How To Stay Healthy 3 Years Into The Job

Bro chill, he might be at a high volume group and is just asking for advice. He isn’t making “excuses”. 0 purpose to ur response

Damn, cool to see David Goggins hopping on WSO

Fjsjrjdns:

You simply listed a bunch of excuses as to why you’re a slave to your job. But congrats on the impending doom when you wake up in a few more years another 20lbs heavier with worse skin, droopy eyes and high cholesterol. 

 

If you’re well respected and a top performer, especially as an A2A, just make it a non-negotiable with your teams that you’re going to take some time out to exercise and you might not be super responsive during these times. Seniors will 100% budge to this, and if you are unwilling/too scared to demand this then your entire OP was a long excuse as to why you don’t want to workout.

You’re correct. This guy is making excuses unfortunately. If he’s fast and efficient enough at his job and in life, he shouldn’t be struggling like he’s describing right now. Sorry truth hurts.

At my bank, even in sweaty groups, top performers will find a way to prioritize their health. Just have to be tight with your sleep, diet, and gym - yes I mean 1000% locked in, not some half ass BS. Yes this even may come at the expense of a social life, although not too significant. People need to be more selfish by prioritizing themselves. Being efficient at doing your job also saves a lot of time.

Would your sleep and health routine be optimal like working a 9-5? Of course not. But is it possible to survive in sweaty IB and still somewhat stay healthy? Definitely.

“Never counted every calorie and frankly don’t have the time or capacity to do so.”

I felt the same way for years until I tried out the feature on the app for my Fitbit watch (and other smart watches have the same) and realized that virtually everything any American could possibly eat is already in the system. The nutrition information is crowdsourced by millions of people. And if you’re a creature of habit and tend to eat the same things often, it’s even faster because you go in your “recent” history and click the previous food item to log it again without typing anything.

You can enter what you’re eating while eating it, it takes less than 30 seconds to find it, especially if you’ve eaten it previously anytime in recent weeks.

I would never count calories if I had to like log them in Excel or something. But the Fitbit watch’s app makes it stunningly easy and quick to do. And then it pairs that with an estimate of calories burned.

I’m in my mid-30’s and I deeply wish I had discovered how easy this all was ten years ago. Would’ve made the fitness battle so much easier.

Great post and great insight that actually answered OPs questions. Quick follow up for you (and to anyone w input), does a lot of the following points you provided (working out at dinner, etc) apply at analyst level? I’m sure it depends on the bank, but I’m trying to be proactive in starting my health habits as well.

I’m going to answer your question but candidly it just doesn’t sound like you want a physically fit and aesthetic physique. If you did, there’s no way you would’ve spent 30 minutes writing that laundry list of excuses. The reality is there are people in IB and any industry who are fit, which means it can be done.

People who actually want something make a plan to get it, no matter what the cost, and then execute on that plan. There are no tips and tricks and strategies that can overcome the desire to make excuses. There are always infinite excuses one can come up with for why they can’t or shouldn’t do something.

In my case I generally maintain a very strict diet - no sugar, no dairy, no junk food, no alcohol. Once every week or two I will allow myself a diet soda or 2 alcoholic drinks (only straight liquor+club soda or beer and only if out for a special occasion with the squad). Keeping a strict diet of healthy carbs, lean proteins, and veggies is half the battle. Restricting your diet is the easiest way because then you don’t have to make a choice every meal. You make the choice once that your only option every meal is to eat clean, and all of a sudden it becomes easy. How hard is it for you to avoid shooting up heroin every day? That’s how hard it is for me to avoid eating unhealthy food every day. You’re not a heroin user, and I’m not a junk food eater.

