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Many athletes and nonathletes alike choose to invest in smartwatches in order to track certain metrics (e.g., step count, heart rate, and running or cycling speed and distance) and become interested in additional information (such as sleep patterns, body battery, and stress level) the devices provide. While it might be interesting to see the numbers and feedback the watches display, one could potentially wonder how accurate they are.

Dallas-area resident Kim Endo-Campbell is a runner with a smartwatch, but she said she doesn’t pay much attention to the extra metrics it provides her because they don’t necessarily always match how she feels.

“I recently suffered from low iron because I paused supplementation and felt horrible on runs,” she said. “No matter how slowly I went or how much I cut back, I felt like I ran 100 miles. My watch was saying I was fresh and recovered, but what I felt and what I saw didn’t match.”

Endo-Campbell said she also ignores the stress level information completely because the number it gives her is based on her heart rate and not her mental state.

“Physical and mental stress can both affect training, but one is not as easy to measure as the other,” she said.

Dallas resident David Cerezo, however, said wearing a smartwatch (he opts for the Apple Watch Ultra 2) has caused him to become more self-aware of his basic vitals and more diligent in achieving his fitness goals and improving his sleeping habits. He said he also appreciates a few added benefits he hadn’t previously considered.

“I’m a person who frequently goes to concerts and other loud events, like sporting events,” he said. “The watch will actually sense the environment’s decibel levels and notifies me to wear hearing protection, as prolonged exposure in a high-decibel area will cause damage. Small conveniences like that are super helpful.”

Dallas resident Drew Mbiam also pays close attention to the information displayed on his watch screen when he’s not running, but it’s for a much different reason.

“I like looking at the numbers and imagining how Garmin got there,” he said. “I feel like Tommy Pickles calculates the metrics sometimes.”

Former Dallas-area resident Karen Brinkmann, who now resides in Montana, may not have indicated that she also thinks the Rugrats are running the show, but you won’t find her checking her wrist to see what a device is telling her about her body. 

“I never use my watch for metrics because I don’t trust the accuracy of the information it provides,” she said. “Plus, it’s uncomfortable to sleep with a watch on.”

Other individuals don’t mind wearing a watch through the night, though. Cerezo said the easy-to-read software interface and information provided on how to read the metrics have made it evident that his sleep has indeed improved.

“It almost feels like a video game,” he said, “and since I’m in the Apple ecosystem, every piece of info the watch captures automatically transfers to the Health app on my phone to later analyze the data better.”

Endo-Campbell hasn’t had the same experience with her sleep patterns being interpreted correctly, though. She said she can sleep for nine hours and still feel tired or sleep for five hours and feel refreshed, but the watch doesn’t recognize how she feels. It also doesn’t track her naps, so it misses her extra sleep time. Studies have indicated that smartwatches are often off on sleep metrics, as they are unable to consistently correctly identify quality of sleep.

Endo-Campbell also doesn’t believe that smartwatches account for certain factors that differ between men and women and said much of the data provided is male-centric.

“It’s easier to gather average metrics from men because they do not have menstrual cycles that alter how their bodies function throughout the month,” she said. “I do not fit the profile for an average male, and I’ve had many occasions in which my watch contradicts how I actually feel. I appreciate the data, but I don’t trust it. I know my body best and adjust training based on that.”

While Cerezo trusts the metrics watches offer users more than Endo-Campbell does, he knows that they should not be the ultimate sources of trust for individuals, particularly athletes.

“It gets close in some areas, but seeking a professional to get the most accurate info is highly suggested,” he said. “I was surprised that the VO2 max my watch calculated was very close to my VO2 max I previously had been tested by a professional in a lab. With the heart rate monitor, I believe it does very well in everyday use, but for running workouts, I think it becomes less accurate, as the violent arm movement will likely move the watch to a position that won’t record properly. For me, I like to use a heart rate monitor strap for my intensive workouts that syncs up with the device.”

Mbiam trusts his watch to tell him how far and long he ran (it’s important information for his Strava, of course), but he doesn’t trust it for much more than that.

“A broken watch is right twice a day,” he said. “A Garmin watch feels less reliable—unless we’re talking about times.”

For Endo-Campbell, what’s more important than anything is listening to one’s own body.

