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Coronavirus has changed our usual cooking routine! We hope that turning to the kitchen to try a new recipe has helped create some calm during an otherwise crazy time. We had so many great community submissions last week that we wanted to round up a few more to share in our second recipe digest.

Chicken Centered Recipes:

• Chicken Bread Recipe
• Spicy Basil Thai Chicken
• Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken
• Chicken Salad
• One Pot Creamy Chicken Tortellini

Veggie Friendly Meals:

• Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
• Socca Pizza with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Pesto
• Easy Hummus
• Chickpea and Spinach Curry
• Paleo Sweet Potato Toast
• BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches with Avocado Slaw
• Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Baking Goodness:

• 3 Ingredient Flatbread
• 30 minute dinner rolls
• Banana Bread and an oatmeal banana bread variety (for an extra twist banana coffee cake!)
• Creamy 1 ingredient banana ice cream
• Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Breakfast Squares
• Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bakes

As a reminder, we’ve pinned all of these to our Creative Coronavirus Meals board on Pinterest.

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We recently polled our community to ask if they had become more creative with their meals since the coronavirus. We heard back and 55% of members who responded said yes. We then followed up to see what types of recipes and food hacks are keeping them happy and healthy during this time.

We were overwhelmed by the number of recipes shared, so we decided that we’ll reveal a series of recipes over the next few weeks. We’ll curate all of our top community picks on our Creative Coronavirus Meals Pinterest board.

For our first edition of crowdsourced favorites, check out these go-to easy bites and soothing soups.

Go-To Easy Bites:

1. Deviled Eggs
2. 15 Pantry Recipes for Emergency Preparedness
3. Self-Quarantine Recipes from the New York Times
4. 5 ingredients or less high protein smoothies! (+a green smoothie)
5. Easy Overnight Oats

Soothing Soups:

Vegetarian:

1. Rosemary Garlic White Bean Soup
2. Mexican Lentil Soup
3. Alison Roman’s Chickpea Stew
4. Spicy Instant Pot Taco Soup
5. Cabbage Soup

Non-Vegetarian:

1. Thai Red Curry Noodle Soup
2. Quick and Easy Chinese Noodle Soup
3. Zuppa Toscana Soup
4. Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe
5. Buffalo Black Bean Chilli

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We know that together we can always achieve more. That’s why we were glad to hear from so many members when we sent out a poll about self-care tips during coronavirus.

We received over 75,000 responses and decided to consolidate some of the top themes we saw across our community to gauge how Evidation Members were practicing self-care during this time.

Here’s a list of the top 20 activities and suggestions that we saw!

1. Make sure to eat and drink immune boosting food and beverages. For a list of suggestions, check out this article from CNN Health.
   Teaser: Carrots, kale, and apricot are good sources of beta carotene and oranges, strawberries, and broccoli are good sources of Vitamin C.
2. Take the time that you need when possible to squeeze in a nap to get enough rest.
3. Make a morning and evening routine to help create some structure during your day.
4. Watch a comedy show to make sure to create laughter during your day. Check out some of the top stand up comedy shows on Netflix.
5. Create a gratitude list or even download a Gratitude Journal app to document positive things that happen throughout your day.
6. Take out your favorite board game to play with friends or family. Check out a few ideas here!
7. Plant some seeds or work on a gardening project. Watch this YouTube video from Epic Gardening for ideas (including how to use a water bottle to make a container garden)
8. Take a long bath and grab a face mask or two! If you’re feeling adventurous, you can make a natural face mask with ingredients at home.
9. Check out one of these online resources to print out coloring books to take a mini break in the middle of your day.
10. Spend time catching up on reading. If you’re a parent, check out some free content and stories that Audible has made available here.
11. Stretch daily! Here’s a quick yoga video for when you need a mid work-day break.
12. Work towards a goal even if you’re stuck indoors. For example, try a new recipe every week or make it a point to connect via video chat with a friend or family member every few days.
13. Up your podcast game! Check out this list from Esquire on top 2020 podcasts to listen to.
14. Find a class that you can take online! Here’s a list of popular classes from Coursera that are available for free online.
15. For parents — rally kids together to write chalk messages on the sidewalk! We’ve heard about neighborhoods spreading positivity to others through sidewalk chalk messages, and we’re inspired by trending #chalkwalks.
16. Try a crafting project like knitting or crocheting to calm your nerves. Check out this tutorial on how to learn how to knit.
17. Limit your news intake. Try and stay updated, but not inundated with new stories.
18. Be sure to drink lots of water!
19. Have a dance party at home or virtually with co-workers! Our team has a weekly 5-minute dance party.
20. Jump on the jigsaw puzzle bandwagon. Grab a puzzle from your local bookstore.

