Sit straight, girl!

This post brought to you by ALEX Wearable Posture Tracker and Coach. The content and opinions expressed below are that of The Art of Making a Baby.

As the tallest girl all my life (for the most part), I always struggled with my posture. I am not sure that I was exactly being self-conscious about it, because I never really was. I think it’s just probably really hard to stand tall when you have so much more of your body to keep upright. You just get tired. Tired of carrying so much more above your torso, so you slouch.

I know girls who would slouch because they wanted to appear shorter. Eventually you grow out of that and realize how important posture is. Aside from the health implication that bad posture presents, slouching makes you look worse than if you stood up straight in all your tall glory.

Add to that the fact that my job has ALWAYS involved computers and smart phones, all day long, so inadvertently, I developed a pretty good habit on slouching and leaning my neck over too far (text neck). I actually hate it. When I noticed it in pictures, it really bothered me, but at this point my muscles are so tight in those areas that it’s so hard to fully straighten out.

And here is the thing though. I LOVE standing straight. Often people comment on my good posture and ask me if I was a ballerina in Russia. Haha!  They clearly catch me when I am paying attention to my posture, in public. But at home it’s horrible. I am sitting right now as I type this with a completely rounded back. Ugh And if I remember to sit straight, I still end up projecting my neck forward. Surprisingly (NOT), I often suffer from neck pain.

It never occurred to me that there could be a solution to this problem aside from the usual self-motivation and good old will power.

Meet ALEX Wearable Posture Tracker and Coach I was introduced to this device through a post on Daily Mom, and got a chance to use it.

The concept is simple:

You wear it on your neck (after calibrating it) and when you slouch or extend your neck too far forward, it vibrates to remind you to fix your posture. You can set it to buzz immediately or set a delay for when you continue slouching. With the app, you can track your progress and see patterns of your posture on your phone.

The ALEX Wearable Posture Tracker and Coachis inconspicuous enough that you can’t see it with your hair down, but I see true potential for it while wearing at home and for desk type of work rather than randomly in public, because that’s where we slouch the most. The battery lasts up to a week so I won’t worry about forgetting to charge it.

It takes 66 days to form a true habit (unlike the old notion that it’s 7 or 21 days, 66 days sounds more like real life), so Alex helps get on that path and hopefully, eventually, I don’t even have to think about it and will sit straight on my own (then I can pass Alex down to someone else who needs it). I think it’s also important to mention that I find lack of good posture a strength issue as well. I feel I am a strong woman physically, yet my body just gets tired from sitting straight. There is not enough stamina and strength in those supporting muscles because they are just not used to supporting me in a way that they should. If I can get stronger, I won’t have to deal with neck pain from text neck anymore.

So a combination of habit formation and muscle strengthening and endurance will result in better body posture, better looks, more confidence, and stronger back/neck/shoulder muscles (fiber I stronger)

I am excited about the positive changes I have already seen using ALEX Wearable Posture Tracker and Coach. Anytime I can improve on something, especially related to having a healthier body, I am happy. I hope having better posture as a habit will also be a good example to Lexi. She’s a tall girl too and I always want her to stand tall and confidently no matter who is around.