After I got a Mokka pot for Christmas, I have reduced my daily coffee intake down to a cup in the morning, and that is all. Prior to this, I would easily have between four and ten, depending on whether at home or in the office. Not being in an office now has definitely had an effect on volume. However, what hasn't seemed to have much effect as of yet, is the reduction. I don't think it has affected my sleep better or worse, but it could be that I am a bit more consistently alert than I was - but that isn't saying much. Still, I figure that it is better to have the reduction anyway.
Over the last decade or two, these "pod" coffee machines have become very popular and a few of my friends have been on the bandwagon since they began, swearing how good they are. Yet, every time I have tried them, I am unimpressed. There is something fake about them, something plasticky, and I don't like the idea of the pod at all. It all seems unnecessary and wasteful in some way - like the solution to a problem that didn't actually exist.
Is it just me?
There are probably many such "solutions" out there that are not really doing much for society, despite the resources that go into them, and perhaps that is just the business model in general these days. There is a constant stream of "new" gadgets on the market, but there is very little that seems to fundamentally make our lives better. If there is something that might help us, it could be some of the wearable health monitors, as they can make us more conscious of what we are doing, and the effects that it has on us.
Because of this, I am considering looking into getting an Oura ring, which is a pretty passive device that is designed to give a broad view of general condition, rather than just for workouts. It is also meant to be great for monitoring quality of sleep, which is something that I think might be of interest to me. And I would like to get an accurate heart rate reading over long periods of time, because my resting heart rate is too high, and I feel I need to see some kind of feedback if I am making any progress. I don't "feel" like I used to, so seeing helps me greatly.
I am trying to talk myself into it.
I think this kind of tracking data would help my wife also, but I am unsure if she would be interested in wearing the ring itself. Still, if I do end up getting one and it helps me improve some quality of my health, then it is probably worth it. A few of my friends have had them for a few years now, and they have said it has improved at least their awareness, and they can see exactly what kinds of effects different things have had on their sleep and heart rate, like a night out drinking - or even a couple of drinks or junk food.
Not that I have much of that these days.
At least over the last few weeks, I have been much better with both my diet and exercise, going to the gym about five times a week, and avoiding nearly all of the junk food I would normally consume. There have been a few exceptions, like when we had guests over last weekend for a games night, but not too many. Unlike the coffee reduction, the change in diet has made my body feel a bit better, and I can see some results in it, both physically and with my energy levels. There are a lot less peaks and troughs in energy, though I can't say that I am "energetic" ever - but that is due to other factors.
While this isn't a "new year" shift, it does coincide with the start of the year, and I am guessing that many people have at least tried to change for 2025, with many likely giving up already. However, maybe the reason most of us fail at these attempts and end too quickly is because it takes time to get the physical feedback and before we see a change, we get disillusioned. Maybe seeing some of the changes prior to it being visible would help.
Of course, many people don't need this kind of feedback, so a monitor is unnecessary. Yet, I also think that many people would benefit (myself for sure) with having a coach of some kind to give some level of guidance, and this data can be used to point me in the right direction. I need this at the moment, because "the right direction" has been very unclear for the first time in a very long while.
If I do get it, I don't expect it to suddenly change my life, but I do believe that we are heavily influenced by what we surround ourselves with. If we surround ourselves with catalogues for clothes, we will buy more clothes. If we surround ourselves with fitness magazines, we are more likely to work out. And if we surround ourselves with data analysis, perhaps we are more likely to use it to make some positive changes in life.
I did take the first step yesterday.
I bought the ring sizing kit.
And I am wearing one now to see how it feels.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I'm not a coffee drinker, but my partner is. I've been making her coffee every morning for the past 5 years and we use a pod machine. However, we have two refillable metal cups to use in a single serving keurig machine. No waste, fresh ground beans, easy 12oz cup every time. I love the simple setup and I love no used pods in my garbage!
I have a fitbit for myself that syncs with my phone to use for my actifit step-tracking reports. That gives me plenty of health data, so I don't feel the need for the oura ring. But my sister has had one for four years and swears by it. She loves the peace of mind she gets from bring able to keep track of all her personal health data.
Congrats buddy. Love that for you! I haven't been at all consistent with working out, but I regularly get 10K steps on the days I work at school. I have been maniacally careful about my food intake, keeping a food journal and logging everything I've been eating since the first weekend of the new year.
Just the process of journaling about what I'm eating has helped me be more picky and stick to the plan. No seed oils, no processed sugar, 1800cal/day for a 300 deficit. So far, so good, down 10 lbs in the new year so far. Long may it continue!
