You gotta do it.  You just got to.  You have to focus on your physical fitness.

I’m speaking of being physically fit.  Not Arnold Schwarzenegger fit.  Not run a marathon without breaking a sweat fit.  But you have to be reasonably healthy.

Let’s face it, our jobs in IT, whether you’re a consultant, programmer, admin, or anything else is very often not conducive to your health.  Irregular work patterns due to emergencies, or rushing to meet some kind of deadline that’s crept up, long days sitting in your desk without a chance to move around much, perhaps a family life to keep up with as well, and the fact that perhaps a disproportionate amount of us aren’t really into playing sports or generally go outside leads many of us into very bad habits when it comes to my health.

I’m included.  When I graduated from high school, I was 180 pounds at 6’1″, could bench 250, and in very good health.

By the time I graduated from college, I was 220.  Paying for college tuition myself without student loans led to a hectic schedule of studying, working part time, taking classes, and eating conveniently, which often meant not well.

It just got worse when I transitioned into IT from teaching.  At least with teaching, I walked around A LOT.  When I got into IT, you SSH’ed into this, RDP’ed into that.  It wasn’t good.  I got up to about 330 pounds.  My doctor diagnosed me with high triglycerides.   I knew at that point, I had to do something, so I did.

I realized this – what’s the point of working hard in anything, even if it’s your passion, if it’s going to lead to a short life that you haven’t been able to do the things you want?

I realize that many of you may struggle with the same thing.  I’m no saint, but I did manage to drop 100 pounds to 230 via diet.  I did balloon back to 270 (never over), but I’ve managed to drop 15 pounds in the last 4 months or so,  so I’m doing better again.  My high triglycerides have gone away, and never came back.  I feel better, too.

I want to share what I did because some of it might work for you.  I also wanted it to be from someone who truly still struggles with it, because it is tough to do.  Perhaps all this may motivate and work for others also working in similar occupations that may struggle with how to maintain health when it seems like everything in your career goes against you doing just that.

This category is all about this topic.  Spoiler alert – I bought a treadmill desk, so this category is going to have a lot of information about this, and how my use of it has evolved, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, what things have you done to get healthier that have worked for you, whether it be exercise routines or diet?