Why We Stopped Wearing Wearables (And What It Taught Us About Health)

What happens when two people obsessed with physiology, performance, and data stop tracking themselves completely?Last year in southern Italy, we quietly stopped wearing our wearables. Not because we suddenly became anti-science or anti-technology, but because for the first time in a long while, we could actually feel what health felt like without needing a device to confirm it.In this episode, we explore the surprising lessons we learned from stepping away from constant tracking and how environment, sunlight, movement, community, and nervous system regulation shaped our physiology more profoundly than optimization ever did. We also discuss the real benefits of wearables, the insights they can offer around stress, sleep, recovery, and blood sugar, and the subtle line where awareness can slowly become hypervigilance.This conversation is about interoception, embodiment, emotional stress, HRV, and learning to trust your body again in a culture that constantly encourages us to outsource our intuition.Timestamps:00:00 — Why we stopped wearing wearables in southern Italy01:07 — The benefits of wearables and why we started using them03:20 — Continuous glucose monitors and learning through self-experimentation05:20 — Nikia’s experience with burnout, stress, and tracking HRV06:55 — What heart rate variability actually measures12:15 — How wearables can empower behavior change and awareness14:20 — The surprising effect sunlight and environment had on HRV14:30 — Why Tropea felt regulating enough to stop tracking entirely16:30 — Athletes, optimization culture, and learning to trust intuition19:15 — Interoception, embodiment, and reconnecting to body signals22:30 — Orthosomnia, stress about stress, and the downsides of tracking23:20 — Why wearable data is useful but never perfect25:15 — Outsourcing intuition vs listening to the body27:00 — Practical takeaways for using wearables more intentionally28:05 — Why environment matters for nervous system regulation28:20 — Coming Home movement reset + closing reflectionsResources & Links:Coming Home: 12-Week Movement ResetIf your body has been asking for a reset, this is your sign. Coming Home starts May 25th. This is a 12-week guided reset based on the Minimum Effective Dose designed to help you reconnect with your body through strength, rhythm, mobility, and nervous system support that actually works with human physiology. Enrollment closes next week. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit itsthatgoodmedicine.substack.com