January 7, 2026 • 26 mins
What’s your New Year’s Resolution? We want to help you keep it. The Verge’s senior tech reviewer, Victoria Song, joins the pod to tell us what tech can help you develop better habits, which wearable is worth buying, and why a new mattress could change your whole sleep game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome to tech stuff. I'm Ma's Volocian. Happy New Year.
It's a new year, it's a new you, it's a
new me. Maybe it's definitely an opportunity to set some
new intentions. But as we all know, building habits can
be rather tricky.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We don't as a society talk about how to set
goals that makes sense, So you know, it's very common
to be like, this year, I'm going to eat super
healthy and I'm going to lose fifty pounds, and this
is my year, and you don't really set achievable goals
within that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
This is Victorious Song, who's a senior tech reviewer for
The Verge.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Your new year's resolutions should come in different sizes, so
there should be something that's, like, my big goal is
to lose fifty pounds, but this year, I'll be happy
if I just lose ten because that's achievable. And then
once you hit that achievable thing, you can adjust and
ty trate. But you really gotta set the bar so
(01:12):
low so that you can build momentum. You really want
to make it so easy it feels like you're cheating.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Anything we can do to make meeting goals easier is
of interest to me, and obviously, as the host of
a tech podcast, I have a natural curiosity about how
tech can help us not just reset intentions, but actually
stick to new commitments at this time of year. And
that's why I wanted to talk to Victoria, because she
is a professional wearer of wearables, a full time tester
(01:41):
of products that promise to optimize everything about us, and
Karen and I both wanted to know what products actually
help you build habits, because, as we all know, it's
easy to make excuses.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It is so easy to just go, I'll just sit
on the couch. Oh it's cold out, Oh it's raining.
I don't have time to do that, And it's very
easy to fall into a perfectionistic this is the correct
way to do it, and if I don't do it
perfectly or correctly, I've messed up. Or oh I didn't
make much progress in January, that's it. Like there's eleven
(02:17):
other months of the year for you to make progress.
Like you have to kind of take a very holistic
approach to New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So, without further ado, let's make those New Year's resolutions
stick or at least try.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Thank you for joining us Victoria, thank you for having me.
Did I spot a wearable on you today?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm actually going quite light. I only have an order
ring in the Apple Watch. I get a lot of
data overwhelmed as part of my job, so sometimes it's
very important to just take them off and only use
the bare minimum. Occasionally I'll take them all off and
force myself to go on a run where I, quote
unquote get no credit. And you know, I have to
(03:01):
live with that and the comfortable without discomfort. Otherwise it's
way too easy to get sucked into. Oh it doesn't
count unless I recorded it somewhere, and that's just absolutely
not true.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I have a perennial goal of losing weight, and the
way I don't test it, the way I don't achieve
that is I never weigh myself. So I live in
blissful ignorance. But you mentioned, you know, losing fifty pounds.
I feel like this whole year in January, like that's
what's on a lot of people's minds. Have you tried
or experienced any tech that's actually helpful in terms of
(03:37):
beginning of fitness journey.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, there's a lot. It's a very crowded field. But
if you're a beginner, you're someone who doesn't have an
existing fitness regime right now. One app I like is
called Chandler Streaks. It kind of turns the idea of
streaks on its head because streaks can be a prison.
On the one hand, you're gamifying consistency, and consistency is
(04:02):
the most important thing with any fitness regime. But I
know so many people who have become beholden to their
streaks that it becomes like a psychological stranglehold. Gentler Streaks
is nice because it incorporates the idea of rest and recovery.
It kind of allows you to be like, Hey, I'm sick,
I need a break from my streak, and you don't
have that psychological pitfall of going, oh, I broke my streak.
(04:25):
Everything is messed up now I might as well just
give up completely. It's oh, you know, like you can
take two or three days off, just get back into it.
But I know friends who got super into the streaks
on their Apple watch and closing their rings, and then
they would get COVID or they would get a flu
and they'd be like, it's time for me to walk
outside so I can hit my step mark. That's insane,
(04:46):
that's crazy, like that's not taking care of your health.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Are there products that at first you thought like there's
absolutely no way this will motivate me, and then you
were pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Fantasy Hike was one of them. So something like Generller
Streaks is Fantasy Hike. It's on both iOS and Android
now and it's kind of like a copyright friendly version
of Walking to Mordor. So if you're a Lord of
the Rings fan, it's kind of a fun thing to do,
and it's very low stakes because it's just counting how
many steps you take in a day, and you can
(05:20):
track your progress to mourdoor and there's fictional competitors that
you can go against, like Mister Underfoot, which is proto,
or Harry flit Potter and John Snowflake and all of
those things. It's very low key. You're always making progress
in that game. So it's something that you can be
like just going for a time minute walk every day.
(05:41):
That's a really good start to fitness, even if it
feels like it's not impressive, because that's really a pitfall.
People genuinely think like I've got to work myself out
to the point of exhaustion. I've got to hit fifteen
thousand steps every single day and just do threey five
hundred and work your way it from there, like truly
(06:02):
go easy on yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We talked a bit about fitness. What about sleep? This
is another thing. I used to have a sleep tracker,
but I also stop wearing that because I kind of
got it in this little bit stress cycle about like
saying knowing, well, that didn't go enough sleep, and then
I'm more stressed about it. And now if I wake
up in the night and have it insomnia, it doesn't matter,
like you'll just you know, you've got to sleep and
issue don't you don't, It's all fine. Like my mental
(06:25):
talk track is like don't worry about it, rather than like, ha,
it gave.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Me sleep hypochondria, that's what it gave me.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But are there good ways to track sleep that are
actually beneficial to getting better sleep? Do you think? Victoria?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So, most sleep trackers are like fitness trackers, but for sleep.
And I would say that aura is not a bad
one because it's sort of giving you a holistic look
at what you are tracking. So it's not just your sleep,
it's how your sleep impacts your stress levels and your
recovery levels, and the key to all of us is
(06:59):
to just take it with a grain of salt. You're
building a baseline. But there are some sleep buds that
I like. Anchor makes some I think they're called the
Sound or a something. Oslo is another one if you
are someone who has a hard time falling asleep. These
are buds that are designed to go in your ear.
Their flat profile, so it's not like an AirPod, and
(07:22):
you can connect it and listen to white noise, or
you can listen to your favorite podcast or audiobook as
you're falling asleep.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I love white noise, by the way, but my wife's
not a white, white noise person, so having private white
noise could be a game changer for me.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, my spouse uses that. I've used it in the past.
It can really help if you have a really noisy neighbor,
and then if you really have money to burn. One
gadget that I tested and then bought with my own
money is eight Sleep.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
It sleep You're an eight sleep I just did? Wow?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I did? I bought it? Maybe I tested it and
it improved my sleep and improved my spouse and sleep.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
What is it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Please tell him what an aid sleep is. The aid
sleep erati or a real group of people, and you
now are one of them.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I'm not a crazy one. It just really did make
a demonstrable difference in our sleep quality. So the eight
sleep is a smart mattress cover. You use your own mattress,
you don't have to buy the mattress from them. It
has a water tank and it basically adjusts the temperature
of your bed. So if let's say your spouse they
(08:29):
run warm and they want their bed to be cooler,
their side of the bed can be cooler. And I
like to be warm when I fall asleep, and so
my bed can be nice and toasty. And it also
tracks your sleep quality. So if you want a sleep
tracker and something that adjusts temperature in one, you can
do that. There is a version that is a little
bit more premium, but it has a base and it
(08:51):
can elevate you when it detects snoring. My spouse used
to snore a lot, and this has kind of helped
because it works. It genuinely works. As I woke up
one time very briefly and I was like, why am
I being elevated? Oh, they're snoring? And now they're not snoring. Okay,
I can fall back asleep. So there's a silent alarm function,
so you know your bed will buzz you awake in
(09:13):
the morning, but your partner can sleep through it. It's
a game changer for me and my spouse. It's one
of the best things you can do for your health
is to figure out a really great sleep routine or
find things that help you stay a sleep longer.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's kind of worth its weight in gold, then, it.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Really is, which is why we'll be paying for another year.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Victoria, Can I ask you to take us inside the
toilet bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, it feels like there's a deluge of toilet analysis
this year, and I'm curious for your take on it.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
This is kind of a trend that's popping up while
Withings is a French tech company and I saw this
at CUS a couple of years ago and they were like,
we've made an at home your analysis lab. So it's
like I call it a pea shell because it looks
like a shell shape and you stick it in your
toilet and your pee on it, and depending on the
cartridge that's in there, it'll measure like your vitamin C levels,
(10:09):
your hydration, your pH and for some reason, if you
would like to track those things you now can. There
are other devices that I'm seeing start to hit the
market because it's a wellness trend right now to quote
unquote balance your hormones. I think this is something I
will be looking into further and testing. Unfortunately, I can't
(10:31):
believe this is part of my job to pee on
gadgets now. But you know, for reproductive health, that is
a thing that a lot of companies are interested in.
There's a huge gap in foundational people with uterus's health
data because fun fact, it wasn't required to have women
or menstruating people as part of clinical trials until nineteen
(10:53):
ninety three. So the vast majority of what we know
about health today is based on men's bodies, and they
just women are smaller version of men, So let's apply
the same things. And what researchers and doctors have been
finding is that's absolutely not true. So if you have
issues with fertility, for example, or if you have one
of a number of conditions like perimenopause or PCOS, which
(11:16):
is polycystic overy syndrome, they're claiming that you can be
on these hormone test kits and track your health that way,
and so that when you go to the doctor and
you're like, I think I have these things. These are
my reproductive hormone levels from my PE that has been
collected over a period of time. What do you think
about that? Because going to the doctor getting your analysis
(11:38):
test that way, it's really just a spot check. It's
not something that's collected over time. And that is one
of the benefits. But you know, it's expensive. A lot
of them require you to buy refills. So we'll see
if it takes off. But I can't tell you the
number of pitches I get for p tech these days.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
It's it's a good name for it, p tech.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, where does RFK Junius in all of this?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He's annoying, but he you know, just to be frank.
He came out in June and he was basically saying like, hey,
I want every American to be wearing a wearable within
the next four years. I mean, the man has an
interesting view of science. To put it, not even somewhat neutrally,
but he basically was like, hey, you can take personal responsibility.
(12:25):
I have friends who reverse their diabetes through using continuous
glucose monitors, which there are now versions of continuous glucose
monitors that are over the counter. Companies are calling them
glucose biosensors. They are marketed towards people who do not
have diabetes, or who have type two diabetes but aren't
(12:46):
using insulin, or pre diabetic people so that they can
use these devices and just kind of have a continuous
stream for about a two week period of their glucose
and how food impact. So a lot of physicians are
hopeful about that technology. I've tested it. It comes with
pros and cons. If you are someone who maybe does
(13:09):
have pre diabetes, you can really see how your lifestyle
impacts your glucose. You can learn what foods are triggers
for your specific body. There's like a definite benefit there.
Jerry's out on whether people who are non diabetic and
perfectly good health need to add this to their tracking regime,
(13:31):
but there's a lot of people who are excited about
this technology. It's available if you want it. Blood and
Pea that's the new frontier for wearable tech.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I think that's the pulk quill. Blood and Pea is
the new frontier of wearable tech. You've written a lot
about the wellness surveillance state, and that we might just
be giving too much of our health data away. I
think a lot of people who are interested in tracking
biometric data are also interested in not giving information about
themselves away. Do you have any support or advice for
(14:02):
people with privacy concerns?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
If you truly want your data to be private, none
of these tech solutions is a good idea. There is
a divide between what is considered medical tech, which is
protected by HIPPA in the United States. A lot of
the tech that you see right now, where it's just
like tracking in some respect that is not hippoprotected. It
(14:25):
does not fall under the FDA's oversight. And even if
it is hippoprotected, it is kind of an inadequate piece
of legislation. It was drafted a really long time ago.
There's a lot of concerns about how wearable data fits
into all of that. So the only responsible answer I
can give you is that you just have to be
(14:48):
cognizant of what you're sharing, and are you okay with
these companies having access to your PE data. I have
just resigned the fact that my personal data for my
job is kind of out there but if that's something
that you're really concerned about, I would steer clear. You
got to do a lot of research into the privacy
policies of these companies. At the Verge, when we review anything,
(15:11):
we have a section at the end of our reviews
called agree to Continue where we list all of the
policies that you are prompted to agree to whenever you
use a new product. Yeah, that's the dystopic reality about
might be.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
After the break, tech to help you save, and even
tech to help you unplug stay with us. I mean,
(15:54):
you yourself are quite interesting personal journey. Somebody who had
to use a lot of wearables for work, somebody who
experienced health problems, and somebody who's still today despite it
all uses wearable So can you just kind of spent
out your own journey with this field technology.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Actually, before I ever got into this line of work,
I had experienced something like a sixty pound weight gain
and I was like, what is happening. I haven't changed
a single dang thing. This is really crazy. And so
I got into fitbits. This was like over ten years ago,
and I was eating right, I was tracking all of
(16:32):
my calories, I was getting hyper obsessive about it, having
some disordered eating habits, and nothing was changing. And I
went to my doctors. I was showing them all this
wearable data. And it took me two years and a
lot of false diagnoses, but I eventually was diagnosed with
polycystic over syndrome, which is a metabolic condition that causes
many women to gain weight against their will. I also
(16:55):
started testing these over the counter CGM or glucose biosensors,
whatever they want to call them, and I was like,
oh my god, am I pre diabetic? Because PCOS actually
causes insulin resistance in many women, and I was seeing
crazy numbers on there that didn't really make any sense.
So I started going to the doctors and they're like, no,
(17:15):
you're a one C which is your blood sugar marker
for about a three month period. That's totally fine. You're
not pre diabetic at all, but something's up. And then
I eventually found out that I have non alcoholic fatty
liver disease, and I was like, oh, okay, so it's
been a rollercoaster of a journey. I do think that
they can help you, but one thing that I think
these companies are lacking is proper guidance on how to
(17:38):
make sure that you were using the tools and that
the tools are not using you. So that's kind of
what I've made a lot of my work about because
I really think that it's not talked about enough.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
They sort of just get unleashed into the world, and
we as people using them have to just wrap our
heads around how to best use them. There's no like
and this is how you use the or ring responsibly.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, a lot of these companies are like, oh, well,
we have informational blurbs in there so that people could
make the best decision for themselves. And it's like, sure,
you can know better and still fall into these very
insidious habits thinking that you're doing something great for yourself,
but you're paying a cost elsewhere. So it's something that
I think we should have much more public conversations about,
(18:24):
for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
So there are other categories around New Year's resolutions that
revolve around money, you know, either saving money or making money.
Is there any tech or apps that you recommend for
this kind of resolution making?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I really like wine app, which means you need a budget.
I've been using it for over ten years. I believe
it's one hundred dollars a year, but because I use it,
I definitely save one hundred dollars every month.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
So in your wine app.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, wineab is in my wine app. And it uses
the envelope method for personal finance, where you take your
income and you assign each dollar a job, and that
really works for me. It is a little more finicky.