I train 5-6 times a week, either at 7 AM before work or at 10 PM when I’m taking a break from work. You mentioned it’s hard to get up in the morning - yes, I do it anyway because I want to look good. You mention on days you get up early, you get tired in the evening and find it hard to push through - yes, I do it anyway because I want to look good. You mention it’s hard to get motivated to hit the gym late at night after a stressful day’s work - yes, I do it anyway because I want to look good. You mention sometimes it’s inconvenient having to be less responsive because of your training routine - yes, I do it anyway because I want to look good. The absolute craziest thing you mentioned is that you’re too tired all weekend, 48 hours straight, to get up off the couch. That was the death sentence (pun intended) in your post that gives away you just don’t got what it takes. Friday - Sunday is the bare minimum anybody that’s breathing can do. I know you’re familiar with the concept I outlined above because working in IB, closing deals, getting top bonuses, and getting promotions is hard, but we do it anyway because we wanna be rich mofos. 

Just following the basic steps above allows me to maintain a strong and athletic physique (12% body fat). Certainly nowhere near prime but I’m happy enough with it. Now of course some days shit hits the fans and I have to skip 2 or 3 days in a row, but overwhelmingly I do the above consistently enough to make progress. Some days I can’t finish my full workout, some days I can’t do the full run I had planned, but I do whatever I can, the absolute most I can. You have to be comfortable with imperfection if you want to prevail, in the gym and in life. 

This has never been an issue because people on my team, both senior and junior, know me and respect my commitment to getting the job done at the highest level. Taking care of my health makes me better at my job, not worse. It makes me better served to succeed on the team over the long run, not worse. It makes me a better person to work with internally and with clients, not worse. If your team doesn’t allow you to invest in and build yourself so that you perform at the highest level, then you need to either find a way to make them respect you and value you, or find another team.

You should either decide it’s something you don’t want and forget it, or decide it is something you want and do whatever it takes to get it. Either decide to do it, or don’t, but don’t make excuses. If you don’t have what it takes, accept that you’re the same as the other 80% of Americans that come up with excuses to stay weak and fat and ugly; you’re not a special snowflake with special circumstances, you just don’t have what it takes. Most people don’t. But don’t tell me you can’t do it because your circumstances are so much harder than everybody else’s. Nobody here is stupid enough to buy what you’re selling. 

Look man, I appreciate your message and I'm not going to disagree with you. My post wasn't meant to garner sympathy or just purely complain about life being hard... what can one achieve by crying about having no time to work out? Is my commitment or discipline the same as yours - clearly it isn't. You've either found a way to make it work or have brute forced your way despite the many obvious challenges and props for that. In the long term, I would also like to develop a cadence where I can find it in me to get that regular exercise in, which is why I am attempting to crowdsource ideas for what has worked for people. Sucking it up and just sticking to it is one approach, but this community is diverse and as per the commenter above you there are multiple ways to get into the rhythm of things.
I'm not a stranger to sucking it up and just doing it. I used to be 155 pounds and am 6'1 so was very lean before this stint owing to a cardio intensive regimen I had. I'm 170 now which is again not out of shape or physically unaesthetic - but I am not naive and know I am in the worst athletic shape of my life. My post is not intended to relay my grievances and at the end of the day just accept my fate and continue down the path of diabetes. It is intended to result in change; change that I don't think needs to be binary as you suggest. "Either you do it or don't" is true, but "doing" it can take many forms. Albeit your message relaying your thoughts on the matter in a very straightforward way, I think there is an aspect of mental fortitude which is something anyone in my shoes would like to work towards.

For the record, I’m the one who threw monkey shit at this reply, not OP. I’m alarmed it had seven upvotes. Some unverified guy making unverified claims detailing his own personal BF% and sanctimoniously congratulating himself because he wakes up early and GETS AFTER IT, like this is the fucking Jocko Podcast or something.

“I wake up early every day and meet up with my pals Jocko, Bucko, and Fucko to crush the gym together, because I am morally to superior to undisciplined people such as yourself…”

OP is looking for pragmatic advice. I’m going to put together another comment with actionable and simple steps to control food portions, track calories, and run calorie deficits. As it turns out, you don’t need to be at the gym with Jocko to stay in decent shape—in fact, you don’t need to go to the gym at all—you simply have to eat fewer calories than you burn and then maybe toss in some walking and basic bodyweight movements you can do at home.

