Tag Archives: healthy snacking

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My Certified Alexa Skills

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In my last post just a few days ago I noted that I hadn’t posted for many months before that.  I have been quite busy since January focusing on developing new Alexa Skills and helping several start-up companies build healthcare & non-healthcare applications with a voice component.  I wanted to take this opportunity to post an updated table with all my 21 Alexa Skills, their descriptions, and Quick Links to them in the Alexa App on an Echo/Alexa device user’s smartphone.  Just click on the link of any of the listed Skills to check it out.   In case you don’t use Alexa, I should explain what a Skill is.  Very simply, the term “Skill” is the name Amazon has given to the applications that work with their Echo & Alexa devices.

If I were to categorize my Skills, most of them would fall into one of the following three categories:

  • Humor
  • Organizational
  • Health & Wellness

Let me mention a few of them:

In the Humor category, Our Little Secret, provides a comical peek into what you might be saying in your home.  In it, a fictional brother & sister with psychic abilities give Secrets and Deeper Thoughts.  All the responses are entirely fictitious, but it makes you wonder what you would hear if “walls could talk!”  While the Secrets are free, the user must pay a low, one-time fee to hear the Deeper Thoughts.  Another humorous Skill is Wine Jester in which Alexa gives comical reviews of any wine you may place before her.

An example of Organizational Skills is Your Expert Log which enables the user to log experts that they may have heard about in different professions, such as, physicians, handymen, and others for retrieval later. My Favs allows the user to log their favorite meals and restaurants to be retrieved randomly. Conference Contact Helper was created after I attended a recent conference to help track the contacts made at conferences and the associated to-do list items.

Most of my certified Skills fall into the category of Health & Wellness. These first two were developed to help us focus on the goodness in our world and help improve one’s psychological health.  Kindness Counts lets the user record kindnesses for which they are the doer, recipient, or witness.  Gratitude Log lets the user log three of their blessings at a time.  After they have logged several sets, they can ask Alexa to play three randomized blessings at a time.  Healthy Text Scheduler allows the user to schedule text messages about healthy eating to help them form healthier behaviors surrounding their nutritional behaviors.  Track My Dose was designed to help individuals manage as-needed medications, so they know when to take the next dose.  They can even schedule reminders at the time the next dose can be taken.  Finally, Symptom Helper helps the user organize the symptoms they wish to discuss with their healthcare provider before an upcoming visit.  They answer several questions posed by Alexa, and she organizes that information into a concise statement that can be entered into a custom list on their Alexa App that can be shared with the clinician.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Click the link below to go to a table of my Alexa Skills or click the Download button on the right to download its PDF file:

RAK_Skill_Quick_Links_09_24_2020Download

Don’t Let Snacks Weigh You Down!

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For many of us, unhealthy snacking can quickly sabotage our weight loss plans.  While writing this post, my mind kept wandering to the kitchen thinking what I could eat.  We often reach for a bag of chips or cookies when watching television or surfing the web.  Many experts view this as a byproduct of our more sedentary lifestyle.  Not only do we not exercise and burn calories, but we add to the problem by consuming more.

If you need help with your snacking, schedule some Health-e Texts on www.InsightsForHealth.com to help you resist the temptations.  You can schedule them to remind you to stick to your healthy meal plan just when you’ll need the help.

How Do You Schedule Them?

That’s very simple:

  1. You need to go to www.InsightsForHealth.com and Register to become a member. That is absolutely free at this time. Make sure that you correctly enter your cell phone number, select your cell phone carrier and click OK to give us permission to send you text messages. Remember, applicable text message charges from your cell phone carrier will apply.
  2. Once registered, Log In to the Members Only section.
  3. Then select Health-e Texts from the menu on top. You’ll be taken to a page that describes the service and has a list of the various kinds of Health-e Texts you can send yourself on the left.
  4. Choose one of the Snack options from the list on the left & just select the start & stop dates, the time you want to receive your daily text and your time zone. Click Save & you’re done. You’ll start getting your snacking Health-e Texts on the day you chose.

View Your Health-e Text Schedule or Change Your Mind

You’ll also notice two selections at the bottom of the menu bar at the left, one will let you view your schedule of Health-e Texts and the other will allow you to delete any you choose. You’re in control.

I hope you try these out and I’ll be looking for your feedback!

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Introducing Health-e Thoughts Text Messages – To Help You Change!

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Even before you start your weight loss plan it quickly becomes clear that things will have to change for you to become successful.  You need to change your habits surrounding buying, preparing and eating foods as well as make changes to increase your activity to burn more calories.  So changing habits or behaviors is fundamental to any weight loss program.  Perhaps a more accurate way of putting this is that you need to substitute healthier behaviors that bring about weight loss for your usual unhealthy ones.  You don’t just stop a habit or behavior, you replace it.  Until these new behaviors become automatic you will need to consciously remind yourself to substitute them for your old habits.  You will need to use tricks to help you remember.  With time it will become easier, but when you first start you will need all the help you can get. 

With that in mind, I developed a web site to help support anyone in their journey to reach a healthier weight.  It is www.InsightsForHealth.com and all its tools are free.  It has many features to help you in your quest, and I’ll describe them in more detail in future posts.  But perhaps the one most useful to use when you are trying to remember to substitute your new healthier habits is Health-e Thoughts Text Messages.  These are text message reminders that you schedule yourself to help you change some common unhealthy habits.  They cover:

  •          At Home Breakfast
  •          At Home Lunch
  •          At Home Dinner
  •          Exercising At Home
  •          Healthy Eating When Out Of Town
  •          Exercising When Out Of Town
  •          Eating Out
  •          Grocery Shopping
  •          Morning Snacks
  •          Afternoon Snacks
  •          Evening Snacks

For example, if you find one of your greatest weaknesses involves eating unhealthy evening snacks, you could set up text reminders to occur at certain times in the evening for as many days as you want.  Then around the time when you are ready to open that bag of chips you would get a text to help you resist that habit and substitute a healthier one. 

Click here to read more details.  If you want to try Health-e Thought Text Messages, just follow the steps to register and in a few minutes you’ll be able to schedule these helpful text reminders to help you make those healthy behavior changes. 

Remember, while we don’t charge a fee for this service, any applicable text message charges from your cell phone carrier will apply.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob