The Wim Hof method is something I adore. Also, whenever I wake up, I get up. This is better than trying going back to sleep if you only have an hour or two, because waking up in the middle of the sleep cycle (2-3 hours) typically makes you more tired than if you would have skipped it.
So, in the morning, I awake naturally ( the time varies ), then go for a walk to watch the sun rise.
I eat a lot of soup.
I laugh.
If I feel unreasonable fear, I try to wonder what issue I had as a child or with my parents that would cause it. For example, I would check my pants pockets for my phone, wallet, and keys, like everyone does from time to time, and then after I found all 3, I would get afraid. Fear is bad for your health, especially unreasonable. I would wonder, "Why am I feeling afraid AFTER I realize I have everything", and I realized, growing up, if I would check my pockets, my mom would ask a frightened question, "OH NO, DID YOU LOSE SOMETHING?", so I was basically trained to feel afraid. Lots of weird things with parents to think about if you feel yourself having unreasonable emotions throughout the day.
Regarding Wim Hof method a little warning: I loved the effect of cold showers and went from my usual 15 seconds to 1-2 minutes and got very sick. Two times. In hindsight not very smart from my side (even less as I did this during winter and while my daughter started to go to Kindergarten exposing me with plenty of new germs), but if you are like me and have a tendency to over-do things be careful. Still think Wim Hof method has advantages but start very slow.
> If I feel unreasonable fear, I try to wonder what issue I had as a child or with my parents that would cause it.
This is great advice. A lot of my anxiety stems from things that happened in my childhood. And whenever I am able to reflect and rationalize WHY I am anxious in certain situations, I can calm down quite a bit and then let it go. In a way it’s a form of CBT and it works for me and a lot of other people I know.
I try to do the Win Hof method but I simply can't get used to cold showers when it's cold outside. I can force myself for weeks but it never gets easier and costs more and more will power.
Yea, it definitely gets tougher, and I switched from cold only to hot and then cold right before I get out. It's something. Not always but probably above 50%. I found myself showering less often when I was forcing myself only cold, so I told myself I don't have to do cold! I do regret it a little if I skip cold completely, but sometimes it's only for 30-60 seconds.
Also I saw a video which changed how I view it: it said cold creates "positive stress". So, when I feel the initial shock, I know it's stressful, but I also know its good.
Would you geeks like a book about fitness but from the perspective of a fellow geek? I was pondering about writing it for some time. I had body fat problem from my childhood (my granma who is a cook and parents stuffed me with food) and I was sedentary for the most of my life. Started with computers from age 6 with Commodore 64.
But slowly i got myself into fitness and learning about it and food. I tried many things and learned much. Now I eat more than at any time in my life (3500cal/day currently), but I maintain lean body with large amount of muscle. And have good amount of strength. For example doing bench press sets with 110kg, rows 109kg, etc.
Wanted to write a book about my path and what to do from the perspective of the geek and somebody who program whole day, I know many would/could relate to the same path.
Anybody interested?
But to be honest I'm not sure what 'geeks' think is so intrinsically different about themselves that they need to treat this subject differently to anyone else.
I think fitness is one of those subjects where you want to be very cautious about anything that describes itself as a shortcut or a clever way of doing it. You just need to do the work.
Yeah, all the fitness principles are the same. But getting from 0 to doing all the things right is different for different kind and groups of people. And reading how to do it from somebody similar as you, with similar challenges, could be helpful. It would be for me at least.
I would particularly interested if it curated best practices for maximizing eye health as a software developer. There have been some comments on recent eye glasses discussions.
If anyone can link the recent HN discussion about eye exercise building some device to slowly move books away while reading I can't find it.
It's all about daily routine. If you can stick with a lifting program and start eating healthy for the next month you'll notice a difference. If you do it for 3 months, everyone will notice a difference. One big thing that I always advocate is that it needs to be a lifestyle, not a temporary change. You shouldn't be upset going to the gym or not eating a cookie, it should be something you actively want to do.
I think you're underestimating how much discipline it can take to stay healthy. Don't get me wrong, daily routine is super important, and you are more likely to consistently do something you enjoy, but I do believe our world is optimized for laziness and our default mode is one consisting of Netflix and cookies (in most of the US, at least).
I've consistently gone to the gym/played sports and stayed in relatively good shape for the past 15 years. I love how working out makes me feel, and I am a happier person because of it. BUT, just about every time I make the decision to go to the gym, there is another part of me that badly just wants to stay home or do something easier instead. I still have to actively fight that urge.
Just want to say this because I think some people might feel like they should give up if they don't want to actively go work out. Sometimes you just have to push through that feeling.
