Backseat Positivity
"Able to make serious topics lighthearted and fun - I even laughed at some points!"
Get your bi-weekly dose of positivity in this fun podcast with Dr Dawn Barlow, who helps you navigate all of the weird/best/worst parts of life!
Dawn takes you on the self-improvement journey you didn't realise you needed... Bought to you by a doctor who hasn't had life as sweet as many of her comrades. She knows firsthand just how rubbish life can be, yet has managed to turn her life around for the better!
From relationships to mental health to happiness, make sure you buckle up twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) the join her and her guests for candid self-improvement. Don't forget of the course, the "weird thoughts" segment, where Dawn and her guests share weird thoughts from their lives.
Dawn says:
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Some might EVEN say that positivity is shouting from the backseat and no-one wants to listen to it... [backseat positivity] More than once a week, but less than 4 times a week, you can shove me in your auditory canals and listen to me chat about L.I.F.E., self-improvement, mental health and anything else that my little monkey-mind paws can grasp onto.
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Backseat Positivity
Navigating the Paradox of Fitness Trackers: Data-Driven Health vs. Mindful Movement
Whenever I strap on my heart rate monitor, I'm struck by a mix of anticipation and dread: will today's data push me to new heights, or will it spiral me into worry? Our journey through the complex relationship with wearables touches on this paradox. With stories from the trenches of my medical practice, I peel back the curtain on how these devices shape our wellness narratives, for better or worse. We navigate the fine line between staying informed and tumbling into the rabbit hole of health anxiety, and I'll share why I've chosen to buckle on my my zone belt for certain pursuits, but steer clear of the full-time digital tether of others.
It's an everyday conundrum: how do we keep moving in a world that often seems designed to keep us seated? My candid conversation tackles the reality of those much-touted step goals and the truth that they're not the be-all and end-all of an active lifestyle. I discuss the double-edged sword of fitness trackers, weighing their benefits in providing vital health insights against the potential stress of incessant digital prodding. Heart rate monitors come under the spotlight too—how do they guide our workouts without dictating them? Join me as I advocate for a minimalist approach that prizes listening to our bodies over obsessing over the numbers.
As we wrap up, I invite you to consider a mindful stance towards wearable fitness technology. The gamification of fitness and the lure of unnecessary high-tech gadgets are fodder for a lively critique, as I urge the importance of fostering a connection with our innate physical intuition. We take a step back to appreciate the joy of movement, untainted by the need to constantly measure and compare. It's a reflection on how we balance the metrics with the pleasure of exercise, reminding us that the ultimate goal is to find a harmony that aligns with our personal health journey. So, until next time, remember to tune in to your body, find joy in your workouts, and strike that blissful balance.
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I am so, so mixed on wearables, and what I mean by that is like smart watches, heart rate monitors and sleep devices and etc, etc Stuff that you wear to try and improve your health. But I'm like, does it really improve your health? As a doctor, I'm seeing more and more people coming in especially to a hospital, freaking out about their physical well-being because of these wearables, and today I wanted to cover that because I think it's a growing problem. You know we give people and I think having access as a patient to your own health, and you know well-being is important, but is also kind of that information can be scary in the wrong hands. And I don't mean that the patients are the wrong hands, I just mean it's almost impossible to interpret some information if you don't have any medical knowledge about it. All you have to do is go on to Google, right, and what did I google the other day? Something like really not that problematic, and it was like you should seek urgent medical attention. For this. You need to go and see a doctor and get a blood test, and I was like what blood test? What blood test do you need? And the thing is with and this is a whole different subject. But, like Dr Google and people know they shouldn't do it because the thing is, google can't, like, take into account other factors and social situations and you know lots of other things but actual, and they can't be very pragmatic, they're just very like, right, this is the answer or this isn't the answer.
Speaker 1:And I think that's kind of the same with wearables, and I'm going to tell you a little story and I'm going to tell you why. Look, I don't wear one. I'm like I'm not against them, I'm just a bit I'm. I think they have their uses and I think they also have significant downsides. So let's get into that. So I think I told this story before, but basically this is not an uncommon thing where somebody comes into a hospital and they go. My smart smartwatch has told me that my heart rate is 105 and it's told me that that's too high and but they feel absolutely fine, like they have no symptoms whatsoever, and some people can be and I did a whole episode on being ruled by numbers and a sort of number based you know success. But how can we change that? But this is like kind of a little bit different.
