Has your health optimization gone too far?

Maybe our fitness watches are too much with us

I decided years ago to leave my heart rate monitor at home when I went for walks in the woods or hikes in the mountains. I wore my Garmin watch tracking heart rate and time, distance, and elevation gain only once this year, and that was on a serious mountain hike.

But cycling? Well, that was different. I tried to break myself of the bike computer and fitness watch for bike rides as long ago as last year but somehow felt naked without them.

I have done better this year, leaving my bike computer and Garmin sports watch behind for the majority of my rides.

After all, my last official race, the California Masters State Championship, was in 1996. Right. You can do the math.

So why was I keeping a training log, recording time and distance, making notes of power output, average heart rate, max heart rate, time in zones? I had no intention of racing again. So, I had to admit that this level of detail did not make sense.

Well, I told myself, here’s a possible reason: your resting heart rate, VO2 Max, body fat percentage, blood pressure and all the other biomarkers that are measured at your checkups are excellent. So maybe all that attention to cycling metrics has been helpful.

Here’s my current experiment. I will use a heart rate monitor and bike computer no more than a couple of times a month, even though I’ll still ride 3 or 4 times a week. I’ll continue to leave the Garmin watch at home for almost all hikes.

Even if heart rate mode is not activated, the Garmin automatically counts my steps, so that’s out too. No Garmin, you don’t even get to come along.

My concern obviously is that I’ll get lazy and not ride or hike hard enough.

Ok, how to test it? Easy enough. I’ll look at morning resting heart rate regularly. If it creeps up substantially, I’ll know I might be slacking off. I weigh myself only a few times a year. I’ll stick to that infrequent schedule but use a smart scale (Withings) and keep track of body fat percentage. But again, only a few times a year. Blood pressure check? Only once or twice a year.

In other words, I’ll try not to get too excited about this stuff, but still track key markers.

Last week my wife, Andrea, shared a post by author Michael Easter (The Comfort Crises) from his Two Percent newsletter. The title, “Death by Health Optimization.” He argues that in trying to optimize physical health, many of us are damaging our mental health.

Growing numbers of health and fitness enthusiasts are showing up in therapist’s offices with anxiety, relationship problems, as well as and other mental health issues all because of an obsession with health and fitness. This to a degree that was unheard of a decade ago. Physical health up. Mental health tanking.

Michael Easter wrote that he spoke with well-known therapist Ryan Soave who said, “…can people be harmed or their lives be affected negatively by their relationship with things that everybody sees as healthy? 100%.”

The same goes, Easter says, for over zealously sticking to a ‘healthy diet,’ as well as weight training, and obsessively counting steps per day.

One of my favorite books from the last few years is Outlive by Peter Attia and co-author Bill Gifford. I think it’s a valuable book. And yet, Bill Gifford thinks the current obsessive interest in health and fitness has become a “cult” and that he is at least partially responsible for causing it.

Micheal Easter goes on to say that going from only 3,000 steps per day to 8,000 steps or more per day  is “associated with a 50% decrease in all cause mortality.” Also, 150 minutes of cardio per week is highly recommended. It’s when you exceed 300 minutes per week that the benefit levels off.

My wife and I are probably both outliers in this regard. But I do wonder, if we simply enjoy a nice walk in the woods--we saw the first Tiger Lillys of the summer in bloom this morning--or an easy cruise on a backroad’s highway on our bikes, does that count as cardio, or just a fun activity? Technically, it counts. But we’re not in it for the exercise, just an enjoyable outing. Do we exceed 300 minutes per week? Absolutely.

An interesting thing happened after only a couple of weeks without gadgets. I found I did not miss the digital displays that had been taking my attention all the time. I could remember being 15 years old, or even younger, and the sheer happiness and freedom of simply riding my bike, anywhere, or nowhere. I lived in a San Diego suburb at the time so I could go to a friend’s house, to Balboa Park or the beach in La Jolla. Hell, it just didn’t matter. Time and distance? It never occurred to me to even wonder.

I have learned to feel that way again.

Did I say summer side of life?