Staying Healthy

Health. Its something we should all be concerned about and focus on, and yet I feel as though so many people ( including myself) just ignore it until it becomes a problem. I know this about myself because that's exactly what I did not too long ago, to a perilous end.
For most of my life I've been a pretty big proponent of personal health. I would go to the gym 3-6 days a week, I have always been a big fan of high activity sports such as Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, mountain biking, hiking, and the like, and I've always eaten reasonably well (lets not mention my unrequited love with taco bell at the moment) So its all the more noticeable when I all of a sudden give up on that health shit and just focus 110% on something else, whether it be my job, my family or a project. Fact: its a terrible idea. You need to take care of yourself all of the time or you will get injured, whether it be mentally physically or spiritually. You need time to stress your body to make it stronger, and time for it to rest in all respects. Don't ever forget that.



I've usually been a pretty healthy guy, but strangely enough it seems the more health oriented you are, the more common place it is for you to injure yourself as well. Staying healthy should always be a priority as its so important for you to be able to preform in other venues. how can you do well for your family when you aren't feeling well, or if you don’t have the stamina to keep up with your kids? how can you do well at your job? its funny how fundamental it is. And yet for me it was one of the first things that fall off when I'm under pressure and it should be much the opposite.



As I was struggling to balance my high stress job, my family, and other responsibilities, I totally wrote off exercise. Almost instantly. And it showed. I was lethargic, I couldn't think straight, I got depressed. and it all happened in a matter of weeks. It is kind of incredible how fast I went from being strong as an ox with unshakable confidence to being a mess in less than a month. Health is just that important, and for me: Exercise. getting to the gym. going for a run, making sure that I've gotten my heart rate up is simply pivotal in staying healthy. Do I think this would have saved that job? No way. there's nothing you can do when the process is broken and you have no power to fix it.



Physical health is a fickle thing, though. especially through the venue of fitness. I had a couple of friends in college who were health nuts, and I was also part of that circle however not to the extent that they were. And I could almost plot out their progress and regression of fitness every year. They would be back off summer break with a whole bunch of gusto and fitness from the summer's activities, and they would instantly jump into the gym with serious ferocity. Then, about 2 months in, they would start this ridiculous fitness regiment consisting of something hilarious like 100 miles of running per week, 7 days of heavy weightlifting....you get the idea. not 3 weeks later they would all have a major injury, and would be nursing it back to health for months after. MODERATION is something that they never understood. and I've been the same way for a large part of my life. I've always been much too busy trying to get too fit too fast. I would often go on horrible diets cutting out all carbs, or all fats, and try to lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks. (impossible) Or I would do an extremely high intensity cardio fitness regiment, and supplement it with weight lifting until I got injured. I used to be just as bad as these guys, if not worse. In  fact, one year I had serious heart fatigue not once but TWICE. If you've never had heart fatigue, imagine being in incredible shape, then working out too hard for a while, and then for 2 months you feel like you're going to pass out if you run up a staircase. Its extremely frightening as you feel like your heart is going to give out at any minute. since I'm such a genius, both times I continued my SAME exercise regiment through the heart fatigue. If I had seen a doctor at this time I think he would have been disgusted and shocked. It was pretty bad.



So health is definitely a double edged sword. but what about mental health? This is something that I have used my physical fitness to supplement for years, while generally ignoring it, except for the obvious growth of knowledge and social growth I've always worked on. Now that I'm meditating regularly, I can tell you this was a terrible mistake. Just stopping for 20 minutes a day, closing your eyes, and not doing ANYTHING is exceptionally powerful. For your programming types, its almost like turning on the parser in your brain, and just letting it sort everything out and put it in the right place. As you do it more, you find that your brain looks forward to it, and when you "start" your brain can tel, and you get a rush of endorphins as you start to relax into this state. Its extremely important. It doesn't replace fitness, and fitness doesn't replace it. They're both pivotal to making sure that your brain is healthy, and without a healthy brain, you ant have a healthy body. These go hand in hand.



The next, and most important part, is daily health. Now some of you might not have your own family yet, but as I've said before your family are those you're closest with, and those that you CONSIDER family. I have plenty of "family" member that I don't consider my family. its hard to explain, but its an important distinction to make in this case. Keeping your family relationship healthy is very important.



Now I'm what I like to call "cripplingly left brained" I'm analytical, I like to go from problem to solution, and I don't leave a lot of wiggle room in between. This makes it difficult when it comes to the loving relationships that my wife and child need. Now Stef is of course left-brained as well, possibly more-so than I, but that doesn't mean she doesn’t need affection. The first thing that is OK to admit in this factor of health is that its OK TO BE BAD AT IT! I'm not a particularly good romantic, but that's OK, because if you scroll through your face book feed, or your twitter feed, I guarantee its just FULL of saps doing lovey dovey things for their spouses or loved ones. Copy them. I was listening to a comedian with my wife the other day and he said "its simple....grab a sheet of paper....fold it in half....draw a big heart on the front...open it up, and write I love you, signed you inside...you will get smooched, I guarantee it" So I did that. I knew it was sappy and silly, but you know what? I got smooched, and my wife was happy. It often doesn't need to be original or special or super incredibly romantic, you just need to do it. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. Much like anything else.



Now that I've been working on this blog for a few days, I think that this also plays into my own mental health as well it helps me get my thoughts out as I don't really think a whole lot in the raw typing phase. I'll re-read afterward (usually the day after) then make small edits and post it. I'm trying to keep it as raw as possible (without many typos) and create something that will actually connect with people. I hope that its working. because I think that this doesn't only help me, but it can definitely help other folks out there as well. Writing in this way is scary. It leaves a part of you exposed that you often don't even think CAN be exposed. especially until you write like this and then hit "publish" The first time I wrote in this blog I had so much emotion that it was hard to start. then as I edited the post, I was deathly afraid of publishing. I had read from James Altchuer once that "if you're afraid to share something, then you've got something good" and I was really, truly afraid of posting it. I literally didn’t for days. when I finally did, I didn't share the first post. It was too real for me to put out on social media. I see some people have read it now, and that's OK. But that first day I was sure that I would instantly die if anyone read it except for me. I didn’t even show it to my wife before I published it. I didn't ask anyone for advice on it, I didn’t run it through an editor I hired on elance...nothing. It is how it is. I hope that you all find some value in each of these posts, maybe as much as that first post "cleaned me out" emotionally. Maybe you all should do something similar.



Emotional health. that's another part. I feel as though that comes from a great mixture of physical, mental, family and spiritual health. if each of those are cleaned up, you have your good practices in place, and you're moving forward, then you'll feel GOOD. if you create, you'll feel GOOD. so create. go do something. love your wife and friends. do something special for them. go for a walk. do some pushups. just come up with a few things LIKE THAT to do every day and you'll feel better. the first day you'll be scared as shit just like I was, and then it gets better. every day gets better, and its FAST.  the results are real. so give it a try. You'll be surprised at just how much you can do.