This comment I’m replying to deserves way more monkey shit, seriously. FWIW, I played linebacker, I have a dedicated home gym room in my condo with a full power rack, 400+ lbs of plates, bike, treadmill, and a hanging heavy bag with ample room for footwork. Yet somehow even I was reading this comment going “Oh man, somebody snorted their preworkout powder this morning, we’ve got a Jocko Podcast Enjoyer on our hands.”

Finally someone else had the same exact thoughts. Thank you for being normal. Jesus that dude sounded like such a loser 

I can relate to the OP.  I quit working out for a while because I had other priorities in my life and also noticed a very tangible difference in my sleep needs too.  I could "get by" on ~5-6hrs w/out exercise, but when I did start getting in the gym ~6.5-7hrs of sleep was just required (and that doubled or tripled the time commitment).

I was in the worst shape of my life at age 27-30 as stuff atrophied and age started catching up with me, I'm in the best shape of my life today (mid-30s, stronger/leaner/fitter than I was at 18/22/25).

What changed?  Many things: Career got less demanding, kids got older, I changed my eating habits, and I also curated a new fitness routine.  Get whatever you need to workout at home in 25sq ft (1 pair of dumbbells, kettlebell, door pull up bar, weighted vest, etc.).  Do 10min a day, 6 days a week.  Go full body, get your heart rate up, but no need to kill yourself.  60 minutes / week will do wonders for you if you are consistent.  So much healthier than zero.  Also I find this does not physically stress my body as much as 1-2hr workouts with 3x10, 5x5, body part split (bodybuilding / powerlifting / athlete) type of exercise.  I don't get sore/stiff/tight from sitting all day after lifting, and I don't need extra sleep (though I'm getting it anyway now).  Also cutting out the gym commute time, everybody has 10-15 minutes a day (other than the worst of the worst-abused 1st & 2nd years).

If you're one of the more 'driven-to-be-fit' people in this thread, more power to you.  I probably can't bench/squat what you do, and I'm sure it feels good when you go to the beach.  But everything exists on a spectrum, and having a binary, 0 or 100% mentality prevents a lot of other people from finding a healthier routine.  And it is about having a routine.  As OP pointed out, trying to "find" time for 3 workouts a week w/ a hectic calendar is a recipe for giving up.

Your perspective is exceptionally helpful and exactly the purpose of this thread. Thank you for the thoughtfulness.

Sonny LoSpecchio

OP, here’s what I’ve learned after thirteen years in front office financial roles, plenty of long hours, travel, partying, stress, and sleep deprivation.

1.) As another commenter noted, you will lose weight by running calorie deficits and gain weight by running calorie surpluses—PERIOD. People can debate the exact number of calories per pound, etc. but there are exactly zero cases in human history where someone stranded in a remote area and forced to run calorie deficits didn’t lose body fat. Therefore…

2.) Calorie/portion control and monitoring is more important than exercising. Luckily, it is also nearly 100% in your control. Even if your workout plans get blown up by your workday, you can still plan your food each day and choose what you put into your mouth. Always. There are millions of Americans who workout a lot and are still overweight because they simply eat too many calories, and millions who never workout and are not fat because they closely mind their calories.

3.) Sign up for Nutrisystem or a similar pre-prepped food delivery service, paired with grocery delivery from Instacart. Your time is too valuable to to be cooking or waiting in line at Trader Joe’s. Cooking and grocery shopping both suck, especially in NYC where grocery stores are tight and many/most apartments lack proper kitchens with full appliances. Are Nutrisystem or its competitors the most natural, non-processed, farm fresh food imagine? Of course not. But they will AUTOMATE massively SIMPLIFY your personal diet immediately and dramatically. This was immensely helpful for me during the busiest periods of my career. You will feel a mental weight lifted from having selected and received your customized pre-ordered food for the next four weeks, including all meals plus snacks in between. All I add to it is whole fruits, whole vegetables like carrots and celery, milk, and protein shakes. And I have all of that delivered using the Instacart app.

