I noticed something recently- my computer is getting further away from me and I am stretching out my arms further to reach the keyboard. My back is hurting me but that’s just because of.. oh crap, I got fat. This happens to a lot of editors or anyone confined to a computer for long periods of time. To combat this, I started drinking a lot of water. Yes, it does help flush out toxins and all that other bad stuff. However, another reason is that I tend to work faster with more precision when I have to go to the bathroom. My mind is automatically telling me to hurry up and finish this thing so I can go relieve myself. I’m always looking for a “stopping point” before I leave my non-linear thought process. When I do get up to go, I get a little exercise as well. I do a stretch, walk to the kitchen to get more water, or even go for a walk outside, which I try to do about twice a day. Water does so much more for you than you realize inside and out. I came to this tip when I learned that native american indians would drink water the night before an early morning attack so that they would wake up before their enemy. It’s a biological timer and one you cannot snooze. So, every bathroom break means I’m refilling my glass before I head back into the edit room. Wash, Rinse, and Refill.  

 Then I learned that, in this industry, work can become an actual life-threatening thing. It can make you so tired that you can’t go to the gym “right now” and Starbucks is only a block away or the Keurig is in the kitchen. If you have a family, working long hours while drinking coffee and other bad work habits can cause stress on them as well. So how can you balance this all out? Well, that is exactly what Zack Arnold has set out to help you with on his website “Fitness in Post”. You should take some time to listen to his Podcasts as well. Another thing I have to mention is my success with products from Advocare. I went from drinking 3 - 4 cups of coffee a day, to drinking their Spark product and zero latte's. Spark still has some caffeine so that helped curve my caffeine headaches. However, it is full of vitamins and nutrients unlike other energy drinks you might find at the corner gas station. Spark, like Apple’s iPod, was just the beginning to a bigger line of products to help you get healthy, not just fit, no matter where you are at. They offer something called the 24 Day Challenge which comes with an App to help guide you through this new wellness process, including keeping tabs on how much water you drink a day (I love the animation when you add a glass of water!) Another product that has really helped me is their Omega-Plex product. This has greatly helped my dry eyes from moving edit points “a little to the left”. My friends and family are always confused and amazed to learn I no longer own a coffee maker. The baristas at my local Starbucks no longer know me by name. More importantly, I feel better. I have much more clarity for the editing jobs I do. I have much more energy to actually have a good time with my family at the end of the day. I’ve had such great results with Advocare products that I’ve asked my wife to become a distributor so we can get a discount.

 Be careful with what performance products you put into your body. Do some research and figure out with your physician what could help you reach your goal before you start exercising and taking any type of products. No matter what you do to get healthy, think about why you want to be healthier. The more you think about why you want something, the faster you will get started doing it. My “Why” was to live long enough to walk my daughter down the isle at her wedding some day. Find your “why” and focus on what success looks like to you, then you can go farther than you ever imagined and blossom into something you never thought was possible.