I am the only coffee drinker in the house. My wife drinks about 15 gallons of tea a day though.
Good to hear that your sister likes the Oura. I wish they offered a "home market discount" (it is Finnish) or at least a free membership. I reckon that once a company goes global, they should support the taxpayers that helped them get there.
Do you think you would care as much without the fitbit?
You are keen!
Perhaps I should do the same. Journaling gives something tangible to reflect on.
I wouldn't care at all without the Fitbit. It wasn't something I even considered, although I know I was relatively active since I walk to work and public transport everywhere I go in NYC. But once I saw that Hive had incentives to reward me for tracking my daily activity, I was sold. I specifically got a Fitbit for its app integration with actifit!
In fact, knowing I get those elevated step counts for daily activity provides me some level of excuse to not push myself to do more rigorous workouts, calisthenics, weight training, etc. I think to myself that if I'm getting my 10K steps, do I really need to make time to stretch or to throw some kettlebells around?
And with actifit, I view those entries more as a daily journal than simply tracking my activity for the day. I like flipping through my gallery to find an eye-catching picture or two and it also lets me upload screenshots of my Fitbit data so I can see my stats and peak activity time each day. It is a fun habit, although my daily writing is much less structured than yours. Typically when I make my reports, it's 11:30pm and I'm furiously typing away on my phone to submit the report before the midnight cutoff erases the record of my previous day's step count.
Long live the Fitbit!
I am going to check out that ring!!
Mokka pots totally rule, you get such a good coffee from them!
I will assume there are autocorrect errors in the comment.
The rings are good so I hear.
Lol, it's this damn swipey keyboard!
I have heard of them. I do love a good gadget
They are a Finnish company. I wish they gave a local discount!
They totally should, basts!
I don't understand how one would drink that much coffee in a day. Perhaps, it is because I am not a coffee addicted person or it is mostly an European culture. Instead, we drink tea four or five cup in a day :)
Tea has a fair amount of caffeine in it too. Something like 70% of a coffee :D
Do u drink it in the morning when hungry?
Yep. I don't eat breakfast most days anyway :)
I can't 😄
I used to spend a lot of time hungry, because eating anything upset my stomach. I am trying to relearn the feeling. Though breakfast has never been high on my list, except in hotels.
Damn that is a lot. For me 3 cups is enough and I have no desire to drink more.
Yes, it is a lot. Still, haven't noticed much of a difference so far.
Regarding coffee, I bought a small 1-4 cup Mr. Coffee drip machine at a garage sale for $2, and it's perfect for my needs. Plus, both the spent grounds and the cheap paper filter are 100% biodegradable. I find most kitchen or shop gadgets are a waste of money and space unless they make something I already do markedly easier than it was, or do something specialized so well that a general tool is completely outclassed.
On the sleep front, I am skeptical of the biomonitoring gizmos, whether they veer toward overhyped mood rings or technological mumbo-jumbo, but that could be I've seen too many trendy miracle cured to recognize something genuine, too. My sleep cycle has been thrown out of whack too, first by work stress, then by a lingering January illness, and now by who knows what. The lack of work week routine may play a role. Pain from winter cold snaps and pressure fronts on old injuries definitely does. I've also cut down on coffee, so that shouldn't be a factor.
I also don't I ow what to think of therapy or life coaching. I have neither the finances nor the physical proximity to try either, and I don't want the distance of web chat with a stranger that better help has been advertising online lately. Besides, I also have an inherent distrust of any new services with deep advertising pockets.
All that is to say I get the quandary, I think a lot of "solutions" are a load of hooey, and I like my small version of a standard coffee pot.
The drip filter coffee machines are popular here and that is what I was using, but ended up drinking a lot of coffee. We use it now when we have guests only :)
I sleep well enough, when I sleep - but I don't feel refreshed since the stroke. I think it has something to do with me barely dreaming since. I have always regarded dreaming as a "cleaning" function of some kind, but I don't get it often now. Diet, illness, and stress of course have a big effect on sleep quality too.
Me too! We are over therapized these days to the extreme. Having said that, I am interested in how the brain works, and having conversations with people (paid for by my ex-employer still for a bit) has been interesting. Nothing earth shattering, but remember that most people don't reflect much at all, so it can help many people. The problem is that many now rely on therapy to solve their issues, like a panadol for a headache.
10 cups of coffee a day!!! That's a lot!
