You hit an age where you’re attending more funerals than weddings. I don’t know what that age is, but it exists. Whether their family, friend and/or colleague – it takes a toll.
You hit an age where your friends are incapable of handling the grind of owning a business. The hours consumed like a stoned kid at Golden Corral. Whether burnout, bankruptcy, or just failing – it takes a toll.
There’s an appropriate word to mention here; one would call it a theme – health.
The other day I was on the phone with Jonathan Gicewicz, the owner and Chief Designer at JEG DESIGN INC. We usually have a quarterly call to discuss what we need to promote or examine for the next few months. The call was about twenty minutes long. We devoted two minutes to the agenda. The other eighteen spent venting about how out of shape we were and what was happening to our personal and work lives.
For this piece, we’re going to provide three ways for you to be healthier. It isn’t to be preachy. It’s because Jonathan Gicewicz has been in business for over 20 years. And when you live that long as an entrepreneur, you see parallels between the life you live and how they correlate with what you do for a living.
Where to start? Diet.
I thought I had a heart attack two weeks ago. My mother-in-law is Korean, and she loves her pork. Pork bulgogi is stupid-good. On this day, though, it was pork belly. If you haven’t had pork belly, it’s like the center cut of a pork chop except shaped like bacon. So, there’s a lot of fat involved. And to ensure your heart rate spikes a little more, the “dipping sauce” is sesame oil and salt…And it’s fucking delicious.
An hour later, I couldn’t take a deep breath and started vomiting like crazy. My chest hurt, and I couldn’t for the life of me catch my breath. That’s when this all started, but it’s not when it concluded.
During my call with Jon, I asked how he was doing. He said fantastic. Which, if you know Gice, is rarely ever said. Usually, it’s buried, swamped, crushed—the repercussions of being really good at what you do.
“I’m focused, bro! I started eating healthier two weeks ago. Haven’t felt better! My brain is clicking again, and I’m knocking out work at a crazy speed!”
He told me about a doctor’s appointment, which was a wake-up call. I told him about mine and added in this cleanse I do once a year. I’m in the middle of day four, and I hate it. A reminder of why I need to eat healthier all the time and not just some of the time.
For help on how to have a diet that best fits your lifestyle, try this.
Walking
I mention walking because it’s a habit by some of the greatest at what they do. I’m not a fan of Stephen King, which is to say I haven’t read any of his work. My wife is crushing The Stand right now, and it’s almost as long as War and Peace. But I read a fantastic book of his called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. If you’re a writer or want to be one, I couldn’t recommend a better guide. Well, in it, he tells you that he walks when he’s devoid of ideas. And this guy has had an awful lot of ideas—65 published novels at the writing of this blog.
And yes, he got hit by a drunk driver while on one of those walks, so, you know, be careful. But it requires no equipment other than comfy shoes and time.
Plus, our friends at the Mayo Clinic will say walking does this for you physically:
- Maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat.
- Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
- Improve cardiovascular fitness.
- Strengthen your bones and muscles.
- Improve muscle endurance.
- Increase energy levels.
So, there’s that.
Support
Gice was telling me that his brother, an identical twin, was joining him on this journey of health and wealth. How? They do weekly weigh-ins. This is commonly called accountability while simultaneously supporting you. It’s always going to be easier to do nothing. But the hard is what we need, and you need to have people around you that get that.
And if you don’t have a friend or family member – there are a plethora of groups that meet online or in person. There’s no shame in finding a tribe that gets what you’re trying to do.
By the way, Gice and his brother make things interesting by putting money on the weekly weigh-ins. And I may or may not be in it as well. (Did I mention I’m on a cleanse?
Conclusion
Hopefully, this piece is taken as intended to be – a friendly voice saying, “Hey, we get it. We work from home, and we occasionally have an infuriating email waiting for us. Triggering us to eat a spoonful of peanut butter dipped in chocolate chips. It happens.”
But at the end of the day, you need to reach the end of the day. And before the pressure of owning a business jeopardizes you, your health, and your family – take a step back and think about what you could do just to feel a little bit better tomorrow than you do today.
And remember, if you don’t have support, contact us at JEG DESIGN INC. – we got you!
– Written by Keith Hannigan