After a few failed starts with exercising and eating regimens, what really did it for me going to a nutritionist together with my significant other. The nutritionist built a pretty intuitive schedule for both of us, with slight variations for our respective needs. This meant we could cook one common meal and vary the quantity of cooked carbs and protein at plate-level. We also got a list of allowed substitutes to each meal ingredient, which gave us choices. The practicality was a big factor.
This lead to regular prepared healthy meals to the office, which meant no unhealthy eating.
Adding this to 3x-4x weekly exercise (including at least 30 mins cardio) was crucial.
Recently I noticed http://nosdiet.com/ which tries to build good habits with some pretty generic rules. It doesn't micromanage you which may appeal to some people.
By not sitting at the computer 18 hours straight. I eat well, I also fast 16 hours per day, by skipping breakfast, and eating a healthy lunch and dinner. I also take pushup/pullup/situp breaks throughout the day. Especially if important if you're going to be putting in long hours at the screen. Also get out and do some longer hikes 3-4 times a week. If it's the winter season, I'll row indoors on a rowing machine, or breakout "Insanity" :)
I actually unintentionally do calorie deficits on the weekend. Usually busy working on something, or get caught up in a game, end up eating one meal a day. I'm 37, 6'1 and 175 pounds consistent for years.
- use bicycle if you can; there're even plenty of upcoming electric bicycles that allow you to combine exercise with commute in case when road to work is too long
- start bouldering - I found it an ideal sport for programmers; it combines problem solving with exercise, it doesn't require you to be social (myself, I've always found lifting weights to be... well, too public). I've noticed that it not only allowed me to be more healthy, but also to be more social as well - while I still have my headphones on, when I notice that somebody has a problem with a route I sometimes have a chat.
- prepare your own food - near my place there's a street marker offering fresh fruits; I've always felt bad, as they'd offer, for example 3 cauliflowers for a pound and what do you do with all that, so 2 of them would get wasted. But then I committed to buying it even in bulk quantities, and well - this week I've made a soup, a casserole and some boiled cauliflowers (and I'm fed up with cauliflower for now), but you should get my point ;)
Not someone with any medical expertise, but here is some stuff I kind of think
-Don't get fat. Stay at a healthy weight forever
-Eat a balanced diet, 3 meals a day
-Walk daily
-Get up from desk and move every so often
-Sleep enough
-Don't overwork
-Go to the dentist every 6 months and do what they say
--Don't skip the dentist because you don't have insurance or something. Cleanings every 6 months are necessary for keeping your gums healthy, even if you brush and floss
-Do some strength exercises a few days a week (calisthenics or weights)
--Always prioritize not injuring your joints or back over gains
--Go to a doctor and PT if you injure yourself, don't start doing random foam roller stuff from the internet
Most importantly, have a routine and don't break it. If you work your health upkeep into the routine (exercise and diet), it's much easier to keep going. A chaotic and random day to day life makes it much more difficult to make time for your wellbeing.
I don't lift (I can't get into anything related to strength training beyond push-ups) but I go running 5 days a week and I guard it jealously. My analogy for it is that every run is putting money into the bank. If I skip a day I can't help but think that I'm getting a little bit slower, a little bit out of shape for that. And that the next time I go for a run it'll be just a little bit harder and I'll be a little bit slower for the day off.
That's all crazy of course - I know that things like that don't happen at the margins; at least not at my level of running. It motivates me though and if it's not true for a day skipped it is true for a month. Maybe a week. Which is why I'm currently unhappy that I didn't go running once on my Thanksgiving break. :-(
If you want, give yourself one or 2 extra punishing workouts since you took a week off (some nice hill repeats, hard tempo, etc.) and then forgive yourself! Even the best of us have lapses in our routine occasionally.
All about routine. Once you get it going, it becomes part of your day and you feel lost without it. It's like getting coffee now (lifting). Days I miss I don't feel complete and I go to bed emotionally and mentally off.
Don't stop either, the first couple weeks are the hardest but stick to it. If you start skipping days here and there or make excuses you'll never get in the groove you need.
Source: Been lifting routinely for a few years now, recently got hurt and couldn't lift for a week or two. It's been a struggle to jump back in (even with such a tiny break!) but since I've been here before I know I need force myself over this little bump.
I used to run and go to the gym. I got in pretty good shape, but it felt too monotonous for me.
For the last two years I've been going to Brazilain Jiu-jitsu classes, and I've been getting the same level of exercise, but I also get a feeling that I'm learning something both fun and useful from it.
