OK, morning HR. I take it every morning, no matter if it is an alarm clock that woke me up or I just couldn’t sleep any more. I use my blood pressure monitor (yeah, in the another life I was diagnosed with hypertension, but now it is another story: in average 117/70 and I had never took any medication). My rest HR is generally between 43 and 46. When I am working, it goes to 50-52 and when I am stressed (in front of my computer), it goes up to 55-56.
Four years ago, while I was severely obese, my HR never dropped below mid-seventies and was as high as mid-nineties.But 51 kg less did the great job. The BP is also the consequence of my lifestyle changes.
I use Polar HRM, too, and find it very accurate. Previously I had several Timex HRM but they had a lot of trouble with interferences (HR of 240 and while taken manually, it was like 90).
Your blog is very interesting and now I know I did a big mistake by not doing the same while doing “my transformation”. My blog in English is not up-to-date, because I don’t have enough time to do my blogs in several languages (the French one is much more up-to-date, but still several weeks off).

Good work, dude. Continue your transformation and your interesting posts.

But I actually use a Polar heart rate monitor, my 3rd one in 10 years. They are great. I have had a Garmin Forerunner 305 before as well I think that is what Andrew has. I just didn’t care for the size of the unit and the constant battery charging. Basically anything with a chest strap should be good enough.