As a hyper-mobile bendy spoonie...it's very easy to do the test on yourself to check—which you may already know and so you can ignore this. But anyone interested, the Beighton Scoring assessment is a good way to check the baseline: https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/assessing-joint-hypermobility/
Also, if you supect you have hEDS, or any other form of EDS, it's worth looking at the clusters of signs of it, like easy bruising, a real aversion to needles because you can feel them constantly while they are in your body, dizziness and headrushes when standing still, weird gut health things, developing celiac later in life, regular headaches, chronic pain etc.
I had this experience with FItBit. After losing the FitBit wristband, I realized how it had revealed and exacerbated my need to be perfect or at least better, to do more and it felt so unhealthy. I did not reinvest in one, and will not own an Apple watch or any other device. Listening to my body is my best form of self care.
This seems like a bit of all-or-nothing thinking, maybe you can find gentle exercises that still reach your exercise goals, or perhaps tell yourself that one day you will just focus on the steps, another on the calories burnt, etc. Maybe you don't need to totally abandon the watch but rather use it to your advantage (for the motivation and consistency but not for the benchmarks it nominally assumes you should be able to achieve.)
I always had an exercise regimen...dance, Pilates, going to gym... however, in my late 40s I started putting on weight....I then became very watchful of what and how much I ate... exercised again, did kickboxing.....this was in my early 50s...the 2nd time I rebooted my body...I found technology made my health anxiety worse...now, at 69 I'm back alittle out of shape, and unfortunately all of my exercise skills including heavy pounding with dance and kickboxing did a number on my joints..lots of health anxiety here....it's always good to exercise..I do more core....Ehlers Danlos is hard to diagnosis...well take care...
As a hyper-mobile bendy spoonie...it's very easy to do the test on yourself to check—which you may already know and so you can ignore this. But anyone interested, the Beighton Scoring assessment is a good way to check the baseline: https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/assessing-joint-hypermobility/
Also, if you supect you have hEDS, or any other form of EDS, it's worth looking at the clusters of signs of it, like easy bruising, a real aversion to needles because you can feel them constantly while they are in your body, dizziness and headrushes when standing still, weird gut health things, developing celiac later in life, regular headaches, chronic pain etc.
I had this experience with FItBit. After losing the FitBit wristband, I realized how it had revealed and exacerbated my need to be perfect or at least better, to do more and it felt so unhealthy. I did not reinvest in one, and will not own an Apple watch or any other device. Listening to my body is my best form of self care.
This seems like a bit of all-or-nothing thinking, maybe you can find gentle exercises that still reach your exercise goals, or perhaps tell yourself that one day you will just focus on the steps, another on the calories burnt, etc. Maybe you don't need to totally abandon the watch but rather use it to your advantage (for the motivation and consistency but not for the benchmarks it nominally assumes you should be able to achieve.)
I always had an exercise regimen...dance, Pilates, going to gym... however, in my late 40s I started putting on weight....I then became very watchful of what and how much I ate... exercised again, did kickboxing.....this was in my early 50s...the 2nd time I rebooted my body...I found technology made my health anxiety worse...now, at 69 I'm back alittle out of shape, and unfortunately all of my exercise skills including heavy pounding with dance and kickboxing did a number on my joints..lots of health anxiety here....it's always good to exercise..I do more core....Ehlers Danlos is hard to diagnosis...well take care...