Speaker 1:Whilst it's numbers, it's also there is a lot of health anxiety at the moment and I don't think that's going to go away, unfortunately. I think we're only probably going to get more anxious about our health as we know more. There's a reason why they say ignorance is bliss, and that's because it is, and the more we know about our health or our problems or what's going on, sometimes it can be beneficial, but sometimes it can actually just make people who have anxiety or health anxiety worse. And that is a really difficult balance to get, because you know, if, if we knew somebody had health anxiety, would we give them a constant heart rate monitor? No, because it's alarming.
Speaker 1:Or, you know some, some of these things do more harm than good, but yet they are readily available to purchase on the market and people are and do want to be, you know, more health conscious and want to be, you know well, and especially people of my generation. What am I? Millennial, I think, people of my generation, we want to be well and self-care is really important, but it's also kind of flipping the other way and I am a bit like I'm trying to like warn you, please take wearables with a pinch of salt. So I think let's talk about the. I've talked about the types. I have had a fit bit in the past. I haven't had an Apple watch. I and I also. I do have a my zone belt and I'm going to talk to you about why. Because it does sound a bit contradictory that I'm like I don't agree with wearables or like I don't have one, but then actually I do have one, because I do have one. But I'm going to talk to you about in what situations I use it and and why I don't have an Apple watch whatever, probably. So I think they are good in For some people. They do motivate you to exercise or do more, especially, if you like.
Speaker 1:Nowadays it can be really hard if the weather's crap or it's dark or you might not even realize that you're being an active Like. Some people probably don't realize that they're only getting like 2,000 steps a day and yes, that's another number based thing but, like it's also, you just don't realize because you're like, right, well, I'll just go from here to there and then I have an office job and then I get it. You know, walk from the office to the car and that's literally right outside, and you just don't think about it. And I'm not blaming anybody for that. That's just how society is nowadays, so it can. How many steps have I done today? We did a lot of walking around. I couldn't even tell you. That's the problem. I would say maybe 7000. That's a guess. Like we went to, we went and got the bus and then we went to a museum in town and then we walked around a lot and then we got the bus back. So you know, it's a fair amount of walking. But I wouldn't also be surprised if it said 5000. Let's have a look. Oh, 8348. So I did quite a lot today. Yesterday it says only the 2288.
Speaker 1:But I don't carry my phone around with me and I'm pretty sure I did more than that. So, yeah, but I mean average. Apparently I only do usually about 4000. So well, 5000. I think that might be from the week. Yeah, 5200 is my, 250 is my average over the last week. So it's not great. But I also do exercise and I also don't carry my phone around with me everywhere. So I put it down, I leave it in the house and I just, you know, I go out and I do stuff and I don't always take it with me. To be fair, I don't usually leave the house without it. But I have thought about getting an Apple Watch.
Speaker 1:The problem is I see a lot of people have it on their phone and they don't necessarily use it as like a watch. It's more of a do I have any messages and it's not acceptable to get my phone out right away. So I see people get a lot of their messages on their app and I don't want that. I literally my phone is on silent 99% of the time. The only thing I've turned it off for is if I know I'm expecting a call, or for certain people it will ring out loud because I know that they'll be angry if I don't answer. So for some of my friends and my boyfriend and my parents, and that is literally it. So for most other people it's not going to go off and it's face down over here and I basically sometimes it's I don't even know where it is. So I don't want constant reminders that people are messaging me Like I just don't need it. If I am expecting to meet up with somebody, I can just go and look at my phone. I don't need to be constantly texted.
