Episode 69: Eight Tips for Health, Wellness and Longevity with Annette Zapp, CSCS*D
Today I share eight tips that I feel are important for Firefighter health, wellness, and longevity.
1-Life balance/find joy
2-Prioritize sleep
3-Exercise a little most days instead of a lot every once in a while
4-Discover a sustainable method of eating that works for you
5-Medical monitoring-do it!
6-Maximize mental health
7-Breathe!
8-Manage your time
What would you add? Send me an email at: info@firerescuewellness.org and sound off!
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Episode 69
AZ: [00:00:00] Listeners, hello. It's AZ back for episode 69 of the Fire Rescue Wellness Podcast, and it's just me today. I don't typically do solo episodes, two in a row, but funny story, I thought I had a guest, actually two guests scheduled for today, August 15th, and actually they're scheduled for September 15th. So I was in a little bit of a bind and I wasn't quite sure what I was gonna talk about for this week's episode, but I reached out to a loyal listener in the Instagram DMs and asked, “Hey, what would you like me to talk about?”
And thanks Paul. He came up with some great ideas. I'm putting a couple of them together and saving the rest for later. I will get to the actual episode in a in a couple minutes, but I wanted to [00:01:00] briefly sort of recap my trip last week. I was invited by Captain Dena Ali from the Raleigh Fire Department.
She is on the education committee for the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo, or SAFRE. And she invited me to apply to present at that conference, and I was, selected. So I left Thursday morning. It was a very quick trip. I left Thursday morning. I presented Friday, and I came back Friday night after a short delay on my flight.
But the exciting, exciting news is this, I have lots of friends in North Carolina, but it didn't occur to me to reach out to them because the trip was gonna be so fast. So I was literally just going to sneak into town, do my presentation and hit the road. And on Wednesday, prior to me leaving Dr. Eric Ryan from [00:02:00] UNC Chapel Hill reached out and said, “Hey, I saw that you were going to be in Raleigh.”
“We would love to host you at our lab. Would you be interested in visiting?” Well, that is a dumb question. Of course, I'd be interested in visiting, and so it was really great. Dr. Ryan worked out the details. Amber from his lab picked me up, so sweet. She was just a wonderful companion for the trip. From the airport to the lab. I got to meet everyone in the lab.
Got to hang out with Dr. Abbie Smith-Ryan, one of my favorite female scientists, and just all in all had a fantastic day. And the exciting part of it is I am now an honorary member of the Eric Ryan lab. Now, he didn't exactly say that in words, but he gave me a t-shirt. He [00:03:00] didn't not say it. So I mean, what am I supposed to think?
Obviously I am an honorary lab member and as an honorary lab member, I do feel like my sway in getting Dr. Ryan to be a guest on the podcast has been amplified. So, we had a few conversations about it while I was at his lab, and there's a fair amount of peer pressure going on with his students. And with Gena.
So I am pretty sure, and Abbie, we got it coming from Abbie’s way too. I'm pretty sure that I will eventually get Dr. Ryan on the podcast. But, um, more to follow on that. More to follow. But I did really enjoy that trip down to the SAFRE Conference. It wasn't a conference that I was aware of prior to being selected to present there.
But it is definitely one that I will try to go to [00:04:00] again. So big stamp of endorsement for that conference. I really enjoyed it. And big shout out and thanks to them for hosting me.
All right, so episode 69. Today I am gonna talk to you about my top. I hope I added right, 'cause I just made the list, but I think it's top eight tips for Firefighter health, wellness and longevity and success.
In no particular order, but I think sleep should always be first, but I believe sleep is gonna be down the list a little bit today on the discussion, but in no particular order. The first thing that I believe is very important for our health and wellness is to have balance in our work life and our home life.
And, you know, having absolute balanced scales is a myth. It's not [00:05:00] possible. I do understand that, and especially in different phases of your life. Work is going to consume you more and in different phases of your life, your, your home life is gonna consume you more. But there needs to be at least an awareness to create a sense of balance in your life and ideally, ideally, we would be able to leave our work life at work and to our best ability possible, leave our home life at home. And sometimes that's not possible and things bleed over and there's crap going on at work that just bleeds over into home life.
And there's difficulties at home that might bleed over into work life. But if we [00:06:00] can create a sense, some sort of sense of balance with our work and our home life by doing simple things like engaging in hobbies that, that bring us joy. In having friends that are not in the fire service, emphasizing time spent with relatives and loved ones and people that feed our soul, and then I'm gonna say that word joy again.
Actively pursuing things that bring us joy. I'm gonna point you back to episode number 19 with my friend Shante Cofield, the movement maestro. This was my first episode of 2023, and we had such a good conversation about the active pursuit of things that bring you joy. And you know, Shante says something [00:07:00] that's really funny.