I think it's really great for type A people, of
which I am. But another one I think is Rocket Money,
which I've tested, and the one thing I like from
(19:16):
them is that they will, for a small fee, negotiate
your subscriptions for you, some of them. And I was like,
oh my god, that's amazing because now for the New
York Times every year they just lower my monthly price
and I don't really do anything for it. And that's great.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Because Rocket Money is actually negotiating with the New York Times.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes it's not. It's not for every service. So if
you think you're going to like renegotiate all your bills
in there, that's not true. But like I've negotiated down
my Wall Street Journal bill and my New York Times.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Bill, so they for me as a customer.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, I don't pay full price.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Ever, it's great Oh, that's a very cool tip.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
What about and this is sort of ironic, but what
about like tech or products that can help you spend
less time with tech? Or products like unplugging products, which
is another big thing people, I think.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, So I actually got something called Brick. It is
a small actually have it on my desk, and it
is kind of a nuclear option in some respects. You
sometimes sometimes you need to go nuclear. I was spending
way too much time on my phone for work and
for other things, and my spouse was like, we need
(20:30):
to have an intervention because you cannot watch a TV
show without being on your phone, and that is not okay.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
That's the definitely people for a couple couples.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, and you know they had been using it. They said,
I think you should really try it. And basically, it's
like this little NFC brick and you tap your phone
to it and when you enter a certain mode, it
just locks all of your apps and the only way
to unlock your app The only way to unlock your
apps is to physically tap this physical brick. If you
(21:01):
lose the brick, there are five emergency overrides, and once
you use up your emergency overrides. Your phone has to
be completely reset. It is quite drastic. It does require
maybe that you're not someone who's going to lose the brick,
But I find that that's been really helpful for when
(21:21):
I notice that I am on my phone while watching TV,
like I shouldn't be doing that. I should be paying
attention to the TV show. Another thing I've been using
is something called focus Friend, which Hank Green actually created
earlier this year. It is a little bean that lives
inside of your phone. It's like kind of a gamified thing.
It's a take on the palmadoro. A digital bean, a
(21:44):
digital bean, and you basically said it, and for that
time period, you're not doing anything else on your phone
because if you interrupt the bean who likes to knit socks,
you are ruining his sock journey. And for some reason,
he's a very cuy little bean. You don't want to
ruin his sock journey. You and the bean who you
can name, I named mine Blorbo. You're in it together
(22:07):
and using Blorbo. I have read so many books this
year compared to last year. I've been reading about ten
a month.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Thanks to Dorbo, you've read ten books a month thanks
to Blorbo. I mean I run a book club. I
don't read ten books a month, it's honest to god.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I just do thirty to forty five minutes in the
morning as part of my routine. I turn Blurbo on
and I read during that time. And just doing that
every single day, I.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Bet you're rewiring neural pathways, honestly.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And honestly, it's about finding the hacks that work for you.
Anytime I accidentally hit my phone and it's like, you're
going to interrupt blurbo, Do you want to do that, I'm.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Like, no, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
He has to knit his little soakes. So it's actually
quite effective for me. And there's other versions of this
out there, but I find that the Pomadoro method, mixed
with a cute little bean that you helped decorate his
little house, it does wonders for my reading habit quite truly.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I recently bought a timer for Pomadora method and it
helps me read scripts. It's like the only way, but
that's a very analog that's like a home Pomodoro is. Basically,
you do twenty five minutes of work timed on a
timer and you set everything else aside and only do
the thing that you want to be working on in
that pomadoro, and then you take a five minute break,
(23:26):
and then you do another pomadoro and you collect pomadoro's. Basically,
it's a very effective way for someone like me who
like gets sucked into my phone or gets sucked into
email to actually focus on the thing that I want
to be doing.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It's also great if you have a hard time starting tasks,
because you can do anything. You can do anything for
twenty five minutes. Ye, you can do it, and you
can adjust it. Yeah, you can adjust it. So like
if you're really having a hard time starting out, you
can just do it for fifteen minutes or something. It
doesn't matter who you are. You can do anything for
fifteen minutes and just to get started on that. And
(23:57):
once you get started, I guarantee you a lot of
times you'll find that out. What was that so procrastinating about?
This isn't so bad, So it's it's really great.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Are there any resolutions or resolution based tech that we
haven't talked about yet that you've been interested in.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
If you're trying to set a new habit, I like
this app called Habitica. It's very cute. It's like a
little RPG where you do a little habit tracking and
you level up your little fantasy character. Clearly, I like
fantasy games on my phone. Yeah, but a lot of
people I know have also enjoyed Habiteka. Like doing little
chores around your house, you get points and experience points
(24:37):
for them. It's very cute if you're trying to like
build a new habit, which is very hard. One thing
that I don't think people give enough credit for is
that habits are basically programming your brain to do something automatically,
and there's like science behind it. There's something like a
que an action and a reward, and in order to
(24:59):
like have that pathway burned into your brain, it's very difficult.
You have to do it an x number of times.
People will say three weeks, but it could be shorter,
it could be longer. The scientists don't know. But for
however long it takes to burn that habit loop into
your brain, whatever motivation you find is really great, because
behavioral change is one of the hardest things you can
(25:20):
genuinely do. So if you are trying to do a
New Year's resolution, yourself a little graze. It is actually
quite difficult to change your.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Behavioral as we all sadly know, we very sadly know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, Victory, that's a good place. And through this conversation,
I have come up with my new as resolution. What
is spend more time with my friends.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Oh yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
That's a very lovely New Year's resolution.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Should start calling your friends. What was it? Blur blurbo,
blur blurbo blurbo. Victoria, Thank you, thank you, Victoria, thanks
for having me. That's it for this week for tech Stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I'm Kara Price and I'm os Valoschin. This episode was
produced by Eliza Dennis, Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter. It
was executive produced by Me, Kara Price, Julia Nutter, and
Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katria Norvel for iHeart Podcasts.
