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Well, hello everyone and welcome to a new episode of the Just Human podcast. My name is Jay Boykin. I'm your host and I am super glad to have you here with us. This podcast explores a bunch of different topics. We talk about things highlighting diversity, equity and inclusion. We look at leadership, personal growth, things around culture.
And today we are diving into a topic that is important for everyone, but I'm really focusing on men today and that is men's health and how do we take charge of our health? So whether you are on YouTube or listening on your favorite podcast provider, again, thank you for taking the time to watch or listen, but please be sure to subscribe.
leave me a comment, a review, and definitely if this resonates with you, share it with somebody. So as I mentioned, we're talking about men's health. And I think that, especially today, I think this has been true for a very long time, but in the hustle and bustle of life, we're all busy. It is very easy to let our health
slip way down on the priority list. So you've got work, you've got family responsibilities, and all of the things that come in between that. And it is pretty typical for men to put their self care on the back burner. They may have good intentions, they may have it on their list of things that they're gonna do, but often so many other things get in the way and
it never bubbles up to the top of the priority list. And I believe that focusing on your health is, it's not just essential, it is truly vital. Your health is truly about living the best life that you possibly can. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about some very simple, actionable steps that
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we can take to improve our physical health, our mental health, as well as our emotional wellbeing. And these are not complex. These are not life overhauling changes. These are very practical and I think that they will fit into your current daily routine and you can create some new habits that will really enhance your life. Most of these things are
also things that I am personally doing. And so let's jump into the top 10 ways that men can improve their health. So number one, and I believe that this will come as no surprise to anyone, it is you gotta move your body daily. So you don't necessarily have to have a gym membership. You don't have to become
gym rat and spend hours on a treadmill or an elliptical you don't have to run marathons or anything like that moving your body can be as simple as taking a 30-minute walk doing some yard work or even taking the time to stretch there are
really many things that you can do that can fall under the category of moving your body, but just recognizing that regular physical activity really does a number on chronic diseases. It boosts your energy. It can help to improve your mood. so for me personally, let me share this. I work primarily from home.
It is very easy for me to be in my house for days on end, especially in the winter time. I can go many days without leaving the house. And so the things that I do in terms of body movement are number one, I do take the time to get out of the house and go for a walk.
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So I may not leave my neighborhood for days on end, but I will take the dog for a walk and just get out of the house and breathe some fresh air. So that's number one. I also have a tonal, T-O-N-A-L workout machine. And now let me say this, I'm going to mention a few things on this podcast today. And this podcast episode is sponsored by no one.
but there are a few things that I personally use and that I will recommend. I love my tonal. For those that are not familiar with it, it is an exercise device that has LeBron James, who is the celebrity advocate spokesperson for that. And I have my home gym.
in the room right next to my office. So it makes it very easy to take a moment and jump on a workout. There have been times that I've been on a call and off video and I will go back and forth between my desk and my workout machine to make sure that I get that done. Half an hour tops.
I may couple that with a half an hour walk. So that is part of my mostly daily routine. I'm pretty consistent about getting four or five days a week. And I think that if you can begin by getting three days a week of that type of movement, I think that that will be very beneficial for you. So start small.
Find something that you enjoy. So again, it doesn't matter what type of movement that you're doing. I go for walks. You might want to go for a bike ride. You might want to do yoga. Maybe you do want to go to the gym and jump into a pickup game of basketball with your friends. So again, do something and remember that consistency matters more than your intensity. So working out really hard one day a month.
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isn't going to do nearly as much for your body as working out three or four times per week. So number two, let's talk about what we eat. And it is very easy. I remember when I was younger, could eat whatever I wanted. Didn't matter what type of garbage I was putting into my body. I seemed to always feel good. My body did what I wanted it to do.
