I’m about three months into having a Whoop (fitness/bio tracker) and it’s actually had a surprising effect on me.
If you’re not familiar with Whoop, it’s basically a wristband that monitors your vital signs and gives you insights into how your body is functioning.
I don’t want to get too into the details on how it works or what it does but instead focus more on the impact it’s had on my life.
For a little context though, at the top level Whoop measures “strain” and “recovery” which, in my experience, might as well just be “exercise” and “sleep” although there are some other things that affect your strain and recovery besides exercise and sleep.
Interestingly, these two areas are where I’ve made the biggest changes.
I now exercise twice as hard and for twice as long as I did before. I think this is partially because now my workouts are gamified and I want to reach a certain amount of “strain”.. but also because I can see how hard I’m actually working rather than how hard it feels like I’m working.. which I’ve found to be two vastly different things.
Whoop also has a nifty journal feature that I fill out every morning and it’s basically yes or no questions that you customize for your lifestyle and goals. Mine is about 30 questions such as..
Did you get morning sunlight?
Did you eat close to bedtime?
Did you feel mentally and emotionally stable today?
Did you drink alcohol?
Did you drink caffeine? etc….
The cool thing is that over time it will show you what effect certain behaviors have on your recovery each day..
I find that this isn’t incredibly accurate and the questions are sometimes hard to answer but the behaviors that really move the needle for me have become pretty clear over time.
Basically, on the positive side it tends to be consistent bedtime, getting morning sun and winding down before bed. On the negative side it’s added sugar, spending a lot of my day in the “high stress zone” and some other sleep-related habits.
I knew sugar has a negative effect on me but the idea that having an overly stressful day would negatively impact my sleep and recovery is something I hadn’t ever considered and I probably would have guessed the opposite.
Though I’ve been slacking on my meditations lately, I’ve found that when I meditate my stress level not only goes down but stays down and is lower than normal throughout the day.
All in all, I often question the overall accuracy of a lot of these metrics but it’s accurate enough that it has actually meaningfully improved my life and changed the way I think about and make certain decisions.
However, I do think that it may be unnecessary to wear after a year or so because I will have basically learned how everything affects me and won’t really need it anymore.. but that remains to be seen.
Looking back it seems kind of crazy to think how blind I was to how my body was functioning and what things were affecting me in what ways. If you care about your health and haven’t tried a fitness tracker before, it’s worth looking into in my opinion.(this is not an ad)
Thanks for reading!
If you keep scrolling you will see that I’m piloting an update section for the things I’m putting out as well as consuming! Check it out and let me know what you think!
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New From Me
The Star
On top of my ‘Wonderneath’ YouTube channel, I’ve created another channel called ‘Sky Stories’. These are meant to be soothing and inspiring bedtime stories to listen to and relax. I’ve chosen and soft and gentle voice to narrate the stories and set them to lullaby style music. Check out my pilot episode here.
Why I went to Ukraine (in 2021)
You might have seen this in a previous email but I’ve started posting to my old podcast channel again (Wonderneath) and am going to be making videos based on the posts that perform well on this blog. This is my first one! Subscribe and drop a comment!
Strike Tracker
Moments:
Seeing the neighborhood crows waiting for me on my morning walk and thinking about the prospect of being friends.
The holy matrimony of vanilla ice creme and root beer… when it gets slushy it’s a thing of beauty. What a union! Till death do us part..
Concepts
People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies. - Blair Warren
Learning isn’t about just putting things into your brain, it’s mainly about dragging the things you’ve put in, back out and using them. The use of knowledge turns about to be a crucial part of encoding it.
What I’m watching this week:
Sam Harris on the Rich Roll Podcast
I’m a huge fan of Sam and genuinely feel that he is one of the most important minds of our time. I don’t agree with him on everything but he is extremely reasonable and insightful in a wide range of areas.
Billy Carson on the PBD Podcast
Buckle up for this one. This is the second time I’ve watched Billy talk about this stuff and let’s just say I’m not less convinced that there is more to the history on this planet than we are taught in school. The Anunnaki are real!
Alex O’Connor vs. Dinesh D’Souza
A good old religious debate! I’ve loved this kind of thing since I was old enough to question it for myself. If I’m being honest, this seemed like a blood bath for the most part and I would like to see someone more educated than D’Souza defend the apparent contradictions in the Bible
See ya next week!
Dannysuede.com - Music (Spotify) - Instagram - Youtube - Tiktok - Threads - X