A lot can be said for its benefits to self-defense, and even though a lot of what we do isn't directly related to self-defense a lot of people that do BJJ often say that they feel more confident as a result.
The main takeaway for me is that it takes me back to when I was first learning to program. That feeling of knowing absolutely nothing and being completely lost is pretty much how everyone (bar collegiate-level wrestlers and judokas) feels when they start, and it's a great feeling to experience aqain. I'd go as far as to say that BJJ has given me more empathy towards junior-level developers, and as made me a better developer as a result.
I'd highly recommend it, even/especially if you are out of shape. Not only is it a great way to lose weight and get fit, it's great fun - like playfighting for adults.
Once I got into my thirties it became very clear that my metabolism was slowing down and I wasn't going to be able to continue to eat as much as I used to.
Three square meals a day is bullshit and I think this is why post-middle-age folks tend to be so paunchy.
My advice (based entirely off my anecdotal experience) is to switch to the General McChrystal diet: Eat one meal a day, whether you need it or not. ;-)
There are heaps of articles and guides online for this, but here's what I do:
First thing after waking up is to do some pushups. Not too many, just about 15 - 20.
Later on I hit the gym after 7 and workout for an hour.
My workout is custom tailored by me but I initially started out with a simple 5x5 workout.
Midweek I go for jiu jitsu traning.
I train sometimes on the weekends other I play tennis or just fuck around.
---
One thing I regret early on is not practicing the correct form and chasing numbers instead. Second regret is not maintaining my diet properly.
Right now the biggest bottleneck is my 9-5 job. Slowly I'v realized that sitting at a desk for 7 hours hours is very bad. I would rather trade that with a more physically demanding job(or work in a office where there's a spare gym)
With that in mind, my focus for the next couple of years is to shift from working regularly to occasionally doing contracts and working on my side projects.
This is just anecdotal and based mostly on things I've read, so take it with a grain of salt. I am not a nutritionist or a trainer, just an engineer who doesn't want to die fat and sick.
## Physical Activity
Structured five minutes of stretching immediately after getting out of bed.
Bodyweight-only strength training exercises every other day for at least ten minutes. Cardio every day for at least fifteen minutes.
## Food
I don't count calories. Instead, I follow some simple meal rules:
1. At least half the plate should be veggies. Fresh, frozen, canned, whatever.
2. Carbs are not the enemy, but they should be minimized. No bread, and avoid sugars.
3. Avoid red meat most of the time. Choose fish, chicken, or tofu as proteins.
4. Make breakfast a priority and the biggest meal of the day.
5. Prep ingredients ahead of time, because life ALWAYS gets in the way at the last minute.
I would advise against structure when you're starting.
Find a physical hobby and just start doing that. Become friends with the fittest guy you can find (they love talking about fitness and will be happy to talk about it) and keep it super easy.
Friction is the enemy when you're starting. Just have fun with it and build slowly.
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, low carb eating and intermittent fasting have changed my life. The way it puts you in touch with yourself and naturally regulates your mood and caloric intake is almost magical. It takes some time and tweaking to get to that point but if a person can be consistent about it for six months, it then becomes a natural way of eating/living. The knowledge on why it works is all out there now for us to absorb, it's just a matter of having the confidence to take control of our own health rather than relying on doctors that wouldn't recognize a research paper if it hit them across the head!
1. Lift 3 times a week, squats/OHP/Rows, deadlifts/dips/pullups. Mix in as much supplementary work as desired (plyometrics, sprints, cardio, etc)
2. Intermittent fasting. I only eat from 4 - 8 weekdays, more like 1 - 8 on the weekends. I do have black coffee in the mornings, though (lots of it...)
3. Low-ish carb diet. The only things I eat that have carbs in em are fruits (usually two pieces), veggies and whole milk. Eggs and chicken are the staple proteins...some days I eat 6 eggs. Sometimes I'll throw down a can of sardines for extra protein.
Unfortunately I'm having some back issues (possibly SI joint related), so I gotta be careful with the lifting, but other than that I'm strong & fast.
1. Hire a weight lifting trainer. I go 3 times a week, and I never have to think about it. The "not having to think" is important.
2. Get a standing desk. I don't always use it (especially hard after leg day), but it's good to alternate sitting/standing.
3. Don't get too excited or too frustrated about gym. Just another day. The more days you go the less you care about an occasional bad day.
4. Don't eat sugar on purpose (including candy, cake, jam, too much fruit). Entirely stop drinking coke and similar sodas. If you have to, replace them with kombucha.