I don't think she said it in the podcast, but in her life, if things are not hell yes. They're an abso-freaking-lutely-postively No. So if it's not a hell yes, it's an no. And I just think that that is a wonderful way to help us create boundaries and help us create happiness and joy in our lives. So, Number one in my top eight tips for our health, wellness, longevity and success: Find balance between work or life and actively engage in things that bring you joy.
Number two, prioritize sleep. Nothing gets better when you don't sleep. I've never heard [00:08:00] someone say, I feel rotten. I'm going to fix it by not sleeping. It's the absolute opposite. When you don't feel good, when you feel rotten, the thing that can help you the most is sleep.
And I tell the story when I give my sleep talk. I used to train a lot of youth and adolescent athletes, and I live in a fairly rich area in the Chicagoland suburbs. And so a lot of times the solution to challenges is throwing money at it. So for example, my son or daughter is coming to see you one time a week, and we want them to get better at their sport.
We want them to perform better on their team. Let's throw more money at it. And that might like, that might look like training twice a [00:09:00] week instead of once a week. It might look like what equipment do they need? It might look like what special diet should they be on? It might look like what supplements should they be taking.
But honestly, if you want your youth and adolescent athlete, or even your adult athlete or your adult plain old human to look better, feel better, play better, -perform better at work, do better on promotional exams, have a healthier sex life, have a better body composition. All of those things can be improved by simply improving sleep.
So when you're talking about performance enhancement of any type, my go-to is sleep. If you back it up another step, the things [00:10:00] that are taking the lives of our firefighters, which is complications of cardiovascular disease, suicide, cancer, and accidents, sleep deprivation is an independent risk factor for all four of those killers of our firefighters.
And so if you want to improve your health and wellness your outlook, your lifespan, your happiness, everything, literally, everything gets better when you sleep, and this episode is not gonna be diving deep into sleep, into sleep hygiene, into how many hours. It's not gonna dive into it. It's just a simple statement.
If you want to live better and feel better and look better and perform better, prioritize your sleep. And if you wanna hear a lot more about sleep, head on back to episode 39 with Dr. Allison Brager. [00:11:00] She dives deep into the importance of sleep, and the one thing that she does say is sleep deprivation is lethal. Let that sink in for a second.
Number three. My third tip is exercise a little on most days, as opposed to a lot every once in a while. Obviously exercising a lot every once in a while is far better than never exercising at all. But if you can find a routine and an intensity, And a time commitment and a pace that fits into your lifestyle almost every day, you're going to have far better results than that person who just lets everything slide for six months, eight months, or a year, and then presses the reset button [00:12:00] and announces again, it's day one.
Here I go. The ideal, I guess, plan would be only to ever have one day one. Yes, things happen. Catastrophic injuries happen, knee replacements happen. But even so, I don't feel like I quit. I feel like I did everything that I could to the level that I was able during the entire process during the time leading up to the surgery, during the surgery, even after the surgery, I feel like I've been doing my absolute best to maintain that consistency and just keep freaking going.
So exercise a little bit on most days as opposed to a whole lot every once in a while. That's number three.
Number four, discover a [00:13:00] sustainable method of nourishing your body, something that works for you where you don't have to again, be hopping on and off and on and off the bandwagon. There is actually some research out there that says if you are overweight and obese and you yo-yo diet, so you lose a bunch of weight, gain a bunch of weight, lose a bunch of weight, gain a bunch of weight, that's actually potentially worse for you than just staying where you are in the first place.
So the idea would be obviously to never become overweight and obese. But if you do figure out how to take charge one time and successfully lose the weight so that you are in a more healthy demographic, and then avoid that yo-yo dieting up and down and up and down. [00:14:00] So, In my opinion, the best way to do this is find a way that's sustainable for you.
For some people, I know someone that's been eating keto for eight years and he is perfectly healthy, happy, and whatever, but that's not sustainable for most people. They will eat keto for a month or two months and then hop off that bandwagon. Undo the progress that they've made, and then they're looking for something else, whether it's going back on keto or whether it's something else.
So discover something sustainable. And my friend Christina Montalvo in episode 53 talked about her sustainable way of eating, which is simply thinking about your plate in terms of protein, produce, carbs, and something to make it taste good. So protein is pretty self-explanatory. Produce is [00:15:00] pretty self-explanatory.
Fruits and vegetables. Carbs. Fruits and vegetables are also carbs. Don't forget that, but she's talking more in terms of a starchy carb such as a potato or some rice or something of that nature. And then the something to make it taste good is generally gonna be a fat. So if I was putting together a Christina Montalvo plate with things that I have in my refrigerator right now, I would probably grab the chicken breasts that I grilled last night, the cherry tomatoes that are on my counter, that's my produce My carbs, I have a sweet potato, a half of a sweet potato left from a couple days ago. That's my carbs. Something to make it taste good. I'm definitely putting butter on that sweet potato. And then I have hit kind of all of the tick marks.
