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Coffee Break: Whoop 4.0

wearable Whoop 4.0

The first day of the Amazon Prime Day sales has begun and it's actually great this year; see our roundup here… one of the big things I'm considering getting (that hadn't been on my radar previously) is the Whoop 4.0 — I've heard great things about it for tracking sleep and more.

As I often do, I went back and looked through the comments to see what Corporette readers had said about it… some sample comments:

  • I got a Whoop band at the beginning of the pandemic and it’s been the absolute best way to care for myself and respect where my body is daily. Highly recommend if you’re in a high-paced, stressful job and/or if you enjoy working out.
  • I recently got a Whoop band and I am obsessed. Way more helpful in my training that anything else I’ve ever used.
  • My mental health had deteriorated to such a place that I was constantly in a fight-or-flight mode and could not function. Lots of things have helped … BUT the biggest helpers have [included] … tracking what is helping by wearing a Whoop band. Whoop is a subscription service that works sort of like a FitBit, but doesn’t care about calories and steps, it’s entirely based on rest and recovery and tracks your sleep incredibly accurately. It’s been absolutely worth it and a literal life saver.

The Whoop 4.0 is just under $200 in the sale, down from the regular $240 — the price includes a 12-month subscription.

Sales of note for 12.5

139 Comments

  1. Anyone familiar with Renaissance Weekend? I’ve tossed the invites the last few years, as it looked like a money grab, but then saw someone (can’t recall where – might have even been here!) mention it positively, so thought to reconsider.

      1. No, it’s an invite-only event for successful luminaries in various fields. Except I don’t think it’s that exclusive anymore.

    2. Are these the fancy things at places like Hilton Head, that are like Davos but for the top 10%? I have heard about them. Can’t say that I’ve been (I have friends in low places).

        1. I want there to be something that is both like Davos AND a Faire – Davos with LARPing.

  2. Most out of touch boss stories?

    My former boss used to join all of us entry level people for lunch regularly (not that he paid for us!). One Monday at lunch he said he was tired because he and his wife had spent the weekend at an extremely upscale resort about an hour away.

    He said “it’s a nice place to go if you want to blow a few grand in a weekend.”

    That was more than my monthly rent at the time & I struggled to make it every month. He knew how much (how little) the company paid us.

    1. One time while heating up my lunch in our kitchenette area, our CEO volunteered to me he was heating up salmon he caught on a guided fishing trip with his friends in Alaska the previous week (we’re in the midwest, not a normal trip for anyone I know).

    2. My boss right now…. I am very good about managing my team’s money, we are cash flow positive and that is not an accident. My boss and I had a meeting where she was complaining about how hard it was balancing the budget and how it was so difficult for her to take my team’s money to fund her pet project. She seriously wanted sympathy for stealing my team’s money.

    3. Our annual bonus is partially based on the performance of the company and when we didn’t meet our goals last year, our CEO tried to sympathize with us by saying “It affects my bonus too!” Um you already make 10x as much as me but ok…

    4. When I worked in Big Law the partner I worked for the most would talk about blowing $25-50k on weekend trips to Paris with his wife. (Besides business class flights and luxury hotels, they spent many thousands at luxury stores like Chanel and Louis Vuitton.) Honestly, I found the whole thing sad rather than enviable. He was in his 60s and had earned multiple millions, possibly tens of millions, over the course of his career, but was still basically living paycheck to paycheck because of inability to save. I think I had a higher net worth than him as a 20-something junior associate.

      2. I am so curious how you knew the partner was basically living paycheck to paycheck, if you are willing to share. It sounds like a wild case of oversharing. I know only the broadest strokes of the financial situation of partners I work with (like the existence of a beach house or that kids are in private school).

        1. He talked about it very openly! Possibly he was lying/exaggerating but he would say things like he had no savings and he was worried about a mortgage payment clearing if a paycheck was briefly delayed.
          He was definitely an over sharer in many ways, not just about his finances.

    5. I worked for a company where the son had taken over the business that his father built. He was convinced that he was so important, everyone knew him, etc.

      I walk into his office one day and he’s trying to make a dinner reservation at a hard-to-book place, and he keeps saying his name into the phone in the entitled “do you know who I am?” tone.