The expression "eating well" is ambiguous at best so I consulted a good dietician which made a big difference in my overall well being and health. Also, I work out every MWF, first thing in the morning - I find that if I don't do it first thing I'll come up with excuses throughout the day to skip. Another thing I do is make sure I get up and move around at least once an hour. I work from home and will take my dogs on a couple walks per day, I realize that's not an option for a lot of people.
Seconding what others said about habits and building a routine. From the power of habit book, I picked up that it's easiest to break old and make new habits at times of life change - change in numbers of people around you (death, birth, divorce, coupling up), change of location or work.
I made proximity to gym/swimming pool one of my most important factors in my last flat hunt, mapped out relevant facilities in London, wrote a scraper that searched for flats in walkable radius, used Google Maps API to calculate walking distance and uploaded it to google sheets for me to review. After moving to the new flat, I made sure to go to the gym every morning for the first 3 weeks. Even if I did little exercise (10 mins of cardio), it was about developing a habit of getting up and going there regularly. So far it's been good, though I wouldn't say the results are visible to everyone in the outside world, not that I care anyway. Being so close to the gym removes excuses like "it's not on the way to work", "I cannot carry my towel with me". Going in the morning makes me free to do anything at night without feeling bad about skipping exercise.
I am lucky to have a fast rate of metabolism and most of my cooking repertoire is around salads and basic meals, which imho are healthy. I stock up and freeze meat that I buy from butchers and farmers' markets.
Been reading more about what's actually in food and what you need to stay alive.
Intermittent fasting and fasting on water (with some salt) has been working very well for me. Burning away 3kg per week. Not really losing muscle, just burning away my fat at an insane rate. Just don't consume carbs or sugar (or "zero sugar" crap). Eat vegetables. Read labels.
Because there are enough sugar replacements that will spike your insulin regardless, and that makes you stop burning fat. Try entering Ketosis and then have something containing Sorbitol & Xylitol, just 2 pieces of chewing gum messed me up for a good couple hours.
This is not to say that there aren't better sweeteners than sugar, but anything saying "less sugar" or "zero sugar" is likely just a technically correct marketing ploy.
Some sweeteners like Sorbitol or Splenda have calories. They get away with labeling in the US because as long as it has less than 5 kcal per serving they can say 0 kcal. And they can choose the serving size.
Most sweeteners are truly zero calories and don't produce an insulin spike, but there may be a problem with cravings for some people.
"Zero sugar" things always have an alternative sweetener in them. Many of these, such as aspartame, have some unfortunate side effects or have not been properly studied yet.
Natural cane sugar is fine, as long as you have it in small doses. Most sodas do not use small doses.
Soda's fine as long as you get out of the "this is an ordinary thing to drink" thought pattern into the "this is basically the same as eating a giant cupcake" one.
You wouldn't feel right having a giant cupcake every single day, right? Let alone more than one? Do you have a largish, nutrient-free dessert with every single meal ("free refills")? Wow, of course not. But once a month, or even once every couple weeks, that's still not good for you but at least you're not the gross dude eating (drinking) five desserts a day or whatever, and it's basically not gonna hurt you enough to be worth worrying about.
The "it's an exceptionally unhealthy dessert that I should absolutely feel bad about having too often" mindset is the correct one, because that's exactly what it is. People who wouldn't take a pile of ho-hos to the checkout counter (god, what will people think of me?) buy 32-64oz sodas like it's nothing because they don't make the connection that soda = very bad dessert, and feel the consequent second thoughts (and shame) over buying and consuming such a thing regularly, in large quantities.
Of course if everyone did that Coca-Cola's sales would drop to 5% or less of what they currently are. So their advertising contributes to making drinking lots of soda all the time seem normal. Combat this by imagining all the models in their ads messily smashing cupcakes into their mouths instead of drinking coke, while doing whatever they're doing.
I track about 99% of the food I eat on MyFitnessPal. I’ve been doing this for nearly seven years and am currently approaching a 2 year streak. This alone has been the biggest contributor to perfect physicals every year for the past five years or so and a nice physique. (I’m 30.)
I also calculated my total daily energy expediture online. You can also get a DEXA scan for $100-150 that will tell you what your nearly exact body fat percentage is, but my experience has shown me that it doesn’t differ that much from online results. TDEE is super important because it’s a baseline of how much I need to eat to maintain my current weight. I eat more than it if I want to build muscle (which is a really slow process unless you’re just starting out) and less than it when I want to lose weight and lean out.
I also lift 4x/week and go on long walks 1-2x/week. I also used to do 100+ miles on my bike per week but haven’t made time for that in recent years.
I try to avoid eating processed foods. I ride a bicycle. I go to a climbing gym. I built a hangboard so I can train at home. I read lots of books to exercise my brain.