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We know that this particular time is unnerving and challenging during the coronavirus, so we wanted to share some tips and tricks from our team to help you find some calm throughout your day.

• Connect with your friends and family through virtual lunches or even a happy hour! Regularly check in with your loved ones to see how they’re doing. Video chat can help you feel more connected.
• Download a mindfulness app to get a daily or weekly moment of meditation in! Don’t forget that Stop, Breathe, Think connects to Achievement, so you can continue to track your progress! We were also glad to hear that Headspace has unlocked a series of specially curated content for consumers who have an account called Weathering the Storm. You can preview content here. Mindfulness app Calm has an online portal available that you can check out as well!
• Stuck inside most of the day? Schedule a quick walk or grab some time to be amidst nature. Be careful to maintain social distancing during this break. Don’t forget that if you have a backyard, it can be a quick escape during the day. One of our team members played “I Spy” with her little ones when they did a walk around the neighborhood.
• Take a virtual tour of a museum while you’re staying in. Read about how these 12 famous museums offer tours that you can take from the comfort of your couch.
• Give Bullet Journaling a try to help organize thoughts. Follow this Pinterest board for ideas or prompts. Journaling can be a relaxing way to express how you’re feeling and prompts can help you take the time to reflect.
• Take breaks from reading and viewing the news and grab your favorite book or listen to a good podcast. Check out this list of podcasts for book lovers.
• Livestream music from famous venues like the Metropolitan Opera and keep an eye on Global Citizen on Instagram to hear about live concerts that famous musicians are live streaming for fans.
• Tune in to an online workout! Check out 15 Minute Relaxing Yoga for Anxiety and Stress Relief, 5 Best Chair Cardio Exercises, or this 7 Minute Ab Workout to catch a good healthy break when you’re indoors.

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Learn What a Behaviorgram Is and How It Works

We have a talented team of data scientists and researchers focused on providing individuals the opportunity to participate in cutting edge research. When our members participate in research, the activity data that they consent for use in the research helps our team study a number of health behaviors — everything from how to measure chronic pain to better understanding the individual migraine experience.

Analyzing and contextualizing the behaviors of thousands of participants with millions of data points is not an easy task. Over the years, this analysis lead to the creation of something that we have internally named “behaviorgram”. The behaviorgram of a person is a collection of their data streams over the course of some time. A behaviorgram can be quite simple and consist of only a few data streams from a single device (such as heart rate and steps from an activity tracker) or it can be quite large and include multiple data streams from multiple sources. A behaviorgram can be visualized much like an ECG, and below, we provide a glimpse as to what this visual may look like.

In our studies, we may start with activity data from a Fitbit or Apple Watch and then layer on additional data such as survey responses (e.g., mood or feelings during the day) and contextual information (e.g., weather, air quality, and the time of the day). Dense behaviorgrams give us richer pictures of someone’s behavior over time. As a reference, the behaviorgrams we created for the research on Alzheimer’s disease we did with Eli Lilly and Apple in August contained dozens of data streams and included steps counts, walking pace, sleep depth, workout sessions, and many others.