      He has the most common man’s first name and last name in the world (think David Smith, Ed Jones, etc.). The way he just kept saying his name over and over, with increasing huffiness that the person at the restaurant was not at all impressed or moved to do special favors for this Very Important Man was the funniest and most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in a while.

    6. My boss got upset that people wouldn’t live in San Francisco proper and would then complain about long commutes, even though the reason they did that was to keep costs down for housing. Then she bought a second home for over $2.5 million for weekend use. Then she bought a new condo in the city for her primary residence (not waiting to sell the old one first) for about $2M. Then she sold the old one for one million OVER ASKING.

    7. My former boss (in a small family-owned firm) cut bonuses one year. We each got a $50 Target card instead. He handed them out like he was Santa, then logged off for a 3-week Antarctica vacation. I quit as soon as I could.

    8. My grad school advisor told us all he can tell who takes the field seriously because they buy the brand name notebooks. Moleskin or bust! If your work is important it needs to be on important paper!

    9. I had a boss at a technocratic government job tell us on our first day that we were expected to stay up on local cultural happenings like museum exhibits etc. to be able to contribute to lunch discussions.

    10. My boss, while telling me that I wasn’t going to be getting a raise that year, told me ‘oh but you don’t really need it anyway, your husband works in finance and I’m sure you’ll be having your kids soon’.

    11. Worked in a professional / reman company where the upper echelons wear ties and jackets and make a quarter million and the maintenance techs wear stained jeans and company provided shirts and make $22 an hour.

      The techs had just gotten lunch at some fast food joint – like, Taco Bell or something – and one of our leaders walks in and says “Oh? How is it? I’ve never been there.”

      1. Maybe it was in the delivery, but that doesn’t immediately scream out of touch to me. Maybe he’s a Mickey D’s guy?

        1. Yeah, I’ve never been to Taco Bell and it’s not because I’m too rich for fast food — I love McD’s and have eaten at most of the other big fast food chains, just not that particular one.

        2. I’ve never been to a lot of regional fast food places- I moved to Dallas from New England and can list easily places I’ve never been to that I pass by all the time: Sizzler, Sonic, Whataburger, Arbys, Red Robin, Waffle House, Raising Canes, Texas Roadhouse, Jack in the Box–and I’m sure tons more.

    12. Oh, and our new VP who moved from a VHCOL to our “regular HCOL” and told me “Everything’s so cheap here! You can get a perfectly adequate house, for only a million dollars! maybe even 850k!”

    13. My old boss (who was otherwise a lovely person) would often mention at virtual meetings during the start of the pandemic how she went for a run in the national park behind her cottage on her lunch break. Saying that to people crammed in tiny city apartments was something.

    14. My old boss thought we bonded because she’d had her kids via IVF and she knew I was going through it. I eventually got pregnant and took a standard maternity leave.

      When I returned to work, I asked if I could remain part time for six months. (My kid was just starting to show food allergies we hadn’t fully identified, and I was terrified of putting her in someone else’s care. Also, I really enjoyed being a mom at that age!). My boss asked if I could just “make my schedule work for me” by declining meetings/ignoring emails and being unavailable but not tell anyone that was what I was doing. I was in house counsel; I thought my internal clients deserved to have clear expectations of my availability.

      I asked her to ask HR, and she took three months to talk to them and get back to me. I worked part-time for those three months, and it seemed like it was working well for my clients and me. She finally told me she had an answer and told me we would discuss during our 1:1…which she then canceled five minutes before it was scheduled to happen. She messaged me later that day during one of my offline periods to ask if we could quickly chat. I said sure, but that I was actively nursing my child so it would need to be video off. She said that was fine and it would only take a couple minutes.

      She got on the call and told me that the company would not support anything less than 32 hours a week. (I’d been working 24 hours a week). I need to emphasize I was actively nursing a baby during this call and she was aware of that. She said “you don’t seem happy with this,” and I said “yeah, you’re telling me I’m not going to have a job anymore.” And then she told me she was “proud of me for sticking to my priorities,” and ended the call. To her credit, she was correct that it only took a couple minutes—I think we didn’t even hit a tenth of an hour.

      (She also had her EA cancel our goodbye 1:1 ten minutes before it was supposed to happen and never set up another one; I haven’t heard from her since. We’d worked together for seven years.)