But more important than any of that: I stopped working a job that had me sitting down in front of a computer screen all day, and started working jobs that keep me on my feet.
It also helps that I built myself a side project to keep track of all of the trails I hike/camp, so this pushes me to find new places to explore and to add new trails to the site.
While hiking only works out certain muscles, it could be a nice way for you to change up your routine.
- Intermittent Fasting
- Paleo Diet,
- Strength Training 4x a week - Weighted Pull-ups,
Weighted Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Leg Extentions,
Weighted Lunges, Weighted Dips
- Stand 50% of the time while I work.
- Minimal alcohol and caffeine
Tracking food intake for several months helped me immensely. You may want to track carbs, fat, protein as well as calories.
Once you cut the junk food out of your diet, it's easier to keep it out. The cravings for sugar subside.
I go through on/off periods with weight lifting, but generally try to lift at least once a week.
Apart from that I try to get outdoors with some kind of physical activity 2-3x a week. I've been lucky to find a few physical hobbies I enjoy. I used to wake skate / wake board on the weekends and mountain bike during the week. Mountain biking has now taken over the weekends as well.
That would be my biggest recommendation. Find a hobby you really enjoy that keeps you active.
- Make it easy. If it's hard, you will quit.
- If you eat out, eat a salad (check the calories and keep it low). Think before you eat.
- Do your one hobby 2-4 times per week and try to get better at it.
A hobby here must be out of the house, and physical (biking, rock climbing, martial art, swimming, tennis, running, etc...).
Everything else is a distraction. If you're starting from nothing you do not need to get more complicated than this. Take 2-4 years to build off of this.
I went from overweight and weak to the guy everyone says it's just natural for in about 6 years starting from here. It builds naturally as you get better at it.
I use an activity bracelet to record my activity and sleep level. I generally forget to exercise unless something pushes me and the meter on my wrist is a comfortably non-judgemental reminder. I try to avoid commuting to work by car and prefer bus and bike. Commuting by bus adds quite a few steps and I can skip a few bus stops and walk instead.
I don't go to the gym, but have taken a habit of doing push ups, body-weight rows and farmers walks and those seem to bulk me good enough.
I hated push ups, until I realized I can do them in ladders. 1, then 2, then 3... up to max, and down again.
Keto diet (/r/keto is a great resource), and 30-60 min exercise several days of the week (usually playing VR with a friend). When I can't exercise for some reason, I lift my stand up desk.
Commute pretty much anyway but door-to-door driving. Bike, walk, walk to transit, bike to transit, etc. Just that small amount makes a huge difference since you do it every single day.
I do all of it. Get up at 5:30, take a cold shower, meditate, hit the gym (3 days lifting, 2 days cardio, weekend off). Strict diet - counting calories, macro nutrients, supplements, always analyzing, improving, observing, researching. Balanced sleep routine. No bad habits like smoking, drinking, taking recreation drugs. I also play acoustic guitar, apparently it can add up to 7 points to your IQ and is generally a positive influence on overall wellbeing. Routine and discipline is the key.
Exercise: run twice a week. Do weights.
Diet: mostly vegan/vegetarian. Two meals a day - lunch & dinner, no breakfast. Zero dairy - no milk, butter or cheese. Zero refined sugar - no cakes, biscuits, chocolate. Never buy anything > 5% sugars. No fruit juice. No "white" carbs - only brown bread and basmati rice.
Alcohol: wine & beer only, no spirits.
Tobacco: I'm a social smoker. Drum rolling tobacco only, never touch Marlboro or other processed ready rolled.
The most important thing is to have a routine. Without a routine a lot of people make excuses for not working out or eating right. Some sources say that after about two weeks a routine becomes a habit. My advise is to just keep doing what you are doing until it doesn't feel like a chore.
If it still feels like a chore after a few weeks, try to switch things up with another workout schedule (e.g. after work instead of before work) or other healthy food. Maybe try another sport.
@weavie Great question. It depends on the work I am doing. I take all of my calls and virtual meeting standing on/off the board. I also create most of my status reports and do JIRA board reviews standing. However, for deep investigation, deployments, requirements writing, and other tasks that require deep focus I sit, either on a barstool or a medicine ball.
You are off to a great start. 5X5 is a great beginner program and imo the best way to get your beginner gains. There is also another closely related routine called Ice cream fitness which some people prefer. Eventually, you will want to taper off this once you get the beginner gains. I'd recommend getting a trainer for a 1-3 months to get your forms down, if you can afford it.
If you are just starting to get healthy, counting calories can be a bit much. You don't want to overload yourself when building a new habit like working out consistently. I'd just follow some simple principles.
