Your Body: Sick
Well, I came down with a pretty bad cold recently. Day 1 felt more like the flu, I didn’t get out of bed that day. It wasn’t until day 3 that I went out for a short walk and it wasn’t until day 5 that I went back to Bar Method.
The last time I got sick? I had a 24-hour stomach flu the day after I got off the plane, my first trip back to Oregon to see my parents after the pandemic. Before that? The last time I had a cold was pre-pandemic office days. I came down with a cold every 1-2 years. I called these my NYC exhaust-filled-air detox time.
OK. What’s this post about? This was my first time getting sick with my Whoop fitness tracker. Using Whoop, I learned a lot about what was going on in my body when I was sick. I thought my learnings may be helpful for you, too.
Here’s what happened.
My Whoop fitness tracker
Day 0, Tuesday
I woke up feeling fine (minus that abnormal, mild irritation in my throat). I took a look at the Whoop app to see what went on during sleep, as I do most mornings. The health monitor flagged one of my metrics* as out-of-range. It was my skin temperature, which was 2 degrees above baseline. I ignored it and went about my day, going to a Bar Method strength class, followed by a walk, followed by a few hours of work on the computer. I noticed I wasn’t feeling great around 3pm.
Looking back at the Whoop data for that day, which is inclusive of sleep the night before, my sleep stress was also reported as high that morning at 20 minutes (+168%).
*Whoop health monitor data: skin temperature (from baseline), respiratory rate, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen.
Day 1, Wednesday
The overnight didn’t go so well.
Whoop health monitor
My overnight resting heart rate was 82! My normal range is high 50s.
Whoop overview
When I’m sick, I have one goal: get back to my regular life as soon as possible. So I’m a good patient. I knew sleep was the best medicine — I didn’t leave my bed. I had chills, my body ached. I had no appetite.
Here’s what was going on internally. Mind you, I hadn’t left my bed. I was sleeping most of the time.
Whoop stress monitor
It wasn’t until day 4 that my health monitor metrics were back to normal range. My energy was still low. I took a longer walk, but didn’t go back to Bar Method until Sunday.
Whoop health monitor
What’s the point of this post?
It’s fascinating how hard the body works to fight ‘invaders’ and make us well.
Maybe next time I’ll make a different decision about my day when Whoop tells me my skin temperature is out-of-whack. 🤔 At a minimum I now know that my tracker may know something I don’t — or at least something I’m not yet ready to admit…like it’s time to slow down for a day or two.
Take care of yourself. 💆 Eat more plants. 🥦 Hydrate.🚰 Move.🤸 Prioritize sleep. 🛌
Were you aware just how hard your body is working when you’re sick? Let me know in the comments below!
Interested in Whoop? After writing this post, I decided to join Whoop’s affiliate program. I’m loving my device and the app, and the product is consistent with my mission to empower people to prioritize their health. You can get 1-month FREE when you purchase a new membership using my link: join.whoop.com/theplantpoweredbody.
Thanks for reading!
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Cover photo by @markusspiske on Unsplash.
