I just finished watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on Netflix. It’s a documentary about a guy who decides to reboot his life by going on a juice only fast for 60 days. He lost weight and everything you would expect from such a drastic change in lifestyle. He was energized, didn’t rely on his medication, and had a better outlook on life.
After many years of overworking and not paying attention to my diet, I think age has finally caught up. Today, I struggled to remember words, concepts, and experiences as I was responding to an email. Just a few years back, I would be able to do that while tweeting, listening to music, watching a movie, and drinking a soda.
For me, I’m naturally a small build. I can eat massive amounts of food and not gain significant weight. Instead, it all affects my mood and arteries. So, starting today, and my defacto New Year’s resolution, I will be going on a hybrid juice diet. I’m not going to give up eating all meals, but will replace at least 50 – 75% of my meals with juice.
Using data to analyze my progress
As a technologist, I love tech toys. In the health world, there is a lot of tech to monitor virtually everything. The advantage of doing so is the amount of data I can collect over time versus my periodic checkup at the doctor’s office.
I’m currently using:
- a Fitbit to track activity level (flights of stairs, steps taken) and sleep quality (number of times awoken at night). The app also has a form to manually track body measurements.
- DNA sequencing from 23andme. This is a little creepy but I sent in a saliva sample a while ago and they sequence part of the DNA and correlate it to survey data from participants.
I would like to track:
- Weight – I would like to try the Withings wifi body scale. It tracks weight, fat mass, and BMI and transmits it via wifi.
- Blood pressure – Withings also has a blood pressure monitor that could hook up to my iPhone.
