Decoding Performance: The Power of Tracking Key Health Metrics
As trailblazers, business visionaries, and high-performance individuals, we tirelessly pursue our ambitions, carving out success on our own terms. Just as we utilise Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to define, measure, and track progress in our professional ventures, we can similarly harness the power of biometrics and health testing to optimise our personal health and performance.
Today, I'll explain why monitoring health and performance metrics is vital, how we can effectively track them, and which metrics should demand our attention.
Why Tracking Your Health and Performance is Important
Tracking health and performance metrics allows us to measure progress, identify areas for improvement, and keep ourselves accountable. It fuels our motivation and provides us with a strategic blueprint to optimise our health. By tracking metrics we can:
Identify patterns and trends over time
Measure the effectiveness of strategies and interventions
Get feedback on what's working and what's not
Set realistic goals and benchmarks
Identify areas for improvement and refine your approach
Research findings support goal setting as a driver of health improvements and lifestyle changes [Shilts et al., 2004]. In addition, current research underscores that wearable devices facilitate positive shifts in nutrition and physical activity behaviours [Kang & Exworthy, 2022] and that their use has positive effects for the treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCD), also known as chronic diseases, such as Diabetes, Obesity, Cardio-Vasuclar-Disease, etc. [Natalucci et al., 2023]. So, if you want to achieve your goals and be successful, tracking your health and performance metrics should be a must - same as tracking your KPIs in your business life.
What Are the Most Important Areas to Track?
The metrics you choose to monitor depend on your individual goals and priorities. At DRYM, we segment these into:
General health: Blood tests serve as a baseline measurement of important biomarkers and provide valuable information about your body's internal state. By establishing these baselines, you gain a clearer understanding of what is normal for you, enabling you to notice any changes or abnormalities over time. This knowledge empowers you to take proactive steps to address potential issues before they escalate.
Sleep: Getting enough high-quality sleep is essential for optimal health and recovery, which are the basis for any high performing individual. Tracking your sleep duration, quality, and consistency and therefore efficiency ensures that you're getting enough and good quality rest.
Nutrition: What you eat and drink can have a significant impact on your health and performance. Providing your system with the building blocks it needs to allow you to sustain long lasting performance is crucial. Understanding your nutrient levels and monitoring your blood glucose levels, will help to ensure that you're fueling your body properly.
Movement: Regular exercise is essential for maintaining good physical health. Building a resilient and strong body and are the fundament for performance. Tracking your activity level, duration, and intensity and related health markers ensure that you're getting not only enough but also the right type of exercise.
Mind: Understanding and learning how to regulate your nervous system is crucial to high performance as well as preventing burn-out. While we need the adrenaline of an activated sympathetic nervous system to perform at peak, we need to know how to switch into parasympathetic in order to allow for sufficient rest and recovery, which is just as crucial for long-term performance. We help you understand which are the best practices for your mind to switch between the two.
Note: In the next article, I will delve deeper into the specific metrics to test, track and transform these areas.
How to Track Your Health and Performance Metrics
Tracking health and performance metrics can be done in a variety of ways, including:
Self-monitoring: Keeping a diary or using a mobile app to track your metrics
Wearable devices: Using smartwatches, fitness trackers, sleep tracker, glucose monitor and other wearables to monitor your physiology.
Medical testing: Getting blood tests, gut microbiome tests, biological age tests, DNA tests, imaging scans, and other medical tests to track your health metrics.
Whichever method is chosen, it's important to be consistent and track your metrics regularly. Set a specific time and place to track your metrics, and make it a part of your routine. Also, even if some tests can be shipped at home nowadays, reviewing them and drawing the right conclusions can be quite challenging without previous training and experience on how to interpret the results.
This is where our service at DRYM steps in to help you a) determine which tests are necessary for You, b) understand the results and data to c) recommend appropriate action steps to enhance your long-term performance.
Conclusion
Tracking and influencing your health and performance metrics is an essential part of achieving your goals and being successful. By tracking your metrics, you can identify areas for improvement, set realistic goals, and optimise your approach. Remember to be consistent and track your metrics regularly, and focus on the most important metrics for your goals and priorities. With the right approach, tracking your health and performance metrics can be a powerful tool for success.
At DRYM, we personalise this approach for you and tailor it to your needs. By Testing and Tracking a lot of Markers and Biometrics during the initial assessment and throughout the whole program, we use objectified data to understand your situation better and to have biofeedback tools for your progress. Besides, during the coaching and mentoring, we give you detailed guidance on how to improve these metrics and how this untimately leads to achieving your goals. Book your Free Discovery Call with us today to find out what metrics could be important for you!