So head back to episode 53. If you did not listen to that episode, it's [00:16:00] actually pretty, pretty good. And I love that method of eating. Maybe that doesn't work for you. Maybe you would like to focus on something like the Mediterranean diet. Absolutely. There's great data in firefighters that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial.
In fact, drew Gonzalez in episode 62, the author… of one of the authors of the ISSN position stand on tactical athlete fueling, spoke about the Mediterranean diet. So maybe that's the one that'll work for you. My friends dieticians, Maureen and Megan, I believe Maureen was episode 29. Megan was episode two.
Both of them talked about really, really simple ways to improve your health and your wellness and how you feel through nutrition. So number four, discover a sustainable method of eating and then stick to it. Find something, you [00:17:00] don't have to jump off the bandwagon. That's my challenge to you.
Number five, medical monitoring matters. Our mortality risk is higher than the general population due to our exposures; due to our sleep deprivation, and so we need to keep a close eye on basically what's under the hood there? There's no better way to say it. You know, the sports car might look okay on the outside, but if you lift up the hood and the oil viscosity is terrible and the transmission is leaking, and so on and so forth, things are not what they seem.
And so if your department is offering you yearly medical physicals, and even if they're not mandatory, Oh my goodness. Why would you not take advantage of that? [00:18:00] What I do, our department is very good about the comprehensive medical physicals on a yearly basis, and so I always also take advantage of my ability to get another comprehensive medical physical through a physician.
So I'm monitoring myself twice a year, keeping an eye on blood glucose. We talked about my drifting blood glucose in the last episode, or I talked about it. Hopefully you listened. Cholesterol, the cholesterol ratios, the triglycerides. Is there protein in your urine? Is there blood in your urine? Are your blood cells normal?
That type of medical monitoring matters a lot. And if you have the ability, even if you have to pay for it yourself, if you have the ability to partake of a rapid heart scan, usually I believe they recommend those at maybe at age 40 [00:19:00] if you have the ability to do a full body ultrasound of your abdominal organs and your neck and your reproductive organs.
Those are wonderful ways to keep checking on what's under the hood. So don't forget, our mortality risk is higher than the general population, so we need tokeep an eye on it. And if you wanna hear an expert talk about that, check out my friend Dr. Ziegenfuess on episode number 63.
All right, number six is mental health, or you could call it mindfulness, or you could call it journaling or you could call it talking to a friend, or you could, you could call it meditating…yoga.
So many different modalities go into improving [00:20:00] mental health, but I'm going to challenge you to, if you have not already done so, create a relationship with a mental health counselor and go talk to them. I would say four times a year whether you feel like you need it or not, because you're creating a relationship with someone who can help you if and when you get in a crisis and the fact of the matter is trying to find a professional when you are in the midst of a crisis is stressful. It's difficult, and it's frustrating.
So if you already have a relationship with a mental health counselor, you are, you're starting at the starting line instead of a mile behind, If you [00:21:00] are hesitant to take the step to, to create the relationship, to go to appointments with a mental health counselor, I implore you to find an outlet, at least one outlet where you can help bring mindfulness into your life. And so again, whether that's simply doing a five minute yoga flow that you found on YouTube, whether it's writing two sentences in a journal, maybe discussing what you're grateful for the day.
Find a way to connect the mind and the body because we live so much in our heads and so far outside of our bodies that sometimes they're not even integrated anymore. So mental health matters, I would implore you to create that relationship with a [00:22:00] counselor and to go periodically, even if you are not actively experiencing a crisis. But at the very least, find a practice of something that helps you be where your feet are. Number six.
Number seven, which I maybe could have included with the mindfulness and mental health, but I'm gonna put it separately 'cause I think it's that important is breathing. First responders live in perpetual fight or flight.
We thrive at work on the fight or flight aspects of it. Then many of us leave work and we ride our motorcycles. We go skydiving, we go whitewater rafting. We go searching for more sympathetic input into our nervous systems and [00:23:00] our nervous systems need parasympathetic input too. This concept of heart rate variability and heart rate variability being a measure of health and wellness, it's newer, heart rate variability relies on input from both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
And when you have so much input from your sympathetic nervous system, your heart rate variability is diminished. And again, diminished heart rate variability is one of those quote unquote vital signs that gives us sort of a look under the hood. So if nothing else, if you can't manage to do anything else, but for two minutes a day, focus on your breath.
