What I learned after 5 months of tracking my health.

1. The Personal Side of
Tracking
Alexandra Carmichael, Jan 2009

2. I blogged about my self-tracking on the QS blog...

3. It got submitted to BoingBoing...

4. The comments were polarized...
Positive:
“Fascinating stuff”
“A good direct method
to effect change”
“I'd love to track this
kind of data about
myself, make plots,
draw conclusions”

5. Negative:
“Bahh”
“Eeeh”
“OCD”
“TMI”
Speculations about my sex life
Narcissism

6. Why all the fuss?
I really don’t know, but here’s what I do know...

7. Here’s a glimpse of my 5 months of tracking...
(green line = goal)
Start Average End
2,700
2000
2,025
130.0
118
97.5
1,350
10.0 5.00
4
8 65.0
7.5 2.50
675
5.0 0
32.5
2.5 -2.50
0
0 0 -5.00
Weight
Sleep Calories Mood

8. The positives of my self-tracking experience...
Lost 5 pounds
Measurably improved
mood
Greater feelings of
balance and control
New friends (at QS!)

9. If it’s all positive,
,
why doesn’t everybody do it?

10. The negatives of my self-tracking experience...
Constant mental
budgeting
Negative self-talk on
outlier days
“Some days you want
to put down the pencil
and just live.”- a fellow tracker

11. There Are Always Tradeoffs

12. But For Me, For Now, It’s Worth It

13. Questions? Comments?
alexandra@curetogether.com
http://twitter.com/accarmichael