Jack Insley mixed this episode. Kyle Murdoch wrote our theme song.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Please rate, review, and reach out to us at tech
Stuff podcast at gmail dot com. We want to hear
from you.
Welcome to tech stuff. I'm Ma's Volocian. Happy New Year.
It's a new year, it's a new you, it's a
new me. Maybe it's definitely an opportunity to set some
new intentions. But as we all know, building habits can
be rather tricky.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
We don't as a society talk about how to set
goals that makes sense, So you know, it's very common
to be like, this year, I'm going to eat super
healthy and I'm going to lose fifty pounds, and this
is my year, and you don't really set achievable goals
within that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
This is Victorious Song, who's a senior tech reviewer for
The Verge.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Your new year's resolutions should come in different sizes, so
there should be something that's, like, my big goal is
to lose fifty pounds, but this year, I'll be happy
if I just lose ten because that's achievable. And then
once you hit that achievable thing, you can adjust and
ty trate. But you really gotta set the bar so
(01:12):
low so that you can build momentum. You really want
to make it so easy it feels like you're cheating.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Anything we can do to make meeting goals easier is
of interest to me, and obviously, as the host of
a tech podcast, I have a natural curiosity about how
tech can help us not just reset intentions, but actually
stick to new commitments at this time of year. And
that's why I wanted to talk to Victoria, because she
is a professional wearer of wearables, a full time tester
(01:41):
of products that promise to optimize everything about us, and
Karen and I both wanted to know what products actually
help you build habits, because, as we all know, it's
easy to make excuses.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It is so easy to just go, I'll just sit
on the couch. Oh it's cold out, Oh it's raining.
I don't have time to do that, And it's very
easy to fall into a perfectionistic this is the correct
way to do it, and if I don't do it
perfectly or correctly, I've messed up. Or oh I didn't
make much progress in January, that's it. Like there's eleven
(02:17):
other months of the year for you to make progress.
Like you have to kind of take a very holistic
approach to New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So, without further ado, let's make those New Year's resolutions
stick or at least try.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Thank you for joining us Victoria, thank you for having me.
Did I spot a wearable on you today?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm actually going quite light. I only have an order
ring in the Apple Watch. I get a lot of
data overwhelmed as part of my job, so sometimes it's
very important to just take them off and only use
the bare minimum. Occasionally I'll take them all off and
force myself to go on a run where I, quote
unquote get no credit. And you know, I have to
(03:01):
live with that and the comfortable without discomfort. Otherwise it's
way too easy to get sucked into. Oh it doesn't
count unless I recorded it somewhere, and that's just absolutely
not true.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I have a perennial goal of losing weight, and the
way I don't test it, the way I don't achieve
that is I never weigh myself. So I live in
blissful ignorance. But you mentioned, you know, losing fifty pounds.
I feel like this whole year in January, like that's
what's on a lot of people's minds. Have you tried
or experienced any tech that's actually helpful in terms of
(03:37):
beginning of fitness journey.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, there's a lot. It's a very crowded field. But
if you're a beginner, you're someone who doesn't have an
existing fitness regime right now. One app I like is
called Chandler Streaks. It kind of turns the idea of
streaks on its head because streaks can be a prison.
On the one hand, you're gamifying consistency, and consistency is
(04:02):
the most important thing with any fitness regime. But I
know so many people who have become beholden to their
streaks that it becomes like a psychological stranglehold. Gentler Streaks
is nice because it incorporates the idea of rest and recovery.
It kind of allows you to be like, Hey, I'm sick,
I need a break from my streak, and you don't
have that psychological pitfall of going, oh, I broke my streak.
(04:25):
Everything is messed up now I might as well just
give up completely. It's oh, you know, like you can
take two or three days off, just get back into it.
But I know friends who got super into the streaks
on their Apple watch and closing their rings, and then
they would get COVID or they would get a flu
and they'd be like, it's time for me to walk
outside so I can hit my step mark. That's insane,
(04:46):
that's crazy, like that's not taking care of your health.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Are there products that at first you thought like there's
absolutely no way this will motivate me, and then you
were pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Fantasy Hike was one of them. So something like Generller
Streaks is Fantasy Hike. It's on both iOS and Android
now and it's kind of like a copyright friendly version
of Walking to Mordor. So if you're a Lord of
the Rings fan, it's kind of a fun thing to do,
and it's very low stakes because it's just counting how
many steps you take in a day, and you can
(05:20):
track your progress to mourdoor and there's fictional competitors that
you can go against, like Mister Underfoot, which is proto,
or Harry flit Potter and John Snowflake and all of
those things. It's very low key. You're always making progress
in that game. So it's something that you can be
like just going for a time minute walk every day.
(05:41):
That's a really good start to fitness, even if it
feels like it's not impressive, because that's really a pitfall.
People genuinely think like I've got to work myself out
to the point of exhaustion. I've got to hit fifteen
thousand steps every single day and just do threey five
hundred and work your way it from there, like truly
(06:02):
go easy on yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We talked a bit about fitness. What about sleep? This
is another thing. I used to have a sleep tracker,
but I also stop wearing that because I kind of
got it in this little bit stress cycle about like
saying knowing, well, that didn't go enough sleep, and then
I'm more stressed about it. And now if I wake
up in the night and have it insomnia, it doesn't matter,
like you'll just you know, you've got to sleep and
issue don't you don't, It's all fine. Like my mental
(06:25):
talk track is like don't worry about it, rather than like, ha,
it gave.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Me sleep hypochondria, that's what it gave me.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But are there good ways to track sleep that are
actually beneficial to getting better sleep? Do you think? Victoria?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
So, most sleep trackers are like fitness trackers, but for sleep.
