A Healthy Professional Lifestyle?

[Jdanz]

skip the bagel, their delicious but their crap, if you have cereal or yogurt every morning instead of a bagel that in and of itself will be a noticable difference in a couple of months

[jeffraider]

Hey good for you, man! I'm trying to make some similar changes as well, mostly losing weight and not drinking anymore. I've been noticing some fairly disturbing trends recently with my drinking, which haven't previously been happening. For example, get into a fight with my girlfriend, get stinking drunk immediately after. Bad habit to get into. I'm also a fatty-fat-fat so that's gotta go. It's good to hear you like the Gazelle, I've got a similar loving relationship with the Elliptical machine at my gym. It's really great actually enjoying exercise.

Anyways, it sounds like you're off to a gangbuster start, but if you find that you're losing the battle in a week, I recommend prioritizing which of the things on your list is most important and ONLY working on those. I think that on your list quitting drinking and smoking are the runaway favourites to be fixed first. You're not horrifically overweight, so I would put that further down the list, even though it will be the most enjoyable problem to fix.

Anyways, good luck to you, sir!

[DMBFan23]

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skip the bagel, their delicious but their crap, if you have cereal or yogurt every morning instead of a bagel that in and of itself will be a noticable difference in a couple of months

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if you just really dig bagels then get the whole wheat ones

[x2ski]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey good for you, man! I'm trying to make some similar changes as well, mostly losing weight and not drinking anymore. I've been noticing some fairly disturbing trends recently with my drinking, which haven't previously been happening. For example, get into a fight with my girlfriend, get stinking drunk immediately after. Bad habit to get into. I'm also a fatty-fat-fat so that's gotta go. It's good to hear you like the Gazelle, I've got a similar loving relationship with the Elliptical machine at my gym. It's really great actually enjoying exercise.

Anyways, it sounds like you're off to a gangbuster start, but if you find that you're losing the battle in a week, I recommend prioritizing which of the things on your list is most important and ONLY working on those. I think that on your list quitting drinking and smoking are the runaway favourites to be fixed first. You're not horrifically overweight, so I would put that further down the list, even though it will be the most enjoyable problem to fix.

Anyways, good luck to you, sir!

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I've gone 2 days so far and feel pretty good.

It's funny though 'cause I expected working out on the Gazelle to help me fall asleep easier at night as opposed to drinking, but it hasn't. My mind races for probably 30-45 minutes before I finally doze off. The dreams are freakin' vivid though!

Getting up in the morning has been tougher, believe it or not. I feel like I did at Boy Scout camps when I was a kid... just physically exhausted from the day before, due to the Gazelle I assume.

I'm a keep on truckin' on.

[Dick in Phoenix]

You can address most of your issues just by setting up a daily/weekly schedule for your life.

I had the following experience: 2 years ago I was involuntarily unemployed, but my company paid for an outplacement service, and they had many interesting seminars to help us deal with our situation. I vividly remember what an instructor said about schedule: "The long-term unemployed develop bizarre sleep habits." The lesson was to get up each day, go into the placement center & use it as our office, keep writing letters and calling people, and remain businesslike.

If you simply schedule your day, you can directly attack #4, #5, #7, and #8. (e.g., you will eat more smaller meals if you specifically schedule them.) And you can also use a strict schedule to help with #1, #2, #3, and #6 (schedule smoking, drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, and puffing only during specific break times).

Of course, design your schedule as you like it. If you are a late riser, sleep till noon (was that another book?) and play poker past midnight. If you want more coffee in the morning (well, noon if we stick to this example), then schedule more then, and schedule an end time for no more caffeine. And schedule something for exercise that you like!

A lot of responders to this post have mentioned schedule. I just thought I would tie it all together with this post.

Best of luck with this, and DO keep us posted.

Dick in Phoenix (who had to move to DC to get his new job)

[goodguy_1]

Even if you exercise moderately the chances are you will gain some weight . Everytime I quit smoking I would gain ten pounds within a month. I quit for good about 5 years ago.

Breakfast is a meal you gotta look forward to.
Try a bowl of Kashi Go Lean cereal with No Fat or Low Fat Soy Milk. I use the no fat vanilla flavored..took me a bit get used to but I love the stuff. Mix in heaps of whatever berries are the best buy at your grocer.

