stopped drinking 2 years ago, went all-in on zone 2. Just had first colonoscopy at 42. Some unexpected findings.

Background: gave up drinking after reading Outlive. Former tech exec, MIT/Stanford, used to think I was healthy because I worked out sometimes. Started taking zone 2 seriously about 18 months ago. went from sedentary to 3-4 hours/week consistently.

The colonoscopy was preventive: got spooked after the James Van der Beek news.

The good news: all clear. Doc asked about my diet and lifestyle. I told him about the zone 2, protein-first eating, no alcohol. He said he sees this pattern: people who do a lot of steps have better gut health.

three things I've learned that I wish someone had told me when I started:

1. Your Apple Watch zones are probably wrong.

Most people (myself included for the first 6 months) assume the watch knows your zone 2. It doesn't. It uses generic age-based formulas, wrong for 90% of people. for me was off by about 12 bpm. I was training in zone 3 thinking I was doing zone 2. Actual zone 2 feels embarrassingly easy at first, then you get going.

2. The talk test is better than any formula.

I didn't internalize it until later. If you have to think about talking, you're too hard. If you could deliver a speech, you're too easy. the narrow window in the middle is zone 2. Finding it with heart rate is just a proxy for that physiological state.

3. 18 months of consistency beats any optimization.

i tested everything: chest straps vs optical, morning vs evening, fasted vs fed, different modalities. The biggest variable was not skipping weeks. mitochondrial adaptations are real but they're slow. The people I know who've seen dramatic VO2 max improvement are the ones who didn't take month-long breaks.

curious if anyone noticed gut health improvements with consistent zone 2?