Behaviorgrams help us put data into context and extract additional insights from it. For example, we can more easily analyze how heart rate changes when people are in a workout session, or the effect that talking on the phone has on walking pace. It also allows us to derive new data channels from the existing ones. For instance, while MyFitnessPal already reports how many grams of protein and calories are eaten, we often find it useful to layer in a channel that represents the percentage of calories that came from protein. Similarly, we often add a new data stream that represents heart rate during periods of inactivity (i.e., no steps).

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What would actually help you visualize a behaviorgram? A picture of course! We wanted to illustrate that there are small moments throughout your daily life that can have a significant impact on your health, and we were fortunate enough to get consent to share one of our colleague’s visual health journey via the various apps they have connected on Evidation. Looking at their data from the last 6 months, we tracked down a few key dates where we noticed specific behavior changes and asked them to add labels to the behaviorgram on what happened in their life on those days. Sure enough — in a week with less sleep, we uncovered they were abroad, working until late to match California time and then having troubles falling asleep due to jet lag and an uncooperative baby. You can see other activity trends like sightseeing with friends in Singapore and New York on high steps count days, frequent awakenings in sleep during a night spent on an international flight, and a spike in logged calories when they had leftover sweets for breakfast. You can also see that they were able to sleep longer when the baby was away with the grandmother. We got a good laugh out of the observation that the company offsite was a high fat/protein-heavy day!

Based on weather data, the highest precipitation day is low in activity! Though some of our team is based in sunny locations, it highlights that weather does impact our activity. Related, given the air quality impact that the Wildfires had in California this year, you can see that during the time of the fires 11/25 to 12/14, they did not spend much time outside and took some time off from exercising (with the exception of their time in New York!)

Keep an eye out for more references to behaviorgrams from us! Our hope is that they’ll begin to become a tool by which you contextualize different actions that you take. We also know that big life changes can impact your habits and health. That’s why we’re planning on sharing some personal stories from our team on the journey to being a new parent and its impact on health routine. We also want to capture events like life with a newborn to highlight trends that our specific team members are experiencing to show activity patterns during the first few months of these very significant milestones.

We’re back to share more about the growing community of Evidation Members. No matter where you are in your health journey, we want to commend you for taking steps to become a better version of you. Over the last year, we’ve asked members to share their stories with us. Since then, we’ve received more than 160,000 stories! Here’s a look at some of the many stories members have shared — hopefully one of them will help inspire you as they’ve inspired us.

Whether you’re looking for a source of motivation, a community to learn from, or are here for a few extra bucks, we’re happy to be a part of your journey! Here’s another look at some of your fellow Evidation Members and their stories:

“A friend told me about Evidation which I’ve been using for quite a while. It gives me credit for my daily exercise, weigh-ins and tracking my food which I do daily. It helps keep me in the zone and best of all has paid me for my efforts! What’s better than that? I just had a Grand Opening in Oceanside, NY for my business, Restorative Wellness and Weight Loss. I plan to share this app with all my clients. What a great motivator!” — (Wendy C., New York)

“I have been a part of a research study on breakthrough pain through Evidation, and it’s really helped me to be more aware of my body and what kind of triggers are causing my pain. It has also caused me to look into other ways of relieving my pain, such as yoga and deep stretching, and to gain some muscular structure back that I had lost before.” — (Stacy M., Tennessee)

“I have been using Evidation to help me stay on top of my health and fitness. I have a busy schedule and it’s hard to stay on top of things. In 2016, I was 227 lbs, very depressed and unhappy. After making several lifestyle changes, I have gotten down to 166lbs and maintained that since 2018. Evidation helps me stay on top of why health by keeping me accountable.” — (Nicole M., California)

“Through the research projects and daily accountability, Evidation has supported my increased health outcomes. By participating in a chronic pain study, daily loggings have helped my provider and I to track some of the triggers that have affected my pain levels. Additionally, being accountable to the overall app gives me motivation to get outside my comfort zone and get out and move even when I am not physically feeling like it.” — (Karen K., Colorado)

