Sebastian Kirsch: Blog

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Personal Chemistry and the Healthy Body, written by Gerald Weinberg about 20 years ago, advocated personal happiness through attention to your bodily needs. Work regular hours, eat well, sleep well, exercise, and you will be successful and make a positive impression on others – that’s the gist of it.

Apart from the quaint language (he speaks of “data processing managers), the message is simple, but still very appropriate. I have the impression that after the IT boom of the 90s, more people are cutting back from working long hours and are taking their time to enjoy life properly.

Cutting back is something I try to do as well, but rarely achieve. Being a student, my working hours vary wildly, with classes starting sometimes at nine o’clock in the morning, sometimes after lunch, and work often extending into the small hours of the morning. Regular eating times I don’t have, and my only exercise at the moment are the couple of kilometres I walk from, to and between classes every day.

I think that the worst problem at the moment is eating; I do not really plan my meals and snacks in advance. If I have a long day, I will often eat out or get a snack from a bakery between classes or work, often when I’m already starved – instead of packing some fruit or a snack and eating when I feel like it. I usually don’t plan my meals till shortly before I go to the supermarket – when I’m already hungry. Drinking is also a problem; I drink enough when I’m at work (usually 1.5 liters during a 8 hour day), but when I sprint from one class to another, I usually forget to drink enough.

Exercise is another field where I’m lacking; but I feel that I should try and get the basics (food and drink) in order before exercise would do me any good.