“A lot of athletes I interact with and coach don’t know how to pace themselves without constantly looking at their watches, let alone be honest about how recovered or tired they feel after hard workouts—they only see ‘productive’ or ‘unproductive,’” she said. “On the nonathlete-related metrics side, seeing nine hours of sleep looks great, but when you consider the quality of it, it may not be up to snuff. Nine hours of post-wine-night-induced sleep isn’t as refreshing as falling asleep on a normal night. The watch won’t tell you what caused the difference; you have to determine that yourself.”

More than 40 percent of the salt used in the U.S. is for de-icing roads and parking surfaces—which is more than 10 times as much salt used in food production.

Many holidays have certain characters and items associated with them (Santa and trees with Christmas, leprechauns and shamrocks with St. Patrick’s Day, Cupid and hearts with Valentine’s Day, etc.), and Easter is no exception—a giant bunny and eggs. Based on the origins of the Easter holiday, these symbols could pose perplexity for some individuals.

It was certainly confusing for Dallas resident Aaron Byrkit, though he has nothing against the Easter bunny.

“I enjoyed the idea growing up, but it was hard to make the connection between the rabbit and the idea of the resurrection,” he said.

While historians don’t appear to be able to give a definitive reason, according to certain theories, the Easter bunny traces back to an ancient pagan tradition, the festival of Eostre, which honored the goddess of fertility and spring. The goddess’ animal symbol was a rabbit, as the animal is known for its high breeding rates. Like the bunny, Easter eggs also have multiple origin stories. One poses the theory that eggs are symbols of rebirth, representing the resurrection, while another credits earlier years of Christianity when rules for fasting during Lent were much stricter, and Christians were not allowed to eat meat or any animal product, so they hard-boiled their eggs and stored them to distribute later.

Regardless of how these traditions began, Dallas resident Laura Hays enjoys decor and festivities, as they allow her to recollect cherished moments from her childhood.

“Growing up, my family dyed eggs every year, and my parents would hide them around the house,” she said. “One year, they hid them so well that we couldn’t find the last one for weeks!”

Hays certainly inherited that skill, as she hosted an Easter-themed gathering recently with an egg hunt that resulted in one egg never being found by participants. Her parents weren’t the only ones who helped her develop a love for themed activities this time of year, and she said she’s grateful to be able to keep that same spirit alive in her adult years.

“My grandma would bring us colorful Easter baskets full of little toys, gifts, candy, and chocolate bunnies,” she said. “Those were some of my fondest memories together, and some of the traditions still continue.”

For Byrkit, he enjoys not only being able to recall his childhood memories but also to create new ones with his wife and two kids.

“When I was wee lad, I loved going to church and going for an Easter egg hunt and having hot cross buns in the gym afterward,” he said. “These days, it’s fun to decorate eggs with the boys. It’s a nice, somewhat-easy family activity. It’s also pretty fun to see the boys running all over the yard with their cousins trying to find the eggs in all of the precarious places they’ve been hidden. Sometimes you get to play a game of hotter/colder to orient them to unfound eggs.”

As far as the questions regarding the bunny and eggs, though, Byrkit believes their relevance to Easter are mainly the result of the time of year they became popularized.

“The bunnies and eggs are spring symbols,” he said. “Also, I imagine they were easier to market than a story of a man who was executed on a timber cross and came back to life a few days later.”

A variety of Easter activities (including an after-dark egg hunt for adults only) can be found here.

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

We loved celebrating the NatNews two-year anniversary with some of our dear readers

Monday, March 25: International Waffle Day
Tuesday, March 26: Free Rooftop Movie — Wonka at Sundown at Granada; Pre-Golden Speed Dating at Harvest Hall; Jon Batiste at Winspear Opera House
Wednesday, March 27: Chelsea Cutler at South Side Ballroom
Thursday, March 28: Rangers Opening Day vs. the Cubs at Globe Life Field; Recess at Saint Ann — Easter Egg Decorating; The Party Crowd — Tribute to 80s to Now Party Country at Sundown at Granada
Friday, March 29: Party with My Peeps — Easter Eggstravaganza at The Village Glen Lawn; Dylan Marlowe at House of Blues Dallas; NCAA Men’s South Regional at the American Airlines Center
Saturday, March 30: WRRC Saturday run from Taco Joint; Kirtan at Klyde Warren Park
Sunday, March 31: Easter in Turtle Creek Park; NCAA Men’s South Regional at the American Airlines Center