Speaker 1:I just think it's like a bit of a mind fuck, to be quite honest, and I'm sure you can turn it off. But then I'm like well, what's the point? I thought about getting one for a while. I thought about getting a Fitbit, maybe like a cheap one, because I wanted to know you know, how active am I being, how many calories am I burning in a day, so that I know how many, how much a deficit I need to be in? But the thing is, I can just feel I don't know. Sometimes it's easy to have a number, but sometimes I'm like well, I can just feel like if I'm you know a bit, if I'm hungry or not, and it's trying to make me tune into my body more, the.
Speaker 1:I also think one of the benefits for me having a heart rate monitor on when I exercise and that is the key thing here is I only have it on when I exercise, I don't wear it otherwise. I have it on when I exercise because I push myself too hard and I know that sounds really stupid, like whatever. And you can't push yourself too hard. You can because what I can't tell? The difference between me working at 50% and me working at 90%. I can't figure out, like, how hard I'm working. So what I end up doing is I end up going right, I'm going to work as hard as I can, obviously not like as hard as I can, like 100%, then I end up burning myself out and really struggling for the rest of the class and it's not really enjoyable, or the rest of the session.
Speaker 1:So it's better for me to pace myself and what I do is I go okay, my heart rate is 170. I know that I, you know, my red range, my like really high range, is 100 and what would it be 190. So if my heart rate's 170, I'm already working pretty hard. So you know it really helps me gauge. Like how am I actually working hard, am I not? Am I gonna completely over burn myself and not be able to carry on with the next exercise? And you could say where you should be working like 90% all the time, but that's not the case. Like you shouldn't be If you watch any athlete.
Speaker 1:They're not I have to call it myself an athlete, but like if you do watch any athlete, it's about not spending all of your energy in the first five minutes and then not being able to do the rest of the competition because you need to pace yourself. That's literally what everyone says, like you need to pace yourself, and I'm rubbish at pacing myself, unless I have a number that says, right, you are working this hard, like 85%, and then I can say, okay, I'll work at this rate rather than speeding myself up. So that is where I think it's good. Also, it means like it. I don't know whether this is a good thing or not, but I can like log my exercise and I can also see improvement. That's a, I guess, another good thing. So I also think they can be good to diagnose conditions. So they, you know we can get those ECGs on the Apple watch and I do think that's good for like a one you know one-time thing to diagnose a condition.
Speaker 1:But if you're constantly monitoring yourself, like who sits there in the hospital and constantly monitors themselves, like what's my heart rate doing now? What rhythm am I in now, it's just like not a healthy mindset to be in. You need to like get out of your head and get you know, just live and just accept that you know your heart rate is going to be a different rate or whatever, and judge it by what symptoms you have. Like, how do you feel? And this is another issue that I have is a lot of people go oh, my sleep was only 50% last night. I feel like that might end up making you feel significantly worse, because you're like, oh god, my sleep was only 50% last night and it might not even be accurate. You like we're forgetting that right.
Speaker 1:And one guy showed me his like tracing thing. It wasn't even an ECG. I was like that's not an ECG, it's a, that's a pulse thing, and it was very inaccurate. Having watched it happen, I was like it's not even, it's not even accurate. So, you know, we also have to question the accuracy of these things and I think that's why people go to doctors and, you know, maybe doctors aren't 100% accurate and I get that.
Speaker 1:But there's a bit more logic that goes into it. Rather than, oh, your heart rate is this or your heart rate is not this, because we can go well, wait there, let me feel your pulse, or wait there, let me look at you, or let me listen to your heart, whereas an app on a phone isn't going to go, oh, your heart rate says it's 140, but actually I measured your pulse and it's not 140. Like it was just badly read. You know, it's like when people have cold hands and we put a sat's probe on them and it says like 60%, and you look at the patient and they're just like chilling, I'm chilling, I'm fine, and you're like your sats aren't 60%. So then you put it like some, you know, you make them warm their hand up or use an ear probe or you put it on a warmer hand. You know if they've had like a glove off or something, and that's just, you know, sensical. But the apps don't think like that. They don't have the sense. So you know, it's just.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to compare doctors to these apps, but I think it's good to seek medical help if you're, you know, if you're concerned, especially if you have symptoms. But to take an app at face value over a doctor and I think that is sort of especially a concern recently was that I saw somebody who was just more concerned about the app than actually like I, let's say, me as a doctor. The doctor was saying you're fine and that it was just wasn't really being believed, so that can be really challenging. The other issues I've seen are more like mental health issues. Number one I've seen people try and get their step count up by doing this, shaking their hand whilst they're stood still. They're not even walking. The other thing people do is walk on the spot. I don't obviously still exercise, but I don't really know if that's the same Effect. So it's kind of falsifying and it's fine, you're only lying to yourself, right, but it's like, what's the point?
