My classic morning starts like this. You wake up to the "bzzz" from the Whoop, tap it to turn off the alarm, and reach for your smartphone. But not to check Telegram or have a morning "shorts/reels therapy," but to check two metrics: Sleep and Recovery.

Let me explain for those unfamiliar with Whoop. Sleep is, as you might guess, sleep quality, which is determined by duration, bedtime and wake-up time, and stress. Recovery is the quality of recovery. It is determined by HRV (heart rate variability), heart rate and respiratory rate, and sleep quality.

There are three recovery zones. Red — 0-32%, yellow — 33-66%, and green — 67-100%. So seeing a green Recovery zone in the morning gives you such a dose of dopamine that all those reels can't even compare. And when it's 90%+ — it's absolutely mind-blowing.

And for me, a metrics person who just gets off on counting everything, Whoop literally changed the game. For years I tried to establish a sleep and workout routine, but I only managed to do it when I started wearing this band.

And today was, of course, a very strange morning. For the first time in the last 13 (!) months, I woke up and didn't see my Recovery. It's just that yesterday my subscription ended, and I didn't have time to renew it because of the hassle with paying with foreign cards. Whoop has some complicated anti-fraud services that make it difficult to get through to payment.

At the same time, yesterday Whoop sent an email saying, "We couldn't charge you, we'll try again in the next 2-3 days." So I thought that meant I still had a couple of days and wasn't too worried.

As a result, I woke up today — and the band turned into a pumpkin. And it's a very strange feeling. It even feels like an addiction. There's no withdrawal, of course, but there is some discomfort.

But this is probably the only addiction I'm not going to fight.