Health
I spent too long treating my health and fitness as something I would deal with eventually. Sedentary work and complacency caught up with me: my lab work was trending in the wrong direction, my weight was up, and I was not as fit as I wanted to be.
I have never been especially athletic. I was fitter as a young adult and had healthier stretches over the years, when work, hiking, or life happened to keep me active, but I had not been consistently fit in a long time.
By 2025, I knew I needed a routine I could sustain. My Apple Watch made the change harder to put off: my resting heart rate was rising, and I received a couple of alerts. Once I started exercising, it also gave me a useful record of the progress.
This page is a personal record of what I am doing, what has changed, and what I am learning along the way. Publishing it gives me a little extra accountability, and the Workouts page keeps the underlying log.
What I am doing
Exercise:
See my Workouts page for stats and a log of my workouts over the past year.
- 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 soon.
- Calorie counting - tracking with LoseIt, paying closer attention to portions and protein, and keeping sugar and refined carbs minimized
- Supplements - a consistent, basic routine for general health and nutrition. Nothing performance-enhancing or especially exotic.
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 - reducing; still in progress
- 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 over 40 lbs so far
- 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 an end date. But the direction is better than it was, and I want to keep it that way.