Speaker 1:And my other thought is do we even need these wearables? Like, can't I just tell you that I'm tired? Can't I just tell you that my pulse is like? You know, your pulse is really easy to measure. All you have to do is feel here. You might have to see that. Or you can feel in your neck very good pulse there. You don't feel both sides, though, guys, because that's how you pass out. So you can feel in your neck, in between this muscle here, and like the throaty bit it right there. Yeah, there's my pulse. Lovely, I'm still alive. Haha, that's what.
Speaker 1:That's the joke that so many patients make this joke. Like, oh, what do they? They make a joke about like, or maybe I'm dead. Like, oh, I can't feel your pulse. They're like well, maybe I'm dead and I'm like haha, um, no, your pulse is just rubbish, or I can't find it. Or Some people's pulses is aren't very good. Sometimes I need to go up here. In fact, I can't even feel mine there, maybe I'm dead. What's the other thing? People say, oh, I probably haven't got any blood left. You know, when you take like blood from people, really often they're like oh, I haven't got any blood left. Haha, you do otherwise you would be dead. Like the previous joke you made, I Know, I think people just say these things because they feel awkward in the time. They're like I need to fill this space. So I'm just gonna say something. I was gonna cliche joke about being dead.
Speaker 1:So I would say, when I was younger, I did actually have a. I wouldn't call it aware of what, I would call it wearable. It was a heart rate watch and it had a strap and I used it to track my exercise. I became pretty obsessed with it and I think this is kind of. The concern is, people might be like Obsessed with right, I need to burn 500 calories at the gym today, otherwise I failed. And it's like, rather than just doing exercise for you know, like a class or for when you and stop when you feel tired, or like you know enough time has lapsed or the class has finished, what I would do is I would work to a number. I'd be like right, I need to burn a thousand calories in the gym and like, honestly, that was insane, but like that's why I did, and I think it can be quite damaging to have that kind of power in your own hands, especially when you're working Unsafely towards that number. So I mean, I don't really know how we get around that, but I guess I have got some healthier ways to Look at this.
Speaker 1:And the reason why I did this episode in particular was because of the smartwatch person that I saw in hospital, but also because I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were saying about how they have a Smartwatch that they wear to bed and it tells them how well they slept last night and or like, how recovered they are. Actually it was how recovered are you for exercise the next day? And they said that they had a race, like a running race, and the main issue they had was that the Watch would say, well, you're only 70% recovered, you're not fully recovered, and that would freak them out mentally and mentally they would be like, oh my god, I'm not recovered, I'm not gonna do well, why am I doing this race? And then what they did was they just took it off two days before the race. They would just take it off because it doesn't change anything, it doesn't benefit you and, and it doesn't make a difference, like you're gonna be tired, like that's just the situation, right, you can't change it, you can't go back in time and also you're going to be tired from doing all of this exercise anyway. So it's like, well, tough shit, basically.
Speaker 1:So I guess the point is that, like, don't get too obsessed with wearing it 100% of the time. You know, if you don't wear it for a night, so be it, whatever. But I guess you can feel like, and they make you feel these apps and watches, they make you feel like, oh, I haven't tracked, I haven't tracked my steps. Today I even heard my friend say today, holly, she was like, oh, I haven't, I should be tracking this walk on Strava and I was like why. I don't know if it was a joke, but I was like, do we need to? But I mean, I guess I tracked my steps, just track automatically. I don't put it on, but it makes you feel like you know, I've got something to show for it now and that's the danger, isn't it? So take it off when you don't really need it.