      1. I realize this is only tangential to the prompt, so sorry for that, but the casualness of how she handled telling me something so important to my career and finances felt super out of touch to me.

        2. Honestly…. I missed the point of the story. She was able to stall for 3 months and get you full pay for only working half time. Am I wrong? Maybe she was trying to drag it out on purpose?

          1. Sorry, I should’ve said that the three months part-time was part of a gradual return to work program that was expiring. Also should’ve said that I have no objection to the underlying business decision—businesses can decide not to support part time work.

            Based on our discussions to date, though, I was expecting to receive details on the pay and benefits adjustments that would come with the extension of my part time status beyond the return to work program. So having unexpected bad news dropped on me outside of business hours while she knew I was topless was…not a great managerial moment for her.

    15. OP here.
      About 10 years after my then-boss’s “blow a few grand” I had left that company & worked for a new one. I was doing pretty well by that point though not blow a few grand well.

      One day out of the blue, old boss shows up as a new hire at the company I was working for. In the same office I was in, which wasn’t the HQ. I was reasonably friendly, but the next day he came by my office and said that when he had arrived around 8am that morning, I wasn’t in yet, and he liked to be in early. Same way he had acted at old company.

      I was super confused. I called my actual boss in another office and asked if I now reported to old boss because he was sure acting like it. My boss was INCENSED. He even told me that old boss was lateral to me, but not in my reporting structure.

      Current boss was so offended he called old boss’s manager to complain. I suspect that didn’t go over well, and old boss barely talked to me again. He lasted about 6 months & moved on. Thank god.

      1. Holy cow. What a nightmare. Like literally, I have weird dreams sometimes like that. I can’t even imagine how awful and awkward.Good you nipped that right away.

    1. La Roche Posay Toleraine Hydrating Facial Cleanser (not the foaming) Don’t know if it’s in the sale.

    2. I’m so fed up with all the face washes out there – leaves my skin too tight, doesn’t remove makeup, breaks me out, etc, etc. I’ve given up and gone back to the Dove bar soap that I used as a child and that my mom uses and my grandmother used too. My skin is clean and my makeup is gone without any drama. (I have “normal” skin, and I understand many people have different skin needs that means Dove wouldn’t work for them.)

    5. I swear by a double cleanse (I also wear sunblock daily so this is needed for me). I either use Banila Co clean it zero or Kose speedymo oil for a first cleanser and then the CosRX Good morning gel cleanser. That cleanser is better for oily skin, if you have dry skin I’d use the CosRX snail cleanser (or the Vanicream one is great!).

      1. Double cleanse is life changing. I never realized how much makeup was getting left behind. I use Ponds cold cream and then any sort of regular face soap. Right now I’m partial to Ordinary’s Squalene one. Never have breakouts anymore.

    8. A cleansing balm (e.l.f. is solid, the new Garnier one is supposed to be good as well if you want to try out drugstore brands) first, this removes all makeup, sunscreen and oil. I spend 10 – 30 seconds massaging it on my face. Often little bits of grit will release from my pores which is super satisfying.
      Then I follow with Vanicream cleanser, sometimes using a low end Foreo model.

    9. I hate that the one that works for my skin is $48. Osea Malibu ocean cleanser. I have a lot of allergies and it’s one of the few that don’t make me flare up.

  4. What is the most impressive or hardest recipe you’ve made yourself? Looking for dessert recipes for a dinner with my MIL and thought that might be a fun question here…

    1. Desserts scare me. I’m all about a cobbler or a dump cake or a caramel sauce for apples. But I like a scoop of vanilla or sorbet with some raspberries (because they are so pretty), maybe with some pear slices (but pears are like avocados in that they are perfectly ripe for a second and otherwise either rock-hard or rotten).

    2. A meringue pie is seasonal and sufficiently challenging. Bonus points for homemade crust (my personal nemesis – I just use the Pillsbury refrigerated dough).

    3. Beef wellington. Delicious and beautiful but so much work. Sautéing a million mushrooms until they’re bone dry, ever so carefully wrapping your expensive meat up in the prosciutto and pastry dough, chilling it, thawing it. Then baking and praying it’s seasoned perfectly, cooked evenly, and the dough hasn’t gotten soggy. And of course also cooking your side dishes and managing to get everything finished at the same time.

