In college, I randomly coined the term “single-person study.” It made my roommates laugh at me, and it made me feel like everything I was choosing to read and study had a purpose. I always felt a little like a self-proclaimed science experiment, trying every fad under the sun with the hopes I would figure out what makes me tick. It was not until almost 8-years later that it dawned on me that all my random studies may have a use: Helping other people NOT spend so many hours of precious time on random trends. It may also save people money. My next single-person study will be to calculate how much money I have spent on the newest cool trend to try. It is a lot of stinkin’ money – I can feel it. It is definitely in the thousands and THOUSANDS of dollars (just think about how much a bottle of multivitamins cost).
So, what is the single-person study? Well, it is voluntary choice to try new goals, diets, fitness, trends, or wellness ideas in the hopes it will be the big WIN and lead me to ultimate bliss. It is picking a random trend on a whim, following it meticulously for what seems to be a reasonable timeframe, and assessing changes in my overall being in order to see what works and does not work for me. Thus, I end up coming up with theories about what works or does not work in life based on the results of these studies where I am the only participant.
Daily tracking sounds awful for some, as does constantly changing up routines. But, I quite like tracking, data, and spicing things up a bit. I also have developed many successful daily habits in the midst of all of this! However, it was not until recently that I came across the art of purposeful tracking. It is all well and all good if you put little checks in a habit tracker, but what does it do for your life if you do not look back at it ever? It dawned on me to actually start looking at what I was “single-person studying” to see if anything did indeed change from before I embarked on whatever new goal I had. Why was I tracking 10,000 steps a day when I worked out 5/days or more per week? Was I trying to become a step-master-champion-extremist? Same with buying the new cool shoes to up my running pace – was I trying to run a Marathon? The answer to both those questions is no. So, I may as well spare you from wasting time tracking goals that have no meaning to you. Maybe it will encourage you start tracking things you actually want to change and start trying trends that will actually fit into your lives for the long-haul. Who knows? Maybe you will pick the right single-person studies to conduct on yourselves without exhausting so much energy into ones that are duds.
A few of my most famous single-person study conclusions include:
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Fasting versus not fasting before a workout literally changes nothing about my workout.
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Coffee is not meant to taste good without creamer.
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Whey protein does not give me a stomach-ache, but I can sure convince myself it does if I ate bad food the day before and want something to blame besides the M&Ms.
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Drinking cranberry juice mixed with water does not make me less bloated.
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Mixing Thai food and alcohol is a no-no.
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I am not lactose intolerant despite my strong desire to blame dairy for all my problems.
If any of these sound like a google search you have done before, you are not alone. I will certainly be touching on many topics like these to show you how I came to these conclusions and what has worked for me. Subscribe to our email list below so you don’t miss out on any fun content! I hope you find this blogging journey I am on at least funny if not useful.
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