Ask HN: Health Advice for a Tech Person
In a few days, I am turning 22 and I've neglected my health for a long time due to the hustling culture I once admired(I still do at some %), there haven't been any backlashes for me yet but there will be if I continue this, I've decided to follow health first routine.
How do you balance between this? Do you have any personal experiences to share with? Any advice is welcome.
Thanks
- Maximize the speed at which you observe and adapt to internal sensations; e.g. when tired, rest, when in great spirits, do something with it, when stressed, disengage, etc.
- If you find yourself overstimulating yourself with constant work and entertainment and diversion-seeking, your ability to read yourself will get worse, which means your ability to track your well-being will get worse, which means your health will get worse.
- Post-meal walks are pretty good
- Run away from people who couldn't give less of a shit about your well-being and won't compromise whatsoever
- If you don't find yourself "just doing things" when you want to, you might be depressed. There's good news and bad news about that. The bad news is that you're depressed. The good news is that, since depression warps your estimates of how difficult tasks are to accomplish, exiting depression is probably literally significantly easier and more rewarding than you can even imagine.
- Many people have acid reflux without realizing it and it can cause some symptoms you never would have guessed, eg tightness in chest, elevated heart rate, swallowing difficulty, inability to burp.
- Being obese is a contributing factor for something like 200 diseases, so becoming not obese is one of the best things you can do if you are obese. GLP-1 medicines have made the probability of significant improvements in health due to weight loss something like an order of magnitude more likely, so they're quite effective at that, as well as eliminating addiction cravings. They have some cons, but they're generally significantly outweighed by the pros.
I hustle but have learned to balance it with regular exercise. I started taking care of my body five years ago. Since then I've run 4 half marathons and recently my first triathlon. I work out about 2 hrs a day, 6x a week. If care about yourself, you'll make the time. Chase lofty physical goals and work towards them consistently.
Book recs: Outlive by Peter Attia, Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
Suggest you research (and follow) the Mediterranean diet, people who do so tend to live long healthy lives. Also restrict your consumption of sugar and get plenty of regular physical exercise. I speak from experience. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/mediterranean-diet... https://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/tips/a2471/suga...
I bike everywhere. It helps a lot.
Yep. I switched 95% of my car trips to bike trips, lost 15lbs I didn’t really know I needed to lose, and only want to go to the gym every few days (was almost an every day thing for me before).
Not to mention that biking is just an absolute blast and the best way to get around. I live in the suburbs so my ebike is my mode of transport. It’s amazing
If you like doing it, you're more likely to do it. Find something you like to do. Bike. Hike. Play ultimate frisbee. Whatever.
And then, do it regularly. Make room for it in your schedule. Plan to do it.
Sleep.
The best exercise is the one you stick with. Just get some, every day if you can. I can offer suggestions if you’d like. Also, get sleep. Whatever you’re working on instead of sleeping you will probably finish 10x faster in the morning.
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