And I would say that aura is not a bad
one because it's sort of giving you a holistic look
at what you are tracking. So it's not just your sleep,
it's how your sleep impacts your stress levels and your
recovery levels, and the key to all of us is
(06:59):
to just take it with a grain of salt. You're
building a baseline. But there are some sleep buds that
I like. Anchor makes some I think they're called the
Sound or a something. Oslo is another one if you
are someone who has a hard time falling asleep. These
are buds that are designed to go in your ear.
Their flat profile, so it's not like an AirPod, and
(07:22):
you can connect it and listen to white noise, or
you can listen to your favorite podcast or audiobook as
you're falling asleep.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I love white noise, by the way, but my wife's
not a white, white noise person, so having private white
noise could be a game changer for me.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, my spouse uses that. I've used it in the past.
It can really help if you have a really noisy neighbor,
and then if you really have money to burn. One
gadget that I tested and then bought with my own
money is eight Sleep.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
It sleep You're an eight sleep I just did? Wow?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I did? I bought it? Maybe I tested it and
it improved my sleep and improved my spouse and sleep.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
What is it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Please tell him what an aid sleep is. The aid
sleep erati or a real group of people, and you
now are one of them.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I'm not a crazy one. It just really did make
a demonstrable difference in our sleep quality. So the eight
sleep is a smart mattress cover. You use your own mattress,
you don't have to buy the mattress from them. It
has a water tank and it basically adjusts the temperature
of your bed. So if let's say your spouse they
(08:29):
run warm and they want their bed to be cooler,
their side of the bed can be cooler. And I
like to be warm when I fall asleep, and so
my bed can be nice and toasty. And it also
tracks your sleep quality. So if you want a sleep
tracker and something that adjusts temperature in one, you can
do that. There is a version that is a little
bit more premium, but it has a base and it
(08:51):
can elevate you when it detects snoring. My spouse used
to snore a lot, and this has kind of helped
because it works. It genuinely works. As I woke up
one time very briefly and I was like, why am
I being elevated? Oh, they're snoring? And now they're not snoring. Okay,
I can fall back asleep. So there's a silent alarm function,
so you know your bed will buzz you awake in
(09:13):
the morning, but your partner can sleep through it. It's
a game changer for me and my spouse. It's one
of the best things you can do for your health
is to figure out a really great sleep routine or
find things that help you stay a sleep longer.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It's kind of worth its weight in gold, then, it.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Really is, which is why we'll be paying for another year.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Victoria, Can I ask you to take us inside the
toilet bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, it feels like there's a deluge of toilet analysis
this year, and I'm curious for your take on it.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
This is kind of a trend that's popping up while
Withings is a French tech company and I saw this
at CUS a couple of years ago and they were like,
we've made an at home your analysis lab. So it's
like I call it a pea shell because it looks
like a shell shape and you stick it in your
toilet and your pee on it, and depending on the
cartridge that's in there, it'll measure like your vitamin C levels,
(10:09):
your hydration, your pH and for some reason, if you
would like to track those things you now can. There
are other devices that I'm seeing start to hit the
market because it's a wellness trend right now to quote
unquote balance your hormones. I think this is something I
will be looking into further and testing. Unfortunately, I can't
(10:31):
believe this is part of my job to pee on
gadgets now. But you know, for reproductive health, that is
a thing that a lot of companies are interested in.
There's a huge gap in foundational people with uterus's health
data because fun fact, it wasn't required to have women
or menstruating people as part of clinical trials until nineteen
(10:53):
ninety three. So the vast majority of what we know
about health today is based on men's bodies, and they
just women are smaller version of men, So let's apply
the same things. And what researchers and doctors have been
finding is that's absolutely not true. So if you have
issues with fertility, for example, or if you have one
of a number of conditions like perimenopause or PCOS, which
(11:16):
is polycystic overy syndrome, they're claiming that you can be
on these hormone test kits and track your health that way,
and so that when you go to the doctor and
you're like, I think I have these things. These are
my reproductive hormone levels from my PE that has been
collected over a period of time. What do you think
about that? Because going to the doctor getting your analysis
(11:38):
test that way, it's really just a spot check. It's
not something that's collected over time. And that is one
of the benefits. But you know, it's expensive. A lot
of them require you to buy refills. So we'll see
if it takes off. But I can't tell you the
number of pitches I get for p tech these days.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
It's it's a good name for it, p tech.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, where does RFK Junius in all of this?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
He's annoying, but he you know, just to be frank.
He came out in June and he was basically saying like, hey,
I want every American to be wearing a wearable within
the next four years. I mean, the man has an
interesting view of science. To put it, not even somewhat neutrally,
but he basically was like, hey, you can take personal responsibility.
(12:25):
I have friends who reverse their diabetes through using continuous
glucose monitors, which there are now versions of continuous glucose
monitors that are over the counter. Companies are calling them
glucose biosensors. They are marketed towards people who do not
have diabetes, or who have type two diabetes but aren't
(12:46):
using insulin, or pre diabetic people so that they can
use these devices and just kind of have a continuous
stream for about a two week period of their glucose
and how food impact. So a lot of physicians are
hopeful about that technology. I've tested it. It comes with
pros and cons. If you are someone who maybe does
(13:09):
have pre diabetes, you can really see how your lifestyle
impacts your glucose. You can learn what foods are triggers
for your specific body. There's like a definite benefit there.
