I am a data geek. Always have been. But don’t confuse me with a math wizard: Math was always one of my weaker subjects in school. I didn’t love statistics when I took it in college, yet I’m fascinated by stats. I use spreadsheets to model things that probably shouldn’t be modeled. There is something about analyzing data that simply gets me excited.
Recent advancements in technology have been feeding my desire for data at an increasingly rapid pace. I had an early Fitbit, which lasted a very short time because–like many Fitbit devices–I lost it. Fell out of my pocket. Gone. It took a while, but I eventually replaced it with a Fitbit One and I kept that one alive (even through the washing machine a few times!) for over two years before replacing it with a Fitbit Blaze a few months ago.
But that’s the tip of the iceberg! My wife (who just got a Blaze for her birthday!) and I each have a blood glucose testing machine, we share a Withings Body Cardio scale (our second Withings scale) and we have a Withings Blood Pressure device. I measure my resting heart rate and heart rate variability every morning. We’ve even peed on litmus test strips to measure the PH balance of our bodies.
We also have been trying to find a healthy, sustainable eating plan and we remain committed to finding a way to work out regularly and with some goal in mind.
Accompanying all of this are books. Books upon books covering all of these topics and more.
In this website, we aim to address all of these things in a, hopefully, coherent pursuit of better health as we age. Anyone over the age of, say, 40 has already dealt with some degradation in health, be it mobility, fitness, eyesight, weight or something else. Few people stay fit and healthy through the working years. Although most of us realize we need to make efforts to do so, we just don’t.
Maybe, just maybe, having results, showing progress, mapping the data will be enough to motivate us. And maybe you, too?