    4. The hardest dessert I’ve made is macarons. But would not recommend for a dinner with guests. Unless you’re really skilled, the majority of them come out looking bad.

      My go-to for a dish that’s reasonably easy but still impressive is homemade bread. It’s really not that hard to make, but people are always wowed by it.

    5. One that looks harder than it is – tiramisu. It’s actually really easy but it comes off very impressive.

      1. Totally! During college, tiramisu was my go-to potluck contribution. Chocolate mousse is similarly simple, just gets a lot of dishes dirty, but you end up with something delicious. If you use a piping bag, serve it in a cute glass and add some raspberries, you can make it look spectacular easily.

      2. I busted out pumpkin tiramisu roll cake for my in-laws once and their jaws all hit the floor, but it was so easy!

      3. I would love a recipe link. I’ve never made it, it we had a Whole Foods bakery section tasting for fun when we had a bunch of people together for the weekend, and my daughter’s boyfriend went absolutely nuts for the tiramisu. I think it would be fun to make him one for his birthday.

    6. Milk Bar birthday cake.

      It was good and all, but the funfetti boxed mix at the grocery store is just as good, LOL.

    7. Souffléd potatoes and Bernaise sauce, a la Galatoires. The potatoes are basically the highly elevated French fry against which other fries must be measured and fail. Cut long, wide and nearly flat, they are double fried. For the second fry, if the potatoes have been properly prepped, the oil is exactly the right temperature, and the stars align, approximately 75% of them will balloon into this delicate, crisp, golden potato shell. The Bernaise is for dipping.

      1. Edit to add: I also made my own three tier wedding cake using a recipe from Gourmet magazine. It was a cake made from scratch that was just barely lemon flavored, with each tier halved horizontally, brushed with a film of raspberry preserves and then concentric circles of fresh raspberries packed in between the split layers. Icing was a true buttercream flavored with homemade lemon curd. It was decorated with some basic piping and coffee plant buds and flowers and coordinating roses. This was the second go – I had made the same cake for my brother’s wedding with different flowers. Both marriages ended in divorce so obviously not a good luck cake!

    8. Croissants. Not a dessert, and they’re not so much hard as time-consuming. Well, they are kind of hard. But oh so good. I make them about twice a year.

      1. I admire this, I draw the line at laminating dough. I’ve done it a few times and I just can’t be bothered these days – my kids like the Trader Joe’s frozen ones just as much as my homemade ones!

      2. These are on my baking bucket list but I’ve heard it’s so much time/effort it’s not really worth it.

        1. I believe every good home baker should have one ‘special’ bread they make for holidays or special events. If you think your’s could be croissants, go for it!
          Mine is a toss up between challah and parker house rolls. We’ve had to come to the agreement that Thanksgiving is for challah and Chrismukkah is for rolls because I am not making both at the same time!

          1. Mine is focaccia (I like Bon Appetit’s no knead recipe) and challah. The challah in particular blows people away, and it’s really not that hard to make.

      3. My husband and I tried this once and it was a dismal failure. Pro tip: Don’t make laminated dough on the hottest day of the year!

      4. These are on my list. I just need to find a day. I’ve mastered puff pastry so feel like I can do it.

    9. Souffle, always. I love a cheese soufflé with something like Gruyère cheese, or a chocolate soufflé with the best chocolate I can buy.

    10. I’m a pretty good home baker and have done a few ‘projects’ in my day (mostly pre-kids). The hardest in no particular order: apple strudel, including making the dough from scratch. Italian Layer cookies (this is a huge pain, do not recommend, it was a labor of love for a family member). Brooklyn blackout cake (also a fiddly pain but very very delicious). Rugelach and homemade caramels are usually done on the same day for my Christmas/Hanukkah baking and then the kids get involved in cutting/wrapping/rolling up dough.
      Most impressive to guests is almost always a flourless chocolate cake with homemade raspberry sauce and fresh whipped cream.

      2. My 6 year old just saw the clip of Joey saying “what’s not to like!? Custard? Good! Jam? Good! Beef? Goooood” and now paraphrases it daily while mixing disgusting combinations of foods.