But now as I'm older, I am 58, about to turn 59. It is really important for me to think about the things that I'm eating. I can tell a difference now when I eat trash versus when I am focused on eating healthier and having a balanced diet. I also don't think that
You have to have a nutritionist. You don't have to have a personal chef. This doesn't have to be very complicated. Just make sure that you're getting some proteins, preferably lean proteins. Make sure you've got some whole grains and that you're taking in some fruit and vegetables every day. The thing that we should all try to avoid, this is really difficult for me, is avoiding the temptation of
overly processed snacks staying away from chips and cookies will go a long way. Now I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I don't occasionally have my hand stuck inside a bag of chips. It happens. I am just human pun intended, but taking the time to have a handful of almonds is definitely way better than a bag of chips.
So that's what I try to focus on in terms of the fuel that I'm putting in my body. And it definitely helps. I can tell you that I feel so much better when I know that I am eating healthier and it fits with my overall fitness goals. Now, as I opened the podcast, I mentioned the fact that we're all busy and
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Sometimes it can be very challenging, especially if you have a busy household, maybe you and your partner are both working, you're both busy, perhaps you're dealing with other family priorities. It's very difficult to plan meals and then prepare meals.
And so it can be so much easier to just order something and have it delivered to the house or stop someplace and pick something up. And many times those are not the healthiest of options. There are some things that are healthier than others, but I will say this. One of the things that my wife and I have started doing recently that I enjoy quite a bit.
is subscribing to some of these food, meal preparation and delivery services. So for example, healthy fresh and dinnerly are two that we use. And again, this podcast is not sponsored by anyone. If you want to get that in front of some folks so that they can hear that I am repping their services and their products, I definitely appreciate that. But the thing that
we like about these food prep services is that we have the opportunity to choose our meals and everything gets prepared. 99 to 100 % of the ingredients that you need are in the box and you have lean proteins. You've got some good starches.
and you have vegetables with every single meal. They give you instructions on how to prepare it. And we can work on this together and knock it out within 20, 30, 40 minutes tops. And we've got a very healthy meal. There's a couple of side benefits that we have experienced with this. Number one,
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We have the opportunity to prepare these meals together in the kitchen. And so we get to talk about our day and other things that are going on in our life while we are preparing these meals. So that's good. Number two, what we have found is from a budgetary standpoint, these services have become much more budget friendly than
going to the store for every meal. It seems like every time I go into the grocery store, even if I'm preparing one meal, it's a hundred bucks. I don't know why, but I come out with one bag and I spent at least a hundred dollars. I think it's because of the other things that I see and I pick up. But these services are delivering three, four, five meals, depending on what you subscribe to. And it's very budget friendly. So.
I highly recommend that. So make sure that you are putting the right fuel in your body.
Number three, we have talked about this in prior episodes, it's taking charge of your mental health. This is something that many men will avoid is thinking about their mental health. They don't want to weak. They don't want to have this stigma. Unfortunately, here in the United States, mental health sometimes
Well, oftentimes carries a stigma to it and people don't want to focus on it as much. think that that's definitely changing, especially with younger generations are much more open to discussing that. But men taking care of your mind and focusing on your mental health is just as important, if not more important than taking care of your physical health stress.
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anxiety, depression, these are all real issues and if we ignore them they are going to take a toll and I believe, not a doctor, but I do believe that when you are mentally in a bad place that you're not going to want to do other things that you may have on your schedule that are focused on your physical health.
So these things are very intertwined. They're very connected that you need to take care of these things. I will share, I believe that I've mentioned this in prior episodes, that anxiety was something that I personally struggled with for many years of my life. I can remember in my teen years,
until very recently within the last few years that anxiety was something that I just seemed to have all of the time. And it was such a regular part of my lived experience that I felt like this must be what everyone feels like. This must be what the normal human experience is like. And so I did things to just
deal with it. wasn't managing it. I was just dealing with it. And over the last several years, I have put some things in place to deal with the stress and the anxiety differently. I focus on mindfulness techniques. really try to think about
why things have me feeling the way that they do. And there are other routines that I have. My walks are big for me when I'm feeling the stress coming on, getting away from my work, getting away from my desk for 30 to 40 minutes and getting some fresh air is a big deal. Hobbies.
