Ask HN: How do you stay (somewhat) healthy?

Mastering discipline is as much of a factor in staying healthy as it is in startups. Sticking to a workout schedule, pushing yourself to work harder, and not giving in to excess food uses the same mental fortitude that founders use to keep costs down and output up.

I spend the majority of my waking hours sitting, either in lecture or at a computer. I counterbalance the sedentary nature of studying computer science by exercising at least 3 times per week, cooking simple and nutritious meals, and drinking copious amounts of water and tea.

I try to eat not a lot, and mostly stuff that doesn't come in a wrapper. I climb two to three times a week and some weekends, for 2-3 hrs at a time. I supplement climbing with two to three 30-45 minute lifting gym sessions. I used to run, but not anymore, something I have to start again. I also try to do pull ups every night as I'm competing with my room mate.

I can't agree with this more, I walked into a rock gym a couple of years ago and picked a wall and said "I want to be able to climb that." I defined a goal and then I set a time frame for it. Admittedly I didn't make that goal but you better believe that I did achieve it a few weeks later and I was even more motivated for the next wall. The neat thing about rock gyms is that there are a lot of people who come in frequently (read: friends with active lifestyles) and they have to change the walls to keep everyone coming back. I'm sure there are many other activities like this but the rock wall was what did it for me.

Sleep well, eat right and exercise. You'll have your best success if you do all three. Named diets alone, which most of us try over and over, won't get you long term success.

I do CrossFit for exercise, which I first heard about right here on HN, thank you very much. Unless you already know exercise technique really well, I would recommend actually joining a crossfit gym rather than just doing the workouts from the web. They'll teach you how to exercise correctly and safely. Do you know how to squat properly? Probably not. :)

I'm over fifty, out of shape and haven't exercised since I graduated high school. I've been going to CrossFit since this July, and I now jog six flights of stairs up and down at work (at 5,000 feet in Denver), and the workouts that wiped me out in the beginning are now merely really difficult. You don't have to be a jock, they scale everything to your ability. I'm really pleased. Check it out. Probably more than one near you.

This trumps absolutely anything else you can do: avoid starch and sugar. Eat only meat/fish, vegetables, and fruit. Simply don't eat sugary drinks, cereal, oatmeal, rice, potatoes, bread and so forth. This way everything you eat is nutrient packed.

Eggs and dairy are the best foods I know of. I normally eat four eggs a day (scrambled in lots of butter) and have a large glass of half and half, or sometimes I even drink straight up cream. Full fat yogurt is a fantastic food. I try to dominate my calories with saturated fat. The research is now clear that this is perfectly healthy. It's also a very efficient way to eat because I can very comfortably eat only two meals a day about half the time. Fat sticks with you.

Take vitamin d3 every couple of days. The research that has come out in the last few years on vitamin d is fairly shocking. Most people are deficient and it's a huge risk factor for infections and cancer. We are built to spend almost every day outside in the sun, generating vitamin d in the skin, but people don't do that now, so supplement.

As for exercise, sprint work and brief, intense strength training sessions are the best. Two 20 minute lifting sessions a week are sufficient exercise if that's all you can afford, but you must do it intensely. I frequently dry heave a bit in the shower after. Jogging and cycling are much inferior from a health perspective. You do want to build muscle mass and increase growth hormone and testosterone levels. Muscle buffers insulin. Jogging basically just burns calories and temporarily ramps up metabolism. It has minimal benefits compared to other forms of exercise. When I do go out biking and running I'm always amused by how fat the vast majority of runners on the trails are.

Don't take health advice from people who look like shit or work out like it's their job. I'm always shocked by the number of dough boys pontificating who get taken seriously. Demand a full body picture of anybody purporting to give lifestyle health advice, and if they pass that test make sure they aren't some freak wasting five hours a week working out. I'm 5'10 with a 29 inch waist, noticeable muscle mass, a six pack, and a very low body fat percentage. I spend at most two hours a week in physical activity and often nothing at all. I have turned a couple other people on to eating and exercising this way with very good results. Avoid starch/sugar, work out very hard infrequently and on an empty stomach, and you will get cut and healthy. The high saturated fat intake is optional, but I personally recommend it.

http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/6/28/1-eliminate-sug... http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/latest_articles.html http://www.arthurdevany.com/2005/03/an_introduction.html