Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, writer and theologian.
He tells the story of the parable of the ducks.
There is a town where only ducks live.
Every Sunday the ducks all waddle to their church.
They waddle into the church and squat in their pews. They sing their duck songs and then the duck minister gets up to preach.
He encourages them, “Ducks, God has given you wings! With these wings you can fly! With these wings you can rise up and soar like eagles! No walls can confine you, no fences can hold you. You have wings, and you can fly like birds!”
All the ducks shout “Amen.”
And then they waddle home.
Just over a week ago I wrote an article that I thought might be helpful to a few people. Over the last 10 years, this blog has surprised me on many occasions, the first time was when I started it and thought a handful of people might read what I wrote, little did I know what the impact of the blog would be over the next decade.
The same happened when I wrote my article "Your Studio Lifestyle May Be Killing You - Here's How To Stop It Happening Fast." Both in quantitive and qualitative terms the response has been tremendous, the reader numbers were some of the biggest we've had, and the comments were equally positive, it seems I hit a nerve, or scratched an itch.
But I fear, like me on many occasions before I changed, you shouted amen and waddled home again.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'm all too aware of my own failings when it comes to wanting to do things better in many parts of my life, but I want to bring you back to the subject of your health, for many of you, like me, it's time to change your studio lifestyle now before it's too late.
When I thought about writing this article, I considered how I would have responded to a second article and to be honest if it were just more of the same data about how bad things are for us I would have glazed over and moved on. So I decided this article would be some short practical tips to help you make a difference in a small way and hopefully over time begin to help you move more, eat better and sleep better.
Steps To A Healthy Studio Lifestyle.
1. Set A Standing Timer.
Sitting without a break is bad for you so like me set a recurring alarm to remind you to stand for a couple of minutes every hour or so. Use the alarm on your computer or watch as the reminder. When it goes off, stand up, walk around the room and do some basic warm-up excercises;
Stand up straight, shoulders back then;
First slowly look up, then slowly look down.
Then slowly look to the right, then to the left.
Then bring your hands to your shoulders and slowly rotate your arms first back for about 10 seconds and then forward for 10 seconds.
Then slide your arm down your side as far as you can go without straining while lifting the other arm up towards the ceiling, repeat that on the other side.
Finally, shake out your arms and hands.
That entire stretching exercise should take no more than 2 minutes.
2. Drink Plenty Of Water
Keep a bottle of water, tap is fine and free, but bottled if you prefer. Again set the alarm to remind you to hydrate if you forget. One comment left on the previous article was from Cody Blase Skully he offered this tip.
"Keep a glass and a large jug of spring water in your studio, one of the self-dispensing kind, to allow yourself regular and ample water drinking and easy refilling! also if you get bored with the plainness of water, squeeze some fresh lemon or lime in there to change it up. citrus also aids the digestive system in repelling kidney stones."
Stay away from sugary drinks and stimulant drinks like Red Bull, tea and caffeine. Ironically smoothies are not always good for you either as you get the fruit sugar but not the fibre, there's a better way to get the benefits of fruit which I'll raise in my next point.
3. Snack Well
Here are the kind of snacks I replaced my bad snacks with;
Nuts and fruit. If you live in the UK, then M&S and other supermarkets make small pots of mixed fruit and nuts. If you want to save money, then buy big bags and put them in a sealed plastic bag in your drawer.
Dried fruits like cranberries and apricots are a tasty snack.
Eat fruit; Apples, bananas, oranges, peaches and nectarines, but remember to keep wipes or paper towels to wipe your hands with before turning your keyboard and mouse into Fructus hell!
Seeds are also good, they come in all sorts of varieties. There are versions with spices that make them more interesting.
One top tip, replace fats and sugars with spices, you would be surprised how much this can help what seem like otherwise dull foods become really great to eat. Find the healthy food with spices, this is why Indian cuisine is so excellent, great Indian chefs can make any vegetable taste fantastic!
Which leads me to my next point.
4. Lunch Well
I worked in Soho, London for several years and there is no shortage of tempting places to get lunch. I had an office that was five minutes walk from the best fish and chip shop, the best curry house and the best American diner… I piled the weight on. So I know how easy it is when you are tired, stressed, hungry and short of time to make poor food choices.
Things to avoid at lunch are;
Red meat, bread, fried stuff.
Things to lunch well on;
Salads with chicken or turkey or fish like sardines, mackerel or tuna. One of my favourite super fast meals now is this, it's cheap and can be made in seconds.
Buy a pre-made salad, even better one in a plastic tub that can double up as a bowl. Then buy a tin of tuna in spring water, the kind with a fast-pull lid. Then get a fork and put the tuna into the salad. If you want a little extra taste, then buy a bottle of balsamic dressing to add as a treat.
You can make this with other things like meat or fish that you prefer.
5. Get A Good Chair.
If you do one thing this month to improve your studio lifestyle, then ditch that purchase of yet another plug-in you'll never use and buy a decent chair. A good chair can range from around £300 - £2000, I can almost hear some of you saying, that's a lot of money. But I bet you wouldn't say that if I was talking about some piece of studio hardware or software.
Remember this: The most essential piece of studio hardware you have is your chair, nothing else has the potential to determine your health in the same way... so invest in a good one!
6. Get Moving
Here are some simple ways to start moving more;
If you take public transport to work then walk to the next stop or station on the route each day. In most cases, it will be about half a mile. Do that each day and you are walking about 2 miles a week, or 100 miles a year.
If you drive to work then park as far away from the office as you can and then walk. If it's an extra 400 meters a day, then you are walking 2000 meters a week!
Use the stairs!
Take a walk at lunch time.
Working from home? Get a dog!
7. Get Good Sleep
To improve my sleep I figured out my optimum time to hit the sack, simply put if I'm not asleep by 11pm then I'm awake until 2am and then back up at 6am.
You need to work out what your 'drop-off' time is and then stick to it. Now I get to sleep by 11pm and wake at 6am, getting the 7 hours I need.
Ways to get ready for sleep are to reduce your screen time on your computer and phone, avoid using them before bed, Avoid social media and other things that will get you angry before bed. I'm using the new iOS12 screen time settings that stop me opening certain apps and reduce my use of them. You can still use them if you wish but a prompt makes you think twice before doing so.
Avoid drinks that stimulate you before bed. For years I would knock myself out in the evening with booze only to find myself back awake in the early hours.
8. Celebrate Your Success
I saw a comment after my last article on social media to the effect of ‘what a terrible way to live, how boring, this dude (sic) eats boring food.’
Not always. Each Friday my wife and I have a binge night. We drink cocktails, get a take away and some goodies like a tub of ice cream. For goodness sake I’d go nuts if I didn’t have this night of treats!
You see many of us have taken what should be treats and made them our staple diet. That’s why we look and feel like crap.
Celebrate your success with a treat night, they taste even better when you don’t have them all the time!
Summary
If you've not read my original article, then I urge you to do so, it will put what seems like a Men's Health or Cosmo article into context.
I'm not writing this as some life-coach or health fanatic, just as an overweight (albeit slightly less than before) creative who got a wake-up call to the damage my studio lifestyle was doing to my long-term health.
If I help one of you avoid back problems, sleepless nights and help you get a healthier life then my work is done.
Go on duck... fly!