It’s hardest to stay healthy when you’re trying to jam it into an unhealthy life.
Are you sure you need that job? You’re suggesting 11-12 hours at the office every day, plus whatever your commute is. And apparently this job insists on you being continuously deskbound during that time.
Your upper middle class peers may be doing the same thing, and you may feel obliged to that job because of some fantasies about where it might lead, but on the facts themselves it is grossly unhealthy to sit for 12+ hours in a row.
You’re making an explicit choice to be an ambitious young urban professional (for an exploitative employer) rather than a healthy person. Maybe double-check that choice and make sure it’s the one you want to be making.
> You’re making an explicit choice to be an ambitious young urban professional (for an exploitative employer) rather than a healthy person.
More explicitly, you only have room for so much in your life. You're letting your job take all of it, then complaining that you don't have room for what you need to do to stay healthy. Choose a less exploitative job, then choose to put time for you (including your health) in the space that's freed up.
That may mean making less money. But "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?" (Yeah, Jesus was explicitly talking about spiritual things, not physical. But what does it profit you, if you make tons of money but drop dead at 50 because you had no time for your own health?)
I think the problem is that you're just working too many hours. If you're getting into the office at 7:30 and leaving at 7 that's almost 12 hour days. Then you add an hour for commuting, another 30 minutes for getting ready in the morning, plus cooking, house work, sleep and you're basically out of time. If you were doing a 9-5 job instead I think you'd find it a lot easier, since you'd have another 2.5-3.5 hours to fit things into each day.
When I was a student, it felt that time was pretty much infinite, it was just about what you decided to prioritise. After working full time for a few years, it quickly becomes apparent that when the obligations start rolling in, you have to start thinking about the constraints and what you really want to be doing. There's just not enough time in the week to do everything you want to do and it sucks.
This is one reason I am a huge advocate for working from home. Yes, in office has its positives, but getting 2 hours back in my day lets me fit in walking my dog, going to the gym, cooking dinner...
The only advice I have to offer is to work out in the morning, before work. It seems like an insane task when you first consider it, but you quickly find you can establish a routine where you wake up, have some water or coffee, and then get down to it.
After that morning workout is done, I feel incredibly energized for the day. More importantly, I find that it usually delays when I start to feel hungry by an additional 2-3 hours compared to days where I don't work out, which in turn helps with intermittent fasting. But most importantly, it prevents you from skipping workouts because you're too tired after work, or you have to work late due to an unexpected issue, or there's some other obligation you have to take care of. There's just fewer conflicts and distractions at 5 or 6 AM
Doing this is really challenging if you don't fix your sleep schedule to accommodate this or if you have a social life that happens later at night.
It took me half a year to get to a point where I can wake up at 0600 without an alarm. I used to wake up at all sorts of times before, usually 0900-1000.
I had to do CBTi and wake up at 0600 every day, even on weekends, no matter what time I went to bed. It was rough.
Once I got there, staying up and being social past 2200 became challenging. I'm being extremely selective about when I hang out late now, which is fine for me since I don't have many friends, but I can see this not working at all for someone more social than me.
Food is dopamine. If you’re struggling with cravings that’s your brain telling you it needs a reward to feel good, and if you need to take something to feel good, it’s because you don’t feel good.
Consider therapy. With so many distracting sources of easy dopamine in the modern world it’s easy to become emotional disconnected from oneself without realizing it.
Read Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke. She explains cravings like these and why they happen.
> The work-life balance isn’t terrible, but not great either. I generally get in around 7:30 AM and leave by 6-7. A bit earlier than the standard I think, but not overall not terrible.
Everyone is mentioning the long work hours, and I'm also not surprised you feel too tired to exercise more than 20 minutes when you spend around 12 hours working + commuting.
But also, are you working out and eating smartly? You mention intense workouts and not having energy, what about doing lower-intensity, longer workouts or a combination of the 2? And the only food you've mentioned is fast food, do you ever cook for yourself?
Be kind to yourself. No one's perfect. I’ve had the best luck minimizing friction starting exercise. That means it needs to be set up for me to go from “feeling good enough” to working out instantly.
It sometimes does feel like a challenge. Including dimensions other than the work/life balance causing stresses.
I'm 37 years old. Last weekend, I found out cooking with and drinking tap water set to hot mode is hella bad for you! Leeches heavy metals, brews bacteria, the works. I've been doing that every day for coffee, tea, pasta etc my whole adult life. Oops?
Depending on how your tap water is made hot, drinking it may be ok: if you have an electrically heated tube-coil that warms the water just as it is flowing, or if you have an heat-pump system also with a last-second water-heating flow through the heat-buffer. Then you are ok.
Any hot water that is kept a while before it goes out the tap, you should not drink. Also of course it must then be kept above 50C, or you've got a serious bacteria risk.
This is assuming the plumbing is not lead, but who the hell has leaded plumbing still?
For the longest time I had a similar commute. Eventually I had to move cities due to life and my commute went down to 40 mins total. The added leisure time indeed helped me mentally. Just having that extra hour or two away from the commute is a big plus for your brain.
The author is going through a major life transition as they move from being a full time student to a full time employee. Its not crazy that the stress of that change may impact their diet and weight. Also they are talking about 2 lbs over their typical weight.
Is this someone sub 25, who started in relatively good health, with no major underlying concerns, complaining how hard it is to stay healthy? Boo-fucking-hoo.
Lol. Normally I wouldn't agree with this type of gatekeeping, but this guy sounds like a millionare complaining about how expensive gas is.
