Category: Health

Your chair is your enemy

Prolonged sitting increases the risk of multiple health conditions. Sitting is so normal for us that we seldom question it. I know I don’t.

I believe it’s useful to increase awareness and help battle our cultural sitting obsession. Here are some ideas:

Read while standing
I’ve recently started to read in a standing position. And I quite like it. I just put the book (or iPad) on a cleared shelf and read. Why haven’t I thought of this sooner?

Move every hour
Research has shown that moving 2–3 minutes at regular intervals lessens the harmful effects of inactivity. My Oura Ring sends me a push notification each hour if I don’t move. I receive many of those notifications! (Which has increased my awareness of this problem.)

Get a standing or treadmill desk
You can get a standing or even a treadmill desk. I’ve never used one, but I’d love to try it.

Take a walk with an audiobook
This is one of my favorite activities. You are outside, you move, and you learn.

Do a 7 minute workout in the morning
Most of us don’t move enough. There is no excuse for not doing a 4 min Tabata or 7 minute workout in the morning. You can do it anywhere, even in your underwear…

Earn your play time
Love to play an occasional game or surf social media? Then earn it! Do a set of squats, pushups or burpees before you are allowed to indulge. Recently, I got addicted to a new game, and after each 5-10 min round I did a set. “Getting fit by gaming”, it’s a whole new mindset. It felt pretty awesome.

Have other ideas? Let me know on Twitter.


Posted on by Remo Uherek

Japanese Water Therapy

I started applying the Japanese Water Therapy. It suggests to drink about 1 liter of water right after waking up.

It makes intuitive sense to me.

The human body needs about 2-4 liters of water per day. As a heuristic, you can say it needs 100 ml per hour. So if you sleep for 8 hours, you might need 0.8 liters.

It also makes sense that it helps with flushing out toxins, and potentially preventing headaches.

I’ve been drinking 100-300 ml of water after waking up anyways, and now I’ve upped it to 1 liter.

Further reading:
[1] http://thegreencreator.com/japanese-water-therapy/
[2] https://alkaway.com/blog/drinking-water-wake-japanese-tradition/
[3] https://www.aox.com.sg/blog/wellness/ayurveda-way-japanese-water-therapy/

[Thank you Anuj Didwania for the inspiration.]




Posted on by Remo Uherek

My experiences with fasting

Last year, I started listening to more health related podcasts, and fasting kept coming up.

Since then, I experimented and fell in love with it.

  • I do a daily 13-hour circadian rhythm fast (I use Zero to help me)
  • I did a 5-day ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet once and plan to do it more often (ideally each quarter)

I feel and sleep better, and what I most like is the daily self-control element. After I press the start button I’m only allowed to drink water. No juices, no night eating. As long as the 13 hours are not up, I keep drinking water in the morning. No breakfast, no tea. If I start at 7pm, I stop at 8am. If I eat late until 10pm, I fast until 11am. Simple.

I’ve not dug into the science myself yet. It’s something I plan to do. I’m eager to verify if the promised benefits hold true:

  • That fasting makes chemo-therapy more effective, as exemplified by the story of Zero CEO Mike Maser
  • Less risk of cancer
  • Less risk of diabetes
  • Less risk of cardiovascular diseases
  • Longer and healthier lifespan

Want to learn more? Here are some great resources for beginners:

How has fasting impacted your life? Let me know on Twitter.

[Thank you Kevin Rose for interviewing Dr. Valter Longo and creating Zero]


Posted on by Remo Uherek

Passions Are Toxic

A passion is a “strong and barely controllable emotion”. The Late Latin word passio litteraly means “suffering” (from Latin pati “to suffer”).

Who enjoys suffering? I don’t.

The use of the word has been declining until 1980, with good reason. Then the trend reversed. It became a mantra of the tech/startup world. You’ve got to “follow your passion” and “be passionate”, they said.

That’s foolish, because passions are toxic.

Anger? Toxic. Overly intense desire for something? Toxic. Obsession? Toxic. Depression? Toxic. Anxiety? Toxic. The list goes on and on.

My aspiration is to live a good life, as proposed by the Stoics. A life in accordance with human nature and the laws of the universe. With a sense of freedom and peace of mind.

“But isn’t passion necessary to achieve great things”, you might ask. No, I don’t believe that.

You can aspire to be useful to as many people as possible. You can work hard and perform your duty. You can be fully engaged in life.

The important thing is to focus on your inner scorecard. And not be attached to things outside of your control.

Apply self-control and don’t become a victim of the emotional roller coaster. Being overly fixated on the past leads to depression. Being overly fixated on the future leads to anxiety. Avoid both.


Posted on by Remo Uherek

Just Walk

Inspired by this podcast episode (which I highly recommend) I ditched my scooter and started walking to work:

  • I listen to audiobooks and podcasts, and treat this as my early morning lesson, combined with a health benefit
  • I take different routes to work, usually walking for 45–90 minutes
  • I discovered wonderful areas of my neighborhood which I never saw before (even found a nice vacant lot for someone to build a house)
  • I’m looking forward to get out the door in the morning
  • I’ve experimented with walking back home, but settled for taking the bus back. I enjoy the morning walk much more
  • No need to wait for weekends or vacations. You can integrate small hikes into your daily life

Here is a short video from one of my walks:

And some impressions I collected:


Posted on by Remo Uherek