Getting Started With Healthy Living |
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Henry from Binary Dollar, a popular personal finance blog, had a couple of health questions for me the other day. He’s been thinking of what he can do to get started towards a healthy lifestyle and asked whether a multi-vitamin is worth it. I’m not a doctor, but from tons and tons of reading here is what I’d recommend to those getting started on the healthy lifestyle.
- Take the multi-vitamin - Some healthy things take a lot of motivation, time, effort, or money. Multi-vitamins are very cheap (especially when purchased in quantity) and they are easy to take. Is there a potential downside? Some say that processing excess vitamins and minerals could tax your body. I think the odds of a deficiency is much higher. I personally take a vitamin with many times the US recommended daily allowance in several areas. I’ve been leaning towards even going higher as recommended in Fantastic Voyage
. That level of extreme supplementation requires more research for me.
- Go for a walk - It’s so easy and barely takes any real effort and no money. It does take a little motivation and some time, but the pay off is great. There’s the fresh outside air, time to think (if by yourself) or converse with a partner, getting a bit of exercise in.
- Increase protein and fiber intake - I’m a huge fan of lean protein. It seems that whenever I focus on it, my body responds with more energy. Fiber has a similar effect on me. It seems that I’m never hungry because these foods just stick in my stomach.
- Decrease sugar and complex carbs - Sugar isn’t all bad, but most diets include far too much of it. Historically the human body hasn’t had a huge sugar sources like we have today. I don’t believe our bodies have evolved to make efficient use of Twinkies. Similarly complex carbs can easily be stored as fat. Ten years ago, I went on a low fat diet that consisted largely of pasta. I was under the impression that if I didn’t eat fat, I wouldn’t get fat. I’m a lot wiser now (or at least I hope I am).
- Don’t Smoke - Do I really need to go into this? Seriously, if you don’t know this you must have been living under a rock for the last 40 years or so.
- See your doctor regularly - I’m guilty of not doing this one, but I need to get better. Regular check-ups are key for the early detection of anything abnormal. Early detection is the key for putting things back in order. Unfortunately, I’ve been lacking the motivation and time has been scarce.
I hope that’s enough to get Henry started towards a healthy lifestyle. I believe that if a 20-30 year old could accomplish these 5 goals they could live - no, thrive - to 90 or 100. If Henry follows the above, his biggest problem might be having enough of those Binary Dollar Zeros to the right of that of Binary Dollar One to afford his long life.
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Propeller2 Responses to “Getting Started With Healthy Living”
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Next: A Healthy Dinner
March 8th, 2007 at 11:54 am
The first thing that I would suggest is to eat breakfast. The second thing I would suggest is to try to eat smaller meals more often. In general, four smaller meals will be better for you than 2 or 3 large ones. Skipping breakfast is just dumb no matter how look at it.
As for vitamins, it really depends. If you can eat a well balanced diet that provides all the vitamins and minerals that you need, you will be better off. When you take vitamins from nature then you will actually absorb what you consume. Taking them as a pill is for the most part a waste of time.
That being said, I take vitamin supplements. Getting something that has many times the daily recommend dosage is the wrong way to go about it though; you are better off taking something with half or a third of your daily dosage and taking two of them per day. If you have all of your vitamin intake at one time, then the vast majority will leave your body through your urine before your body can process it and your blood can absorb it.
Also think about your goals. About 500mg of Vitamin C throughout the day of a workout will help your muscles absorb protein and repair themselves. Once you get over 1000mg, however, it will actually retard the repair process and be counterproductive.
As for your specific recommendations about protein, fiber, sugar, and carbohydrates, I think that that all depends upon your lifestyle. Plenty of all them are present in my diet, but I am more active than most people.
Not smoking is always good advice. So is seeing your doctor regularly.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Don’t forget one of the simplest (and cheapest) things that will help you feel better–drink water! Many people are dehydrated constantly!