Health
Diet
You'll hear all kinds of things about how to take care of yourself. No carbs! No fat! You need fat! Eat salads! No, you just need a ton of protein! Eat carbs for energy! Don't need that much protein! Paleo!
It's enough to make you nuts. You're both fortunate in that you like healthy food. Yeah we eat fast food and wings, but you're not morally opposed to salad, vegetables in general, fruit, and all that. Eat that as often as possible. It'll make you feel better too.
If you get to a point you decide to lose weight, keep it simple. You'll hear you have to exercise like this, change diet to that, start eating a pound of quinoa at each meal, that grapefruit burns fat, blah blah blah.
Everything above might have an element of truth, but in the end it's 100% about consumption. It's a math equation and there's no getting around it. If you keep it to around 2000 calories a day and get some exercise, you'll be fine. But you really have to watch the calories - count it up sometime during a normal day. Knock off half a bag of Doritos with a coke and you just had about 800 calories. 40% of a day's limit and you haven't eaten a meal yet.
If you ever get higher cholesterol, that is 100% about saturated fat consumption. I didn't know this until like 2 years ago when one heart doctor at a place I go mentioned it. Like with diet how-tos, you hear it's lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, heredity, being overweight, and on and on. Again, maybe an element of truth to all of, but cut out the grams of saturated fat. You get 20 a day, that's it. And a lot of it comes from meat and dairy. One slice of cheese has like 4, a hot dog has 6. Have a cheese dog on a bun and you're at 11, 55% of the day. One sausage egga muffin, 10 grams, half your day's allotment. In my case, I laid off the cheese, no more cream for coffee, limited the hot dogs, and I don't need cholesterol meds anymore.
Exercise
You guys have active lives, I have no doubt you'll stay that way. Big plus. But don't make the mistake of thinking "OK, I need to lose a few pounds, I'll start running." Nope, see above. It's a math equation. Take one example: Think about heading out for a 3-mile run. Good work, it's great exercise and you should do it. But the reality is you just burned off 2 micro-brews with that run. Then you're right back to the math of it all. Unless you're training like Michael Phelps, you're only option is to cut the calories.
Sleep
We all tend to be hyper-focused on diet and exercise when we want to get healthy, but don't forget sleep. seems like a badge of honor for people to talk about pulling all-nighters, working late, back at it early, etc. It's terrible for you. Get some sleep.
Anxiety
You guys hear a lot about mental health everywhere, and that's good. Gotta take care of what's between the ears as much as you do your body. I'm all in favor. But...also realize that some stress is part of life. Big game, project deadline, etc., all contribute to it. Essentially, any time you challenge yourself, you're going to open up feelings of "Crap, I'm not going to make this deadline" or "I'm not at my best for this game" or whatever. It can cause anxiety for sure. But some stress can be good, can even be engaging and give you a little adrenaline.
That said, really, take care of this if it's overwhelming. Know your triggers and limits. And if you have to walk away from something for a few hours, or change your situation because the one you're in is untenable, do it. Nothing's worth going down a really bad hole. Some people get to a place where they just can't pull themselves out. Take it seriously.
Alcohol
I've spoken to you both about this a lot, and you've seen enough examples of abuse around you. Please be careful.
Alcohol will ruin your career.
Alcohol will ruin your health.
Alcohol will ruin your relationships.
Alcohol will ruin your life.
If you're finding you're in a regular habit of drinking as you get moving in life, and especially if it's to excess, figure out how to dial it back. You're pretty self-aware guys, you'll figure it out.
You'll hear all kinds of things about how to take care of yourself. No carbs! No fat! You need fat! Eat salads! No, you just need a ton of protein! Eat carbs for energy! Don't need that much protein! Paleo!
It's enough to make you nuts. You're both fortunate in that you like healthy food. Yeah we eat fast food and wings, but you're not morally opposed to salad, vegetables in general, fruit, and all that. Eat that as often as possible. It'll make you feel better too.
If you get to a point you decide to lose weight, keep it simple. You'll hear you have to exercise like this, change diet to that, start eating a pound of quinoa at each meal, that grapefruit burns fat, blah blah blah.
Everything above might have an element of truth, but in the end it's 100% about consumption. It's a math equation and there's no getting around it. If you keep it to around 2000 calories a day and get some exercise, you'll be fine. But you really have to watch the calories - count it up sometime during a normal day. Knock off half a bag of Doritos with a coke and you just had about 800 calories. 40% of a day's limit and you haven't eaten a meal yet.
If you ever get higher cholesterol, that is 100% about saturated fat consumption. I didn't know this until like 2 years ago when one heart doctor at a place I go mentioned it. Like with diet how-tos, you hear it's lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, heredity, being overweight, and on and on. Again, maybe an element of truth to all of, but cut out the grams of saturated fat. You get 20 a day, that's it. And a lot of it comes from meat and dairy. One slice of cheese has like 4, a hot dog has 6. Have a cheese dog on a bun and you're at 11, 55% of the day. One sausage egga muffin, 10 grams, half your day's allotment. In my case, I laid off the cheese, no more cream for coffee, limited the hot dogs, and I don't need cholesterol meds anymore.
Exercise
You guys have active lives, I have no doubt you'll stay that way. Big plus. But don't make the mistake of thinking "OK, I need to lose a few pounds, I'll start running." Nope, see above. It's a math equation. Take one example: Think about heading out for a 3-mile run. Good work, it's great exercise and you should do it. But the reality is you just burned off 2 micro-brews with that run. Then you're right back to the math of it all. Unless you're training like Michael Phelps, you're only option is to cut the calories.
Sleep
We all tend to be hyper-focused on diet and exercise when we want to get healthy, but don't forget sleep. seems like a badge of honor for people to talk about pulling all-nighters, working late, back at it early, etc. It's terrible for you. Get some sleep.
Anxiety
You guys hear a lot about mental health everywhere, and that's good. Gotta take care of what's between the ears as much as you do your body. I'm all in favor. But...also realize that some stress is part of life. Big game, project deadline, etc., all contribute to it. Essentially, any time you challenge yourself, you're going to open up feelings of "Crap, I'm not going to make this deadline" or "I'm not at my best for this game" or whatever. It can cause anxiety for sure. But some stress can be good, can even be engaging and give you a little adrenaline.
That said, really, take care of this if it's overwhelming. Know your triggers and limits. And if you have to walk away from something for a few hours, or change your situation because the one you're in is untenable, do it. Nothing's worth going down a really bad hole. Some people get to a place where they just can't pull themselves out. Take it seriously.
Alcohol
I've spoken to you both about this a lot, and you've seen enough examples of abuse around you. Please be careful.
Alcohol will ruin your career.
Alcohol will ruin your health.
Alcohol will ruin your relationships.
Alcohol will ruin your life.
If you're finding you're in a regular habit of drinking as you get moving in life, and especially if it's to excess, figure out how to dial it back. You're pretty self-aware guys, you'll figure it out.
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