Optimizing Health

I specifical looked for practical behavioral habits and physiological biomarkers that optimized or gave insight into my priorities:

Emotional Wellbeing
Mental energy/clarity
Musculoskeletal and cardiovascular fitness
Long term health

I used the following measurement tools:
1. Whoop: A Wearable Fitness and Sleep Tracker
2. Oura Ring: Another Wearable Fitness and Sleep Tracker
3. Signos: A Wearable Continuous Glucose Monitor for direct, real-time measurement of blood glucose (blood sugar).
4. Inside Tracker: A Blood Panel that checks blood and DNA based biomarkers to gauge health, biological age, risk factors and suggested behavioral changes.
5. ZozoFit: A Body Suit and scanner for 3D modeling precise body measurements and composition.
6. Personal reflection and journaling.

Takeaways:

1. Regular exercise was the catalyst that naturally precipitated healthy eating, good sleep, and a better mood. I now know that when I go through a challenging time or phase of depression, the place to start is building back an exercise practice that involves a mix of strength training, cardio, and longer walks/hikes in nature.
   I consistently see improvements in my mood, the instinctive quality of my food choices, and get better sleep, often the same day I start exercising again.
   I felt the very best and made the best strength gains in my life after a couple months following the majority of Andrew Huberman's Foundational Fitness Protocol (substituting an Epsom salt bath for the hot/cold exposure day). Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford and publishes an outstanding science based podcast covering a wide range of general health practices and niche topics from how to manage anxiety or get great sleep to the pros/cons/protocols of alcohol, caffeine or psilocybin use.
2. The top biometric I found worthwhile measuring was my real-time blood sugar via a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). The CGM showed me directly what foods and eating habits were most taxing on my body from a blood sugar perspective. It turned out quantity of carbohydrates was way more impactful than quality carbs on spiking my blood sugar. For example: A big bowl of pasta or eating 4 slices of bready pizza often spiked my blood glucose 10 times more than a couple Oreos.
   I found it's ok to have a sweet treat now and then, and that having big portions of any type of carby grain products like bread, pasta or rice–even when they look 'healthy' really spike my glucose.
   Why do glucose spikes matter? Basically, our blood sugar is very well managed by our bodies to keep within a certain range to effectively fuel our cells. When we eat carbohydrates, this essential nutrient makes it's way into our blood for distribution where it's needed around the body. If our glucose levels get too high, our bodies use elevated levels of insulin to move the sugar to cells for immediate use, or long term storage as body fat. Chronically spiking glucose can be taxing on our bodies and contribute to metabolic diseases like diabetes.
   My favorite breakfast, which I currently eat most days, is two scrambled eggs with stir-fried/steamed broccoli & cauliflower cooked with steam and olive oil, and topped with salt, hemp hearts, and some more olive oil–I found that protein with high fiber veggies make almost zero impact on my blood sugar. This breakfast is adapted from one of the dietary recommendations made by Bryan Johnson's Blueprint protocol.

After using a CGM for 2 months and experimented with many foods and eating styles. If I were to do it again, I'd just have gone for 1 month and pack in all of my experiments. You learn pretty quickly what impacts your blood glucose and what doesn't--I also found the CGM sensors to by annoying to wear and the Signos CGM app to be very glitchy and frustrating to use anything beyond it's basic functionality.

3. The only other biometric measurement I found worthwhile to measure was heart rate variability (HRV) via a wearable sleep tracker. HRV is the fluctuation of timing between heart beats measured in milliseconds. A higher variability is generally corelated with better health ranging from emotional well-being to nervous system regulation and cardiovascular fitness. E.g. My HRV dropped from an average in the 70's to the 20's/30's when I was sick with Covid. Then climbed back up after recovering and starting to exercise again. I also noticed a significant bump in HRV (a 20%+ increase) after having a great experience with friends.
   I used the WHOOP wrist band based wearable and the Oura Ring to measure sleep and exercise–I found the activity tracking to be unhelpful to me because it is easy for me to feel if I had a good workout or not, however I can't personally sit quietly and tell what the my heart rate variability is. 7 months of tracking HRV has helped me connect the value of colloquial wisdom and peer reviewed scientific studies that regular exercise and having fun with people I love makes me healthier and happier.
4. Other observations based on research and personal experience:
   -Total Bodyweight is not a useful metric to me, but I found the ZozoFit body scanner interesting to witness the volume change of my body's top areas for storing subcutaneous fat (like my belly), and areas of evident muscle volume change (like my upper arms).
   
   Topics to I'll consider updating this post with:
   -1 year update
   -Coffee
   -Work Anxiety
   -Consistent recommendation for Olive oil and berries.
   -Tracking Baselines across a life, and curiosity on full body scan.