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are important, having something else to focus on is important, and having people in your life that you can speak to. Now, I don't believe that the mental health needs to be a complicated process. Some of the techniques that I mentioned just previously will be beneficial, but I will say this. If you
are someone who is in a place today where you are struggling and you do not know how to properly deal with it and process it on your own. I highly recommend to reach out and get some professional help. Don't worry about the stigmas.
And even if you don't want to start off with a physical face-to-face appointment with a therapist, there are online services. For example, BetterHelp is one that you can sign up for. It's one that I have personally used where you can reach out and within the privacy of your own home,
you can set up a zoom call and have someone that you can speak to. So again, focus on taking care of your mental health. And if you are listening to this podcast, again, thank you for taking the time to do so. And you want to reach out and talk a little bit more about any of these things, but especially mental health, I'm happy to respond to any of your comments.
but definitely don't put this off if you're struggling with something. Number four is regular checkups. I believe that men have a tendency to take better care of their cars than they do of their bodies. Men will make sure that their vehicles get oil changes, tire rotations,
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tune-ups, everything that their vehicle needs to continue to go for 100,000 miles plus. But we will not do some of the preventative maintenance that our bodies need in order to keep those going as long as they were meant to go. again, schedule a regular checkup.
Go and see your doctor. Go see your primary care physician. This is something that I have a pact between some of the other men in my life that I'm very close to that we will annually go and get checked out. We'll get our blood work done. We will go see our primary care physicians.
I saw my doctor a couple of months ago. He's been my doctor for 25 plus years. I love going to see him because he doesn't pull punches. I remember one time for those of you that believe in vaccinations, I know that there are some that don't and that's your right to believe that. My doctor is definitely pro vaccination. I am
good with vaccinations. remember a time when I got the flu. This was probably six or seven years ago. I got the flu twice in one season, but I didn't get the vaccination. And my doctor told me he's a big hunter. He told me that if I did not get the vaccination, the next flu season that he was going to hide out.
outside of my house and he was going to put a dart in me from a hundred yards to make sure that I got the vaccination. Obviously he was joking, but I got his point. He wanted me to make sure that I took the vaccination. I've done that. I think that I've only had the flu once since then, since I've been regular with the vaccinations. But again, I do believe that getting these regular checkups is important.
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you can get an early diagnosis on the fact that anything that might come up that could be wrong. Here's the thing. I believe that many men believe that if I don't go to the doctor and he can't tell me that something's wrong, then nothing's wrong. Well, that's very immature and obviously not true. So make a commitment to your loved ones. Even if you don't do it for yourself, make a commitment to your loved ones to go and get checked out.
once a year and by the way throw in things like going to the dentist and going to the eye doctor if you're able to do that as well. Next is prioritizing sleep. So many of us may struggle with getting quality sleep. I think that sleep is extremely important
in our busy, stressful, activity-filled days, our bodies and our minds need to recover. And the only way that that's going to happen is by shutting it down and getting some quality sleep. I think that aiming for between seven and nine hours a night is essential. But look, I recognize that life
gets in the way. I also struggled during my anxiety filled days. I also struggled with sleep. It seemed like it was a self fulfilling prophecy that because of the anxiety that I was feeling that I was not going to get quality sleep. And so when I focused on one, the other started to improve. Now,
I know that there are some people out there that either believe that they can get by on much less sleep and I believe it's true. There are some of us out there that don't need as much sleep as others. But generally speaking, most of us do need quality sleep more often than not.
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And so I believe that quality sleep will improve your mood. It's going to improve your performance. And so I know that when I get up in the morning and I've had a quality sleep, my day starts off so much better. I'm able to, have the energy to jump right into my workouts and to jump into the work days activities.