@OP - Figure it out now because it gets harder as you get older. Maintenance is easier than progress, if you get fat it's a hard hole to dig yourself out of. Get a standing desk. Do basic calisthenics every morning. Put a pull-up bar in your bedroom doorway and do a couple everytime you walk through it. Run a few times a week. Leave a dumbbell in your kitchen and do an occasional curl when you're cooking. Take a multivitamin. Don't eat garbage. The best diet for me is 99% of calories from meat and veggies, and eat as much as I want. Fat+protien is filling and lasting, carbs and sugar give me strong feelings of hunger a few hours later.
Also - you're working WAY too much. Aim for 8-5, with a long day being 6. You need to average below capacity so there's margin left to add when shit's on fire. That's true of both your time and your energy. If you're fresh when the fire hits, that's your time to shine. If you're burnt out when the fire hits, you burn to death.
swatcoder|2 years ago
Are you sure you need that job? You’re suggesting 11-12 hours at the office every day, plus whatever your commute is. And apparently this job insists on you being continuously deskbound during that time.
Your upper middle class peers may be doing the same thing, and you may feel obliged to that job because of some fantasies about where it might lead, but on the facts themselves it is grossly unhealthy to sit for 12+ hours in a row.
You’re making an explicit choice to be an ambitious young urban professional (for an exploitative employer) rather than a healthy person. Maybe double-check that choice and make sure it’s the one you want to be making.
AnimalMuppet|2 years ago
More explicitly, you only have room for so much in your life. You're letting your job take all of it, then complaining that you don't have room for what you need to do to stay healthy. Choose a less exploitative job, then choose to put time for you (including your health) in the space that's freed up.
That may mean making less money. But "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?" (Yeah, Jesus was explicitly talking about spiritual things, not physical. But what does it profit you, if you make tons of money but drop dead at 50 because you had no time for your own health?)
joegibbs|2 years ago
hsuduebc2|2 years ago
mindwok|2 years ago
This is one reason I am a huge advocate for working from home. Yes, in office has its positives, but getting 2 hours back in my day lets me fit in walking my dog, going to the gym, cooking dinner...
sylens|2 years ago
After that morning workout is done, I feel incredibly energized for the day. More importantly, I find that it usually delays when I start to feel hungry by an additional 2-3 hours compared to days where I don't work out, which in turn helps with intermittent fasting. But most importantly, it prevents you from skipping workouts because you're too tired after work, or you have to work late due to an unexpected issue, or there's some other obligation you have to take care of. There's just fewer conflicts and distractions at 5 or 6 AM
nunez|2 years ago
It took me half a year to get to a point where I can wake up at 0600 without an alarm. I used to wake up at all sorts of times before, usually 0900-1000.
I had to do CBTi and wake up at 0600 every day, even on weekends, no matter what time I went to bed. It was rough.
Once I got there, staying up and being social past 2200 became challenging. I'm being extremely selective about when I hang out late now, which is fine for me since I don't have many friends, but I can see this not working at all for someone more social than me.
honkycat|2 years ago
dc3k|2 years ago
How is this not terrible? It is absolutely terrible. Whoever brainwashed you into thinking this is not terrible needs to be disciplined.
shric|2 years ago
deepfriedchokes|2 years ago
Consider therapy. With so many distracting sources of easy dopamine in the modern world it’s easy to become emotional disconnected from oneself without realizing it.
Read Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke. She explains cravings like these and why they happen.
m463|2 years ago
The idea is to prevent glucose spikes.
if you prevent them your body will do much better. It will release less insulin and that means less damage and less food converted to fat.
And spikes are followed by a crash, which is when energy plummets, attention wanders and cravings kick in.
found this ppt with some of the ideas summarized (not by author):
https://www.believebig.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Glucos...
examples: - eat foods in order: first fiber, then proteins/fats, last carbs
- walk 10 minutes after eating
...
armchairhacker|2 years ago
Everyone is mentioning the long work hours, and I'm also not surprised you feel too tired to exercise more than 20 minutes when you spend around 12 hours working + commuting.
But also, are you working out and eating smartly? You mention intense workouts and not having energy, what about doing lower-intensity, longer workouts or a combination of the 2? And the only food you've mentioned is fast food, do you ever cook for yourself?
ianai|2 years ago
the__alchemist|2 years ago
I'm 37 years old. Last weekend, I found out cooking with and drinking tap water set to hot mode is hella bad for you! Leeches heavy metals, brews bacteria, the works. I've been doing that every day for coffee, tea, pasta etc my whole adult life. Oops?
polotics|2 years ago
tommoor|2 years ago
chipgap98|2 years ago
jitl|2 years ago
Bimos|2 years ago
5xpB7n8tdbtoP|2 years ago
chipgap98|2 years ago
skeeter2020|2 years ago
fbfnfkfj|2 years ago
@OP - Figure it out now because it gets harder as you get older. Maintenance is easier than progress, if you get fat it's a hard hole to dig yourself out of. Get a standing desk. Do basic calisthenics every morning. Put a pull-up bar in your bedroom doorway and do a couple everytime you walk through it. Run a few times a week. Leave a dumbbell in your kitchen and do an occasional curl when you're cooking. Take a multivitamin. Don't eat garbage. The best diet for me is 99% of calories from meat and veggies, and eat as much as I want. Fat+protien is filling and lasting, carbs and sugar give me strong feelings of hunger a few hours later.
Also - you're working WAY too much. Aim for 8-5, with a long day being 6. You need to average below capacity so there's margin left to add when shit's on fire. That's true of both your time and your energy. If you're fresh when the fire hits, that's your time to shine. If you're burnt out when the fire hits, you burn to death.