Jerry's out on whether people who are non diabetic and
perfectly good health need to add this to their tracking regime,
(13:31):
but there's a lot of people who are excited about
this technology. It's available if you want it. Blood and
Pea that's the new frontier for wearable tech.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I think that's the pulk quill. Blood and Pea is
the new frontier of wearable tech. You've written a lot
about the wellness surveillance state, and that we might just
be giving too much of our health data away. I
think a lot of people who are interested in tracking
biometric data are also interested in not giving information about
themselves away. Do you have any support or advice for
(14:02):
people with privacy concerns?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
If you truly want your data to be private, none
of these tech solutions is a good idea. There is
a divide between what is considered medical tech, which is
protected by HIPPA in the United States. A lot of
the tech that you see right now, where it's just
like tracking in some respect that is not hippoprotected. It
(14:25):
does not fall under the FDA's oversight. And even if
it is hippoprotected, it is kind of an inadequate piece
of legislation. It was drafted a really long time ago.
There's a lot of concerns about how wearable data fits
into all of that. So the only responsible answer I
can give you is that you just have to be
(14:48):
cognizant of what you're sharing, and are you okay with
these companies having access to your PE data. I have
just resigned the fact that my personal data for my
job is kind of out there but if that's something
that you're really concerned about, I would steer clear. You
got to do a lot of research into the privacy
policies of these companies. At the Verge, when we review anything,
(15:11):
we have a section at the end of our reviews
called agree to Continue where we list all of the
policies that you are prompted to agree to whenever you
use a new product. Yeah, that's the dystopic reality about
might be.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
After the break, tech to help you save, and even
tech to help you unplug stay with us. I mean,
(15:54):
you yourself are quite interesting personal journey. Somebody who had
to use a lot of wearables for work, somebody who
experienced health problems, and somebody who's still today despite it
all uses wearable So can you just kind of spent
out your own journey with this field technology.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Actually, before I ever got into this line of work,
I had experienced something like a sixty pound weight gain
and I was like, what is happening. I haven't changed
a single dang thing. This is really crazy. And so
I got into fitbits. This was like over ten years ago,
and I was eating right, I was tracking all of
(16:32):
my calories, I was getting hyper obsessive about it, having
some disordered eating habits, and nothing was changing. And I
went to my doctors. I was showing them all this
wearable data. And it took me two years and a
lot of false diagnoses, but I eventually was diagnosed with
polycystic over syndrome, which is a metabolic condition that causes
many women to gain weight against their will. I also
(16:55):
started testing these over the counter CGM or glucose biosensors,
whatever they want to call them, and I was like,
oh my god, am I pre diabetic? Because PCOS actually
causes insulin resistance in many women, and I was seeing
crazy numbers on there that didn't really make any sense.
So I started going to the doctors and they're like, no,
(17:15):
you're a one C which is your blood sugar marker
for about a three month period. That's totally fine. You're
not pre diabetic at all, but something's up. And then
I eventually found out that I have non alcoholic fatty
liver disease, and I was like, oh, okay, so it's
been a rollercoaster of a journey. I do think that
they can help you, but one thing that I think
these companies are lacking is proper guidance on how to
(17:38):
make sure that you were using the tools and that
the tools are not using you. So that's kind of
what I've made a lot of my work about because
I really think that it's not talked about enough.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
They sort of just get unleashed into the world, and
we as people using them have to just wrap our
heads around how to best use them. There's no like
and this is how you use the or ring responsibly.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, a lot of these companies are like, oh, well,
we have informational blurbs in there so that people could
make the best decision for themselves. And it's like, sure,
you can know better and still fall into these very
insidious habits thinking that you're doing something great for yourself,
but you're paying a cost elsewhere. So it's something that
I think we should have much more public conversations about,
(18:24):
for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
So there are other categories around New Year's resolutions that
revolve around money, you know, either saving money or making money.
Is there any tech or apps that you recommend for
this kind of resolution making?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I really like wine app, which means you need a budget.
I've been using it for over ten years. I believe
it's one hundred dollars a year, but because I use it,
I definitely save one hundred dollars every month.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
So in your wine app.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, wineab is in my wine app. And it uses
the envelope method for personal finance, where you take your
income and you assign each dollar a job, and that
really works for me. It is a little more finicky.