    12. I like to bake, and I don’t mind complicated recipes, but I don’t actually like eating most intricate recipes, in part because I’m not a huge fan of pastry, meringue, or anything really rich. So I like a fruit crumble better than a tart with a pastry crust and pastry cream, but it’s fun to try making one once in a while (and it does look pretty). Same for cakes- I’d rather eat banana bread or another basic loaf cake with cinnamon sugar topping, but I do sometimes make layer cakes for other people.

      I do like this recipe for something easy that suits my tastes and still looks (and tastes) nice:
      https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018826-stephanie-johnstons-bakewell-tart

      1. Omg, I feel the same way! I mostly bake for holidays/my family but I rarely eat much of it. Left to my own devices my favorites are coconut/lemon cake, key lime pie, sour cherry pie, and lemon bars. I’ll take a crumble over a pie any day and I’m pretty meh on all the things most people love (chocolate, cheesecakes, layer cakes, mousse). In short – if it isn’t a fruit based dessert I’ll generally go for the cheese plate, thanks!

        1. Yes, I’m definitely a fruit and citrus person over chocolate and cream! Chocolate chip cookies are about enough chocolate for me, and even then I’ll probably also bake a batch of snickerdoodles or molasses spice cookies.

      2. A friend who likes to bake offered to make my birthday cake & asked what I would like – I told her I like chocolate but in terms of cake, I like the frosting better than the cake. So she made me a cake with half the cake and twice the ganache frosting. She’s also a chocolate lover, so she used the really good stuff & boy, that was the best cake ever.

    13. I made an almond layer cake, with almond mousse between the layers and almond buttercream on the outside, for my MIL’s 65th birthday. It took me about 8 hours. That was about 6 years ago, and she and DH still talk about that cake. I don’t think I’ve attempted it since!

    16. I spent eight hours over two days baking and decorating a burn book cake for my teenager’s Mean Girls-themed birthday party. The inside was a rainbow cake. It was not the most delicious cake I’d ever made but that wasn’t really the point. It looked amazing, and most importantly made my daughter feel special.

    17. Chocolate babka. Huge hit, it’s delicious and takes time, but isn’t super hard.

    18. Something like a pavlova? It is multi-step, and it looks beautiful. Plus, it can showcase all of the gorgeous fresh fruit available at this time of year.

  5. y’all: I am about to go on a yarn bender. It’s too hot to contemplate anything but knitting in the A/C.

    2. What an excellent idea. I don’t knit but do weaving on rigid heddle looms. Unfortunately my storage capacity for yarn has been exceeded and my decor style is in danger of being “skeins of yarn and stacks of books”. With that said, what are your favorite sources?

    3. love it. I have two more weeks til I’m done with a baby blanket and I can’t wait to give it to the recipient!!

    4. I knitted on the beach in a 100F weather last week. It sure raised some eyebrows but I don’t care! If I want this sweater made with sport yarn to be finished for sweater weather, I better work on it now!

    5. Knitting Q: If I want to make something 60″ wide, how big do my circular knitting needles need to be? Also 60″?

      1. Are you knitting in the round or back and forth? If in the round, you need needles shorter than 60″, for back and forth it doesn’t matter that much as long as you are fairly close or longer.

        1. It’s going to be a rectangle, so 60” is the width, knitting back and forth. So 40” would be OK?

          1. Yes maybe even too long. It’s up to you but I find really long needles can be annoying. They can be fine on something as wide as 60” though.

      2. No, you can even use 24” circulars. 32 or 36 would work too. Super long circulars (if used in the round) can be unwieldy.

      3. I would use two 40 and/or 32 inch circulars for your projects.

        Using two needles will help distribute the weight, which will be massive.

        Put a few elastic bands on one end of each if you see stitches slipping off.

        I have uses this method for a king sizes bed throw. The two needles makes everything so much more manageable.

    7. I have been conscripted to crochet clothes for my 5yos stuffies. I know two stitches so am very lucky that she’s not a very critical consumer. Unfortunately she thinks I should whip out some overalls for her favorite teddy as my next project

  6. I’m traveling to London for the first time in the fall. I have my list of activities pretty well planned, but I’d like to do some shopping while I’m there too. I’d think that the British brands are cheaper in England than they are here, is that correct? Any suggestions for stores/brands I need to visit? It’s for a milestone trip so I’m going to be visiting Mulberry for a browse :)

    Is Sezane cheaper in England or just in France?

