This week has been going great so far. Mainly because the meeting I was preparing for the last 3 weeks went very well. I took the meeting from office with my colleague friends K and H. The meeting was at 7pm, not my prime time, but I was confident, calm when I delivered the presentation. Although I didn’t sleep very well that night, I woke up charged with energy as if a big rock was lifted from my chest. I could feel it during my run, I felt strong and enjoyed running surrounded by other runners. There was one particular runner that had perfect form, I felt thrilled to be “chasing” him for a while.
My no-coffee experiment is going well. I’ve completed 7 days of no caffeine except mate. I used to have two coffees a day, Nespresso usually. I never thought it would affect my sleep because I sleep well. Then I listened to this episodes and learned that Tim found no coffee helpful to improve sleep quality. I gave it a try to see if it would help me too. My issue was frequent waking up, sometimes 2 to 3 times which could be disruptive. I must say, it works!!! Since day 1 I noticed my sleep quality improved, I slept deeper, waking up only once to go to the bathroom and go back to sleep right away. I still wake up around 4am, feeling more rested. I will continue this experiment for another week and maybe introduce morning coffee.
I had to take Lizzy to dentist on Wednesday in the middle of my work day because she had pain in one of her molars. It’s never fun to take her to dentist as she cries a lot. She had 3 ulcers in her mouth which made the endeavour even harder. The good thing is that we found out that her recurrent ulcers are caused by bad oral hygiene. Unfortunately I’ll have to help her or monitor her when she brushes her teeth. I don’t know what was the age when Sofia became good at brushing at her teeth, but maybe I need to be more patient with Lizzy this time. I am glad that we found out about it and have clear action plan going forward. As I sit there, I felt gratitude as I was able to book the appt the same day with the kids dentist, the nurses and doctor super nice and patience, and that my health insurance covers 80% of the cost. I take none of these for granted.
To manage my anxiety, I’ve decided not to check Oura scores for a while. I still wear it but I won’t check the scores. I noticed that when my anxiety level is high, seeing those numbers (not optimal ones) made me expand my worry to my physical health, which made me even more anxious. If I see higher than baseline RHR for few days, I’d feel that I’m not rested enough or stressed out, which adds extra stress and makes me doubt my ability to do the run that day. I could have chosen not to wear it, but I still want to record them during my coffee experiment period and my high-stress period. I write down in my journal my own perception of how I slept and felt that day, and will compare later when I am ready to open the app again. To avoid temptation to open the app, I blocked the app with a passcode set by my husband. Elizabeth discussed about how the scale affects her mood for the day. I feel like Oura was affecting mine, so time to take a “break”.
What has been the highlight of your week? Do you track anything? While I find sometimes tracking things make me anxious, I do find it useful to see correlations. For example, after years of using oura and tracking my cycles, I no longer feel bad if my performance/mood dips in the second half of the cycle. If I ate late, I know my sleep will be negatively impacted. If I am in a stress state, my HRV will decline, etc. So I find tracking useful to see patterns, but I don’t want to be obsessed about it either. Finding the balance is the key.
Our New Journey 
No, I don’t track anything- partially because I can’t wear anything around my wrist or on my finger (Oura is a ring, correct?) while I’m working. I feel like not having it on for a big chunk of the day would skew results and it wouldn’t be worth it. But, I do wear my garmin at night (it’s my alarm) and it could be telling me about my sleep- but I choose not to look at it for the same reasons you mentioned. I know if I slept well or not, and I don’t want my watch making me feel worse if I’m already tired.
i’m intrigued by your no-coffee experiment! One thing I haven’t been willing to do in my quest for better sleep is give up caffeine. I drink black tea instead of coffee, but I usually have a cup in the morning and another iced in the afternoon- I know. I should at least eliminate that afternoon cup.
I’m glad your week is going so well!
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I want an Oura ring! And I will never give up coffee. I did during one pregnancy. Never again unless medically necessary for some reason. But more power to you for trying caffeine-free life!
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I still drink decaf, I just love the smell of coffee, real or fake. 🙂
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I also have zero desire to completely give up caffeine. I do try to not have it in the evenings closer to bedtime, and that seems to be fine so as to not disrupt my sleep. I want to have enjoyable things in my life too and haven’t found moderate caffeine consumption to be any negative for me.
I don’t have an Oura ring but my Apple watch tracks certain things. I honestly don’t review the Sleep data that often though- just from time to time.
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I can’t have caffeine after about 10 am or it impacts my sleep. So I mostly drink decaf now!
I used to do a lot with my Apple Watch rings but I had to give that up. I don’t handle tracking well, I guess – I just become too obsessive 😦
My husband has and loves his Oura ring, but he has a different personality…
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That’s really impressive that you were able to get a same day dentist appointment! Here in the UK, dental care is one of the few medical things we actually pay for… although not for children. A lot of the dentists are oversubscribed and it can be hard for people to get a dental practice if they move areas or need to switch etc.
I’m currently trying to limit caffeine. Coffee isn’t the issue for me, soda is!
Interesting about the Oura. I can see how that feedback from it may not always be ideal to receive. I track very little – something about it makes my mind rebel!
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I track all kinds of things, but don’t always look at the numbers very often. For example, sleep, I may look every few weeks, but this is because I am not really having issues. If I were having issues, I may look at it more often. Same with steps; I probably should look more often, but I do get a buzz on my watch when I have hit my goal so I normally know when that happens. However, I don’t really actively try to reach the goal if I don’t get the buzz.
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That dentist appt sounds rough! I did not know you could get ulcers in your mouth. That sounds painful. We have been trying to get Paul to brush his own teeth (he’s almost 6) but I guess there is an upside to still doing it!
This week was a hard and intense week at work. I did 33 client calls plus was busy with other things and the guy who works for me was at a new hire training for 3 days. I was happy for him to have that opportunity but def felt his absence! Next week I travel for the first time since early December. It’s for an internal sales conference so it’s not intense in terms of meeting with clients but I will have to he incredibly social and it’s so much flying for what is a short trip (it’s in CA). But I am glad I get the opportunity to attend. It’s my first conference in almost 9 years with my company.
I do not track much! I track my workouts and the days I am in the office or traveling for work but that’s it! I wear an Apple Watch but don’t look at the data too closely. I think the sleep data is really inaccurate so I am tempted to get an oura but not enough to buy one just yet!
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Ohh the dentists… Glad it all worked out in the end!! We go every 6 months for a cleaning and a check-up. Brushing wise- they do it first, then I do it with the brush.
tracking… I only track my cycles but I do it in Google Keep, so nothing fancy.
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