When Optimizing Your Health Starts Making You Less Healthy
Never before have we had so much information about our health. Smartwatches tell us how well we slept, how stressed we are, how recovered we should feel, and whether we’re ready to exercise. Apps count every calorie, monitor every step, analyse our heart rate variability, track our menstrual cycle, remind us to drink water and encourage us to meditate. Social media constantly serves up the latest “must-do” habits, supplements, cold plunges, fasting protocols and longevity hacks, all promising to help us live longer, healthier lives.
The intention behind much of this technology is genuinely positive. Having access to more information can help us make better decisions and understand our bodies more deeply. But somewhere along the way, wellness has become increasingly complicated.
It can start to feel as though staying healthy requires a full-time job. There are hundreds of metrics to monitor, endless advice to follow and an ever-growing list of things we should be doing. Instead of making us feel empowered, it can leave us feeling guilty, anxious and convinced we’re somehow falling short.
Ironically, in our pursuit of perfect health, we can lose sight of what health actually feels like.
When Your Watch Knows Better Than You… Or Does It?
Sleep tracking is a great example of this. Many people now wake up and check their sleep score before they even get out of bed. Imagine you’ve slept well, you wake feeling refreshed and ready for the day, but your watch gives you a score of 62 and tells you your recovery is poor. Suddenly you begin questioning how you feel. You decide not to exercise, expect to feel tired all day and become hyper-aware of every little dip in energy.
The opposite happens too. A wearable might tell you that you’re fully recovered and ready for a hard workout, even though your body feels exhausted, sore or mentally drained.
This illustrates something psychologists call the nocebo effect – where negative expectations can actually influence how we experience symptoms. While wearable technology provides useful estimates, it doesn’t know about your emotional state, work stress, illness, life circumstances or simply how you feel today.
Your body is still one of the most valuable sources of information you have.
What Does Wellness Overwhelm Look Like?
You might be experiencing wellness overwhelm if you find yourself:
- Obsessing over every health metric instead of looking at the bigger picture.
- Feeling anxious when you miss a workout or don’t hit your daily targets.
- Constantly searching for the “perfect” diet or newest supplement.
- Spending more time reading about health than actually enjoying life.
- Feeling guilty for resting because your watch says you’re recovered.
- Ignoring your own body’s signals because an app says otherwise.
- Believing that if you aren’t doing everything, you’re doing nothing.
Come Back to the Big Rocks
The good news is that the foundations of good health haven’t changed very much. Long-term wellbeing is still built on remarkably simple habits done consistently. Focus on the things that matter most:
- Strength train at least 2-3 times each week to maintain muscle, bone health and independence.
- Include a little higher-intensity cardiovascular exercise each week alongside regular walking and daily movement.
- Eat a Mediterranean-style diet, rich in vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains, healthy fats and quality sources of protein.
- Prioritise good sleep habits, aiming for consistent bedtimes rather than chasing the perfect sleep score.
- Manage stress through activities you genuinely enjoy, whether that’s spending time outdoors, reading, mindfulness, hobbies or connecting with friends.
- Stay socially connected and make time for fun, laughter and purpose.
- Remember that consistency beats perfection every single time.
Technology can be an excellent servant, but it’s a poor master. Use the data as a guide, not a judge. Trust your body, focus on the fundamentals and remember that good health isn’t about optimizing every minute of every day – it’s about building sustainable habits that allow you to live your life well.
This is How WE Optimize
If you want to optimize in a way that truly dials in those big rocks, the ultimate solution is our Move Daily Membership. Tracy and Kim live and breathe optimizing because we focus our Members on what really matters. Let’s break down how we do this:
- Workouts: Tracy curates three specific workout streams for your use, every single week and our Members always get the exclusives first.
- Nutrition: Coach Kim is on hand to support our ladies, plus we have full sample meal plans for omnivore and vegan (which include calories, macros and fiber as well as being customizable).
- Focused fat loss: If fat loss is your goal Coach Kim provides a stack of guidance in the App on how to do this efficiently and effectively – cutting through the noise, it is all you need to nail progress.
- Social connection: Our private Membership Facebook group is the cornerstone of our community. Exclusively women, it is a place for camaraderie, support, joy and companionship with likeminded women who are determined to live their lives with health at the forefront.
- Consistency: The Membership has the firm foundation of the basics, complimented by a whole raft of engaging and fun activities and themes. For example in July we’re focusing on Summer Success – a month packed full of setting up our women ready to make the most of a great season, whilst keeping their goals on point. This approach of combining basics with motivational and engaging drivers, ensures our women live their lives whilst meeting their objectives. True consistency right there.
If you want to join us and go on to have an incredible summer, as well as being in the best possible place when fall rolls around, come on in! Tracy and Kim would love to see you there.
Move Daily Talks is on Vacay!
A new season of Move Daily Talk’s is coming to your ears in September, but for now take a look back over nearly 100 episodes and pick one to listen to. Tracy has spoken to dozens of experts – every one from Dr Stuart Phillips talking about muscle and bone health, Dr Darren Candow deep-diving into creatine and Dr Lauren Colenso-Semple PhD busting some myths.
You can find them all here to listen to, learn from and enjoy. Or watch on YouTube.
This Weeks Workouts!
Here is your handy reminder of the current week’s workouts. All of the workouts are available either free via the YouTube channel, or are the Members Exclusive workouts, which you can access if you sign up to our Membership. Don’t forget that the workouts are released across the week and so make sure you are signed up for YouTube notifications by subscribing to the channel.
