11 Years Without A Sick Day At Work

In this article I want to share the initiation of my personal transformation, how my journey to a healthy life started and which insights I gained on my path.

It is true. Since I started working in IT more than eleven years ago, I didn’t miss a single day at work. To be honest it was not an easy endeavour and it was not given to me in my cradle.

Instead, my life was a rollercoaster with many losses in the flesh. My mother died when I was 15, my stepfather when I was 21 and my grandma when I was 25. A lot of turmoil and negative emotions.

During school, secondary school and university I was sick regularly. Running nose, fevers or other stuff that made me lie in bed to recover. Besides that, sleep is definitely the best medicine even if you are not physically sick.

So, my diet was awful, sweet mornings with milk, wheat and sugar. I was a heavy cigarette smoker and to further avert from reality I was a massive online gamer, Diablo 2 and Counter Strike owe me a century. Indeed, I didn’t move a lot. Of course, on the weekend partying, drinking and all kinds of childish stuff.

To summarize my identity, I was a binge eater, smoker and drinker, a little overweight, with about 77 kg at 177 cm height, as well. At least I was sometimes visiting the gym to lift weights and had a bit of muscles.

The turning point was perceiving pure disgust of me. When looking in the mirror I saw a chubby and impure young man which won the lottery to be born in the western hemisphere, had a roof over his head and already showed he is at least not dumb. But he was throwing everything away and literally lived on life credit.

At that point things had to change forever.

The first decision was to remove unhealthy stuff from my life. Quit smoking, reduce drinking. Most importantly eating less of the unhealthy stuff like Spätzle (tiny dumpling with seasoned dough) combined with filled pasta pockets Swabian style (fatty pork meat and spinach) and roasted with butter and cheese. To worsen it, I mindlessly shovelled it into my mouth at a state of perfect mindfulness in front of the TV. Remembering that makes my stomach turn.

The next step was to introduce more activities. I discovered running in the woods. At the time I was living outside of Augsburg, which is in Bavaria / Germany. We had awesome nature and nice trails in the forest with perfectly clean air. These runs also offered relief from my haunting thoughts of the past and reduced my daily stress level.

I utilized that and I became ultra-consistent regarding running. It is the deepest engrained habit I developed till today. I ran four marathons this year. The health benefits of regular aerobic and anaerobic workout are all over the news. If you work out around 450 minutes a week your life expectancy might increase by about 30%. Source: Boundless —by Ben Greenfield

Furthermore, I started to read. I was convinced that there is stuff out there that will help me but I had to search. So, I also had some form of belief and hope which fuelled me. Maybe I discovered this insight by my grandma which conquered cancer two times and died at the age of 93 succumbing to the third wave of gut cancer. She consistently supported me after the death of my mother and I supported here when her tough time began. She had many books regarding health and clean eating. That shaped my personal value of health the most.

Finally, reading was that what saved my mind and currently I am reading about 50 books each year.

Here are my last five books I finished:

Besides running, I also started other physical and mental activities like Yoga and Zen Meditation. A huge game changer was also introducing slowly and solely breathing through my nose. I think the exact scientific understanding of breathing is the fastest vehicle to better health and more joy in life. Please read the book: Breathe - The new science of a lost art — by James Nestor.

Furthermore, I introduced regular cold showers in the morning. As cold as possible and without starting with warm water. I also record these icy sessions with my Garmin Fenix smartwatch, it has a temperature sensor in it that makes it accountable.

These are now foundational habits of me.

First I committed then I became consistent and now I am a persistently transformed person. I transformed from an immature spoiled man to a loving, dependable and aspiring human. Self-help and growth works but you have to change your mindset.

Here I am, celebrating 11 years without missing a day at work. Actually, I saved over a full work year referring to the average amount of absence because of illness. That is 20 days per year in Berlin. In fact, I deserve a sabbatical but I think that reward is not possible in our sick social system.

So, I put this landmark in my cookie jar and look for a prosperous future with my habit of lifelong learning.

Just thanks…

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