So good sleep is very important. Some of the things that the experts will recommend to help you with your sleep is creating a consistent bedtime routine. For me, that's very important. My wife is, she can sleep pretty much through anything. Doesn't matter how much stress,
she's got going on her body just it's like flipping a switch she can sleep for me i have to have more of a routine and so making sure that i limit the time on my phone and other screens before i go to bed i try to create an environment where i have the opportunity to sort of relax so i have a book
next to my bed and I read prior to
focusing on going to sleep and The other part of my routine is some people like to listen to calming music one of the things that I've added to my routine over the last several years is I fall asleep listening to an audiobook and The thing I listen to fiction so it's not necessarily anything that I have to
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think about it's someone is reading me a story so it's like I'm getting a bedtime story when I am going to sleep and here's what I've noticed I may I may lay down and the audiobook is starting with chapter 10 at some point in time during the night several hours later I wake up and
My earbud is still in my ear and it's on chapter 20 and I don't remember anything that happened between chapters 11 and 20. That's a great thing. That means that I fell asleep and I stayed asleep during that time. I will maybe get up, go to the restroom, come back, lay back down, back it back up to the last thing that I remember, fall asleep again and
rinse and repeat. really helps me fall asleep much faster and stay asleep. So that's what works for me. Whatever works for you, you have to figure out your routine that is going to help you with your sleep, but definitely prioritize your sleep. The next one is staying hydrated. I used to be terrible at drinking water.
If it wasn't a soda or an alcoholic beverage, I'll come to that later. I likely wasn't drinking it. I definitely wasn't drinking enough water. I will say that I have something that has really changed the game. My hydration game, it was introduced to me by a colleague.
And I have this water bottle and it is, again, I'm sponsored by no one at this point in time, but that way you know that I'm not trying to push products or services because I'm getting a kickback. I'm pushing these things because I've personally used them. This water bottle is called Hydrate Spark. Take a minute and wet my whistle.
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So this bottle is called Hydrate Spark and it is a digital water bottle. It's got a sensor in the bottom of it. It is connected to an app that works on Android and iOS and it tracks my water intake throughout the day. It's got a light at the bottom. So every time I drink something and I set it down, it lights up to let me know that it registered that I drank water.
If I haven't touched it in a while, it will light up and in an obnoxious fashion and let me know that I need to drink some water. I can set a daily hydration goal. So for me, I target 120 ounces a day and it will track that throughout the day. It tracks it by hour so I can see
if I'm behind in my day. And then when I get to the end of the day, when I hit the target, it lights up, it does its little digital dance and gives me that affirmation that I got there. And then within the app, it tracks the number of days, the streak that I have going for hitting my hydration goal. And the reason why this has changed the game so much for me is
A, I don't have to think about how many glasses of water have I had today. I've got something that tracks it for me. And number two, for those of us that are competitive, and I am definitely competitive, I will even compete with myself. And I like the fact that I can track the number of days that I have consecutively hit my target for drinking water.
Now I will tell you that...
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making sure that I drink that much water. I can tell the difference in many ways. I feel my energy levels are improved and I think that with my body's biochemistry without getting too graphic, making sure that I have enough water makes sure that things are moving around the way that they should. So without going
any deeper than that. Focusing on your hydration is another vital aspect of your health game.
The next one, and we talked about this very recently on an episode of the podcast, is making sure that you have strong social connections. So don't underestimate the power of these relationships. Having the opportunity to get away from your normal routine, connect with other people, have the opportunity to laugh, even talk about
things that may be a little bit more serious, but these strong social connections are very important to your mental health, your emotional health, which play a part in your physical health. The next one is managing your stress. I alluded to this a little bit earlier, is finding ways in your busy, stress-filled life.
to find ways to manage that. Some people will allow it to build up and that's not the healthiest way to do it. So again, many of these things are connected. are, you know, one feeds into and helps another one. So as you start to think about ways to manage your stress, when you feel those stressful moments coming on, take a minute to just
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take a breath, take a minute and try to calm down. That's a great time to exercise, getting out. When I feel stressed, that's the time that I will get out and go for a walk or hit my home gym. that will definitely make sure that that releases some of that stress. My sleep helps with managing stress.
Taking the time to connect with others helps. But here's the one that's been extremely beneficial. Taking the time to try to understand what those triggers of my stress are has been pivotal. So when I understand that there are certain things that really bother me and will
raise my stress levels to extremely high levels. I'll do my best to avoid those when I can. Obviously, we can't always avoid those, but...
