A bit over a week ago, on a Friday, I bought a walking pad at Costco. Coincidentally, I'd been considering a walking pad for about two weeks before that, because I have a standing desk, one of those from IKEA. It doesn't have a motor; I have to crank it up. I think that's better than a motor that might fail someday. It's a big desk, too. I have three screens on it and my desktop computer on top of that, so it's a lot of weight, but apparently it still holds, it goes up and down with the crank, and it works fine. Part of what got me thinking about a walking pad in the first place was this video from ElectroBOOM.
Like I may have posted before, I've been looking into little ways to improve my health, and I know from experience that just standing in front of my desk is exhausting. But for whatever reason, I can walk. I love to walk. So when I saw that one at Costco, I said "fuck it, let's buy it".
I've been using it pretty much every day. Well, not every day, because I had to travel for most of this last week, but I'm back at it, and so far I'm getting used to it. It's a little bit harder to click the right places when I'm using the mouse and walking at the same time, but it's not that bad. Sometimes I also eat in front of my desk, so that's a little bit harder as well. But I think it's just a matter of giving it another week, and I'll be used to that little extra motion.
So I'm trying to think about other ways to improve my health. What are the little things I can improve? I've also still been reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, and I was just reading a part about health and iatrogenics. There are so many supplements out there that claim to have benefits. And I know my cholesterol is high, and my triglycerides, because, you know, I have a sweet tooth and I'm obese. Apparently. Well, not apparently. I mean, that's true.
Then I was present while my wife had a doctor's appointment dealing with the same things, and I kept wondering how many of the things doctors recommend, even statins, are actually good. I'm starting to suspect that we all, as a culture, are always looking for the easy way out. A few weeks ago, one of my friends was in town, and he mentioned that he had started using GLP-1 drugs. I guess we all focus on working and doing whatever we want now, and we don't want the consequences.
I don't know if I'm ever gonna change my mind, but at least right now, I want to vow that I will never use any of those weight-loss drugs that are so popular these days. Same with the cholesterol medications: I won't take them unless I really, really, really need one. Nothing is free. The solution sounds too good to be true in both cases, and what I'm reading in Antifragile right now kind of reminds me of that. If you're not in an emergency, if you really don't need it medically, why would you expose yourself to the risk of side effects, things that will only show up a decade later and will probably be worse?
So I guess I'm gonna have to bite the bullet, really exercise again, and make a better effort with my diet. And I'll see which of the dials from my other post the other day, and it's not like I came up with anything there, it's all obvious stuff, which of those little dials I can fiddle with to slowly but surely improve my health.
I'm getting excited about that. I feel like I can do it, because I've done it before. I lost about 10 kilos six years ago now. It's doable, and I don't even know why I haven't done it again. I do remember that seeing the results was one of the most motivating things I've ever felt: seeing that a little effort, consistently, every day, or most days, I'd say five days a week, really, really shows up as results after a while.
So I don't think there's any shortcut for health, other than doing the obvious things I think we all should be doing: eating less processed food, exercising more, and all those things.
That's it. I think I'll start a little table with my weight and waist measurements, see if I can indeed do better, and see what happens in about three months. I probably should get my blood drawn, but in general, I think as long as my waist and weight go down, that should be enough of an indicator of better health.