2026 So Far - Life Tracking Update

Here are my stats for January to June 2026. This was generated using my data from Exist, and I found it highlights some key facts I hadn't considered as much as I should.

Key Themes

• I should make sure I hit at least 5,500 steps in a day before I retire to play games or watch TV in the evening.
• I should keep up my reading habit, and try and read at least every other day.
• I should continue with my diet plan (Huel!), as it seems to be working!
• I really need to think about what makes the difference between a 5/9 day and one that is 7+

Overview Steps Mood Sleep Weight Activity Leisure Insights

Avg daily steps

5,260

Avg mood

5.8 / 10

Avg sleep

7h 26m

Weight change

−7.4 kg

Avg active min

26m

Avg gaming (when played)

1h 20m

Avg reading (when read)

39m

Avg board game (when played)

1h 34m

Monthly snapshot

__Steps (÷1000) __Mood __Sleep (hours)

Best month

Feb

6,971 avg/day

Lowest month

Jan

3,618 avg/day

Peak single day

17,770

6 Jun

Days over 10k

17

Average daily steps by month

Daily steps — full timeline

Highs and lows

Top 3 step days

1. 6 Jun17,770
2. 14 Apr15,877
3. 16 Apr13,854

Bottom 3 step days

1. 18 Jun1,441
2. 13 May1,513
3. 14 Jan1,519

National Trust & date nights

Both tags strongly associated with high step days. National Trust visits averaged 9,642 steps; date nights averaged 9,715 — nearly double the overall daily average of 5,260.

National Trust visits — steps (avg 9,642)

1. 16 Mar11,728
2. 15 Feb11,491
3. 14 Feb10,098
4. 26 Apr10,822
5. 12 Apr9,001

Date nights — steps (avg 9,715)

1. 6 Jun17,770
2. 5 Jun13,655
3. 21 Jun10,046
4. 26 Apr10,822
5. 21 Mar7,565

Best month

Apr

6.3 avg

Toughest month

Jun

5.1 avg

Days rated 9+

22

Days rated ≤3

18

Average mood by month (1–10 scale)

Mood score distribution

Highs and lows

15 days scored a 9; 4 days scored ≤ 2. Listed below are the standout examples.

Best mood days (9 / 10)

1. 14 Apr9 · 15,877 steps
2. 15 Feb9 · 11,491 steps
3. 11 Apr9 · 11,447 steps

Worst mood days

1. 24 Jun1 · 2,694 steps
2. 31 Jan2 · 1,784 steps
3. 9 Jun2 · 2,222 steps

Best month

Feb

7h 36m avg

Lowest month

May

7h 21m avg

Nights ≥8 hours

31

Nights under 6h

2

Average daily sleep by month

Daily sleep — full timeline

Highs and lows

Longest nights

1. 17 Mar8h 51m
2. 20 Feb8h 48m
3. 7 Mar8h 45m

Shortest nights

1. 28 Jun5h 26m
2. 4 Apr5h 30m
3. 4 Feb5h 41m

Start (1 Jan)

Baseline

0 kg change

Latest (28 Jun)

−7.4 kg

Total change

−7.4 kg

Avg per month

−1.2 kg

Cumulative weight change since 1 Jan

Net weight change per month

Highs and lows

Largest day-over-day changes — likely a mix of real change and weigh-in noise (clothes, hydration, time of day).

Biggest single-day drops

1. 14 Jun−2.14 kg
2. 4 Feb−2.01 kg
3. 20 May−1.33 kg

Biggest single-day gains

1. 18 May+1.77 kg
2. 16 Mar+1.68 kg
3. 8 Jun+1.32 kg

Best month

Feb

44m avg

Lowest month

May

15m avg

Peak day

2h 09m

26 Apr

Days under 10 min

66

Avg on NT visits

52m

10 visits

Avg on date nights

34m

9 dates

Avg on sick days

11m

6 sick days

Average active minutes by month

Steps vs active minutes

__Avg steps ÷100 __Avg active minutes

Highs and lows

Most active days

1. 26 Apr2h 09m
2. 14 Apr2h 07m
3. 1 Mar1h 48m

Least active days

1. 21 Jan2m
2. 20 Jun2m
3. 14 Jan3m

National Trust visits

10 visits — every single one scored mood 8 or 9. Average active time was 52m, nearly double the first-half daily average.

Steps & activity on NT days

1. 13–16 Feb9, 9, 9, 9 mood · 38–75m active
2. 16 Mar8 mood · 11,728 steps · 53m active
3. 26 Apr9 mood · 10,822 steps · 2h 09m active
4. 2 May8 mood · 9,852 steps · 16m active
5. 24 May8 mood · 8,015 steps · 20m active

Date nights — steps & mood

1. 5–6 Jun9, 8 mood · 13,655 / 17,770 steps
2. 26 Apr9 mood · 10,822 steps
3. 21 Jun9 mood · 10,046 steps
4. 21 Mar7 mood · 7,565 steps
5. 4 Jan9 mood · 4,359 steps

Gaming — days played

85

of 180 (47%)

Gaming — total time

113h 52m

Reading — days read

96

of 180 (53%)

Reading — total time

62h 29m

Board games — sessions

5

Board games — total time

7h 51m

Average gaming time by month (when played)

Average across days when gaming actually happened — not diluted by zero days.