Avoid sugars such as Soda, Coffee with syrups, candy and the like.
Avoid alcohol completely if possible. I still enjoy beers socially, humans are weirded out if you don't drink with them. However, I never drink alone.
Always eat before going shopping, this will prevent you from buying extra goodies you might not necessarily need. The easiest way to not eat bad food is to never buy it at the store. If you know it's in your house, you will eat it.
Try to eat outside of your house less. You don't know how the food is being prepared, how much oil, salt, sugar, etc. is in the food. You can't always avoid this but having a high ratio of eating out vs. at home helps.
Some additional random things
It's a process and you shouldn't don't compare yourself to anyone other than who you used to be.
No one at the gym is looking at you. They are so busy in their own routine.
You should find a playlist that amps you up on your way to the gym. You want to train your brain and body to be ready to fk things up when you step through those doors.
If you are severely overweight, everyone that is really fit in the gym is rooting for you. We know the struggle, and we know how hard it is to make a change for your health. If you think people are laughing at you, it's in your head. Again, people are into their own routines.
If you see a big guy at the gym, don't be afraid to ask him for some advice. They may look scary, but I promise they are just regular people and are usually weirdly friendly.
Muscles don't grow unless you overload them. If muscle is the goal, your going to need to push yourself.
Outside the office I swim 3 times a week for an hour fairly fast (for me) with no more than 5 minutes rest throughout. Otherwise I'm fairly lethargic the other 4 days.
In the office I make sure I get up and have a walk at least once an hour, either to get a drink, use the toilet or just have a wander round. It makes sure I don't spend too long slouching, dozing off and makes me take my eyes off the screen.
I run 4-7 miles every day in the spring, summer, and fall, and around 5 miles in the winter when weather is permitting. I target about 2,000 kcals per day. Skipping breakfast helps, though I wake up pretty late. I have a pretty good diet though probably half of what I eat is raw or cooked vegetables and fruits and nuts.
While all exercise is beneficial, I prefer cardiovascular exercise to stay healthy.
5x5 is good for strength, I've done it a few times over the years. My go-to routine over the past 8 years has been a HIIT kettlebell routine. I do 30 seconds on 30 seconds off. Swings, clean and press, mid-pulls, snatch, plank, Turkish getup. I do all of that twice. It takes 20 minutes. Good strength and cardio at the same time. Also I eat Paleo, except when I eat pizza.
I run every other day, this is the best advice I can give. I run in a park and do some exercises too. Spending some time in the open air has improved my mood considerably. I guess that what is most unhealthy about our current modern life is not only sitting for too long, but not breathing outside fresh air.
Also follow the simple rule: 'eat food, not too much, mostly plants'
You've taken action which is half the mental battle. The rest is goals and discipline. Setting goals for myself helps me keep interested in running and working out. In any aspect of life, I find that having no goals means having no direction.
"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Discipline is the bridge between goals and success."
-Jim Rohn
Physically speaking, I'm no expert, and am always open to new ideas, but am happy to tell you what I've benefited from thus far.
Growing/fermenting your own kefir I feel must be mentioned. It is basically the superfood of superfoods and you only have to buy a small amount once to yield an unlimited supply. You can't buy the grains in stores, but you can easily order it online (ebay, etc.) or find someone on craigslist like I did. Kefir drinks are available in stores but it severely lacks the full probiotic benefits kefir offers and is a waste of money given the alternative approach of making it yourself for free. The variety of benefits are almost too good to be true; the person I bought it from emailed me these sources, which have much more information:
https://goo.gl/HQf2n9https://imgur.com/a/flFRk
Meditation also has endless benefits mentally and physically but is something I am trying to get into more.
Hope I helped, even if just a little bit. Again, I'm no health expert but I'm happy to share the knowledge/experience I do have!
- Physical Activity:
Using Freeletics app for bodyweight training in alternance with running in the morning. Use my bike whenever I can for transport. Practice Systema martial art when I'm in Paris (try to practice Systema breathing also, I suggest the book from Vladimir Vasiliev "Let every breath").
Take a cold shower after training for boosting energy levels. Try to meditate 10 mn in the morning before my workout.
- Good Sleep: Use Sleep Cycle app, try to have at least 7,5 hour of sleep (a multiple of a 1h30 cycle for me), try to detect your "sleep train" (for me it's 22h30 in the evening, usually I go to bed at midnight and wake up at 7:30).
