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Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

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Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#61
post #28

I ride my bicycle just about everywhere: to the office, grocery store, restaurants, everywhere. It's a great way to get exercise and doesn't cut into your schedule all that much, because due to traffic lights you can often get to where you are going on a bike only slightly slower than in a car. Also starting the day after my 7 mile commute is fantastic, my brain is rocking and ready.

Where do you live and where do you work?

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#62
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thousand times yes. Having water at hand and always sipping is a really great way to tame hunger and oral fixations, and is great for your body to be flushing itself out. I find that tea doesn't give me as much of a high as coffee, but it lasts longer without any come-down. Awesome.

Tea puts me to sleep. I can drink the most caffeinated tea on the market, and I'll be nodding off in an hour. It's a real pain because I have difficulty digesting coffee, and I'm looking for alternatives. Appreciate any suggestions.

third the Yerba Mate. I order from amigofoods.com and have had good luck! try the rosamonte especial!

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does drinking water "flush [your body] out"? I often hear this by proponents of extra water drinking, and I'm intrigued as to what physiological benefit drinking too much water is supposed to allow.

Without sufficient hydration, metabolic wastes stay around longer than they should. Most toxin removal is performed by the kidneys. Keeping your body hydrated assists the kidneys in their normal functioning and ensures that toxins acquired through food consumption are rapidly eliminated. At an optimal level of hydration, this occurs naturally; however, most people are at least somewhat dehydrated a large majority of…

> ...however, most people are at least somewhat dehydrated a large majority of the time.

No. From sources described at http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp:

Kidney specialists do agree on one thing, however: that the 8-by-8 rule is a gross overestimate of any required minimum.

"The notion that there is widespread dehydration has no basis in medical fact," says Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of the medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Doctors from a wide range of specialties agree: By all evidence, we are a well-hydrated nation. Furthermore, they say, the current infatuation with water as an all-purpose health potion — tonic for the skin, key to weight loss — is a blend of fashion and fiction and very little science.

From an LA Times reader:

The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."

Additional research and articles:

http://www.asn-online.org/press/pdf/2008-Media/Water%20Study...

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/283/5/R993

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0236679720080402

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#64
post #28

I ride my bicycle just about everywhere: to the office, grocery store, restaurants, everywhere. It's a great way to get exercise and doesn't cut into your schedule all that much, because due to traffic lights you can often get to where you are going on a bike only slightly slower than in a car. Also starting the day after my 7 mile commute is fantastic, my brain is rocking and ready.

My problem with riding my bike to the office is that I arrive all sweaty. I can change my T-shirt (I don't have to wear a suit), but I'll still smell afterwards.

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#65
post #53

Why is HN so obsessed with exercise? I'm quite happy as a lazy slob. I ran track and x country in high school, but I didn't like exercise then and I still don't. I'm sure it would probably make me healthier, but it just isn't worth the discomfort to me. Stop making me look bad, guys.

I have never liked exercise, and I have never liked dieting, but I had a rude wakeup call about the wages of "curry and a fried porkchop" four days a week plus a sedentary lifestyle a few years ago. My physician said that, at that rate, I would be lucky to make it to 30, despite the fact that I was skinny like a beanpole.

So I started going to the gym. I despise actually being at the gym and exercising. But it makes me feel drastically better: I have more energy now, I get sick less, and my general comportment no longer suggests illness to friends and family. I even get more work done on days I go to the gym, since it refreshes my mental batteries and contributes more than a minute of marginal thinking time for every minute I spend there.

But even if the energy/health/acuity benefits don't do it for you, take a look around you at the people who would miss you if you were gone, and go to the gym for them. Aside from quitting smoking (don't smoke, but quit if you do!) it is the cheapest way to buy extra time with your loved ones.

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does drinking water "flush [your body] out"? I often hear this by proponents of extra water drinking, and I'm intrigued as to what physiological benefit drinking too much water is supposed to allow.

Without sufficient hydration, metabolic wastes stay around longer than they should. Most toxin removal is performed by the kidneys. Keeping your body hydrated assists the kidneys in their normal functioning and ensures that toxins acquired through food consumption are rapidly eliminated. At an optimal level of hydration, this occurs naturally; however, most people are at least somewhat dehydrated a large majority of…

I am concerned about overzealous water drinking leading to water intoxication.

I also got taken in by the nice scientific sounding words before I realize that I should shout "CITATION NEEDED".

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#67

I'm having trouble putting this all together. Let's figure 9 hours at work, 1 hour of commute, 1.5 hours eating, 1.5 hours exercising, .75 hours meditating, and 7.5 hours sleeping. That leaves less than three hours for showering, changing clothes, and a little downtime. When do you do chores around the house, run errands, visit family, and hang out with friends?

I think that 1.5 hours exercising is a bit too much. Most people tend to recommend at most 1 hour per day, including warm-up (so this means 30 extra minutes of sleep :-)).

I think you'll find a wide range of times works for folks, depending on what sort of routine and exercise you do and stick to.

If you love road biking, you will probably spend more time exercising then someone who loves doing a lot of high intensity interval training and cross-fit style workouts, simply because of the nature of the workout. You can ride bike for 3 hours easy when you are in shape, but there is no way you can do intervals for more than 45 minutes unless you are nuts.

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#68
post #34

I'm having trouble putting this all together. Let's figure 9 hours at work, 1 hour of commute, 1.5 hours eating, 1.5 hours exercising, .75 hours meditating, and 7.5 hours sleeping. That leaves less than three hours for showering, changing clothes, and a little downtime. When do you do chores around the house, run errands, visit family, and hang out with friends?

Crossfit never takes longer than 30 minutes. Some workouts can be as short as 3 minutes.

I second this one. You're really wasting your time if you're there for more than 45 minutes. Means you're resting too much between exercises. Quality over quantity when it comes to gym time.

For example, do 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 burpees, and 20 jumping jacks. Repeat ten times with little rest between rounds. Then jump rope a 100 times.

Should take you no more than twenty minutes. It's hard to get up from that one though.

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#69

Exercise is basic necessary maintenance required by the human body. You either do it and have a happy/healthy body, or you don't. Eating healthy is just as important, separated into two categories: overall caloric intake, and nutritional content. Car analogies are a dime a dozen in computing, but they apply here as well. Not exercising is like changing the oil in your car every 10,000-15,000 miles, instead of every 3…

You may be doing it worse by just avoiding fat. You should worry more about sugar, to begin with.

For a sobering look at the impact of dietary sugar in the American diet (particularly fructose), check out this informative lecture by UCSF Professor Dr. Robert H. Lustig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

(argues that current U.S. obesity epidemic is largely the result of low-fat, high sugar diet)

Re: Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup

#70
post #28

I ride my bicycle just about everywhere: to the office, grocery store, restaurants, everywhere. It's a great way to get exercise and doesn't cut into your schedule all that much, because due to traffic lights you can often get to where you are going on a bike only slightly slower than in a car. Also starting the day after my 7 mile commute is fantastic, my brain is rocking and ready.

Agreed. 7 miles at a moderate pace shouldn't get you too sweaty either, but you do lose time by most likely having to spend 5 minutes cooling down or cleaning up before actually sitting down at your desk.

Also helps to live in a city such as Madison, WI with tons of paved bike paths.

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