What Does Levels Provide?
So Much Information!
Because Levels collects so much blood glucose data and knows about every calorie you ingest and exercise completed (assuming you log them), it can provide loads of beneficial information. Within the app, you are able to see charts by the minute showing exactly where your blood glucose is at that moment, or any other moment throughout the day. Every meal and exercise show glucose elevation amount, duration, stability counter, chart of that specific meal, and a meal score. Weekly and monthly views show stability and spike breakdowns. But it does not end there! Daily, weekly, and monthly email reports provide all sorts of additional viewpoints, breakdowns, and insightful information. I am not going to breakdown each of these resources as this review would be forever long, but the point is there no shortage of learning opportunities coming from Levels. Something else I noticed is that they have so many ways to learn, but they present it in such an easy way to absorb. Never overwhelming and I really appreciate that.
Accountability
It is not only the information presented from this solution. As you have a device always monitoring, you know that bad decisions will have consequences. Spikes will be shown and charted. Daily, weekly, and monthly reports will be negatively influenced. Scores will be reduced and reminders throughout levels that you could have been better. It is not like they punish you but on a personal side, Levels makes you want to do better. As a result, you put back the candy bar, avoid the ice cream, and overall make better decisions that put you on a path you always wanted to but struggled to maintain.
Motivation
While all of these tools, data points, and features make you more accountable and want to make better decision in the real-time, they also motivate you and excite you to be better in the long run. All of these tools present information in real-time, daily, weekly, and monthly views and you get excited about improving each. It is very neat how a tool like this takes something you might normally dread (eating healthy and getting exercise) and make it an enjoyable activity that has real results you can see. Long term improvements you can appreciate. Changes and tweaks you can make that impact your progress and you can continue to monitor and build a level of excitement for. And this is what you want out a product like this. Don't show me a couple quick results and move on while providing minimal value. Show me real world impactful results, motivate me, help me want to make better decisions, teach me how to be better, and let me see the work is paying off.
Learning
Speaking of learning, what good is a tool that only tells you how bad you have been without helping you learn how to really be better? Well, this is something that really stands out to me when it comes to Levels. Some things are obvious. You get a report, and it shows you a few meals that ruined your blood glucose. Well, maybe that is a meal you should not have, or you make some changes to the structure of that meal and see how it impacts you the next time. This is how you keep learning. At other times, what to do is not so obvious. Levels has nuggets of information spread everywhere in easy to digest portions. Have a meal report show a bad score? Learning resources will be available below to better understand what happened and what you can do. Blogs and emails come through with all sorts of articles, suggestions, and knowledge sharing opportunities that help you understanding what is really happening and what you can do. This is not throw-away information but skills you can keep with you for the rest of your life to make healthier decision you would not have otherwise realized at all. Identify, correct, motivate, and maintain. It helps from all angles!
Cost
This is not the cheapest option out there and I have no plans to tell you how to spend your money, but I will share my personal view and see if any of that resonates with you. As someone who long struggled with reaching health goals in my younger years, I can't fathom how much money I spend on weight loss products, crazy exercise solutions, fad diets, and different supplements. Many of these options were also probably less than healthy for me. These are the times I wish I could go back in time and provide myself a solution like Levels. No fad diet or pill you don't know what really has in it. Just a solution that helps you learn what does and does not work for your body. A tool that then teaches you how to be healthier NATURALLY for the rest of your life. I am completely okay spending a little extra up front, to learn so much and have the rest of my life to use this information. Levels comes down to two costs. The subscription to Levels and the sensors. I will say, you don't need the sensors all of the time. You can get a pack and use them for a month. Get an early understanding of where you are at, make some tweaks, and then use that month of data to make changes and improvements over the next couple of months. Then order another set of sensors and do the same thing. See where you are at and continue to make improvements. Don't necessarily treat the sensors as a cost that has to be there 100 percent of the time.