Average reading time by month (when read)

Total monthly leisure time

__Gaming __Reading __Board games

Highs and lows

Longest gaming sessions

1. 15 Apr6h 22m
2. 13 Jun5h 00m
3. 13 May4h 11m

Longest reading sessions

1. 17 Jan1h 51m
2. 24 Feb1h 48m
3. 24 May1h 47m

Top 3 correlations

Pearson correlation across all 180 days. Values closer to ±1 mean a stronger relationship; 0 means none.

Steps × Mood +0.54 Strong positive (n = 161) __ The clearest signal in the dataset. Days with 7,500+ steps averaged mood 7.6 / 10 ; days under 3,000 steps averaged 5.2 / 10 — a +2.4 point swing. Walking more was the single most reliable mood lever in the data.	Gaming × Steps −1,182 Substitution effect __ On days with 60+ minutes of gaming, average steps dropped to 4,668 vs 5,850 on days with no gaming — a ~1,200 step deficit. May, the heaviest gaming month (21 days, 1h 47m avg), had the lowest active minutes of the first half.	Sleep × Mood +0.09 Effectively none (n = 159) __ Counterintuitive but consistent: a longer night didn't predict a better day. Sleep was so stable (7h 21m – 7h 36m every month) that there wasn't enough variation for it to drive mood. A good baseline, but not a useful lever.

Other observations

The weekend effect is huge

Saturday and Sunday averaged mood 7.0 vs 5.4 on weekdays — a +1.6 point gap, bigger than any single correlation. Sunday was the peak day (mood 7.3, ~6,900 steps); Tuesday was the slump (mood 4.8). Weekday mood is likely the biggest opportunity area for the second half of the year.

Steps → mood is dose-dependent

Not just correlated — the relationship climbs in clear steps. Days under 3k steps averaged mood 5.2; days at 5k+ averaged 6.7; 7.5k+ averaged 7.6; 10k+ averaged 8.2. Roughly +1 mood point per 2,500 extra steps.

The "good stack" days

On days that hit 7,500+ steps, included reading, AND had 7+ hours of sleep, mood averaged 7.9 vs 5.7 on every other day — a +2.2 point swing. Only 13 of 180 days hit all three; the compound effect is the strongest single signal in the data.

Steady weight loss

7.4 kg shed over 6 months — an average of 1.2 kg per month — with March showing the biggest single-month drop (−4.5 kg). The trend held even during quieter movement months, suggesting diet was likely the primary driver.

April had the best week

10–17 April: 8 consecutive days of 5,000+ steps, including a 5-day run of 7,500+. Every day in that stretch scored mood 7–9. Concrete proof of what a sustained high-movement week can look like.

Reading is the most consistent habit

Read on 96 of 180 days (53%) at a steady ~39 minutes per session. Unlike gaming, the monthly average barely moves — a quiet, dependable habit that survived even the toughest months.

Being ill killed activity more than steps

6 sick days across the first half of the year (a 5-day cluster in early April, one isolated day in May). On those days active minutes collapsed to just 11m on average — less than half the overall mean — while steps held up surprisingly well at 5,256. Mood averaged 4.67, with the final sick day (7 Apr) hitting a 3. Notably, 3 of the April sick days overlapped with holiday periods — so the Easter mood boost was partly undermined by illness.

Goals for the second half of 2026

📌 Three concrete, data-grounded goals I'm setting for the next six months — to revisit in January and see how I did against each baseline from the first half of the year.

01

Move the daily step median up

Median daily steps: 4,517 → 5,500+

Half my days in the first half of the year were below 4,500 steps. Pulling the median up to 5,500 means more "good enough" days and fewer slump days. Based on the dose-response gradient, each extra 2,500 steps was worth roughly +1 mood point — moving the median is more impactful than chasing peak days.

02

Walk more on gaming days

Avg steps on 60+ min gaming days: 4,668 → 5,500+

Heavy gaming days came with a ~1,200 step deficit vs non-gaming days. Closing that gap removes the substitution effect — a deliberate walk before or after a gaming session is the smallest possible behaviour change with the biggest payoff.

03

Stack 30 "good days"

Days hitting 7.5k+ steps, reading, and 7h+ sleep: 13 → 30 in the second half

The single most powerful pattern in the data — these days averaged mood 7.9, more than 2 points above the rest. Roughly one stack day a week, with a few extras around weekends and holidays, gets there.

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This is post 47 of #100DaysToOffload.

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