“Using Evidation really helped me during a time of my life when I was down. We moved from my hometown and I was so sad, depressed, and motivated. I was in a funk, I felt lost, and did not want to leave my house. No friends or close family. When I started my health journey I got out of the house to attend group exercise and made friends. Not only did I have an online community cheering me on, I stepped out of my comfort zone again and felt like a better version of myself. Thanks for keeping me accountable!” — (Christina W., Texas)

“I have been using the Evidation App for a few years now and I love how I build points for demonstrating regular and consistent healthy practices. As a Tour Director and Travel Professional, it’s great to know that regardless of the activity or destination I may be in there is still an app that will incentivize me to staying fit. Through the use of this app, I have been able to climb the Great Wall of China, hike Machu Picchu, Swim between Thailand islands, and walk on African Safaris. Thank you Evidation for making this app user friendly, simple, and personable.” — (Justin C., Arizona)

“I am 64 years old. I want to be a future fun Grandpa and with the support of Evidation, I will be able physically as well as emotionally to prepare for my next adventure. This is why I hike and walked so much.” — (Rusty L., Indiana)

“The Evidation App has allowed me to accurately track certain aspects of my health and fitness activities, which allows me to create better habits. Seeing my progress and stats turn into points both extrinsically and intrinsically rewards me. This part of the app, as well as reading interesting health studies has huge, positive impacts for future health gains.” — (Kathleen E., Florida)

“From looking at my lifestyle, my health wasn’t what I need it to be. Evidation helps me create a goal for me to challenge myself to get active and to be more involved with the local area. I have been going out for walks, participate in a gym, and being more aware of the foods I eat. With a group of friends, it becomes a fun activity! In a way, I hope my choice in exercise also inspire others to participate in fitness.” — (Hanh N., Arkansas)

“I have been using Evidation for a while now, and the motivation and support I get from this app is unparalleled! It’s a constant reminder to get up and get moving, practice my yoga and meditation, and be that vibrant example of a holistic, balanced life for my daughter. The surveys and app functionality are a fun touch, too!” — (Meggie C., Idaho)

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This February, in honor of Heart Health Awareness Month, we partnered with the data science team at Evidation to look at patterns of some of our heart healthiest members.

Resting heart rate (your pulse rate while awake, relaxed, and stationary) has been shown in several large epidemiologic studies to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in both men and women. Given the importance of resting heart rate for heart and overall health, the team looked at all of the Evidation Members who contributed resting heart rate data in 2018. We explored the trajectory of resting heart rate from week to week and selected a handful of members that significantly dropped their resting heart rate over the year. The individuals we selected had a wide range of resting heart rates to begin the year.

Of the members we selected, 96% were within the normal range of 60–100 beats per minute. According to the Harvard Health blog, “while a heart rate is considered normal if the rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, most healthy relaxed adults have a resting heart rate below 90 beats per minute.” Only 4% had resting heart rates below 60 beats per minute at the beginning of the year. Resting heart rates below 60 bpm are often indicative of people who get a lot of physical activity. Near the end of the year, over 30% had reduced their resting heart rate to 60 beats per minute or lower. Overall, we observed an average drop of 11 beats per minute, which corresponds to an average decrease of 15% from the beginning of the year.

We then asked these resting heart rate improvers to tell us a little bit more about what they did in order to better understand their habits throughout the year — everything from how often they checked their heart rate, to the frequency of their workouts, to dietary changes they had made throughout 2018.

Here’s what we found!

Most members who had a significant decrease in resting heart rate in 2018 also noticed the same thing!

Most of our heart healthy members said they checked their resting heart rate frequently — if not every day, then at least a few days per week.

The most common changes that Evidation Members made to their diet included the following:

• Adjusting their portion sizes
• Limiting consumption of fast food
• Consuming more vegetables and fruit

The most common types of physical activity included:

• Walking
• Lifting weights
• Running
• Hiking
• Yoga

When we took a closer look at activity data, we actually saw an increase of 871 steps per day (12.3% increase) for members who had lowered their heart rate. Those who responded that they did more walking in 2018 truly did up their step count.

