Live

My Wristy Overlord (also known as an Apple Watch) comes in handy for lots of things.  It keeps track of my exercise minutes, my calories burned during activities, and the number of different hours in which I stand up during the day.  That’s all pretty useful information.

But what I want to talk about today is what it tells me when I don’t work out.  Like everyone, I have sick days or days when I fail to prioritize workouts or travel days or days when I just don’t want to do it.  My Wristy Overlord does not care about why I did or did not do something.  It just tracks.

 

It turns out that my daily life, when I don’t work out, involves about 11 minutes of exercise-level activity.  Similarly, I burn about 350 active calories going about what the physical therapists call activities of daily living.  Standing up in twelve different hours of the day is no problem unless I’m so sick that I’m asleep for most of the day.

 

The other thing the Wristy Overlord does not track is how I feel.  Some days when I do Pilates and yoga and play a couple of hours of pickleball and go to tai chi, I feel energized and great.  Other times, not so much.  The reverse is also true:  some days when I don’t work out, I feel tired and others I feel fabulous.

 

Why am I going into so much detail about this?  Who cares?  Well, I am not the only one with a Wristy Overlord.  I’m the closest example that I can use!  The takeaway from my experience that I hope applies to others is this:  data is helpful, but not necessarily comprehensive.

 

Our goal, I hope, is not just to obey our Wristy Overlords, but to be be healthy, happy humans.  We are more than our data.

 

Let’s live.