How I Supercharged My Health

More than a step counter. How the Ryze smartwatch supercharged my health.

I had two objectives in 2022- the first was to make ‘healthier’ habits second nature. The other challenge was achieving this goal, without setting fire to my wallet.

No gym memberships. No subscriptions. No new home gym equipment. No new active wear.

For me to become my own ‘everyday hero,’ my efforts had to result in long-term change. Basically, an automatic habit, for a healthier me.

I was referred to a smartwatch that would sit on my wrist, and more than just look pretty, it would remind me to walk, hydrate, wash my hands and monitor my stress.

It would force me to learn about my heartrate and improve my sleeping habits.

I was aiming to feel (much) better, increase my fitness and be much more productive.

Why start now?

As I reach 40, I know I need to work harder to be healthy, and there is more to health than just being fit. It’s also for longevity. After age 40 my risk for bowel cancer increases. I know that it is more important than ever to drink 8 glasses of water a day to flush out my kidneys, even though I would rather drink coffee any day of the week. And, while my metabolism might have helped avoid visceral fat around my vital organs’ pre-40, those days are long gone.

So, if I can be better, anyone can.

Here are the simple but utterly awesome ways my Ryze watch helped improve my performance (from zero) and build habits. Afterall, they say it takes just 60 days to create a habit.

It improved my fitness by using its reminders and trackers

There are several commonalities that help reduce the prevalence of many health problems: drink water, avoid being sedentary, increase your heart rate for 30 minutes, 3 times a week minimum, get fresh air and sunlight and eat fruit and veggies and sleep. And wash your hands!

So far with using my new Ryze Flex, I’ve been able to remind myself and incentivise an increase in fitness activities. It tracks my running (attempts) but I can set the AI ‘running companion’ to compete with me (it always wins) and I can see proper measurements to track other sports I might try. Every effort counts, right?

I also love that I can control my playlists and a few other tasks by using my voice, so I can keep fit and stay active at the same time.

It made returning to work healthier

Like most people of working age in 2022, I returned to work in the office after a year WFH to do what I had done for 15 years before hand- work in an office. But for some reason this time it was different.

The adjustment was hard. Coffee did not ward off the brain fog. I was obsessed with the vending machine, my brain lusting after the sugar hit it provided.

I can’t tell you how important setting some hourly routines helped my body adjust to life back in the office and keep me away from the Mars bars in the machine.

The Ryze Evo’s App allowed me to set hourly ‘walk around’ (100 steps, no biggie) and drinking reminders (1 glass an hour). I used the washing hands reminder every 2 hours as an opportunity to also increase my steps, but the added advantage was that while everyone else was getting sick, with their post-covid, battered immune systems, I coasted through unscathed.

I finally sorted out my poor sleeping patterns

Let’s be clear. The Ryze smartwatch won’t magically make you fall asleep, but it will do something else, that in many ways is much more powerful: it will help you take control and own your sleeping habits.

In my case, it was a partnership. My issues were that I slept late, and not very well. I would wake, and sometimes toss and turn from 5am. The tracking capabilities of the Ryze Flex Monitored my sleep and fed the information to the Ryze App, where I was able view my sleep ‘performance’: the time I spent in deep sleep, v's light, and when I was awake. It logged my bedtimes and wake times, and then calculated the data to give me a sleep score. There is something oddly powerful about having all this data logged and presented back to you in a table that makes you work harder to improve it. I’m glad to say, my sleeping patterns are now better than they were six months ago.

New me

If you’re a fitness and health buff, you might be wondering why someone taking charge of their health is such a big deal. For many of us, being healthier and fitter can be an overwhelming and often unachievable goal.

Not just in terms of working out where to start, it’s the practical application that you have to push yourself to commit and stick to it. Sometimes its uncomfortable, and sometimes I would rather do other things with my time.

Now six months later, this where I have landed:

I might never climb Mount Everest or run the New York Marathon, but I’ve transformed parts of my life in a way that I can maintain. My Ryze smartwatch has absolutely been a game changer in keeping me conscious and focused on my goals. I feel fitter, I have lost weight and I have more energy. I can say it hasn’t been a drastic overhaul to achieve these feats, it has just been the sum of many small habits to create an incredible difference. And I didn’t incinerate my wallet! I will reset my goals for 2023 and who knows what fitness goals they might entail- maybe running through New York might be a good incentive.