Yes. The time to fix your health is now. Any unhealthy habits put time on the biological clock, and they'll just get harder to undo later. This is true if you're 20, 40, or 60. Plaque even starts building up on the arteries of healthy teenagers. It all adds up.

But don't read this and panic or beat yourself up, that's a waste of energy. That's choosing the punishment instead of the fix.

Instead, quietly start doing one small healthy habit. If you stop, don't revert to self-punishment again. Just quietly get back to it. Stubbornly persist until you've won.

▲

asmodeuslucifer 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I just watched this video by a doctor, and his point was every one of his ER patients had a problem that was years in the making (except for 1, a little girl who swallowed a battery)

I Saw 120 Patients This Week. Here's Why They Were Actually Sick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiVKh97rJsg

▲

scottious an hour ago | parent | next [-]

It is a bit crazy that everybody seems to agree that diet and exercise are important, and yet it seems like society is hell bent on making those things very hard to do well.

I went to the mall recently (big mistake) and I had to get lunch at the food court. I don't think there was a single gram of fiber across the 10 or so restaurants. So much of America is drive-thru garbage. Yup -- you don't even have to stand up to get your Big Mac. You can endanger other people by eating it while you drive.

We tell people to get exercise and then force them to have 9-5 desk jobs that have a 45 minute car-commute each way. And what's so much worse is that people are paying a ton of money for that car that's slowly killing them. It's not entirely their fault though -- that's just the way our society is set up. Walkability is a luxury only the rich can afford.

Then, 20 years later you show up to the doctor and the standard course of action is to prescribe a bunch of medications. The doctor says "you should exercise more and eat better" and many people just don't.

So much is broken.

▲

asdfman123 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

There's no master plan, it's just that technology is making life more efficient, and more productive. It's also the downside of freedom: you're free to make bad choices too.

Should we ban cars to force people to hike uphill to work? It would mean people would have to live in smaller apartments in cities, and the workforce would have less talent. But we could do it.

Should we ban rich foods in the mall? Do we want to live in a world where the government forces healthy choices on people? Many would argue the downsides outweigh the benefits, and most of us live in democracies.

Society is not obligated to make the choices you want to make easier for you. That will never change, so you might as well focus on yourself and your own habits.

▲

WarmWash an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Exercise is taxing, and healthy food isn't as tasty or easy as junk food.

Humans are natural experts in min-maxing calories spent vs calories consumed. Then we solved food ~100 years ago and its been a kid in a candy shop ever since.

▲

Insanity 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Gotta find exercise that is fun though. Don’t just try one thing and give up, it takes time to find what you enjoy.

I’ve been swimming for 15 years, but only got into bouldering 1.5 years ago. I tried running and cycling but it always felt like a chore so I could not stick with it.

The food problem is much harder to solve for IMO, even shops are designed to get you to impulse-buy junk. Although one minor tip is to do groceries when you’re full, not when you’re hungry.

▲

citrin_ru 18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> healthy food isn't as tasty

Mediterranean cuisine tasty and healthy. But it’s not as cheap as ultra-processed food.

	▲	MarkusQ a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		The Mediterranean diet is tasty, but its supposed health benefits are mostly bunk; the whole "blue zone" longevity secret has far more to do with bad record keeping, pensions, and shoddy research than with diet. "Ultra-processed food" is a vibes-level concept that is likewise more scam than science. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/mindandbody/the-real-secret... https://www.harvardmagazine.com/research/harvard-ultraproces...

▲

spockz 6 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Except when you start eating real food made fresh from quality ingredients. Or sauces being cooked for proper times. There is so incredibly much more flavour to all of that food. It is seriously rewarding both from a nutritional point of view and a mental health side.

We really don’t need to eat so much as we do for the lives most of us lead. Yes, farmers doing heavy labour and cyclists riding the tour du France need to consume 3000 to 6000 kcal because that is the actual labour they perform.

Take small portions of high quality food that you enjoy. Pay attention to what you eat and how it tastes. They will last you longer both in appetite and in the mind.

I know junk food is almost the only thing obtainable on low budget and that is the real poverty. But not having the time to well prepare meals nor having the money to buy the proper ingredients and store them in a cost-effective manner. It is one of the costs of being poor. And it is a sad thing we have the world in that state while we have multi billionaires roving around as well.

▲

vhcr 42 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The kid dying is sad, but it could have probably been prevented if the batteries were coated with a bitter agent such as denatonium.

▲

throwawalien 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

yep.

eat healthy food as much as possible.

walk. exercise. and SLEEP.

▲

asdfman123 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

IMO developing good sleep hygiene is by far the most important habit to cultivate.

It has lots of benefits, but the most important one is it replenishes your willpower. If you're trying to develop other healthy habits, it's 10x harder if you haven't slept well.

▲

mattv8 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It's also the easiest to implement, imo. But there is a tradeoff: fewer waking hours during your best years cognitively for more years when you're older...

▲

Touche 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Poor sleep is a widespread problem and very few of those people are cognitively doing it intentionally as some sort of "tradeoff". The number of people "grinding on a startup" is tiny compared to the population of people who suffer from this problem. Instead it's caused by things like general anxiety, too much screen time before bed, or not having consistent sleep schedules. And other health related reasons that compound the problem.

	▲	sersi an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You can add having a child to the list. Nothing has caused more disruption to my sleep as my son has done

▲

Centigonal 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Waking hours is both a quantity game and a quality game. I don't remember too much from the parts of my life where I was very sleep deprived

▲

lukan 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"eat healthy food as much as possible."

I usually stop, if my body signals me I had enough.

(might seem like pedantery, but I know some people do believe it literally, that it is healthy to just fill themself up with "healthy food", but it is not).

▲

bookofjoe 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I think the commenter meant such that as much as possible of your diet consists of healthy rather than unhealthy food — NOT as great a quantity as you can take in.

▲

lukan 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I know, I took the literal meaning because I know some do live by that.

	▲	bookofjoe 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Fair enough! Just because I don't doesn't mean I shouldn't broaden my scope.