To track my health and progress I decided to use an Apple Watch Series 6 and my iPhone X as the hub for my health information. I’ve been an Apple user since the Macintosh II in the late 80’s but I haven’t worn a watch since I purchase my first iPhone. I was a little apprehensive about wearing a watch, but I’ve gotten used to wearing it very quickly.
I use the Fitindex Smart Scale to measure my weight and body fat (a little bit more about that in a later post) and an Omron Evolve Blood Pressure Monitor to measure my blood pressure. High blood pressure runs in my family and I have been on the higher side of normal or pre-hypertension. I have not been on blood pressure medication and would definitely like to avoid taking it so tracking my blood pressure as I lose some weight and get into better shape is important.
The Apple Watch Series 6 has a few health related sensors- it measures your heart rate, your blood oxygen, and ECG. It can also monitor the quality of your sleep and the amount you exercise. I love seeing all the data and find it motivating to see the progress that I am making.
A few things that I have learned early on from my devices.
1. My heart rate is a bit on the high side. I have been working out first thing in the morning and my heart rate spikes up while working out which is normal. It lowers some pretty quickly after the work out, but it reads high or elevated for most of the afternoon while slowly dropping through the day. The only time it reads normal is when I’m sleeping.
2. Blood pressure is a little higher than the last time I had a checkup. I read that blood pressure often rises as you age. It is definitely something I need to keep an eye on. Hopefully, I see some progress here.
3. I don’t get as much restful sleep as I need. I wear my Apple Watch to sleep and use the app AutoSleep to analyze the quality of my sleep. My kids often end up on our bed and that tends to disrupt sleep some. And I just need to allocate more time to sleep.
I started tracking about a week ago and I have already seen progress so I’m anxious to see a longer range of data.