    1. I want to visit The Fold my next trip, and Strathberry bags keep stalking me. I think the hardware is so handsome!

      1. I did a personal shopping visit at the Fold on my last trip to London, I highly recommend it!
        I’d suggest Liberty of London for a fun browse, more charming than Harrods and a must do if you enjoy their prints. Harrods is great for the sheer size and the food hall is a super fun stop for a high end picnic!

        1. The thing I do every time I go to London is stop in the food hall for a scotch egg! They had an amazing roast beef sandwich I also picked up last time.

        1. you can find a large selection of Hobbs at Bloomie’s, so it’s not as London-specific IMHO.

    4. I got a pair of flats when I was in Next in 2010, they were the most perfect shoes I’ve ever had and were also affordable. They have some cute clothes too.

    6. If you have D cup or above, get a fitting at Bravissimo and get som amazing bras. Otherwise, go to Marks & Spencer for great bras and undies.

    8. Barbour is much cheaper in the UK than the US if you’re interested. Also, make sure you stop by Liberty while you’re shopping–they have unique stuff and it’s just such a cool building to check out if nothing else!

    9. Brands: Reiss, ME+EM, All Saints, LK Bennett, Whistles, White Stuff, Phase Eight, Hobbs, Rixo, Bodem (and of course Mulberry for bags)
      Stores: Westfield London, One New Change, Battersea Power Station
      Streets: Regent st, Oxford St, Bond st, High Street Kensington, Chelsea Sloane Square and King’s Road

      Yes, the brands are cheaper there and also maybe you are eligible for a tax refund when you leave.

    10. I’d go to one of the big London department stores. Selfridges is where I actually see the most things I want to buy but somewhere like Liberty or Fortnums are the most classic “London” experience.

  7. What’s your go to chinese food delivery or take out order?

    I had a super craving specifically for the cripsy wontons and orange chicken.
    I have a delivery order ready to go but I have a meeting to lead, and then a favor for a friend I need to run out for after work before my dreams can be realized.

    wonton soup, orange chicken, scalion pancakes, and egg rolls for me tonight

    3. Mushu chicken with extra pancakes. Potstickers if I’m sharing. Wonton or hot and sour soup in addition if a larger group.

    4. Hot and sour soup is my jam. I could live on it. But only “good” ones. I like them more hot than sour.

    6. Crab rangoon and either dumplings or egg rolls as an appetizer. Either beef ho fun or lo mein OR sesame chicken as a main.

  9. As I sit here wondering how we’re going to juggle the rest of the summer calendar and realizing that the school year is 1 month away, I am feeling overwhelmed and maxed out. Couple this with spending the weekend with my cousin, who has a stay-at-home spouse to handle all the minutia of life, and I’m really wishing I could press pause on my career. And my kids aren’t tiny; I have a late elementary schooler and a teen. Logistically, it would be so much simpler to have a parent at home all the time. This is a pipe dream, as my DH will not even entertain the idea. I swear, I usually like being a working mom but summer brings out all my FOMO.

    1. To be clear, my DH is doing his share of running kids around to camps and such, but he just doesn’t worry about it like I do, or feel like he’s put his brain through a blender.

    2. I have a stay at home spouse this summer and summer still brings out all my FOMO. I also like being a working mom, but summer is just so hard. Working from home more often helps, but doesn’t solve it. All I can say is that 1) I empathize entirely, and 2) social media is not your friend. I promise not everyone is having luxurious summer breaks where they combine days at the pool with big family barbecues while simultaneously swimming in the Mediterranean and touring Paris and whitewater rafting in the Sierras, but that’s how Facebook makes it look.

    3. I feel you. This is my first summer doing the camp juggle and it’s been so much harder than I anticipated. I have one kid and a flexible job and a local mom who helps so it shouldn’t be *that* hard but it’s much more exhausting than the school year (sooo much time in the car! And I live in a small city, not a place with terrible traffic.) Our summer is 75% over (Midwest and we go back first week of August) and I feel like we haven’t done any of the fun summer things I envisioned. My kid isn’t complaining, but I feel guilty.

      1. It is exhausting! I am thankful for a flexible job but I am beat. So much driving, so many details to keep track of.

    4. I’m only part time and it’s still a zoo. My kids are 6-12 and I cannot wait for fall!

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