Developer Health - How much do YOU take care of yourself?

Yep! :slight_smile: I listen to audiobooks while walking the dog - it is indeed the perfect opportunity to catch up on stuff. I don’t really listen to work-related stuff, so no dev things, but it still amounts to a lot. I go through a book or two a month at least, something I’d never manage otherwise.

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Not that I couldn’t be more fit, but excess weight is not a problem, keeping the weight on is.

I weigh about 54.4kg and have never weighed much more (63.5kg at max)

I don’t have an automobile so I walk (fast) often as the errands require. I estimate around 100 miles / month.

And I often do work around the house and in the yard, but only when a crisis else at my leisure.

I do live in a two story house, and I must go up and down the stairs at least a couple dozen times a day, likely more.

My “work” area? I recline in a comfy rocker with my feet up on a footstool. Bad posture I know, but no ill side effects after many years.

Diet? Massive (and I mean massive) carbs from grains, rare red meat (main source of protein from eggs), woefully limited fruits and veggies - multi-vitamin.

Why am I chronically underweight? Genetics. Thanks grandma.

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Yeah, THANKS GRANDMA :rage:

:smiley:

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Right now, I hate you all XD

I am not (yes, still today) the exercising type. Not that I didn’t move at all. I live in a big city and I’d rather walk than wait for the bus but I didn’t do much. Mainly, I used to eat Mediterranean diet with a hamburger or pizza once or twice a month. Basically, fast food tires me. But it is hard for me to be regular with my meals. If I’m working hard, I tend to forget. And if I’m watching TV or bored, I’d eat anything.

I went way beyond the 100 Kg and I’m asthmatic so breathing was a bit harder than it should. So I thought “Let’s lose some weight”. And I’m still on it. I exercise more (mainly walking, gym is not my thing) and said good-bye to the little fast food I ate.

It was Ok until recently. I was diagnosed a chronic disease and the doctor said that exercise could help controlling it. So now I walk around 1,5 h or do 8-9 Km. Every single day.

And my meals habits had to change too. Now I can’t skip one. And, of course, processed food should not be on the table.

My diet will go great but I hate it, the whole thing. Every time I get a little too tired, I have a little accident. That’s because I can’t control my body that well. And now all my body hurts. But after talking to the doctor, I haven’t have much choice. I have to exercise. And they say that exercise is healthy. HA!
And that you get used to it, and your body will crave for it HA! X 3 :smiley:

Well, probably it is healthy and all that… but I’m completely annoyed. XD

Edit: Just to let you know that my diet lets me eat what I want when I want it… Finding the time to cook two proper meals per day plus breakfast plus two minor ones is a pain though. It takes time.

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Wow, I hope you’re quite short. Otherwise I’ll forever more picture you as one of those xkcd characters.

That’s a shame. My two favorite food tips are: don’t eat between meals and chew your food—a lot. You feel much fuller more quickly if you chew your food a lot, and you end up eating a lot less (or at least, I do). My wife lost a lot of weight by not eating between meals—not that she really needed to, but she did feel better.

As for enjoying healthy food, it’s amazing how good healthy food can taste. My wife’s a health food freak, and yet we enjoy really nice food. No gluten, no fat, no sugar, no dairy, no meat … yet we eat like kings. :smiley:

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Totally agree, Ralph. I have a border collie who walks (runs) me for about an hour a day while I listen to podcasts. I also do daily supermarket shopping, which gives me another hour of walking there and back (and listening). Both these things break up my day in a positive way - I get out of the house and inevitably come back to whatever I was working on with fresh ideas. But the main thing I do is forget about Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. I jump from work tasks to house tasks to family stuff throughout all hours of every day. I find it liberating, practical and empowering. By contrast, my wife is a home-based freelance writer and cannot do that - she is strictly “normal” business hours.

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lol ~1…8m

xkcd? not quite, but close

o
|\~___   _|[]
[~~] {} [~~~~]
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That’s not healthy… that’s Vegan :stuck_out_tongue:

I couldn’t be Vegan even if I tried. XD

In my country we eat traditionally, so eating healthy is not a problem. Thinking about what you will carry to work tomorrow, and what you’ll have for dinner is. It has to be easy to fix, quick, easy to carry, and varied.
And for a lazy person like me, exercising is a torture XD

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Eating is a tradition here, too. :stuck_out_tongue:

We recently got involved in a stretch class, and I had no idea what a science stretching could be. There are people who specialize in it, and claim that it can be a complete exercise regime in itself. It’s very similar to some approaches to Yoga, and is quite a nice way to exercise, I find. Maybe that’s something to consider. There’s more to exercise than pain, sweating and grunting. :smiley:

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This is a very good topic as I am struggling with this for such a long time. One method is working so far w/ good progress (about 20lb loss) and that’s called intermittent diet… When I first heard about this, I thought it was just another fad that’s BS. However, it really fits for lazy people and it actually makes sense. Just remember that it’s 90% diet and 10% working out.

