I have this idea that this year I will track random things for one week and share on the blog. Not sure what it will be (drop requests in the comments) but I think it might be fun. I have shared household stuff and outfits last year.
In Germany health apps can be prescribed and then will be paid by your health insurance. I finally gotten around to activating two of them. One is my last attempt in sleeping better and the prescribed app is called BetterSleep. The second one is an app that analyzes your glucose levels and correlates them to the migraines. Unfortunately I have underestimated how much time I have to handle all the tracking and started both three month programs within a week. I was clearly not thinking. Sigh. But I am determined.
Well let’s make a post out of it since I am already tracking everything why not also track the tracking. HA!
Monday
7.00am – opening my Better Sleep app and adding the data for the night. 4.25 hours of sleep I am already done for the day
7.05am – opening my glucose tracking app and checking my levels. This night I didn’t get below the recommended range. I also read the weekly notes.
1.30pm – documenting my meal in the glucose app
2pm – taking my vitamin D
5.37pm – documenting my snack in the glucose app
9pm – opening my glucose app to do a test challenge and checking cooking requirements
9.25pm – documenting dinner in the glucose app
9.35pm – reading my sleep coaches feedback. I am currently the midst of sleep restriction therapy (meaning I can only be in bed 0.45am to 6.45am). I am not happy. And i can no longer read in bed. Sigh. At least my nighttime ritual seems to be on point.
9.44pm – documenting all exercises in the glucose app.
11.38pm – taking my magnesium
For the migraine therapy app I was sent a glucose chip that I have currently at my arm and will carry around for 14 days. During that time it records my glucose levels. In order to know when they rise and fall I need to track all my meals and drinks. Additionally everything else to get the full picture: sleep, emotions, exercises, period, medication and liquids. I also have to read some articles and stuff. It’s also recommended that I do 2-4 challenges where I have to eat certain things (e.g. rice, potatoes, noodles for three nights at the same time to see how my body reacts to it all).
Tuesday
7.44am – checking glucose app for levels, last nights meal reaction and reading two new notes. Another night my levels dropped into the red. I wonder what that means. No info found in the app so maybe I need to schedule a call.
7.55am – opening the Better Sleep app to add last nights data. Reading two articles.
1.20pm – cooking lunch according to the instructions
1.35pm – documenting lunch data
4.30pm – documenting my (first) coffee
7pm – documenting my dinner
For my sleep Better Sleep App I need to fill out a questionnaire every night and every morning. Document my sleep date – unfortunately it doesn’t integrate Apple Watch date – and then they give me weekly coursework I need to get through. Each contains a few exercises. I also need to write down some thoughts. A coach will get back to me. However I am not convinced these are real coaches. It all sounds rather AI-like.
Wednesday
7.09am – opening sleep app and adding the data for the night. 5.15 hours. It will a long day. Starting a few session in the next course section
7.28 am – opening glucose app to check data from yesterday and my reactions, reading two new articles
1.35 pm – documenting lunch
7.53pm – documenting dinner
11:43 pm – watching 5 short video lessons in the glucose app
Thursday
7.43am – checking data in glucose app and watching a couple video lessons
8.11am – tracking a starting migraine in my migraine app (Pain Cal)
8.15am – opening sleep app and adding the data for the night. 5.55 hours but only because I ignored the defined sleep window
9.10pm –documenting dinner
11.50pm – checking reaction to dinner in glucose app and adding a snack
11.59pm – sleep app day report
Friday
0:08am – taking my vitamin D and magnesium
9.08am – adding data to sleep app. 6.28 hours – with a 108 min gap in-between
9.17am – checking glucose levels and reading through the daily articles
13.30pm – documenting lunch
9.15pm – documenting lunch, exercises, dinner
11.15pm – taking my Vitamin D
Saturday
0.07am – taking my magnesium
7.30am – checking the glucose app, adding data and watching the daily lesson
7.38am – adding data to sleep app and doing 30 min of course work
3.10pm – documenting my after workout shake
4.50pm – documenting breakfast
9.55pm – photographing dinner at a party for later documentation
Sunday
1.48am – taking my Vitamin D and magnesium
8.59am – adding data to sleep app, reading one article
9.07am – checking glucose app, reading one article
2.45pm – documenting breakfast
19.11pm – documenting my cheese cake snack
11.45pm – taking my Vitamin D and magnesium
So much for one week of documenting. I will be doing another week of glucose tracking. The sensor I am currently having stuck to my arm runs another 6 days. I will need to finish up a few challenges in order to have comparison data. It is interesting to see that the breakfast from the first weekend was spiking while the one last weekend had no reaction really. I am not sure why that is. Unfortunately until today the app doesn’t give any real feedback. Maybe I need to track everything first and then they will get back to me? Not sure.
As for the sleeping: the reduced bedtime training I had to do the last two weeks sucks BUT I can actually see an improve in sleep quality. And that is what this therapy aims for. I sleep not much as you have seen in the protocol above but I have only once been awake for over an hour during the night. So I will try to stick to this for now as much as possible but I will give myself some slack if I feel I migraine coming up or am just too exhausted.
Do you use any apps for your health monitoring? Is your health insurance prescribing apps? Have you ever been able to check your glucose levels? Can you tell – without tracking – when your glucose levels are too low?