4.) Setup “subscribe and save” auto-deliveries from Amazon for disposable paper cups and plates, paper towels, etc. This drastically reduces the “dishes tax” of eating at home versus eating out. Your time is too valuable to scrub dishes. The only ones I do are my silverware because they’re small and easier/faster to clean and there’s a major advantage of metal silverware versus plastic. But many Nutrisystem meals don’t require silverware at all. (While you’re at it, setup auto-deliveries for all recurring items like toothpaste, toilet paper, deodorant, soap, etc. You don’t want to be forced to add a trip to CVS after getting killed at work because you’re out of deodorant. Also, buy a basic ROBO-VACUUM. Automate all of these “taxes.”)

5.) Gym sessions are both admirable and effective. But they are also an inefficient use of time for anyone under massive time pressure, which is all junior finance workers. Think about it: you have to go to the gym, change clothes, workout, shower, get dressed again, then go home again. It’s a 90 minute time block for 30 minutes of activity. You need a more efficient Plan B option for when that isn’t feasible. YES, keep a gym membership—many/most larger firms even pay for it—but also be realistic about and take advantage of the 80/20 nature of this working out. There are numerous types of small, relatively inexpensive, reasonably effective home alternatives that will take up little space in your small apartment and—critically—will ALWAYS be there: Pull-up bars that fit in door jams, those perfect push-up handles, even the “Total Gym” unit that Chuck Norris used to endorse, it folds into a corner or under a bed. Instead of simply being mentally tougher, you must also minimize the time/energy cost of beginning a workout. If you can crank out a ten minute circuit rotating between pull-ups, chin-ups, and sit-ups with some basic assistance gadgets you have stashed in your apartment, you will have achieved 80% of the benefit of the big 90 minute gym crusade in a tiny fraction of the time. And you can even look into squat stands and a small bench to do weight lifting at home depending on how much space you have at home. I am now mid-30’s and have much more space than my 20’s and a home gym. But in my junior years, the lesson I had to learn was “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I had to accept that I was no longer a strong side linebacker with a requirement of tackling some 220 lb fullback on Friday night. I didn’t have to be THIS jacked or be in my absolute peak condition I was in at 18 with barn door shoulders and veins popping out of my biceps. So I absolutely kept my gym membership and hit it when I could, but I also accepted that doing SOMETHING for 10-30 minutes using compact home fitness tools or a hotel gym was 80% as good as the actual gym and exponentially better than nothing.

6.) Use Fitbit or any similar fitness watch—or even just an app if you don’t like the fitness watch—to track your calories. I avoided this for years because I imagined it was 50X harder than it is. I was wrong. Everything is crowdsourced by millions of users. You start to type the name of any common food item or restaurant menu item and it comes up instantly, you selected it and all the nutrition facts are saved in your log for the day. As with financial budgeting, if you rely on mental math you will be biased and wrong, we are all human.

7.) Get a scale and weigh yourself at the same time each day. This will help you spot bad trends immediately. I do it first thing in the morning—wake up, take a piss, step on the scale. Critically, I highly recommend using a Wi-Fi scale that syncs with a phone app and automatically logs and stores your weight each time you use it. (Avoid the Bluetooth scales, the syncing sucks, get a Wi-Fi scale). This makes the habit easier to build, more useful, and more interesting. The phone app my scale syncs with produces various charts I can look at can export my data into Excel, etc. It also can automatically feed it to Fitbit, Apple Health, or whatever other tracking app you use.

Sorry for the length and I hope someone of this was useful. If I could tell my younger self anything, it would be to make use of “force multipliers” such as these above to truncate, automate, simplify, and lower the mental “taxes” of fitness. By doing this, you will feel less stressed knowing a plan is in place, you will have less opportunities for errors or impulsive mistakes, and you will have objective models and data for measuring and tracking everything and catching problems before they get out of hand.

Surprised that this does not have more upvotes but genuinely appreciate the time and effort taken into putting this down. Everything is extremely actionable and compounded together would make massive strides. Don't apologize for the length, I would have read it even if it was 2x long (& put in practice).

monke42069

NICOTINE!!!!!! Skip Food, eat 1-2 times a day, nicotine and black coffee can be a wonderful zero calorie breakfast

zortage is killin me