Ask HN: How do you stay healthy?

I also pay attention to drinks...for example, if I buy a bottle of Coke, I leave half of it, take it home, put it in the fridge and forget about it. The next day, I'm happy to see it, and it's like a 2nd drink. Only, it's fewer calories.

I live in Colorado and we have trails behind us where we have occasional visits from deer. This really give me no excuse to stay away from a jog.

I used to live in the city but driving to a park to go jogging added 30 minutes to my time to workout and so it frequently got postponed.

I also lift weights at the gym.

As far as diet, I don't really watch what I eat, I have a high metabolism and with working out I burn through the extra calories right away...so I can sustain myself on nothing but junk food w/o gaining weight(I actually lost a few pounds the one week I ate nothing but McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC).

People always talk about how staying healthy requires a lifestyle change, and that's definitely true. I've never been one of those gym or running everyday kind of people, so every time I've lost weight, I always ended up slacking on exercise and gaining it all back. I'm more optimistic about my current strategy. I'll always have to go places, and biking is more enjoyable to me than driving (Except when it's 100 degrees and humid outside. Thanks Austin.), so in theory, it should be easier to keep up.

With a good instructor, it can be a surprisingly strong workout, while also helping to preserve sanity during those long weeks.

I haven't had mine for long but some friends|family keep telling me that I look better than before. I have an elliptical at home and I try to go to the gym often but I don't have any motivation to bore myself to death that way. Playing wii games like the three I named above helps me because they're entertaining and I'm more likely to go to the gym when I don't have flab bouncing around everywhere.

Diets never work for me, so I don't consider them. The only thing I do if at all is drinking tea in lieu of soda and switching white rice for brown when I can (and since I eat a lot of rice, this is pretty significant, but whole grains in general are awesome). I also eat smaller portions spread throughout the day, and since I love baking and making ice cream, I try to go "healthy" with my favorite but most unhealthiest part of meals (dessert!). I think the way I eat is massively influenced by my diabetic dad (who I have to cook for occasionally), cause he eats like that as well.

Lastly, I live in LA. It's a pretty big city but it's really hard to walk/bike around because I have to travel a lot (think as much as 100 miles/day). I try to walk to the market and take the bus to local (read:convenient) areas, but other than that I can't do much. But I do notice that every time I take a trip to San Francisco I end up walking a ton. Dunno what it's like in NYC but if it's convenient enough, you should try to walk around where you can, it's a really simple change that can have a big impact.

I'll live 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 years and die. You'll live 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 and die. Maybe I'll die a little sooner then you. So what? Maybe you'll get hit by a bus and I'll laugh at all your wasted exercises. I'll have more fun.

- Research what a good vitamin is. There's a HUGE spectrum in quality. Expect to pay $1-$2 per day, and take more than one capsule. A good indicator of a high quality vitamin is that it packages b12 as hydrocobalamin, not cyanocobalamin

- Exercise in the first part of your day. Your metabolism is then boosted all day.

- Read the label on every food product you buy: the ingredients list is the least dishonest part of the label.

- Avoid high glycemic sweeteners: sugar and corn syrup. Excellent substitutes are agave nectar and stevia.

- Diversify your grains: Try quinoa ("keen-wah"), amaranth, buckwheat, spelt

- Diversify your oils: coconut oil (often a good substitute for butter when baking), avacado oil (can be fried at high heat), flaxseed oil (do not heat!)

- Reduce/avoid: sodas (the acid causes your body to remove calcium from your bones!), homogenized cows milk, hydrolyzed or hydrogenated oils, monosodium glutumate (or "yeast extract" which always has MSG in it), artificial flavors and colors, and American style cured meats (nitrates.)

- Increase consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, raw nuts, berries, etc. The smaller the berry, the better it is for you.

- Seek moderate exposure to sunlight without sunscreen.

If you stick to the above, you'll have to prepare most of your own food. It's fun, creative, and a socially useful skill. With practice, it's often less time consuming than going out. Essential supplies include a high end blender, good cutlery, and pans without teflon.

Find the health food store in your community. Sometimes you'll pay much more for the food. The bargain is your long term health and quality of life.

its really quite similar to tennis, except it requires less space. NYC is one of the best locations to do it. its both physically and mentally challenging and is competitive enough to suck you in, if you enjoy competing, so that you'll want to exercise and train to become more fit so that you'll do better.

its how i stay healthy. for reference, i'm an ex personal trainer, ex lifeguard, and ex professional martial artist.

During the time I spent in grad school, I completely changed my body. Today I weigh about the same amount that I did in high school, I can run for miles, and I have a lot more lean body mass than ever before. But after my undergrad, I was overweight (by about 50 pounds), and something as simple as walking up a long flight of stairs would wind me.

By far the most important thing that I ever did to get in better shape was to change my eating habits. Thanks to grad school poverty, I cut soda out of my diet entirely, stopped eating out frequently, eliminated most booze and learned how to cook. As I became more aware of what I was eating, I found that my caloric intake went down, and the amount of "real" foods that I was eating went up. Nobody seems to believe it, but you can consume calories far more quickly than you can burn them through exercise, so if you can do nothing else, eat less crap, and your body will still thank you.

The second most important thing (again, thanks to grad school poverty), was to begin walking everywhere. I'm no longer in school, but even today I walk to most of the places that I go. Most people don't realize how little they walk/move around on a daily basis -- my first job out of grad school, I was climbing the walls because the daily car commute didn't afford me a great deal of exercise (I had to start running daily to make up for the loss).

Finally, and least importantly, I got in the habit of going to the gym regularly (I do cardio and lift weights). This probably isn't very important in terms of calories burned, but it keeps me sane, and the weight lifting has definitely improved my body over time. I'm in the habit now -- I actually feel "scummy" if I don't work out every day -- but if I had simply jumped into a gym routine with the expectation of becoming "fit", I'm sure I would have failed. The key ingredient was that I started to go to the gym to deal with stress, and it gradually became a healthy habit. The benefits of the habit took years to become apparent, but like I said...now I'm an addict.

So there you have it -- the Grad School Diet. I should write a book...

- There are excellent bike trails all around Manhattan. You can bike along both East River and the Hudson on the west side, there are also excellent bike trails in Central Park

- You can run along the bike trails, too, of course

- There are always pick up soccer games in Central Park, especially when the weather is nice -- very common in the summer time

- Great place to play basketball is Stuyvesant Town (14th and 1st, they have 5 outdoor courts, lots of people playing)

- ZogSports runs sports leagues all year around, from basketball to dodgeball. It costs money but keeps you committed, they also have happy hour after each match :)

- Diet is important of course, I would subscribe to Men's Health, one of my favorite magazines. Great exercise routines, and also tell you various ways to eat healthy for cheap.

- Oh, NYC also has a ton of events throughout the year. Look into the 5 boros bike tour (just passed, but def do it next year), the JPMorgan 5k Corporate Challenge, etc. Look into them!

Quitting soda helps a lot too.

Good news: I'm stronger than ever - on a moment's notice I can help someone move a piano or push a car down the street; I can work all day and not hurt the next, I don't get hurt, and my old back injuries don't bother me anymore.

Bad news: Less time. So I read while on the treadmill or recumbent bike.

Luckily my wife works out with me.

It will suck at first, but eventually you will reach a point where you feel guilty not going to the gym or running or "insert activity here". This has worked well for me in San Diego (running my second half-Ironman in a week).

When I'm at my best, I'm eating nearly vegan and I feel great. I also avoid sodas and get lots of sleep.

I'm not at my best right now. :-)