- Good diet: vegetarian, lots of leguminous and oleaginous for proteins, green leaf (made 1 to 1,5L of green smoothies in the morning) a salad in the evening. Avoid sugar and carbs (or only some rice from time to time). Take some vitamins supplements and amino acid for sports. Drink green tea through the day and coffee (though I try to reduce...), also try to reduce my alcohol consumption (or only the week-end). Don't count any calories...
I lift. After a while (overcoming critical amount of knowledge), I actually started to greatly enjoy it. Always looking to go to gym! Now I'm not super big or anything, but I have decent amount of muscle and am decently cut, and feel very good.
I've been doing OMAD (one meal a day) the last 4 months. Great results in health, aesthetics, energy and a lot of extra time that I usually don't know what to do with so I'm starting one more side project.
30 minutes dog walk in the morning. 45 minutes yoga asana, 30 minutes meditation. Once per week a 10+ miles hike. I mainly cook for us and avoid restaurants or processed food. Wish I could get rid of the car commute.
I do functional training and use any chance I get to do sports with friends (dirty races, soccer games, whatever). Just move as much as you can, as often as you can with as much variety as possible.
One thing that has helped me along with lifting weights is eating dinner early. Breakfast at 9, lunch at 12 and dinner at 5-6 and before I sleep milk or something and also floss.
Every day I walk to work and back home. It takes about 20 km per day. Also I go to gym 3 times a week, also I like bicycle and various active games like ping pong, volleyball.
Nothing, no single diet or single exercise program, works best for everybody. The only things that are really in common are:
1) Be motivated to change your lifestyle. A lot of people are motivated to be healthier (I mean, who isn't?), but not a lot of people are motivated to make deep, fundamental changes to the way they live. Quick recommendations like "no sodas" can give you something to feel good about, but only adopting one or two of these recommendations is unlikely to cause a meaningful difference. If you are motivated then you can develop new habits, and if you develop new habits then you can develop new healthy habits which will keep you healthy.
2) Stop being sedentary. That doesn't mean stop sitting, or getting up and doing push-ups every hour. That also doesn't mean you should quit your job where you sit at a desk and program all day. It means that you need to be engaged in some kind of physical activity that is both personally enjoyable, stringent enough to make you sweat, and that you can commit to doing on a regular (not daily, but not only on the weekends either) basis. Very few of us have hours and hours of free time available to us every week where we sit around bored with nothing to do - part of the lifestyle change is examining where you are spending your time and making a conscious decision to prioritize yourself and your health above whatever else was taking up your time before.
3) Don't conflate weight with health (unless you are severely underweight or obese, in which case your weight actually does impact your health). Adopting a healthy lifestyle may or may not cause your weight to change, depending on the changes you commit to making, and in any case if the changes you commit to making are healthy changes, then the rate of weight change will be slow. If you are making lifestyle changes to improve your weight and not your health, then you are likely to slack off when you get to a weight that you feel better about and regress. If you have issues with your body image, you're better off discussing those issues with a therapist first, before adopting drastic lifestyle changes - the classic dangerous (albeit extreme) example revolves around people who develop eating disorders in an attempt to be "healthy".
4) Adopt a healthy diet. This means different things for different people - different people have different physiology with different activity levels and different energy needs, not to mention that different people find different foods tasty, different foods cost different amounts of money in different places if they are available at all, and different people have different circumstances which dictate how much food they can prepare at home. You should ideally consult an experienced, registered dietitian who can help you make the healthy choices which are right for you instead of trying to make choices about your diet on the basis of diet or recipe books written for the mass-market by authors living in different personal circumstances than you.
## Diet/nutrition is my biggest focus, as I believe that what we eat is what we are made of ultimately.
1. Minimize all processed food. I always find that processed food has too many things which are not food. If I need something processed, I prefer making it at home, as I know exactly what I've put. (mayo or bread for example)
2. Minimize carbs. I believe carb rich foods doesn't have any sustenance, so they should be avoided. This has been relatively easy for me as I don't like things like potato, rice and bread anyways. This also includes fruits for the most part, eating some only when bought locally and are in season. As for deserts, they are reserved only for big celebrations and only if home-made.
3. Minimize bad fats. Most vegetable fats are bad for us and are far too easy to turn into trans-fat, so I try to avoid most of them. The fats which I use are evoo for salads and avocado oil for cooking.
4. Avoid restaurants. Because most of the restaurants are focused on making money (of course), but this focus means that they are trying to present the cheapest ingredients in the most palatable way, which in turn means they reach for sugar far too often.
5. No snaking. That should be obvious, but I don't wanna stay in high-insulin mode all the time.
6. Maximize salad. A basic leafy greens salad is one of the most nutritionally dense and good thing you can have, so I have one with every single meal.
