June 2020 Health Review
5 min read

June 2020 Health Review

June 2020 Health Review

This is the 6th 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 4th health post since we’ve been quarantined. While life is hugely different today than just four months ago, it’s very similar to life 30 days ago, despite some reopening efforts (and now, reclosing 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 33,030, up considerably from 31,186 in May.
  • Average kcal/day increased to 1,101 from 1,006.
  • Average exercise minutes/day increased to 75 from 65.
  • I walked more this month and did shorter, more high-intensity Peloton rides than last month.

Time in Zones

I focused on Zone 2 last month (like I did in February). In June, I decided to do a bit of a mix. I did a lot of 60 minute rides with the first 30 mins focused on Zone 2 and last 30 focused on Hiit. This (plus more working) explains the rise in average exercise minutes and daily calories per day over May.

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 decreased by 46 minutes (June: 1,317 vs. May: 1,363).
  • Kcal from the Peloton increased 452 (June: 18,072 vs. May: 17,620).
  • I only had 1 Personal Record this month, after getting 3 the month before.
  • 20 minute PR resulting in 272kj (previous 20min PR was 269kj).
  • -4miles in June from May. Looks like I’m plateauing.

Steps

I target an average of 4-5 miles of steps per day (~10,500). Anything much higher results in some knee pain. 9,954 is right in range, and well above last months 8,527. 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 791+ day move, stand, and exercise streak.
  • I completed my June Challenge, exceeding 2,140 exercise minutes.

Peloton

Heart Rate

I mainly care about Resting Heart Rate, which was down 1bpm to 48bpm from May. HRV decreased from 59ms in May to 57ms in June. 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 7:45/night in June, down from 7:55/night in May.
  • Averaging 7:57/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 for the month.

  • Average weight decreased to 186lbs from 186.7lbs in May.

Blood Pressure

Interesting content

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.

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