This is my typical daily diet and actually paid $40 to get this info. Enjoy my free diet plan.

  • 10 a.m. - Drink 1 or 2 cup of coffee.
  • 12 p.m. - eat 1 fruit (banana/apple)
  • 1 p.m. - eat 1500 calorie (basically anything you want since the calorie is so high). Don’t drink caffeine for rest of the day.
  • 7 p.m. - eat 5~700 calorie dinner. Basically half portion of lunch
  • 9 p.m. - eat 1 fruit or light snack

As you can see from above, skipping 1 meal (breakfast) gives a lot of freedom in terms of what you can eat for lunch. Would you rather east 3 crappy meal a day or 1.5 portion of awesome meal a day?

Done this for 3 months now and worked out about 1 day week. Here’s my experience

  • First couple weeks was rough… I just felt too hungry until lunch
  • Since I’m drinking coffee w/ empty stomach…that caffeine really goes into effect and feel energetic. I feel much more awake, more energy, but you do feel the hunger. Coffee does help subduce the hunger (try it!)
  • Feeling really full all day after a month. Not sure why but I really feel full most of the day and my body seems to enjoy it. I think I can fast until 3 p.m. but decided not to
  • Sometimes I feel really hungry around 9~10 p.m. This is the time to motivate yourself and just enjoy 1 fruit or light snack and subduce the hunger demon. This is probably the hardest part.

Anyways, I feel intermitten diet was made for people like me.

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I’ve taken up hiking and backpacking (camping) this year and am really enjoying it. It’s already too hot here and I’m done for the season, but I started working on doing a 230mi trail in sections this Spring. I was only able to complete about 30mi this year (I did some other hikes too), but I can hike here all through the fall and winter, so I am hoping to at least double that before the end of the year, my goal is close to tripling it. I’ll probably end up taking some time off when the weather gets cool again to do some multi-day sections. We just got a new dog a couple weeks ago that I think will be better at handling the cold weather and be more comfortable in the woods with just me and her.

For the last few years I’ve tried getting into hiking, but never really gave it much effort. I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought I would. Walking on rough terrain really helps quite your mind, because it takes just enough focus to not be able to really be think about much. It’s probably the closest thing I’ll ever get to meditation.

I also have a door pullup bar I use frequently that I think helps a lot. I don’t use it religiously, but I usually pause when I am walking into my office.

(not my picture)

My favorite part is the Netrunner box in the bottom left. :smiley:

Edit:

Just ran into this. Relevant. :laughing:

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Haha, THAT is your fave? The collection is even bigger now :slight_smile:

How’s the pullup bar holding up? I’m always vary of such a thing pulling down the door frame. No cracks etc?

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regular breaks help too. I use a program called ‘workrave’ http://www.workrave.org/ which you can set times for it to remind you to take a break. It also gives you simple exercises to follow on screen.

I’m pretty active outside of work anyway. I have run and biked for years but just recently started swimming which should be easier on my knees etc. I set myself the goal of ensuring i go twice a week and have been pretty good sticking too it. I also walk about 2miles in the lunch hour most days. If you have work colleagues who will go with you it’s both good to be moving and also good to have a chat and de-stress.

I also do some stretches and press-ups in the store room mid-morning to get blood moving again. thankfully no one has caught me yet as they might wonder what i am doing :slight_smile:

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If it fits the door, it’s fine. But, I tried putting it on the hallway doorframe one time and an fell on my butt because the sides that hold it to the door slipped off. But the frame going into the bedroom is fine, I think most of the weight is being put on the wall itself. I’ve had it for more than a year and haven’t had any issues.

Just the same, I think it would be wise to use lag screws into a stud, or better yet a supporting beam.

Running Bear has one of these pull-up bars. His is a folding version, which is easy to remove and store when not in use, but when it’s correctly in place, it’s as solid as can be.

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You Sound just like me but there is a slight change that is i do exercise but at home i am Not Fat nor slim i am normal guy with little bit of Atheletic inside =p i can give you advice to loose weight but firstly you have to make your mind that Exercise is the which will help you if you do not like exercise then do not hate it = ) at fight with exercise daily.
Let me know if you want to loose.
One thing is common between us that is i also do not like to leave anything i would like to eat

I like to stay fit but unfortunately i am not that fit but i have lot of information how to stay fit. If i would give you any tip then surely it will help any one out.
One thing is for sure i do not like that my body pains when i walk to much or if i do not want my body to pain if i did something tough so i have to workout a little in home to stay fit and active because healthy body keeps a healthy mind.

Stretches to get relief from backpain.

Isthmus wrist! This is the problem. Make sure you are. Regular exercise is important.