Josh Beard

Health

Years of sedentary work, getting too complacent, and treating health and fitness like something I would eventually get to caught up with me. Lab work showed things heading the wrong way. Weight was up. General fitness was not where I wanted or needed it.

I’ve never been very athletic or particularly fit throughout life. I had been fit as a young adult, and had healthier stretches here and there over the years. I hiked high-altitude a lot for a while, for example. But I had not been genuinely fit in a long time. When I was, it was usually because work, hiking, or life in general happened to keep me moving.

I had known for a while that I needed to do something, but had not been very successful at starting a routine that stuck. In the summer of 2025, my Apple Watch helped push me along. Seeing my resting heart rate trend up, including a couple of alerts about it, made it harder to ignore. The watch also gave me a simple way to keep score once I started moving. I swear by it now, and recommend an Apple Watch or some kind of health and fitness watch to almost anyone trying to get moving.

This site is a pretty quiet corner of the web. It is not a big audience or a platform. An occasional visitor might stumble onto it. Still, the fact that this page is public means something to me. I want to celebrate the progress, maybe share something useful, and keep myself accountable by having it written down somewhere.

This is not health advice. I am not trying to present myself as a fitness person. This is just a note about what I am doing and how it has gone so far. The detailed workout log is on Workouts.

What I am doing

Exercise:

  • Cycling - the main thing. Bought a hybrid bike in July 2025 and started riding regularly. Mostly lunch rides during the week, longer rides on weekends when weather cooperates. First exercise routine that has really stuck for me.
  • Walking - usually evenings, a couple miles when I can
  • Dumbbells - short sessions, upper body and core, nothing heroic
  • Other exercise here and there - indoor cycling when it is cold, occasional HIIT when I need a backup

I’ve been using Strava privately to help track my workouts - mainly my rides - and to provide motivating analytics.

I like the free Timer Plus - Workouts Timer app that’s perfect for setting custom interval-based workout timers and HIIT sessions.

Diet:

  • Fasting - 16:8 as the baseline, usually closer to 18:6 in practice. Started mixing in occasional 24-hour fasts and am planning to incorporate 36-hour fasts periodically going forward.
  • Calorie counting - tracking with LoseIt, paying closer attention to portions and protein, and keeping sugar and refined carbs in check
  • Supplements - consistent basic stack for six months or more: vitamins, fiber, and similar things; nothing unusual, but it seems to have helped

I’ve used Lose It! a few times over the past 10 years and resumed using it more intentionally and successfully in 2025. I’ve stayed pretty disciplined with logging all of my food throughout the day. I also use the fasting timer. Lose It has smarter way of handling a daily calorie budget based on activity that’s synchronized from devices. When I am consistent with Lose It!, I am making the expected progress.

I’ve also been using the Intermittent app for fasting. It’s well designed, free, requires no account, and actually provides useful insight into the phases of a fast.

I’m trying Buoy Hydration Drops for day-to-day hydration supplements, as well as SALTT Drops - especially for the longer fasts that are more minimal. Too soon to share results, but I figured it was worth a try. I much prefer drops over powders and pre-mixed drinks. It’s just simpler and easier for me, which ensures I’ll actually do it regularly. Similarly, I’ve been taking psyllium husk in capsule form instead of powder because I’m certain to actually take it regularly, but a powder is very unlikely to stay in my routine. I’m willing to spend extra and have some tradeoffs for the convenience.

Habits:

  • Nicotine - quit
  • Alcohol - minimized
  • Soda - eliminated regular soda and sugary drinks a couple of years ago; have mostly cut diet soda too over the past few months
  • Caffeine - working on reducing (tea in mornings, cut off in afternoon)

What has changed so far

It has been about a year. Pretty much everything has significantly moved in the right direction:

  • Weight - down about 40 lbs, roughly two-thirds of the way to my initial 60 lb goal
  • Cholesterol - improved; total cholesterol is in normal range for the first time in a while
  • Resting heart rate - down significantly; it averaged in the low 70s when I started tracking this more closely, and has recently been around the mid-high 40s
  • Fitness - VO2 max is up to ‘above average’, and I ride most days when weather allows
  • Strength - more consistent dumbbell work, and the results are showing
  • Consistency - 400+ logged workouts since mid-2025, mostly cycling
  • Sleep - better overall, and I am usually awake before the alarm now
  • General feel - my body feels better; posture, mood, and day-to-day energy have all improved

There is still progress to be made. This is meant to be a lifelong, sustainable discipline, not a project with a finish line. But the direction is better than it was, and I want to keep it that way.

Body, Mind, and Soul

This is really a general self-improvement effort. Physical health is a big part of it right now, but the mental and spiritual parts are just as important to me. They all seem to feed each other. Exercise helps my mood, focus, and energy, and being in a better place mentally and spiritually makes it easier to keep showing up physically.

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I meditate and pray about all of this often. The bike has become a good place to sort some of it out.

I am trying to keep the whole thing practical and sustainable. Ride the bike, walk, lift a little, eat a little better, sleep better, and keep working on the rest of it too.