Developer Health

Hello Developer friends!

In the last SitePoint Mobile newsletter (you can take a look here), my editorial discussed health tips for Developers.

Have a read of my brief points, come back here and I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips on keeping healthy.

Chris

I like the “If you’re sick, stay home” tip - this is one that I adhere to and wish other people would do the same.

I live and work in Germany and we have this “wonderful” handshaking culture over here (i.e. you shake hands with your colleagues every day). When people are obviously ill, then shaking hands is a nice way to pass the bug on. I have consequently resorted to saying “Let’s be British about this” and waving at ill colleagues.

My tip is gamification. A bit like this chap did.

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Great subject. I reckon doing some kind of workout each day is what keeps me healthy… and sane.

Each day? How do you find time for that with twins?

Unfortunately, this is changing in Britain. More and more people here are adopting the French habit of kissing each other on the cheeks whenever they meet. It hasn’t yet crept into the office, but it is getting regrettably common in social circles.

Mike

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Goodness me!
I also lived in France for a while and this was one thing I used to hate.

Regrettably? There’s nothing to regret about that. And I know, I’m Spaniard. And we always introduce ourselves with two kisses (well, at the office it will depend on the situation but yes, you can end up with a kiss on each cheek too)

Regarding health, I don’t have any tips that I can share. If I eat healthy is because I like salads and sea food and fish and meat and eggs… and everything. I don’t have to do any effort to do that :slight_smile:

@James_Hibbard I’m really disappointed :laughing:

In Australia, the tradition is to sneeze on each other. Australians are a very generous bunch—especially in terms of sharing germs. I always cover my mouth with my arm or a kerchief when sneezing, but people look at me like I’m really strange.

I’ll take hand shaking or even kissing any day. :stuck_out_tongue:

What can I say? I’m just not very kissable …

I get up at 5am and go to the gym before they wake up.

Maybe we should move this topic to the Bugs forum.

Mike

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There’s a newsletter?

Always a good read to see about improving developers lives… ahh I spend my lunch breaks on my computer plays games

I get up at 6 am and I think that’s early enough. I’m some kind of owl so getting up early is not my forte

No and Yes…

There isn’t a newsletter.
There are several.

Available newsletters:
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I go for a run three times a week, of about 6 km (~ 4 English miles). I make sure not to eat too much junk food, and all day long I only drink tea and sparkling water with a little lemon added. I stay away from coffee, and almost never drink soda.
I’ve adopted this life style about one and a half years ago, and I’m not looking back!

I could catch the train to work or walk for 30 minutes. I opt to walk. It’s not long and I’m sure an hours walk per day is doing some good.

Sure, there are lots of them.

Great to see so many replies so far… What are people’s thoughts on the ‘sitting is killing us’ debate? I am paranoid about it, but it seems to have died down a little this year…

Reading the first few replies makes me glad I’m American.

Don’t touch me and I won’t touch you. Thanks.

Me and my wife try to stay active. She rides horses and I golf. We go hiking and things like that, this spring we’ll probably invest in a couple bikes. We met in the Army, so both of us like the outdoors.

I don’t work out, but I should. I have tried a few times but I keep getting demotivated one way or another.

I’ve been having some severe back muscle pain in the last 3 weeks which was caused by poor posture sitting for so many hours. It’s kept me up at night and been as bad as making me think I was going to pass out from the pain. So… once this settles down I’ll definitely start doing more. It’s starting to die off a bit, the Dr said it will take a few weeks to months. Can’t do the standing desk thing because I have high arches and standing in one place causes stress fractures, which is probably the only pain I’ve felt worse than my current back pain.