How do people keep track/keep motivated when it comes to their health?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26967458

4 6 5 years ago

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Lockdown has been hard on everyone, and I've become very aware that my physical and mental health is not quite where it should be. My sleep schedule is also pretty out of balance as I can basically get up when I want (working from home - SWE).

Has anyone here thought about, or taken active steps, to improve their health during this period? And if so I'd love to hear your experiences, and any helpful hints!

a3n2• 5 years ago

It was "during this period," but only coincidentally.

Diabetic. I let my blood sugar get wildly out of control. Daily sugar in the 300s, A1C 13 something.

Consulted doc and medical nutritionist. Nutritionist suggested daily carbs in the 100s (I forget exactly). I asked if sub 100 would be safe, she said yes.

So for three months i took in 40 to 100g/day. Cut A1C to low 7.something, daily sugar down to high 80s to low 100s. Side effect: lost 30 pounds.

Cut out all junk food, all bread, all "added sugar." Ate more meat and dairy. Read every label or searched online.

KEY was a food/carb diary. Recorded everything I ate and its carb content, totaled carbs every day. Recorded sugar multiple times/day. Recorded blood pressure occasionally. Not much exercise. Started recording weight once a week when I noticed my clothes were loose.

So:

* Decide what actions you'll take.

* Record those actions as appropriate.

* Record progress as appropriate. For example, daily weight may be counter productive.

* Adjust as necessary.

caminmccluskey• 5 years ago

Awesome progress, congrats on that! How did you know blood sugar was out of control, where you actively measuring I guess? Also really feel you on "Record progress as appropriate", it seems like progress is never going to be that quick (and may fluctuate a lot) which demotivates me. How did you decide what was appropriate, in terms of cadence of measurement?

a3n2• 5 years ago

It got out of control because I got complacent, started eating a lot of what I shouldn't, and didn't do my finger stick sugar testing for a long time.

Then, because it's diabetes, I started peeing a lot. Then I measured and knew i was in trouble.

A1C is an average over time, and the doc finding it at 13+confirmed it had been a problem for awhile.

Appropriateness of measurement depends on what you're measuring and why, how it fluctuates, and how it might respond to your eeffort and routine.

Most diabetics who don't use insulin, like me, only need to measure once in the morning (your doctor may vary). If you're trying to bring your blood glucose into control, and trying to see what kind of (natural) insulin response you have, then more frequent is appropriate. And if you use insulin, that's a whole nother protocol. So it depends.

Weight average goes up and down slowly over days and weeks, and spot weight depends on how much mass you ate at your last meal, etc. So daily weight can be frustrating if that's what your goal is. I've read that once a week is appropriate.

readonthegoapp• 5 years ago

i do a new routine every couple of weeks.

right now i'm doing this:

* >10k steps/day

* <2k cals/day

if i miss on either, i just forget it -- next day is brand new and i don't keep a running total for the week. i just decided this, and it seems like the right thing to do.

i have usually hit my steps, but have gone over on the cals often, and sometimes wildly so. one day i ate 4,500 cals. i didn't really know that was even possible, but i was ravenous that day for some reason, and i ate a bunch of healthy-ish stuff, but then also more than a couple slices of pizza, and that stuff had mad cals.

we could add the guidelines below b/c i think about them, but they're more about keeping under that calorie limit and trying to move towards getting less addicted to sugar:

* low sugar/low-no added sugar in most foods

* wfpb/vegan as much as possible (less meat; less processed)

irremediable• 5 years ago

People have written books about habit formation, e.g. Tiny Habits. The principles are fairly convincing.

Choose one of [walking more, eating healthy, strength training, sleeping early, etc].

Anchor: use an existing habit as the trigger for your new habit. For example, if you tend to eat lunch at the same time every day, and have free time after it, your anchor could be "as soon as I finish lunch". Maybe set a phone reminder if you're not good at remembering.

Behaviour: do a tiny, accessible version of the desired behaviour. e.g. if you want to walk more, this might be "I'll leave my house". You're going to ramp this up over time, so starting small is fine.

Celebration: do something simple to provide positive feedback for engaging in the habit. Even just something like "I will smile and let myself feel good for five seconds".

Do that for a few days, scale up the behaviour slowly, and eventually you'll have built the habit. Then add on a new habit.

jmrm• 5 years ago

I think one of the very first thing is having an alarm clock to sleep, not only to wake. Cut all the screen time at that moment and try to sleep. The first week probably you will have a hard time trying to sleep at that time, but if you do it every day it would be really easy to do after that first week.

Also, if you are working from home, probably having a strict schedule to work and to have fun is important, specially with leisure time. Too much leisure and you won't do what you need, too little and you would have sadness or even depression (I have been in the last one and nobody want that).

If you don't exercise too much, try at least having control on what you eat to not gain (or to lose) excess weight. Trying only to not to eat sugar in any shape or form (sugar in the coffee, sweets, and bread specially) is a pretty big deal. I done this and eating the amount of calories I needed every day and I loss a lot of weight some years ago (and I haven't gained more yet).

If you aren't a sporty person, remember how good is walking and dancing. One can be done outside and the other inside without being tired too soon.

How do people keep track/keep motivated when it comes to their health?

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