Are you allowing your body to recover?

Those of you who know me, know that I am really into data and measurement and using that insight to make decisions and take actions.

So I was delighted to have the opportunity to wear Optima-life’s First beat monitor for 7 days. In a nutshell, I wore a white tuby gadget across my chest 24/7, only taking it off to have a shower.

I then got on with my life whilst it measured my internal heart rate, and breathing patterns and RR interval rate. I kept a daily journal as well as record of when i went to sleep and woke-up.

Then 1 week later I got a nice report showing me day-by-day, hour-by-hour, when I was stressed and when I was recovering.

It was fascinating, to be honest, and it confirmed what I already thought, but now I know:

My weeks are pretty intense, full of big meetings, tough decisions, projects galore, and lots of things coming at me on a daily basis which, although I try, I can’t control
By the end of Friday, I usually feel pretty warn out and ready for the weekend which I always use to recharge and do things that I enjoy like running, writing my blog and catching-up with friends and family.

The week I was tracked, was pretty typical although there were some unusual things like expecting to give evidence for a tribunal which was a big stressor for me, and you can see this in the data on the Tuesday morning as I travelled to the court (I didn’t give evidence in the end, but that’s another story). On the Wednesday, I went to Oracles’ modern marketing experience which didn’t seem to be too much of a stressor; but on the Friday I gave a radio interview which was a little bit stressful, but not too bad, although the rest of the day was full of calls which was rather depleting.

On the Sunday, I did a 10k race, which was my most intense physical activity of the week!

The good news was that my sleep quality throughout the week was very good and allowed my body to recharge, and with the weekend recovery, by the end of the weekend, my body had fully recharged and I was ready for the week.

Overall, very reassuring to see that my wellbeing toolkit seems to be serving me well!

Watch Simon Shephard talk through the results at the RBI Wellbeing Fair.

http://lawrence-mitchell9299.wistia.com/medias/x84m9dg3ud?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=640