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Evidation Members overwhelmingly said that they had lost weight, made changes to their diet, exercised more often and regularly, and focused on maintaining a healthy weight when sharing some of the changes that they made to their lifestyle in 2018.

In fact, when we took a look at weight tracking for our heart healthy members, the data matched up with the responses. For those who tracked their weight at least once per week for 30 weeks or more, the average weight loss was 12 pounds (a 6% decrease on average).

Not surprisingly, mental health and improved sleep can significantly influence an individual’s overall quality of health. Did you know that sticking to a sleep schedule can help you improve your heart health?

Our community of heart healthy members have recommended to others the value of maintaining a healthy diet, exercising more, and managing stress as tips to improve heart health.

For advice on how to take action today to make your lifestyle a little healthier, check out these additional suggestions from some trusted sources:

• Heart Healthy Recipes from the NIH
• CDC Heart Month Feature from the CDC
• Taking Care of Our Hearts, Together from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute‍
  

You use Evidation to conveniently monitor progress toward personal health goals. By making datasets available to scientists, Evidation also is helping uncover insights to benefit people with multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and other conditions. So, it’s important for you and researchers alike to know that Evidation's quality of life measures stand up.

Prior research conducted with activity trackers has shown that some behaviors (such as inconsistent sleep patterns) are associated with lower levels of physical and mental well-being. While this seems logical, we wanted to see if data collected via Evidation’s unobtrusive, hands-free methods have the same correlations.

Our scientists analyzed activity and sleep metrics from more than 600 Evidation Members using a global health assessment tool to assign scores for physical and mental health measures. (Controls included age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, and medical markers of anxiety and depression.) The 600 members involved in this analysis included members who had self reported having anxiety and depression and were a part of the Mental Health Study.

In this analysis of activity and sleep metrics, here’s what our researchers found:

• Two-thirds of members who participated in this study had scores above the median level for both physical and mental health. One-third scored below the median.
• Those with higher scores were more physically active, walking an average of 1,674 more steps and burning 100 more calories daily than those with scores below the median level.
• Individuals with lower scores demonstrated less consistent sleep than those with scores above the median.

The conclusion? Passive apps where most information is collected automatically can accurately characterize key quality of life metrics — good news for you and for scientists.

An ongoing, year-long study continues to examine a subset of member activity and sleep data, plus self-reported quality of life, mental health, and use of health care resources. Stay tuned as we share more on these findings, plus future research participation opportunities.

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At Evidation, we’re passionate about helping everyone reach their individual health goals. That could be in the form of getting paid for doing health-related activities as a little extra motivation, or by providing you with easy ways to understand your personal health. We also help to connect you with ways to contribute to cutting-edge research, where you can help to improve health for everyone. We wanted to share 5 of Achievement’s values that are important in our mission of helping everyone to participate in better health outcomes.

We meet you where you’re at

We understand that everyone’s health goals and needs are not the same; that’s why we individualize your experience based on what you tell us is relevant to you. You can also choose to earn points for everything from step tracking, sleep tracking, continuous glucose monitoring, meditation and more. We are here to support your health goals, regardless of where you’re at in your personal health journey, like Sarai (a long time Achiever) explains:

“I have Fibromyalgia and chronic Myositis …. Life can become difficult and overbearing … Many, like me, are bound to a wheelchair 50% or more of the time. Can you imagine how unmotivated you can feel to get out of bed, let alone workout!? But as it stands, the best treatment for this condition, is to KEEP MOVING. Achievement provides that imaginary friend. One who will not give you unwanted advice, or invite you to things you cannot go to. It provides that gentle motivation, for you to set your own goals. Not that of your doctor, friend, or family member. But YOURS. You know your body best …. With Achievement I can keep track of my progress…” -Sarai H.

