Dan's Papers - July 3, 2009 -Twentysomething....

This year, more than any other, I've been paying more attention to my health. It is something that I never really thought about, but now I think you could say I have a bit of OCD about being healthy. The recent passing of Michael Jackson at the young age of 50 struck a real chord with me - as it did for many others. This morning, reading the news, I read about Billy Mays dying at 50. These guys should have lived well into their 80s even 90s, with all of the doctors and money that they had access to. But it really comes down to you making a change for yourself and paying attention everyday to your health, what you eat and how you exercise.

I'm not a health expert by any means, but I do want to share with you what I've been doing the last couple of weeks because I really feel more alert and energetic, which I think as you get older, is the most important feeling to get naturally. I started to miss feeling energetic because I could remember so clearly what that felt like, and to be honest, it was kind of depressing.

One of the things that I've realized about keeping healthy, more than anything else, is that nobody, not even the best doctors, has any idea what the hell is going on other than to eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise and reduce stress. Outside of those basic principles is a world of lies, from eating a banana and drinking warm water in the morning to lose weight, to enjoying the "filling" diet of Lean Cuisines to lose weight and feel more energy. Much like somebody giving you advice on how to invest, health is in the same category - nobody has a bulletproof answer because the truth is that it's different for everybody.

I think the secret is figuring out what works for you. Without a doubt though, one of the biggest changes you can make to be healthier is to eat more fruit. A long time ago a friend of mine in athletics whom I highly respected told me that eating fruit was bad for you because it was high in sugar and you'll gain weight. In the last couple of weeks I can tell you that I've proven the opposite. But the key is that you have to use fruit to replace the foods that are bad for you like white breads, chips and things like that. Fruit is filling, and I've always been one of those guys that feels tired a lot, even when I'm in peak physical shape. I believe that it's because I never ate enough fruit. Definitely try adding plums, blueberries or peaches to your breakfast cereal or lunch.

I've also accepted that eating healthy is hard. Nearly every diet book/product I've checked out advocates something that's easy to do. I don't care who you are, taking pizza out of your diet and replacing it with blueberries is not just hard, it's really hard. But once I admitted that, then all of a sudden it became something I started to take seriously.

I believe that as you get older, food and what you eat becomes more important than exercise. This is huge for guys used to being told to eat big meals to grow big and strong. This is true, but only when you're a kid. I know a lot of people, myself included, who go for runs and do pushups and hit the gym a lot, but can't get that high energy feeling back and can't lose 10 pounds. The reason is food. When you're young, if you exercise, everything you eat is a fat burner, but after 25 it's time to wake up.

There are a lot of benefits to being healthy (like not dying) so I feel compelled to get this out there. Diet, more than anything else, is psychological and figuring out what you have to do to psychologically motivate you to eat the right foods is extremely important. For a lot of people it's about being around other people who eat healthy because you feel embarrassed if you don't. But for others you have to go deeper. Psyching yourself out, like visualizing Michael Jackson when about to eat a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese was one strategy I employed last week.