Here are some things I have learned over the years that would have helped me back when I was 24!
- Take your health seriously
- Get an annual physical that includes blood work, abdominal ultrasounds, shots, EKGs, blood sugar, urine, Vision tests, etc. you know the drill. Men are really bad at this! Don’t be that “guy”.
- They can find little things when they are little and fix them before they get big.
- Understand your family history
- Ask your parents and grandparents what is wrong with your family (loaded question) – these indicators help focus healthcare providers focus in specific areas for you. They will get you specific tests that you need based on this.
- Build a summary of your family history that you can take with you to doctor appointments. When my grandpa was sick, I remember my grandma being so sick and tired of it that she wrote his history out and passed it to the doctor. That way it is accurate and you can build on it as life unfolds – I do this in Excel of course.
- Build your own Bio Passport – no one else will
- This should include all of the numbers in your blood tests – I have recorded the results in every one of my blood tests since 2001. Now I have a blood passport so they call it – I got that term from pro sports where they are doing that now too – they will be able to tell if any one of the 50 or so numbers moves.
- The blood passport was super helpful to my doctor as he could tell where I have been over the past 20 years on some of these measures. I do this in excel of course.
- Know what you are susceptible to
- Apart from family history, you can now get genetic screening that will show you what your genes say you are at risk of – understanding these markers could be of significant value to you – I have not done this yet but will likely do it soon.
- Workout over work
- I can’t hit the gym or exercise because I have this due date at work… BS… just don’t do as good of a job at the work and be ok with that. The fact is that an hour of exercise 3-4x per week will likely get you doing a better job at your work anyway. The previous has been my thinking in the past including today when I had a deliverable for my boss! I skipped my workout this am and did not really need to! I also find playing sports to not be a workout at all rather Playing so that helps when it is not COVID.
- Collect data to make sure you know what is going on with your body:
- Track your work How much time do you actually work – there are aps now that can tell you how much you actually work and where you spend your time. Here are some – I use life cycle for this and I use the office analytics that is in the web version of office 365 called “my analytics. Book focus time with yourself automatically! Also remove email notifications, and remove all notifications from your phone.
- Track your sleep – I use sleep cycle for this and have 5 years of sleep history – I never use an alarm clock and if I do need to, I wake up in REM sleep vs. deep sleep.
- Track your nutrition – I use my fitness pal for this – it keeps track of nutrition calories and macros.
- Track your weight – I use fitbit Aria for this – connects to the wifi, then to my fitness pal, 1 lb / year for 30 years = 30lbs!
- Track your exercise – I use Runkeeper for this that links up to my Apple Health ap, I also use an HR monitor – Polar Bluetooth model to track my heart when I workout.
- Track your heart – I use my Iwatch for this – I can tell my resting heart rate and how it changes when I exercise too.
- Track your immunizations – I use CANimmunize for this I know when my shots are due etc. as well as the kids.
- Watch the drinking.
- We bought a cool wine rack years ago and I thought… it holds 30 bottles, lets fill it up…it will look cool. Then 30 days later there were way less bottles of wine on the rack… I love to drink beer and wine, so does my wife but… Not good for the liver, not good for the heart, not good for cancer, not good for calories, not good for the $$, So we now don’t keep it in the house to make us have to go through one more hoop to do it.
I hope you either learned one thing or found something useful in this one!
Kick Ass Coaching! 