7. Maximize good fats. Butter is one of the perfect foods in the world, so is an avocado. Eggs play an important role too. Pork belly and fatty-rich cuts are also there. I don't focus on eating much meat though.
8. Fat-free is never good, so I always go full fat. This is mostly about diary, but I also avoid chicken/turkey cuts, as its too lean and I don't focus on protein.
9. Work on gut health. A lot of things happen in there and have a profound effect on the rest of us. I prefer raw products where possible, and some which target the gut directly. For example, I have some raw kimchi as part of most meals, use raw cheese when available, and I try to not overcook things.
10. Home-made bone broth. This is something new I'm still experimenting with, but I'm trying to have some broth made and then use it as a basis for other meals (or on its own)
11. Fasting. Recently started experimenting with different fasting protocols, which allowed me to move past the weight plateau which I was in. It was awkward at the beginning, but now I can go without eating for extended periods without any worry or thoughts about food.
12. Do not count calories. For one, I think this is based on reductionist science, but also I just suck at it.
## Physical activity
I'm in process of transitioning from running heavy program (4-6 hours of running per week) to strength heavy program, something like starting strength, strong lifts, or calisthenics. Haven't quite figured that out for now, but for the time being I'm just focused on about an hour of walking per day.
I have a home gym / treadmill desk setup at home. I also don't own a dedicated power-rack yet or olympic bar and I've found I can get by fine just using an ironmaster-superbench with dip bar and pullup station. I walk at 1.6mph on my treadmill desk while playing rocket league as a pre-warmup before working out, because I don't take preworkout or caffeine.
I don't like going to the gym since everytime I want to use the power-rack after work its usually occupied and it throws my workout schedule out of tempo.
I tried following 5x5 stronglifts / greyskull program but it wasn't to my liking.
I follow reddits r/bodyweightfitness program recommended routine. https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend.... I follow it verbatim. Its essentially a fullbody workout & callisthetics. I like this since its easy-to-remember, has clear progressions laid out, and has a big emphasis on warmup and equal emphasis on skillwork.
Each workout takes ~1.5 hours of time. 20 minutes to do skillwork (handstands, dip holds) & warmup to prevent injuries. 1 Hour to actually do the workout. 10 Minutes to do post-recovery via muscle massage.
I workout 2-3 days of the week. It only takes ~4 hours on average of working out/ week and I see a lot of results for the small amount of time I spend. Normally I'll watch TV inbetween sets.
I did lots of research of what supplements to take and how I want to take them.
- Creatine
- Whey Protein
- Fish oil tablets
The 3 above supplements are well established and researched for muscular growth, with no long term side effects. Creatine made a big difference when I stagnated on muscle progression. You can opt to take other supplements like multivitamins, Vitamin D if you live up north, ZMA for increased recovery, etc.
I usually can't bother to remember when to actually take supplements, so I have the following routine, when I wake up and only after post workout
- PROTEIN SHAKE (20 oz shaker bottle) = 30g Protein Powder + 5g Creatine (2.5g for postworkout) + 50% SoyMilk (Silk Vanilla Brand) + 50% Water + 2 fish oil tablets in morning. It tastes good, healthy, requires no absolutely no effort, and soymilk has a shelf-life of 2 months. I normally prep this in <1 minutes, then get dressed while downing my shake so I can spread out 20 oz of liquid over a longer span of time. I normally use 50% soymilk and 50% water as a mix because the shake needs to taste good enough (soymilk), while at the same time soluble enough for protein powder (water). This also hits 3 of 8 glasses of water requirements I need / day.
Whenever I workout, I don't use an app, count calories, or anything like that. Its far too much effort to keep track of. I keep a simple moleskin notebook. I write down what weight rating I get for evey set. I write specific notes on whether my form was good or not. I add any notes about how I felt that day (was I sick, was I on vacation for some time, did I sleep well the night before, etc?).
So, in the morning, I awake naturally ( the time varies ), then go for a walk to watch the sun rise.
I eat a lot of soup. I laugh. If I feel unreasonable fear, I try to wonder what issue I had as a child or with my parents that would cause it. For example, I would check my pants pockets for my phone, wallet, and keys, like everyone does from time to time, and then after I found all 3, I would get afraid. Fear is bad for your health, especially unreasonable. I would wonder, "Why am I feeling afraid AFTER I realize I have everything", and I realized, growing up, if I would check my pockets, my mom would ask a frightened question, "OH NO, DID YOU LOSE SOMETHING?", so I was basically trained to feel afraid. Lots of weird things with parents to think about if you feel yourself having unreasonable emotions throughout the day.