of myself. I'm there at the gym because I am taking care of myself. I am doing good for myself. I enjoy the exercise but ultimately that they are doing what they need to for their health because they value themselves that they know this is valuable compared to the other side of it was that I saw there are people that said oh I go to I do spin class my day when stay Friday or I do water aerobics five days a week and when that that taken away with gym scenes shut down across the country they didn't continue exercising and that was really difficult and I heard that so much I saw in the news I saw in my own community I saw in forums people not knowing you know I'm depressed I miss my people I miss my exercise class I'm not moving I'm not doing anything and not having the mindset around well I take care of myself that was I go to this class because I was told to do it or because I know like I should do this my doctor said I need to work out three days a week and working with the thrive of challenge and really understanding what it did in my own life I was really excited to be able to share that with other people so that they could also change their own mindset to be okay it's it's not about going to be a runner or going to be a cyclist or going to do that thing it's that you are making good choices around fitness around food around family and all of those things contribute to your overall well-being. Yeah and I think this is a great segue also to talk a little bit more about now your role at thrive managing and leading the zip challenge and I think that's so great because first of all you won the challenge you were really inspired by all of the the great benefits it rewarded you and wanting to spread that joy to other people it's kind of like this infectious contagious energy of wanting to help others feel empowered to take a hold of their own well-being. Yeah yeah that's kind of it's kind of a wild journey where everything's coalesced with my own passions and my own personal experience of going through the challenge and then working with the ThriveZip team to help drive some pilot programs and really just help drive that people to people relationship portion of it so it's a big belief knowing and understanding that people follow people they're inspired by their stories and we've had the ThriveZip Challenge has impacted so many people across the country and that the part of the project that I work on is helping those individuals recognize their own transformation and then share that story with other associates and family and friends and customers at Walmart and at Sam's Club because this because the ThriveZip Challenge is available to anyone in the country it can impact so many lives and it's really just getting that out there and helping the people that have been impacted be able to share that and share their journey with others. Yeah and it also really shows the power of community when you're in a community that's working towards very similar goals I think that helps you to feel more inspired and motivated to hold yourself accountable with whatever micro step I know Thrive calls it you know micro steps or small changes that you can make on a day-to-day basis just to make you 5% happier that day or feel 5% more confident in your ability to get something done whether you're a college student and you're studying for an exam or you're stressed about whatever it may be anything in life if you can just find those small changes and feel supported by a network of community to hold yourself accountable and stay consistent I think that's also a big part of it too the consistency of the behavior as well to make that larger impact and longer term change. Yes you're exactly right Celia it takes a minimum of 16 days up to 66 days to build that new pathway in our brains. The Thrive's that challenges 21 days so making those better choices over the 21 days is what's building that pathway in our brain to say that I make the choices around sleep or I make the choices around food and feeling good about that I think that's really important to call out. Yeah and now that you've completed that initial 21 day challenge it seems like you're still going strong at it and it seems like you're still working towards other challenges or trying to implement this change mindset into your day-to-day life now. Do you have any other major takeaways you feel like you've gained from doing the Thrive's if challenge? Well one of my favorite things right now in the app for anyone listening if you have not downloaded the Thrive's with App yet download it so you won't know what we're talking about but you'll see when you sign up as a new user and you join the app actually will prompt you and give you better choice ideas and one of the big takeaways and things I had not recognized was how much gratitude shapes our mindset and I think we can think of people in our life that we have interacted with and you think of those people it's like they're always happy they're always smiling even when like their cars are broken down have a flat tire or whatever it is they are going through something and they're just like oh go along with that and happy and you think like that's great I want to be like that and then there's the people that could be experiencing the same thing but it's gloom and doom and everything's awful and it's like that mindset around it so the app actually prompts you and gives you some better choices to try specifically in gratitude I found those really helpful and that's something I'm focusing on right now is practicing gratitude starting my day with writing down something I have gratitude for and I think that's great whether it's like having gratitude for a job having gratitude for an income having gratitude for a house or for having your health having gratitude for hey I'm healthy and I'm not in a hospital or feeling with something it changes our mindset for our day and I learn this somewhat from other zip challenge participants one of the participants coming to our weekly check in support times he had said well I've been practicing the gratitude on the app it said when you're brushing your teeth say three things you're grateful for or think think them to yourself and I started doing that every morning and he said when I got him from work I would normally be exhausted and I would normally might not have a lot of patience for my kids I might be snapping at them I might be short tempered and I was starting my day every day saying I'm grateful for my family grateful for my kids and they were always the top of my list and it I realized when I would come from work those times that I'd normally be snapping at them or not have patience I had more patience I was able to you know use kind words and not feel so exhausted emotionally and drained but ready to engage with them happily yeah I'm so glad you brought up that point about gratitude really shifting your mindset I'm kind of like perplexed by the concept of gratitude there's also these different types of meditations gratitude focused meditations gratitude focused mindfulness meditation that really focuses on thinking about the things you're really grateful for and that you feel lucky to have had experienced in your life and I mean I love how you start the morning with some gratitude exercises because I I used to use this like gratitude jar we're at the end of every day I would jot down something I was really grateful for that happened in the day or like a highlight of the day and it really like it's in those small moments they add up and then you look at the jar that's full and you realize all the positives that occurred even the tiniest wins greatly outweigh the negatives no matter how impactful that negative moment or experience might have been there's this one question that I ask every single guest that comes on to my podcast what is something that brings you in doorfins every day well since practicing gratitude and practicing family time with the challenge I think that The biggest pull of Endorphins for me are the moments of like close connections with my kids. Thank you again for sharing your story and coming on to the podcast today Rachel. Thank you for having me Stella. I'm so excited to hear back from you and hear how your own turning goes with the Horizon App and how you feel at the End of your Challenge. [Music]