Many athletes and active individuals are looking for an edge to improve performance on race day or at the gym. Physical activity has many well-known health benefits, including promoting heart health, preventing low bone mass and lowering the risk of chronic diseases. Despite this, improving overall health can often be overlooked while striving for athletic goals. With the help of a simple blood test through InsideTracker, you can work to improve your health while still chasing your athletic goals.
What Is InsideTracker?
InsideTracker is an ultra-personalized nutrition and performance system that analyzes up to 43 biomarkers in your blood. It uses the data from your biomarkers with its sophisticated algorithm to provide an optimal range for each based on your age, sex, ethnicity and activity level. You’ll receive personalized food, supplement and lifestyle recommendations based on your goals and preferences to improve any unoptimized biomarker. We spoke with a few InsideTracker users to share their personal stories on how they changed the trajectory of their health and performance with regular blood testing.
Kristin
Meet Kristin, a competitive triathlete who believes in the importance of both physical and mental health.
Twenty-four-year-old Kristin Goett is a young professional and an avid athlete who grew up playing a number of sports. As an adult she's continued her athletic career by training for the IRONMAN World Championship. Her health is everything to her, and she encourages other women to take control of their health.
But taking control of your health sounds simpler than it actually is. Throughout her teen and college years, Kristin lived with a nearly decades-long disordered eating pattern.
Because of this, she struggled with relative energy-deficiency in sport or RED-S syndrome—meaning the calories she was getting through her diet weren’t enough to support her level of activity. “I potentially did some damage to my bones that I may not even be aware of yet,” she says. To offset this potential, she's prioritizing eating a varied diet, rich in nutrients. “I also find that when my eating is balanced, my mental health feels more intact, too. I love to cook and use that as an expression of taking care of myself—InsideTracker’s recipes are clutch!”
Regular blood testing with InsideTracker helped Kristin refocus her eating habits.
One insight her InsideTracker results revealed was that she could healthfully add red meat back into her diet. Coming from a family with high cholesterol, she was always hesitant to eat red meat on a regular basis, but interestingly, blood testing showed that her cholesterol levels were within a healthy range and that her iron was low. “These two factors made me feel confident in strategically incorporating red meat back into my diet.”
Kristin feels it’s critical for mental and physical health to place the utmost importance on what is going on inside our bodies and own it. "InsideTracker isn’t just a blood test, it’s the ability to take control of multiple aspects of your life for the better," she says.
Dan
Meet Dan, a father, coach and military veteran who’s focused on living each day to the fullest.
After a 20-year career in the military, Dan is now a husband and father of three and spends his weeks running his own business, coaching tennis and working to maintain his health and wellness. His long-term goals are to maintain peak performance and a body he's proud of—and he finds success in building a strong foundation. Dan believes that "the more you measure, the better you become," so he's been using InsideTracker for insights to improve his diet, exercise, recovery and supplement routine based on his body's internal measurements.
In August of 2019, he was diagnosed with a skin condition, Rosacea. Once again, he turned to InsideTracker for support. “I always ask myself, ‘What don’t I know?’ This drives me to find answers and not settle with someone merely telling me what symptoms I have," he says. His recent InsideTracker test results revealed that he was supplementing with too much vitamin B—a common trigger of the condition. Since then, he reduced his intake of the, vitamin and along with proper medical care, his Rosacea has resolved.
Dan is excited to see what the results of his next test show and to share this message with others. “Create habits that will create you. Asking for help is a beautiful experience when coupled with gratitude and grace. InsideTracker has given me this option,” he says.
Takeaways
Reaching your performance and health goals is not a linear path. It requires you to check in with where you are and understand where you want to go and what you’re willing to do to get there. InsideTracker can help in that process by providing an ultra-personalized experience to improve your nutrition, performance and overall well-being. Kristin and Dan utilized InsideTracker to support both physical and mental health and were able to track and see the difference through routine blood testing. How will you measure and evaluate your health?
For a limited time only, Active readers can get 25% off the entire InsideTracker Store + FREE InnerAge! Just go to InsideTracker.com/ACTIVE to get your deal.
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