Hey Apple Watch, can you give it a rest?

As you use your best Apple Watch more and more, you'll notice that you have a Monthly Challenge to complete for the month. At first, my challenges were fairly easy and doable, but as I continued to finish them, they began to get harder and more difficult to complete. That's because the Fitness app essentially learns about your activity patterns and an algorithm comes up with a new goal every month based on your previous history. However, some of these monthly challenge goals can end up being ridiculous, and even considered a little unsafe.

For example, one of my first Monthly Challenges that I completed was burning 9,324 calories in November 2017. Or getting 195 Exercise minutes in March 2019. These are easy peasy for me to finish nowadays, but back then it was still something to work towards. Of course, these were my early challenges, which weren't long after I got an Apple Watch. I wasn't actively trying to complete them, but it would be a bonus if I did.

Nowadays, I try to complete as many Monthly Challenges as I can, and so far, I'm on a 12-month streak with these challenge goals. However, my last one was certainly a struggle, and I honestly wasn't even sure I would complete it — going 113 miles in April 2021, which I barely did by the last day. For May 2021, my goal is to burn 20,700 calories, which I'm on track to do because of my workout routine (under-desk elliptical while I work for at least two hours a day, and walk the dog in the evenings for about 30 minutes or 1.5 miles).

However, while I've been able to meet these challenge goals so far, it's because I've been working my butt off from the beginning of the month to make sure they're done. It's motivating, sure, but it's also causing a bit of strain on me physically with some pain in my legs and feet, especially now that I'm over 16 weeks pregnant.

If we're not talking about the Monthly Challenges and just our daily Activity Ring goals, well, that's easier for me to manage, though it's the Move Streak that I'm most concerned about. After all, I have a current streak of 825 days — I'd be devastated if I lost that. But what would happen if I've just fallen deathly ill or need major surgery (which I will in several months, technically)?