I think it's really great for type A people, of
which I am. But another one I think is Rocket Money,
which I've tested, and the one thing I like from
(19:16):
them is that they will, for a small fee, negotiate
your subscriptions for you, some of them. And I was like,
oh my god, that's amazing because now for the New
York Times every year they just lower my monthly price
and I don't really do anything for it. And that's great.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Because Rocket Money is actually negotiating with the New York Times.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes it's not. It's not for every service. So if
you think you're going to like renegotiate all your bills
in there, that's not true. But like I've negotiated down
my Wall Street Journal bill and my New York Times.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Bill, so they for me as a customer.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, I don't pay full price.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Ever, it's great Oh, that's a very cool tip.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
What about and this is sort of ironic, but what
about like tech or products that can help you spend
less time with tech? Or products like unplugging products, which
is another big thing people, I think.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, So I actually got something called Brick. It is
a small actually have it on my desk, and it
is kind of a nuclear option in some respects. You
sometimes sometimes you need to go nuclear. I was spending
way too much time on my phone for work and
for other things, and my spouse was like, we need
(20:30):
to have an intervention because you cannot watch a TV
show without being on your phone, and that is not okay.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
That's the definitely people for a couple couples.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, and you know they had been using it. They said,
I think you should really try it. And basically, it's
like this little NFC brick and you tap your phone
to it and when you enter a certain mode, it
just locks all of your apps and the only way
to unlock your app The only way to unlock your
apps is to physically tap this physical brick. If you
(21:01):
lose the brick, there are five emergency overrides, and once
you use up your emergency overrides. Your phone has to
be completely reset. It is quite drastic. It does require
maybe that you're not someone who's going to lose the brick,
But I find that that's been really helpful for when
(21:21):
I notice that I am on my phone while watching TV,
like I shouldn't be doing that. I should be paying
attention to the TV show. Another thing I've been using
is something called focus Friend, which Hank Green actually created
earlier this year. It is a little bean that lives
inside of your phone. It's like kind of a gamified thing.
It's a take on the palmadoro. A digital bean, a
(21:44):
digital bean, and you basically said it, and for that
time period, you're not doing anything else on your phone
because if you interrupt the bean who likes to knit socks,
you are ruining his sock journey. And for some reason,
he's a very cuy little bean. You don't want to
ruin his sock journey. You and the bean who you
can name, I named mine Blorbo. You're in it together
(22:07):
and using Blorbo. I have read so many books this
year compared to last year. I've been reading about ten
a month.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Thanks to Dorbo, you've read ten books a month thanks
to Blorbo. I mean I run a book club. I
don't read ten books a month, it's honest to god.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I just do thirty to forty five minutes in the
morning as part of my routine. I turn Blurbo on
and I read during that time. And just doing that
every single day, I.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Bet you're rewiring neural pathways, honestly.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
And honestly, it's about finding the hacks that work for you.
Anytime I accidentally hit my phone and it's like, you're
going to interrupt blurbo, Do you want to do that, I'm.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Like, no, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
He has to knit his little soakes. So it's actually
quite effective for me. And there's other versions of this
out there, but I find that the Pomadoro method, mixed
with a cute little bean that you helped decorate his
little house, it does wonders for my reading habit quite truly.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I recently bought a timer for Pomadora method and it
helps me read scripts. It's like the only way, but
that's a very analog that's like a home Pomodoro is. Basically,
you do twenty five minutes of work timed on a
timer and you set everything else aside and only do
the thing that you want to be working on in
that pomadoro, and then you take a five minute break,
(23:26):
and then you do another pomadoro and you collect pomadoro's. Basically,
it's a very effective way for someone like me who
like gets sucked into my phone or gets sucked into
email to actually focus on the thing that I want
to be doing.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It's also great if you have a hard time starting tasks,
because you can do anything. You can do anything for
twenty five minutes. Ye, you can do it, and you
can adjust it. Yeah, you can adjust it. So like
if you're really having a hard time starting out, you
can just do it for fifteen minutes or something. It
doesn't matter who you are. You can do anything for
fifteen minutes and just to get started on that. And
(23:57):
once you get started, I guarantee you a lot of
times you'll find that out. What was that so procrastinating about?
This isn't so bad, So it's it's really great.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Are there any resolutions or resolution based tech that we
haven't talked about yet that you've been interested in.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
If you're trying to set a new habit, I like
this app called Habitica. It's very cute. It's like a
little RPG where you do a little habit tracking and
you level up your little fantasy character. Clearly, I like
fantasy games on my phone. Yeah, but a lot of
people I know have also enjoyed Habiteka. Like doing little
chores around your house, you get points and experience points
(24:37):
for them. It's very cute if you're trying to like
build a new habit, which is very hard. One thing
that I don't think people give enough credit for is
that habits are basically programming your brain to do something automatically,
and there's like science behind it. There's something like a
que an action and a reward, and in order to
(24:59):
like have that pathway burned into your brain, it's very difficult.
You have to do it an x number of times.
People will say three weeks, but it could be shorter,
it could be longer. The scientists don't know. But for
however long it takes to burn that habit loop into
your brain, whatever motivation you find is really great, because
behavioral change is one of the hardest things you can
(25:20):
genuinely do. So if you are trying to do a
New Year's resolution, yourself a little graze. It is actually
quite difficult to change your.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Behavioral as we all sadly know, we very sadly know.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Well, Victory, that's a good place. And through this conversation,
I have come up with my new as resolution. What
is spend more time with my friends.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Oh yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
That's a very lovely New Year's resolution.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Should start calling your friends. What was it? Blur blurbo,
blur blurbo blurbo. Victoria, Thank you, thank you, Victoria, thanks
for having me. That's it for this week for tech Stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I'm Kara Price and I'm os Valoschin. This episode was
produced by Eliza Dennis, Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter. It
was executive produced by Me, Kara Price, Julia Nutter, and
Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katria Norvel for iHeart Podcasts.
Jack Insley mixed this episode. Kyle Murdoch wrote our theme song.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Please rate, review, and reach out to us at tech
Stuff podcast at gmail dot com. We want to hear
from you.
TechStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Oz Woloshyn
Karah Preiss
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