Knowing what those triggers are will help you to manage your stress much better. So think about your stress levels. Number nine on our list of things that men can do to improve their health is, and this may not be an issue for some of you, but limiting alcohol and
quitting smoking. So let me start with the second one. If you are a smoker doing your best to try to A, cut down at the very least, but to eliminate that altogether. I think that in this day and age, most people recognize the fact that smoking is detrimental to your health.
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but we also recognize that it is addictive and so it is not as easy as just setting it down and walking away. I get it. So do what you can to quit smoking and by the way, vaping in my opinion falls into that as well. Again, I'm not a doctor, I'm just gonna play one on the podcast today.
I think that vaping is so new that we do not yet know all of the long term health detriments that we will see from people vaping. Again, I believe that people believe that vaping is healthier than your traditional tobacco products. I don't know if that's the case or not, but both of them are bad. If you can, minimize.
Preferably eliminate your smoking and then there is alcohol again. I recognize that Alcoholism is a disease if you are someone who is struggling with that you're gonna have to get some help but if you are a social drinker then limit your alcohol intake to a minimal number of
nights and a minimum number of drinks. If you have, you know, a drink or two, a glass of wine or two with your dinner in the evening, I don't think that that is nearly as bad as getting hammered every single night. I think that if you're in that place, then there's a different problem, but cutting back on your alcohol intake and tobacco intake.
is gonna be key to your long-term health. And then finally, I think that the thing that all of us need to keep in mind is set very realistic health goals. I think that if you are someone who needs to lose weight,
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saying that you're going to lose 50 pounds in a month, that is likely not very realistic. when you're not seeing the, you're not able to hit that goal, then you're gonna get frustrated and you're gonna go the opposite direction. So set very realistic health goals. Focus on
Again, if you're trying to lose weight, focus on one or two pounds a week. That is much more realistic and much more manageable. If you are trying to start exercising, don't focus on trying to exercise six or seven days a week and becoming a gym rat and trying to get that chiseled body.
I think that if you focus on just getting started two to three times per week of doing some sort of strength training, three to four times a week of some sort of cardio movement type activities, going for a walk, that is going to be much more realistic and track your progress. Look, most of us
if not all of us are walking around with devices in our hands constantly that will track our health goals. There are apps on our phones that will track your steps. I mentioned some of the other technology that can track your water intake. There are so many different things that we can use to really keep track.
of what we're doing. And I believe that probably the best one is to find an accountability partner. Whether it is a family member that is in the same house with you, that is way better. I will say that if you have a couple of people who are in the same home together and one is trying to die it,
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and the other one is sustaining their body on potato chips every single day, it's gonna be really difficult for the person who's trying to diet and to lose weight. It's gonna be much more challenging for them. If you're doing it together and you're keeping each other accountable, it makes it much easier, especially if you are both focused on eating similarly and preparing much healthier meals.
So find yourself an accountability partner with some of these things and someone that you're okay with them giving you a call and saying, hey, did you get out and exercise today? No, I failed today. I took an L today. So I think that tracking those things and having someone that will help to keep you accountable will be very important. So.
As we wrap up this episode of Just Human, remember that improving your health doesn't require you to be perfect. Start small, give yourself small, realistic targets and stay consistent. And that's gonna add up to more consistency over time. And you're gonna find yourself getting to a place that...
When you're exercising two or three days a week and you're being consistent with that over time, you're going to increase that to three or four times a week or four to five times a week. So it will build upon itself. So here's the challenge that I have for you. This is the call to action as we wrap up. Choose one or two things that we talked about today at a minimum. Pick one or two things from this episode and start there.
whether it is drinking more water or just moving a bit more each day, set that health goal, start the journey there. And leave a comment and let us know what you're gonna start with and let's keep each other accountable over time. So again, thank you so much for tuning in to Just Human.
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Don't forget to subscribe. if this resonated with you, if there's someone in your life that you think should hear this, definitely share this episode with that person who could benefit. until next time, let's commit, let's act, and let's thrive. Take care.
