Low Effort Louis Male, age 72 About Louis: Louis was diagnosed 6 years ago. He is retired and lives with his wife in the suburbs. They are empty nesters. Louis wasn’t very fit before his diagnosis. He was never really into exercising and it’s been hard for him to get into healthier habits. His doctor recognizes this, so he asks very little of Louis. Louis believes his disease will be what it will be and the best thing he can do is exactly what his doctor says. He takes his meds. The doc suggested he take walks so some days, he’ll walk around the block a few times. He got a FitBit to track his steps, sleep, and heart rate since sometimes he gets low blood pressure. He has a lot of symptoms but doesn’t journal his mood, nutrition, digestive issues, tremor, and other symptoms and experiences. His doctor doesn’t press him about too many of these details so he doesn’t feel motivated to spend time documenting them. He only has so much energy in a day, so how should he spend it? He’s proud of whatever he can accomplish before his energy runs out. iStock #31294134 “I’m doing what my doctors says to do but that’s it. I don’t have a lot of energy and I just can’t get into this group exercise thing.” Needs and Frustrations: Louis doesn’t want to join the seniors dance group or ride a bicycle. He just wants to sit, relax, read, and save up his energy. He’s frustrated by how little energy he has but feels there is nothing he can do about it. Motivated by Authority: Louis is likely to do what his doctor tells him to do but little more. He respects his doctor’s decisions and doesn’t see a need to add, experiment, or improvise. He’d like his tracker to track more things. That sounds interesting. But then he’s not even sure what he would do with that information.

Community Carrie Female, age 65 About Carrie: Carrie was diagnosed 2 years ago. She is retired and lives in the suburbs with her husband. They are empty nesters. Carrie stays pretty fit. In addition to gardening, she rides her bike a few times a week. She just joined a [disease-focused exercise] group. She enjoys technology. She has a Mac computer and iPhone. She got a FitBit about 18 months ago. She found a [disease] community on FitBit and has made new friends around the USA. They watch each other’s progress. She added these people on Facebook. She wants to feel close to and involved with them. Carrie likes to see their comments when she posts about her journey. iStock #21609239 “The more we engage with others, the less we’ll think about ourselves. That’s my motto for life and my [disease] journey.” Needs and Frustrations: Carrie doesn’t mind a bit of journaling about her symptoms and experience. She’ll do some manual entry into her apps. But she really wishes that her devices and apps could track so much more. She would like her apps to give her better data and personalized ideas. Like, “Hey, it’s a great day to do some gardening. Get outside!” Motivated by Connection With Others: Carrie does her best when she knows other people are “watching.” That could mean FitBit friends checking what activities she has done or Facebook friends looking to see what she’s up to. She has a competitive spirit and wants to see herself doing well on the app leaderboards.

Seeker Steve Male, age 68 About Steve: Steve was diagnosed 4 years ago. He has a graduate degree and still works. The kids are all grown and gone. His wife is a retired teacher and his true partner. Steve is always looking for a new group or sport he can join. He has a hiking group, boxing club, cycling club, and a personal trainer he meets and the gym 3 mornings each week before work. He loves gadgets and upgrades as the budget allows. He put fancy pedals on his bike that measure which leg is working harder. He has more than one fitness tracker so that he can measure different things. He tries to bring them all together in Apple Health as best as he can. He tries every fitness app he can find. He also keeps a journal of the things his software doesn’t easily track. When he takes his meds and the dosage, what he’s eating, bowel movements, sleep, mood, the works. This will give him good records to look over and show his medical team. Needs and Frustrations: Steve has a lot of equipment. He’s frustrated by his apps not talking to each other. Why can’t this be one easy to wear, easy to use, waterproof device that will track every possible thing plus let him manually journal anything he wants? With all the tech we have now, why can’t his systems do a better job finding patterns? Is his sleep better based on things he eats? Is his energy better on days with cycling or with hiking? iStock #62784516 “Exercise and activity are the path to a good and healthy life, even with [disease].” Motivated by Self Care and Pride: Steve doesn’t need gold stars or leaderboards to get things done. He is motivated by knowing he is giving himself the best life he can possibly have. Steve shares his [disease] journey with many people in his life because he is proud of how well he is doing and how he is creating good outcomes.