May 2020 Health Review

This is the 5th post of my monthly series focused on monitoring what I’ve identified as being critical components to a healthy lifestyle. If you haven’t read the 1st post yet, check it out to understand why I’m doing this.

How’d I do?

• This is my 3rd health post since we’ve been quarantined. While life is hugely different today than just three months ago, it’s very similar to life 30 days ago, despite some reopening efforts that are underway in many parts of the country. If you stay healthy and employed, then quarantine life doesn’t change much from week to week. By the way, if you’re interested in following the financial crisis, I’m logging each day on this living page from the lens of a retail investor.
• I’m still not riding my real bike. It turns out I’m a little shook from my early March fall, and I still don’t want to do anything risky given the health crisis.

Activity

Kcal & Workout Duration

• Total kcal from all activity was 31,186, down from 31,470 in April.
• Average kcal/day decreased to 1,006 from 1,049.
• Average exercise minutes/day increased to 65 from 71.
• I walked less this month but I did more Peloton rides. Most were 60 minutes focused in Zone 2.

Time in Zones

I focused on Zone 2 this month (like I did in February). I did a lot of 60 minute Zone 2 rides, but I also broke through a few plateaus, getting three new PRs (75min, 45min, 20min). I’ll probably continue focusing on Zone 2 every ~3 months.

Biking & Peloton

As mentioned, I didn’t ride my real bike outside this month, and I don’t foresee myself riding it again for a while.

• My Peloton time increased by 60 minutes (May: 1,363 vs. April: 1,303).
• Kcal from the Peloton decreased 990 (May: 17,620 vs. April: 18,610).

• I had 3 Personal Records this month (not reflected on the chart above; time to change it).
• 75 minute PR resulting in 683kj.
• 45 minute PR resulting in 565kj.
• 20 minute PR resulting in 269kj.

• +10 miles in May over April.

Steps

I target an average of 4-5 miles of steps per day (~10,500). Anything much higher results in some knee pain. 8,527 is considerably lower, though, and I can handle more. The keys to the game are life span & healthspan. I’m learning where I can give, take, and where I need to maintain. I need to maintain when it comes to step count.

Awards

Apple Watch

• I continued my long 761+ day move, stand, and exercise streak.
• I completed my May Challenge, closing all 3 Activity rings 31 times.

Peloton

Heart Rate

I mainly care about Resting Heart Rate, which was up 1bpm to 49bpm from April. HRV decreased from 61ms in April to 59ms in May. I don’t understand it or know if Apple’s measurement is accurate, but I track it anyway. Both went in the opposite direction than we’d like to see.

Sleep

Averaging 8 hours of sleep per night requires dedication and effort for me. As I said in my 1st post, getting good sleep is the result of everything I focus on– being active, eating OK, getting outside, feeling financially secure, cutting out booze, and the security that comes with knowing I’m living a healthy lifestyle.

• Averaged 7:55/night in May, down from 8:12/night in April.
• Averaging 7:59/night in 2020 (compared to an averaged of 7:44/night in 2019).

Weight

My short term weight management goal is to stay below 190lbs, so I’m right on target at an average of 186.7 for the month. But I gained this month and last after dropping a lot in April. I burned less kcal this month, so maybe doing more Hiit and less Zone 2 rides in June will bring my weight back down a bit.

• Average weight increased to 186.7lbs from 183.6lbs in April.

Blood Pressure

Interesting content

• My living page from the lens of a retail investor in the US.

Next steps

• Upcoming:
  • Continue playing my part to destress the healthcare system. Being super risk averse with all of my actions, and continuing to preach to others why they should do the same. Not riding my bike.
  • Maintain activity numbers.
• Eventually:
  • Dig into Mark Koester’s open-sourced Quantified Self project which is a collection of Python scripts to help collect, process, and aggregate data from various services like Apple Health. My end goal is to be able to do this with my wife’s Dexcom data (she’s t1d) as an additional source so she can better understand how different types of workouts impact her blood sugar. There’s currently more inconsistency than desired which is very frustrating so I want to help her figure it out. Might also re-familiarize myself with Rapid Miner to see if we can better predict blood sugar changes.
• Further down the line:
  • Introduce consistent swimming.
  • Get a CGM for myself (probably an older G5 on Amazon or eBay).

Key tools

• iPhone 11
• Apple Watch 3
• WordPress + AWS Lightsail (this blog)
• Google Sheets
• Apple Keynote
• Peloton spin bike (referral code: 3TWTMH)
• Canyon Endurace
• Strava
• Training Peaks
• Health app
• HealthFit app
• Zones app
• AutoSleep app
• Gyroscope app
• HeartWatch app
• Withings Body+ scale
• Withings Blood Pressure Monitor