There is a device for everything now. A continuous glucose monitor to tell you the toast spiked your blood sugar. An app to tell you which phase of your cycle you’re in — information your own body is, frankly, already broadcasting. A ring to score how “ready” you are, so you can be told you’re tired by a piece of jewellery instead of by the fact that you feel tired. Here’s the blunt truth, said with love: you don’t have a data problem. You have a noticing problem — and the good news is noticing is free.
Who it’s for: anyone who’s ever considered strapping on a gadget to find out something their body was already telling them for nothing.
“Optimise” is the most overrated word in fitness right now
It sounds so responsible, doesn’t it? Optimise your sleep, optimise your protein timing, optimise your training window. But somewhere along the way “optimise” turned health into homework — a thing you can get a B-minus at. And here’s the trap: you cannot optimise your way out of not sleeping. You cannot biohack a diet you’re not actually eating. Optimisation is the fun part people reach for instead of doing the simple fundamentals, because tweaking feels like progress while changing nothing. It’s procrastination in a smart outfit.
Your body already sends you the data — for free
Energy, cravings, mood, sleep, hunger, how heavy the weights feel, whether you’re dreading training or up for it. That’s a live, personalised data feed, streaming at you all day, no charging cable required. The continuous glucose monitor tells you the pasta raised your blood sugar. Groundbreaking. So does the fact that you got a bit sleepy after lunch — you’ve just been taught to trust the graph over the feeling. Cycle-tracking apps will announce that your energy is lower this week; your body announced it first, you just weren’t listening because an app hadn’t confirmed it yet.
What’s actually worth stealing from the cycle-syncing trend
Because I’m not here to trash all of it — that would be its own kind of lazy. Cycle-syncing is having a real moment, and buried inside the hype is something genuinely useful: the idea that your energy isn’t meant to be identical every day, and that training with your energy rather than flogging yourself regardless is smart, not soft. Steal that bit. Keep it. What you can happily leave behind is the rigid app telling you you’re only “allowed” gentle yoga in one phase and heavy lifting in another, as if your body follows a spreadsheet. Some weeks you’ll feel strong when the chart says you shouldn’t, and you’re allowed to just… go lift. Honour your cycle without outsourcing your instincts to software. This matters most across the bigger shifts too — my take on training and nutrition through perimenopause is the same principle on a longer timeline.
How to actually get better at noticing
It’s a skill, and like any skill it comes back with practice — especially if you’ve spent years being told to override your body rather than listen to it. Before you eat, a quick check: am I actually hungry, or bored/tired/thirsty? Before you train: what’s my energy honestly like today — and can I adjust rather than either pushing through or bailing entirely? Through the day: notice the 3pm slump instead of just caffeinating over it, because it’s usually telling you something about last night’s sleep or lunch. None of this needs an app. It needs about three seconds of honesty, a few times a day.
None of this needs a device — it needs about three seconds of honesty, a few times a day. Here’s the whole thing in one screenshot-able list; pick two and tap them off as you build the habit:
The noticing starter kit
No app, no tracker. Pick two. Tap to tick as you go.
- Before you eat, pause for one breath. Ask: am I actually hungry, or bored, tired or thirsty? Three seconds, no app needed.
- Rate your energy out of 10 each morning. Not in a tracker — just notice it. Patterns show up fast once you’re paying attention.
- Notice the 3pm slump instead of caffeinating over it. It’s usually telling you about last night’s sleep or what (and whether) you ate at lunch.
- Check in before training, not just your plan. Flat today? Adjust rather than forcing it or bailing entirely. Both are information.
- Name one thing your body did well today. Not aesthetics — what it let you do. Rebuilds trust in a body you’ve been taught to override.
- Put the phone down for the first 10 min awake. Let yourself feel how you actually are before a screen tells you how you should optimise it.
The honest bit
By all means use a gadget if it genuinely helps you — some people love the data and that’s fine. But don’t mistake buying the device for doing the work, and don’t let a screen talk you out of trusting a body that’s been reliably reporting in your whole life. The most advanced tracking technology you will ever own is you, paying attention. It’s already installed. It’s free. And it doesn’t need charging.
Want to get properly fluent in reading your own body again? Come and train with me in Coogee.