This is the disaster of my life, I'll be honest. It just is. I've been wrestling on and off with my weight since I was a kid and it's exhausting and it's a continual source of anxiety and stress.

It's Note to Self, the tech show about being human. I'm Anouche Summerodi.

I know the self-team.

Hey there. Hi.

A couple weeks ago, we put out the call to you. What's been your experience with fitness trackers and calorie counting apps and all the things out there that we can download or where to collect and compile information about our bodies?

My name's Allison from Charlotte and I use apps to quantify everything. I wanted to commiserate share my story about the apps.

My pet are really interesting experiences using all of these apps and devices and things. I'm a self-admitted data addict.

Hundreds of you left us voice memos and they were fascinating.

So my company this year decided that they were going to give us a $25 gift card if we averaged 8,000 steps for the month of January.

I live in North Dakota where it's 0 to 25 degrees in a given day in January. And so I was like, well, screw that. I'm not even going to try.

I never thought I would be the person walking around my kitchen island or doing laps in my bedroom because my friend Brittany is 2,000 steps ahead of me at 11 o'clock at night.

In the pursuit of optimizing my life, I ended up becoming a prisoner.

Oh Evan, Christina and Allison, thank you so many note to self-listeners with their experiences.

Late night laps around the kitchen imprisoned by data.

Today with the help of some experts, we sift through the tech, the obsessions and the sometimes self-defeating data points.

Do these gadgets and apps really lead us to six pack abs and that ever elusive good night sleep?

We're going to examine the deeper motivations behind getting healthier and whether the tech companies can help us do it without losing our minds.

Lots of confessions here, including the guy you heard at the very beginning of the show, Paul, who said his food issues were the disaster of his life.

The more humiliating addictions are really hard to confess. You know, like pretzels is a depressing addiction for an adult man in his 40s to have.

Paul, by the way, is the writer and technologist Paul Ford? I sought him out for this episode because I knew that he had kind of a unique relationship with tracking eating and exercise habits.

Five or six years ago, before FitBits became standard wristwear and calorie counters took over people's home screens, he built his own tracker just for him.

Paul was really ahead of his time and his story illustrates what's happening and what could happen both good and bad as we go forward with these trackers.

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