Tactics to Avoid a Slow Death
Managing longevity in an unhealthy world
Your body is what you use to do everything in your life from making money to hugging your family, going to your kids’ football games and recitals, and even just taking a walk. Your physical health directly affects every single aspect of your life. It affects your happiness, confidence, productivity, and clarity of mind. The more energy you have, the more you are showing up with intention around your family. The more clear your mind is, the better decisions you can make at work. Isn’t it true, when you feel awful or have low energy, it affects your mood in a negative way? When you are tired, your productivity and ability to stay focused is less than optimal. High-performing people know this and consistently spend dedicated time focusing on their health. Yet it should not be a luxury to prioritize health, it is a must. When you eat poorly and skip workouts, you are sabotaging your ability to have a happier and more productive life. The problem is that it can be easy to get stuck in these bad habits.
Our limiting beliefs, overwhelming opportunities to make poor choices, poor habits, and unhealthy friends compromise our ability to optimize our health. Our autopilot software defaults to our limiting beliefs and taking the easy way out.
Here are some common beliefs and excuses that keep people overweight, with low energy, and lacking confidence in their health.
I don’t have time.
I don’t have access to healthy food or a gym.
I don’t have anyone to hold me accountable.
I don’t want people to stare at me.
I’m big-boned.
I’m too old, my ship has sailed.
I don’t see the point, I am going to die anyway.
I don’t have the willpower and self-discipline.
I don’t know what to do.
And the top reason people don’t workout or eat healthy is…
I can’t afford it.
Yet people waste money on subscriptions and new iPhones instead of a mattress and curtains that will help them sleep better, a gym or sports club membership that they might actually use, pre-mixed vegetables, or the doctor appointment they need. The truth is that the above list is a bunch of made-up excuses. When you hear someone say, “I don’t have time and I don’t have money,” what you really hear is, “It’s not a priority.” We all have the same number of hours in our day.
Why do people default and subscribe to these ideas? It’s in our genes to avoid pain and take the path of least resistance. Our brains are wired this way, and autopilot will take us right back to the comfort zone. With the abundance in our society, it’s just a lot easier to take the easy path and not do the HARD things. It really is shocking how some people take such pride in maintaining their car but they don’t do the same for their own body. Unlike a car that you can swap out or upgrade, your body is the only vehicle your soul can move around in for the rest of your life.
There are two things that will put your body out of commission: fast death and slow death. Fast deaths are from accidents, infectious diseases, and injuries. It should be straightforward how to avoid the fast deaths. Over a decade of research has been done by Dr. Peter Attia and his team to avoid the slow deaths. He even wrote the most comprehensive book on the subject titled Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity. Attia explains that slow deaths are typically due to what he calls the four horsemen of chronic disease: heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease or metabolic disease (aka “diabeetus” or “the sugar”). The odds are overwhelming that you will die as a result of a slow death, and specifically one of these chronic diseases.
Attia recommends the following five tactics for avoiding a slow death:
Exercise
Sleep
Nutrition
Medication and supplements
Emotional health
Exercise is the number one way to be healthy and increase your longevity. Attia even says that exercise is “by far the most potent longevity drug.” The other tactics don’t even come close to being as effective.
Still, a lot of people look at exercise as just a chore. The mere word “exercise” has a lot of negative connotations. I like to think of it as movement instead. Exercise really just means moving your body, and this should be a staple in your daily routine. The simple activity of movement boosts your energy, self-confidence, thinking, and your mood. Moving should be something you enjoy and look forward to each day. The problem is that the overwhelming majority of people are not doing enough of it. The chart below from Dr. Christopher Centeno is based on data from the Copenhagen Heart Study in Denmark and shows that we need to consistently move at least a few hours a week if we want to optimize our health.
You want to be lower on the y-axis, which represents a hazard ratio. This is a measure used in survival analysis to compare the risk of a negative event happening to you. Lowering your hazard ratio through exercise reduces risk of mortality and improves overall health. As you go from left to right on the chart by consistently putting in hours of exercise each week (without overdoing it), you can lower your hazard ratio. More simply put: the more you move, the longer you live. So get out outside, get a little sun and move.