I got a coffee machine at home, but I only got it because it was on offer and it looks so cool in the kitchen 😀. I don't drink coffee often, more of a tea person and I try to limit it to 2 or max 3 cups a day.
Do you have any mens local meet up group in your area? They may not offer the life coach function you need, but sometimes it might help to meet new people, and get a different perspective on things
:D
We have a breakfast cupboard for most appliances, and nothing out on the benches. It is like an insane person's house...
Probably. But I imagine they are full of extreme right wing incels ;D
Mmmm... Don't want them radicalising you 🥴
Well done on the gym and junk food reduction!!!! That's awesome!
I do think that diet plays such a huge part in your health and emotions - way more than people realize and way more than the gym... but obviously the gym is great too.
I looked into those rings a while ago and didn't want to spend them money, but I definitely think there is value there - especially in figuring out what types of foods might have different effects - as much as I love it, I know my body reacts worse to bread than rice - but it's taken me years to figure that out.
I think it is two (also more) pronged. The diet is huge though, especially with sugar, as it really affects hormones a lot. I think the gym is "useless" if living a normal active life, but most of us aren't these days, so have to fake activity to keep the balance.
While not too much of an issue now as I am on special medication, it was the same for me for my stomach. However, the worst was any carbohydrate (especially bread) mixed with protein. It was a killer.
Yeah, I totally agree about the uselessness of the gym, I loved living in the forest and chopping wood, fixing fences, collecting branches, carrying buckets of water for the sheep, digging holes, moving stones, etc. Not only were the ranges of movement more comprehensive but I felt like I was contributing to multi-year projects - so there was an added sense of accomplishment - but I don't think there's literally enough land for us all to have that.
I've been wearing a fitbit tracker for a while now and I don't really know if it does much good in terms of tracking. My wife has one too and she always blows me out of the water when it comes to steps. I've actually gotten to the point that I wear it, but I don't really pay attention to the data. I'd probably be better off just wearing a watch! If I had the time, I think I could really get into tea drinking and having multiple cups per day. Right now though, I don't.
I reckon it is worth having some kind of tracker these days. It is too easy to live life untracked, and then sit in front of the TV for hours :)
I don't know hoe my wife has time for work. 30% of our electricity bill must be the kettle.
Haha, that is funny. My wife isn't much of a tea fan and neither of us are coffee drinkers, so we don't even have a kettle. I used to have one, but we mostly just use the microwave now.
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Those pod machines are overhyped (but that faded away already), the coffee is way too expensive and it creates a lot of waste (and aluminum is a health risk).
I have since years a device from DeLonghi that grinds the beans freshly. Good quality and you can pick from a variety of coffee beans.
I would never wear smart watches, rings or whatsoever. There is no need to quantify all aspects of your life. By this you reduce yourself to numbers (how much sleep, how much REM phase,...) - ridiculous and only useful for the permanent surveillance that sooner or later will be established and to which we are getting used to by using these. Better listen to your body. But listening and being aware makes no profit for all those companies...
Once something is popular in Finland, they hold onto it for much longer! They are still making 80s rock music.
I have always wondered about grinding coffee at home, but have never tried. Can you choose the grind level?
I get the surveillance thing, as well as "all the numbers" but in many cases, people need a certain amount of help to stay active and engaged on health, especially these days.
Easier said than done for many.
Yes, you can, but I mostly keep it on a middle level.
More data is always fun. I like step trackers for example. What you eat is important, but how much you eat is even more important.
My problem is that I love to eat and I love sugar based desserts. As they say you can't out-excercise your diet, that is totally true and gets worse as we age.
I have a sweet tooth (or teeth), but I am trying to have it extracted!
Metrics and perseverance is the key for success! Keep it up! Like Romans would say Mente sana in corpore sano! (Healthy brain in a healthy body)!
Part of my brain is dead - What does that mean? ;D
Just a support to your road of having a healthier life! HAve a nice Monday! Will go for my cup of coffe!
Good thing, you lessen your intake of caffeine. It's not really good for your health. But I can't blame you for that, it's actually addicting. At first, I'm having a hard time too but now, I don't drink coffee anymore. I prefer tea to coffee.
Tea is still addictive :)
Oh,I see. I thought it's better than coffee😅
hmmmmm, I was never a coffee drinker until I went to the philippines. There are a lot of variety in coffee there and it's soooooooooooo cheap compared to here in usa. For about 5 cents (USD) I can get one of the instant pre-mixed sachets..
umm--- yeah, but it is instant coffee... :P