For example, some circle breathing where you inhale for five, hold for five. Exhale for five. [00:24:00] Hold for five. I guess some people might call that box breathing. I call it circle breathing. Something like that can help drive parasympathetic inputs in your body. So number seven is just breathe.
And then number eight is time management. Because we live in a world where everything is getting busier. It's getting exponentially busier. In fact, I read in a book, and I'm going to forget what book it is. Oh, I'm so aggravated with myself right now. It's one of my favorite books. But it says basically…oh, the Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter. But it says basically our lifespan is longer than it's ever been, and our health span [00:25:00] is shorter than it's ever been, and we are less connected. Even though we have all of this technology. We have phones and FaceTime and text and social media, we have all of this technology. We are less connected to other people than we ever have been in history.
And so, this busyness, which part of it I think that we drive the busyness on ourselves. It's again that sympathetic nervous system. Like, hey, dummy, if you just keep moving and never stop moving, you never have to feel your feelings. We crave busyness and doing more and doing the most, even if it's not, even if those things we're doing are not very, uh, profitable, so to speak, for our health and wellness, we [00:26:00] just stay keeping busy.
And so when we're looking at, you're saying, Annette, you, you're so funny. You want me to prioritize my sleep and you want me to exercise? Oh my God, you're so funny…and sustainable eating. Like I can barely even find time to stand in front of my kitchen counter and snarf down some crackers and cottage cheese.
Well, if we managed our time in an intentional fashion. If we manage our time intentionally, we have a better chance for success. And, I can't remember what episode it was, but way back I talk about setting up future me for success. So doing things in advance that sets tomorrow Annette up for success. But I also want you to think about this.[00:27:00]
Parkinson's law states that the work expands to fill whatever amount of time you've allotted for it. And so if you have to write a paper or a blog, I'm so sorry, right now there's a company that's waiting for a blog they've been waiting for, and I, I'm the literal worst. They didn't give me a deadline. This is their fault, but I'm the literal, worst.
The work expands to fill the amount of time designated. So if you've designated two hours to write your term paper, it's gonna take two hours. If you designated 15 minutes, it's gonna take 15 minutes. The work expands to fill the time allotted, and so in my experience, if you can block your time intentionally and [00:28:00] put a title on it, food prep, grocery shopping, walk the dog, go lift weights if you block that time and put a time limit on it.
Is more likely to get done if you simply make a list. And I've got one right here. It's the stuff that I'm supposed to be doing today. Let's see what's on there. Um, make a headliner for this week's podcast. Did it? Walked gym walk. So I walked to the gym. I lifted weights, I walked home. Finish slides for two presentations I have this week.
This is a funny one: noon podcast recording. This is the one where I thought I had guests today, and then that blog is on the list. But you know what's wrong with this list? It doesn't have time blocks on it. It doesn't say walk, gym walk [00:29:00] from 8:00-9:15. It just says it's on the list. And so it has been my experience. It is my experience. If you block the time intentionally things are more likely to get done.
So Paul, if you block the time from 12:00-1:30 on Saturday to grill chicken and make fajita vegetables or whatever you're gonna do, and put those into little plastic dishes and put them in the refrigerator, it's more likely to get done than if you just have it banging around in your head: I need to make chicken and fajita vegetables. Or if you just put it on a list like I did.
So Parkinson's law is real. Things take as long as you've allowed them to take. We need to put some brackets on those times [00:30:00] in order to get things done more successfully.
So let's review number one, finding balance between work and life and having inputs for joy. Number two, prioritizing sleep because nothing gets better when you don't sleep. Number three, exercise a little on most days instead of a whole hell of a lot once in a while.
Number four, discover a sustainable eating style for you, something that you don't have to hop on and off, and on and off. Number five, medical monitoring matters. Go get your freaking tests. If you're due for a colonoscopy, go get it. Don't wait. Number six, mental health is important and we need to expand or extend ourselves into that [00:31:00] realm and, and just make things happen with our mental health, focusing on our mindfulness or our journaling on our yoga or whatever it takes to get positive inputs for our mental health.
Number seven is to breathe. If nothing else, focus on your breath for two minutes every single day. And then the last one, time management matters and what you're gonna do, we'll expand to fill the amount of time allotted. That's all I have for you today.
Thanks again to Paul for a solid idea. I did wanna mention, I've gotten a lot of DMs and a lot of support and a lot of actually really great questions about my podcast episode last week to gear or not to gear, and I appreciate all of that. And I would just, I would ask you for [00:32:00] two solid favors. The first one, please share that podcast with other firefighters you know.
Some people just don't know better and they're actively putting themselves at risk because they don't know better. And then my other ask would be, if you have two minutes, if you would head to whatever podcast platform that you listen on and leave me a rating and review, I would most certainly appreciate it.
This has been AZ and we are offic
