I have a historically bumpy relationship with having a healthy lifestyle. The only times I can recall being at what would be considered an athletically competitive weight were times when I wasn't actively interested in being healthy. It came as more of a byproduct of my lifestyle at the time; IE, working high hour, manual labor positions.
Then in 2011, I suffered a hernia in my groin area, had surgery, and ended up being completely off work and off my feet for about 6 weeks, then light duty for another 2 months, which became permanent because my old position had been filled. During just this time, I went from a fit 165 pounds, to 175*, and it precipitated what I call the 'Tides' of weight I have fluctuated through ever since, pin-balling from 185 all the way up to 200 and back, depending on how seriously I was trying to be fit. But since my efforts were always intentional rather than a byproduct of 8 hours grueling labor, getting it to stick by motivation alone wasn't working out so great.
It also does not help that in 2011 and continuing until 2016, I had almost no self control when it came to food. Down the hatch, everything all the time. I was increasing my exercise, but I developed the unfortunate mindset that 'high exercise=high calorie intake'. And while more calories are important to the exercise process, I had no way to really gauge it. So a 5 mile run would be immediately followed by an entire pizza.
This brings me to the meat and potatoes** of today's post which is how technology can enhance life and help us overcome our tendencies. In 2015, I picked up a Galaxy Gear S2 Classic smartwatch. There are a plethora of health apps out there, and being a Samsung geek, I had at least a passing relationship with Samsung Health(S Health, Gear Health? They keep changing the name.) But having the Watch made it a more noticeable presence in my life. From the moment I put it on, it started being the naggiest piece of tech I had ever had. Every hour it would condescendingly vibrate and let me know: 'You've been sitting for over 40 minutes. Why don't you go and do something?' This was annoying but it started having an effect on me. In order to avoid getting nagged to death by what I usually referred to as my 'wrist mounted mother' I would respond to the notifications by standing up and having a stretch.The watch would then also patronize me for getting up, as if to say ' I'm so glad you're being less useless. I'll nag you again in an hour.'
What I found was that the semi humorous nagging of my technology was creating an awareness of what I did in my day to day life. After a few rounds of updating the watch UI and couple years, I eventually turned off the nags, but the behavior had remained. I found myself standing up and stretching every hour or so like clockwork, the watch still let me know if I was doing anything brisk for more than 10 minutes, and most importantly of all, it allowed me to quantify two areas of my health that I had no ability to reasonably track earlier: Calories in(food), and calories out(exercise). And it was able to do it with astonishing precision. The food tracker had just about any food ever mass produced with a nutrition table, and the exercise tracker was capable of tracking reps, duration, heart rate, and even altitude***. And with that, I'm now on a path to being a healthier me.****
-Will
Editor's notes:
*If I knew someone that gained 10 pounds in 6 weeks, I would assume they were currently bodybuilding or smuggling cocaine. Either way, I'd drug test them
**Literally every meal until he got the watch.
*** "Galbraith mountain is almost 1500 feet high at The Bluffs!" He never shuts up about this.
****There are two empty pizza boxes right behind his office chair. They were not empty yesterday.
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