How Apple Watch turned me into a gym rat

background

i’ve been sedentary all my life. no sports throughout schooling and my adult life, except the few times playing badminton.

the purchasing rationale behind an apple watch

i bought a used Apple Watch SE on Malaysia Day (September 16th) in 2021, that’s less than 4 months ago. there were 2 functions i was looking for: to unlock my iPhone when wearing a mask and to not miss any call/message notifications whenever my phone is detached from my hand.

the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning

i met Client A the day after, he’s into sports and fitness and asked me to share my fitness tracking with him. i thought why not, always good to try a new feature i don’t understand yet.

personal training

a few days later, i signed up for a personal training with a trainer that i got connected with the previous year through classpass, because i’ve been meaning to get fitter in general. so i began with the PT, many months later, since there were many rounds of lockdowns and gyms were closed.

learning more stuff

i figured i was able to log the specific activity i was doing and got the coloured rings progressing; stand, exercise and move. the trainer also asked me to do some running to increase my stamina, as PT trainings alone can only do so much.

so i ran, and ran, logged my runs on AW and continued seeing improvements in my pace. sometimes it rains and i’m not able to run. then i thought, maybe i should check out the chain-gyms like fitness first so i don’t have to be worried of weather or safety. there’s one near the house, and being an agent, i’m given a free aia vitality membership, so my fitness first membership will also be discounted. after my PT package ended, i signed up with fitness first. this was on December 10th.

i added more friends and clients on my apple watch friend list, and now i can see how everyone’s doing, and they can see how i’m doing. this is a motivation to not be lazy.

that friend in cambodia

my former colleague who’s now in cambodia also recently purchased an apple watch, and i sent him a “challenge”. what this means is the fitness app will tally our scores for 7 days and the person with the most points gets a badge. i did not intend to take it seriously. but he did, and so did i.

digital badges

it’s weird how our brains are wired. or maybe i’m weird. we can get digital badges for all sorts of things we can unlock from our workouts and activities. there’s no monetary value, and it’s not easily exportable to instagram so the bragging rights are less, and only you and your fitness app-connected friends are able to see each others’ badges and rings. but it still makes you want to work out every single day and close the rings so there’s no blank space in the ring calendar. i’m not the only one, ring addiction is a thing.

losing weight and keto

i’ve resumed being on keto diet again, as weight management is difficult from the physical activity standpoint alone. ideally back to 70kg or below, so my weight will be proportionate to my height. and the goal is to have a higher muscle composition and reduce the body fat percentage, but i haven’t put a number to it. there’s no badge in achieving that.