Speaker 1:I only, like I said, I only use my enduring exercise and that's only because I need to figure out what target you know heart rate I need to be in and that's because I just, I just can't figure it out. I've tried for many years. How you know, can I hold a sentence? No, but I just, you know, all of that goes out the window when I'm like in a competition with somebody else, like an inverted competition. It's not a planned competition, I'm just like competitive. So then I end up pushing myself really hard and kind of dying and yeah, you could say that's good, but it's not good for like long term enjoyment of exercise and that is kind of important. You know, to keep exercising we need to actually enjoy it.
Speaker 1:So another way is just exercising because you enjoy it, rather than I need to burn a certain number of calories, and this is being really mindful of. Am I doing this because of a number? Am I doing this because my watch says so? Am I doing this because an app says I need to exercise more, or am I doing it because I actually enjoy it? Isn't life about enjoying it rather than just like, oh, I need to do something because an app tells me I'm not being active enough or stuff like that, and that's kind of forgotten about.
Speaker 1:I think you know, the gamification especially of these apps is, especially Duolingo, that's like it basically plays this like d-d-ding sound whenever you get something right, and I've noticed how gamified it is and I could talk about gamification, but I think that's a whole other episode, to be honest. But basically we get like this dopamine release from succeeding in certain goals and like the app basically rewards us and we go, oh, okay, fine, I'll do it again, rather than going like, oh, okay, I need a rest day today, I'm really tired, I'm going to listen to my body. We go, oh, but the watch is telling me that you know I'm about to beat my streak or whatever, and we forget how we feel. And then this is real, like, oh, we forget how we feel, but like it is important to actually register, like how do I feel inside? And my dad would always say to me like dawn, rest days are more important than the actual exercise because, well, not more important, but definitely equally important, because we need to be able to recover, to carry on exercising. And that was I need to ring him. I need to ring him. Actually, maybe I should do that tonight, because he taught me a lot of things about, you know, exercising and recovery, and he always said sleep was super important. So, and eating as well. You know we did a lot of lots of fitness together, so I think that's going to be it.
Speaker 1:On wearables, guys, just be mindful. Just think like do I need to be wearing a watch all the time? Do I need to be tracking everything? Do I need to be monitoring my heart rate and how many calories I've burn and how much, how many steps I've done? And 10,000 is just a random number plucked from the air. There's no data behind the 10,000 steps thing. You know, in fact, we might not even be doing steps, but we might be swimming 500 lengths and be equally as active, but only do 1,000 steps a day. But just because we haven't done 10,000 steps doesn't mean we're not fit and active. Do you get what I mean? So, anyway, I think that's going to be it. This is.
Speaker 1:You know, I was really nearly tempted, but it's just another thing. To like, buy like. I looked at the Apple Watch. Is that like 500 quid or something I'm like, and you always want to buy the higher one, right? Because it's like oh, I don't have that specific. It always basically says, like what you don't have, and you're like, oh, I'm missing out on the extra, you know, 1.4 megabytes per second of whatever I don't know. I'm making shit up now, but you're always like, oh, I'm missing out slightly because it's told me what I haven't got. And this is good marketing technique and that's what makes you buy the higher option.
Speaker 1:You haven't got this. You want it, don't you? Yeah, because otherwise you're not going to be able to track your sleep to the nth degree. Anyway, that is my two cents on wearables and how I feel about them doesn't mean I'm not going to get a wearable in the future, but I don't look at watches and I've always. I've got my phone on me anyway and I wear my heart rate monitor for exercise, not all the time, but for cardio, and that's it. Do I need to do anymore? I don't know. I don't need to know how well I'm sleeping or I can just go. I slept all right last night. I feel tired today. You know those were two separate statements, but they sounded like the same one.
Speaker 1:Anyway, guys, this has been Backseat Positivity. I've been your host and I don't know why I was saying it. I feel like I need a jingle I think that's what it is, and I upload. Every Monday and Thursdays we discuss all things health, fitness, positive and happiness, and I hope you've had a good week and I hope you had a good episode. If you liked it like please share the love you know. Down below, comment like etc. Five star racing any of the above. You don't have to do all of them, that would be mean. So yeah, I'll join you. I'll see you in the next episode.
