Becoming Fit for Life #036: Trackers, Sugar, Night-Snacks
⌚️How to determine if a fitness tracker is good for you, what sugar does to your body, why you should limit your food at night, and how to think about health more holistically
This week in building health
You’re Not Just ‘Tracking,’ You’re Looking for Patterns
Last week I got into a debate about fitness trackers
A friend saw the Garmin on my wrist and said - “does that really help you with your health? I stopped using a fitness tracker 2 years ago and my health has been so much better. I learned how to trust my own intuition.”
“You don’t need a fitness tracker to be healthy” — she said
Yes, I 100% agree
But, since I got my Garmin in November last year, I’ve been able to sleep better, get more regular workouts, and enjoy my health more.
So what is it? Is tracking good or unhelpful?
Going from Tracking — to Stopping — to Tracking again
I’ve been through that full cycle.
I had smart watch from 2015 to 2019.
Then after that I stopped for 4 years.
It was only last year again in 2022 that I started tracking again.
What changed?
In the first phase, I got my tracker because I wanted to improve my sleep hygiene. And the only way I could know if I was sleeping well was to get some data.
So I bought a fitness watch and started wearing it all the time
My Mistake: It’s Not About Data for Data’s Sake
At first I was thrilled.
I loved seeing a number come in to tell me how well I was doing. That was exciting, motivating, and helped me get to bed at a consistent time.
But then my life started getting busier.
And my sleep score started suffering.
I felt stuck.
My work and responsibilities forced me to prioritize other things over my health. But day after day I would still see my poor scores: 70—65—50—62 etc. You get the idea.
If I could go back and give myself some advice then, I would tell myself to take a break from the tracking when the stress was too high.
Don’t Let Obsession or Health Anxiety Take Over
I was already wound up enough at work, I didn’t need my health to feel like it was out of control also.
I stopped tracking sleep and steps in 2018 because I was just getting frustrated that I couldn’t get good scores on my tracker.
Then in 2021 I saw this article that helped me think about fitness trackers again, and how I could re-apply it to my health and lifestyle.
Be a Self-Scientist: What Patterns or Observations do you see?
The bottom line for me is:
Trackers can be powerful tools, if you have an experimenter’s mindset. Gather data, observe, don’t judge yourself. See how the information you’ve gathered is helping you make better decisions about your health today.
At the end of the day, the data is there to serve you and your goals.
If your goal is to eat well, sleep better, and feel better about your body, there are many ways to keep track of that.
Yes, you can track data like
Hours of sleep
Quality of sleep
Timing of meals
Calories
etc
But it’s also important to see:
How is your mood?
How are your energy levels?
Do you get to spend time with friends?
Do you feel good about your body?
These are none-quantifiable things that are still a part of your overall health.
Looking at everything together, and seeing how they change over time will give you a better idea of where your health is at.
My favorite health things for the week
// one
How Does Late Night Snacking Affect Your Body
8 minutes | Nicole M. LaMarco
Weekends always end up breaking my diet habits
Why?
If I go out, and spend an evening out with friends, I end up staying awake later than I do on weekdays.
Inevitably, I’ll end up having some snacks after dinner, or when I get home before bed.
But our bodies weren’t made for late night snacking— it’s more natural to eat during daytime hours, and then refrain from after dinner till the next day.
Night time calories are coming in when the body doesn’t need it, so it usually ends up getting stored instead of used.
// two
What Sugar Really Does to the Body
18 minutes | Institute of Human Anatomy
Every time I help someone lose weight they ask:
“Is sugar bad?”
Sometimes, when I don’t feel like explaining I’ll go ahead and say “Yes, you should avoid sugar.” But of course, there is much much more to it than that.
Our body needs sugar to function. So it’s important to know what’s the right kind of sugar that will help me fuel my goals.
Check out this video to get a sense of how it works in the body.
// three
Movement as Medicine
63 minutes | Greg Nance
Greg Nance is an endurance athlete and an ultramarathoner. He once ran across the entire United States - to raise awareness for mental health.
His story is a reminder that there’s so much more to health that just being physically fit. It’s all about finding your purpose, serving your community, and taking care of your health to do that.
Here’s a great excerpt from the podcast:
When I started to run, and put on my shoes, what shifted was that my dual life came crashing together.
I was going to school, but I was completely wasting my opportunity. I was spending my money on alcohol and drugs.
Getting into running took on a new source of meaning for me. I’m actively pursuing a better version of myself
Thanks for reading!
If you like “Becoming Fit for Life” please share it with someone who can learn from it. You can also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ just below, which helps me get visibility on Substack.
Until next week,
Javier Gomez