Health Tools
Track and understand your body with four simple tools to help you optimize your health.
Why This Site Has Tools at All
Food is half of this site's story; measurement is the other half. The recipes and guides work on the menu, but most people who feel drained, wired or slow to recover have a habit problem in front of the food problem — a sleep schedule in debt, stress that never ends, training without recovery. Those levers are invisible until you measure them, and they usually matter more than the menu. The four tools below are free, take minutes, and are deliberately blunt: they exist to give you a number where you previously had an impression, so that a change in habit has something to show for itself.
They are screening and self-tracking tools, not medical devices, and none of them diagnoses anything. A low energy score means you are tired; it does not mean anything else. If you take any of them and the numbers point somewhere concerning — persistent fatigue, heavy sleep debt that will not clear, a BMI at either extreme — the honest next move is on the tool pages themselves: a professional conversation, not a stricter diet.
Sleep Debt Calculator
Measure your sleep deficit and understand how it affects your energy and recovery.
The most useful tool on the site, because every other page quietly assumes you are recovering overnight. Sleep debt — the running total of hours borrowed from the bank of sleep you did not get — is the single most common reason people feel short of energy, and it does not show up in a food diary at all. Thirty seconds a week will tell you whether your problem is the kitchen or the calendar. Read the insight page if you want the background on why one bad week of sleep outperforms a month of good food — in the wrong direction.
When to use it: Once a week, at the end of the day. Worth checking before you act on any energy or recovery advice, including the ones on this site.
Energy Score
Track your daily energy levels and discover what factors drain or restore you.
Energy, tracked honestly, is data. The score breaks your day into the five levers that actually move it — sleep, movement, focus, stress and caffeine — and shows you which one is dragging you down this week. People are reliably wrong about their own patterns (most people blame stress when the sleep number is the culprit), and a score every few days is enough to replace a guess with a number.
When to use it: Once or twice a fortnight, at roughly the same time of day. The trend, not the single score, is what matters.
Recovery Score
Measure how well your body is recovering day by day after workouts and stress.
Recovery is the difference between the work the body does and the rest it gets to use it. The score tracks the same inputs as an overtraining check-in — soreness, sleep quality, resting state, appetite and stress — and gives a session-by-session read on whether you are building or just spending. On a food-therapy site it earns its place because the recovery pillar of the framework is about refilling reserves, and you cannot manage reserves you are not measuring.
When to use it: After the sessions that matter — workouts, long days, big deadlines. A dipping score is the signal to eat the recovery foods, not the excuse to skip them.
BMI Calculator
Calculate your Body Mass Index based on your height and weight.
BMI is a crude but genuinely useful screening number — it catches the person whose weight is worth a conversation with a professional. It is deliberately one-dimensional: it says nothing about muscle, waist shape or age, and the tool page lists the important exceptions (athletes, older adults, and people who are thin but carry weight around the middle). Use it as the tradition uses it — a starting point, never a verdict.
When to use it: Occasionally. It is a baseline number to know, not a daily dashboard.
A Sensible Routine With These Tools
Start with the sleep debt calculator, because it is the bottleneck. If the number is heavy, the other three tools will keep reporting the symptom while you ignore the cause — no food on this site compensates for sleep that is not happening. Once sleep is reasonable, take the energy score twice a fortnight to find your personal drain, and use the recovery score (loosely) to check that training is earning its keep. Check BMI rarely, and only to know the number. Two tools at most, used consistently, will do more than four tools used once.
Not sure where to start?
Try the Food Finder to discover recipes based on your symptoms, or browse our full recipe library.
Common Questions
Are these tools medical devices?
No. They are free, self-administered tools for tracking and orientation — a food-themed site measuring habits, not a clinic measuring patients. They cannot diagnose sleep apnea, anaemia or any other condition. They exist to give you honest numbers about your own habits, which is all they claim.
Which tool matters most?
The sleep debt calculator, because chronic sleep debt is the hidden driver behind most of the fatigue on this site, and none of the food pages will tell you that. If you only use one tool, use that one — and if the debt is heavy, the fix is a schedule, not a congee.
How do the tools connect to the recipes?
The sleep debt calculator pairs with the sleep pillar (calming evening foods once the schedule is fixed), the energy score with the energy pillar, and the recovery score with the recovery pillar. Each tool page links to the matching ingredient and recipe pages, so a low score sends you to food that answers the same problem.
Disclaimer
This website is a personal learning project and does not provide medical advice. All content is for informational and educational purposes only, based on traditional food therapy concepts and publicly available nutritional information.
- I am not a licensed physician, dietitian, or TCM practitioner. Nothing on this site should be interpreted as medical diagnosis, treatment, or prescription.
- Traditional food therapy concepts (Qi, Yin/Yang, Dampness, etc.) are cultural/philosophical frameworks, not clinically proven medical models.
- Individual responses to foods and herbs vary widely. What works for one person may not work for another, or may cause adverse effects.
- Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making dietary changes, especially if you have a medical condition, take medications, are pregnant, or are nursing.
- If you experience persistent symptoms, seek medical attention promptly. Do not delay or disregard professional medical advice because of something you read here.
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