When you get started with Evidation, we encourage you to take the time to fill out your Health Survey so that we can provide you with study invitations, and other opportunities that are relevant to you.

You are in full control of your data

Evidation provides a place for you to view your data from your connected apps in one place. By centralizing this information, we can help you to better understand your health and ultimately achieve your health goals.

It’s entirely up to you to choose what you want to share and earn points for on Evidation. Whether you’re interested in steps, exercise, sleep, nutrition, meditation or something else, you can choose what activities will be shared.

This member shares how they’ve used multiple apps on Evidation to track their health:

“I’ve been a member of Evidation for a while and it has motivated me to take control of my health by syncing all of my apps into one place and then rewarding me for it. This has been vital for me recently because my health has taken a toll lately and I’ve needed to really step up my game and take control of what I can in my personal health, Evidation has made that simple.” — Isis F.

You can access and download all of your Evidation data in one place at any time, giving you more insight into your health. You can change your mind about what activities you want to track at any time. We provide you with control over what data you share with us and we do not sell your data to third parties without your clear consent. Your health data is yours.

We are transparent

We believe that it is important to always be clear and transparent with our members about how their data is used. We may use your anonymized data for our own internal research to advance the forefront of healthcare and share back insightful health trends and tips, such as whether or not air quality can affect activity patterns or how the World Series affected sleep patterns. Tristan shares why he chooses to share his data with Evidation:

“…Evidation is exciting for me as I get to send data to [them] every single day. Data gathering is fulfilling for me, especially knowing it’ll be put to good use, so that inspires me to log my activities all the time” — Tristan R.

We also give you the choice to participate in research projects related to your health interests, goals or conditions. The specific information you will be asked to share will be disclosed in the consent and/or disclosures for that particular project (each project may be different). Evidation Members have had the opportunity to participate in groundbreaking research around diabetes, mental health, and more.

We provide you the opportunity to give back to the causes you care about

It’s great to earn personal rewards for all of your health actions; however, many members also choose to use their rewards for a good cause. That’s why Evidation also provides the opportunity to donate your points to a health charity of your choice through Benevity when you reach 10,000 points. The points you earn for taking healthy actions can also go back to organizations that are working towards creating a healthier world. Elizabeth shares why she decided to donate her points:

“Evidation motivates me to exercise more since it adds points each time. It also motivates me to join support apps for my type 1 diabetes and read more research articles. When I hit 10,000 points I donated the $10 to JDRF International [Type 1 diabetes researching funding and advocacy] to help support the continuation of research to find a cure.” — Elizabeth P.

Your actions can impact many

At the individual level, we can take actions to control our health, but we believe that we can achieve and learn even more as a community. We’ve sent out offers to members with similar health conditions, allowing them to ask relevant questions they would like answered about health topics that matter to them, such as anxiety or diabetes.

You’ll also have the opportunity to qualify for and participate in cutting-edge research studies related to various conditions, for which you can earn additional points or money, and together we can contribute to and advance research that can help improve health for everyone. This Evidation Member shares how her participation in a study has helped in improving her health outcomes:

“I have been using Evidation for a few years now. I participated in the 1yr Cognitive Health Study that really helped me to know how to improve my cognitive health and protect my brain from damage due to diet and environment. It motivated me to start an exercise class for seniors … As of today we have 11 in the class…” — Janet A.

We’ve worked with a variety of research partners to conduct groundbreaking research and studies where members could participate and earn. Evidation members who participated in studies and research helped to advance research in conditions ranging from like asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, mental health, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis and more. The contributions made to these studies could impact millions in the future, and help to bring new understanding about these conditions. We think Jenny, a long time Evidation Member, sums it up best:

“…[Evidation] makes me feel good knowing that maybe one day my tracking could maybe help someone. I have depression and anxiety. If that helps even one person with this data collection I stand by it 100%.” — Jenny B.

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