Strawberries are always cheap,blueberries and raspeberries are expensive. Blueberries have been proven to dramatically lower blood cholesterol within a short amount of time. They are high on a list of super anti-oxdants. So GoLean,berries,soy milk. Sprinkle 1 or 2 tablespoons of Wheat Germ and drizzle some yummy honey on top and you will be in nirvana.Honey is almost all natural sugars like 95%-it may be too sweet for you but honey has proven also to have anti-oxidant properties. If the soy milk sounds too gay try it first with skim milk.

This is a healthy anti-oxident rich bfast with no refined sugars etc and Kashi is very high in fiber-your diet needs fiber. 95% of cereals are total crap..they are all sugar even Raisin Bran..look at the labels on everthing.

Another yummy bfast food is take a whole wheat bread,bagel or natural fruit bread toast it and spread either organic peanut butter or sunflower butter on it-that is so yummy .Organic sunflower butter is sweeter than peanut butter. Many publications consider peanut butter a perfect staple-high in protein,fiber and yes it is fatty but it is unsaturated fat. You need fat in your diet as well as protein,carbs etc. Try the sunflower butter.

If you love eggs they are great source of protein but they have alot of cholesterol in them..dont eat too many. When I eat em I 'll eat too many cause I love eggs. They make good egg subsitutes without the yolk-where all the fat is like EggBeaters-you can make a fast omelette w/ egg beaters and add in spinach,vidalia onions,tomatoes and salsa and that will mask the taste of them just not being as yummy as real eggs.

I also drink OJ and Greens+.

I have always been aware of my health but I was in a position not unlike yourself about 4 years ago. I moved down to Florida from Philadelphia and had my office for trading stocks which I had been doing for last dozen or so years. All I did was work 6am -8pm, I was smoking a pack/pack and a half a day and eating crap. I was 30 pounds overweight and my cholesterol was way high and I felt like death. I did almost no exercise..a few more years of that and I would have been looking at a heart attack.

I had already stopped drinking about ten years prior but my life was completely out of balance. Now I am the healthiest I've been ever. My weight is down about 30 pounds and I have not been sick one day in five years seriously not one fuggin day.

I got lucky in that I found that I really dig swimming. I cant imagine not swimming almost everyday. Speed doesnt matter either it's all about flow and rythmn with this you wont need anthing else-yoga classes,free weights it all comes in one package..check out this website if you want to get more into swimming. I also do Masters once or twice a week and have thought about doing age group swimming competitively and open ocean swims of 1,3 and 5 miles are on the horizon:Total Immersion Swimming

[goodguy_1]

I dont know how other pros deal with their sleep schedule but for me personally I have learned to just go with the flow. Through a week or month I rarely sleep at a set time. I found for me my best results pokerwise are that I must be well-rested no matter what and I'm not talking 4-5 hours sleep I'm talking a solid 6 1/2-7 1/4 hours. When I dont get good sleep I dont play well and I dont have the resiliency to get unstuck.

My overall health is good but my sleeping hours to be honest are ridiculous. I tend to play from like 12 midnight-5am/6am most. But my sleep schedule just kind of rolls along at its own pace throughout the month. I usually go to bed an hour ot two later each nite until I have completed the full 24 hour cycle. Getting up at 6 pm or 12 am is not unusual. I dont like it but it yields my best results. When I try to have a set schedule of say getting up at noon everyday ..it just doent work. I almost always sleep well when I do sleep. I hate getting up late in the day and not being able to do certain chores about town but that happens only say one week out of the month.

I'm not surprised at all that you are having problems sleeping. Your body is in shock first of all...you are omitting a depressant-alcohol and adding a healthy stimulant-aerobic exercise.. If will take time for your body/mind to adapt.. did you quit smoking yet? sorry if I missed that...quitting smoking is huge..good luck

[joker122]

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True, but this effect is overrated. Calories in - Calories out is still king.


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i suppose i agree with this, but in OP's case it could make a truly significant difference, because he's such a drastic example. most people eat 3 meals a day and could benefit slightly from increasing that number to 5-6. if OP went from 1 to 6 he would likely experience significant weight loss/health benefits.

[x2ski]

Great advice, thank you.

Also, congratulations on becoming so healthy. I'm not sure how old you are (not that it matters), but judging from your post, you should be proud to be so healthy and active beyond 30 years of age.

[x2ski]

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did you quit smoking yet? sorry if I missed that...quitting smoking is huge..good luck

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Not yet... I'm sort of relying on smoking for the time being to get me through everything else... FWIW, I've been smoking a lot less the past few days.

I have a 3 hour window around exercising where I'm not smoking, and since I'm no longer drinking, that cuts out about one cig per drink or so.

Down to about half a pack a day.