How a liver threat forced me to quit
It was a critical moment for my liver, I had to make a choice. Is it worth tying up the laces of my career if I can't live long enough to relish the milestones along the way?
Starting in 2023, I had a blood checkup which led to the discovery of an SGOT/SGPT ratio higher than normal. Among the common causes of this liver-related problem are alcoholism and obesity. We can rule out alcoholism because I am not a heavy alcohol drinker, hence this must’ve been the result of years’ worth of sedentary lifestyle.
Well, I had little time dedicated to health because I had to spend hours balancing a degree program along with internships, student organizations, and extra-curricular competitions in between. I had minimal time to rest/sleep and in my waking hours, I rewarded myself with lots of food, resulting in a sedentary lifestyle spiral.
Fatty liver doesn’t give you an expiration date, but it can lead to organ complications later in life. It was a wake-up call. The bigger issue is obesity, which can lead to adverse conditions like heart disease and diabetes. In my entire bloodline, we had a rich history of relatives who had cardiovascular diseases on top of diabetes.
I knew I had to quit.
Quitting sitting, started running
I’ve read somewhere that one of the biggest health threats to modern-day professionals is “sitting”. I’ve been guilty of sitting all day, especially during the pandemic and it was difficult to find time to deliberately be active. It feels as if I’m thrown into a fancy restaurant without knowing table stuff/manners. In times like that, I just look around and adopt best practices.
I always see this senior partner at an accounting firm dedicate about an hour to running around BGC. I met her in a mentorship session and I’ve been seeing some of her life clips online including these random runs and virtual runs rewarded with medals. In another instance, at work, our Ex-McKinsey CEO would sometimes ask to delay our meeting for about 30 minutes because she’s having her morning jog/run. These are people I look up to, career-wise, and now I am adopting some of their practices, health-wise.
I then blocked off some 1-hour sessions every day at night to run around the campus. I was still in the last semester of my degree program when I started doing this. On some days, I miss my pre-scheduled run, but I always think of why I am doing this, and start to build the rhythm once again.
Quit overeating for intermittent fasting
I’ve always been adamant about the idea of “intermittent fasting” because I have heard of many cases where skipping meals led to ulcers. I had to watch several TED talks about fasting and read scientific journals to be convinced that it can actually work when done correctly. Little did I know, my dormmate was actually implementing it, so there was less friction as I eased into this new lifestyle.
My dormmate jokingly said that intermittent fasting is like hitting two birds with one stone — it saves money for one less meal and also leads to less calorie intake. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes we just lack the money since we both come from middle-class families originating from the province.
Quit obsession with quick success, especially in health
In this world where everything is fast, I always think that I need to focus on 20% of inputs that would yield 80% of the visible results. For example, when my team joined a certain insurance business case competition for the second/third time, we just recycled our slide templates and changed some propositions for some quick wins (and quick bucks). In the business sense, this can be true, but this journey toward better health taught me that especially in physical health, things take time.
So I continued doing some exercise even on days when I didn’t feel like it. I continued my new eating habits even when it was very tempting to deviate and let my stomach set free. I continued taking progress pictures even when there was no visible progress, on a day-to-day basis, at all.
From self-consciousness to confidence
Fast forward to today, I lost about 20 kilograms (Sept 2023 vs Jan 2023 weight) and I’ve seen some ripple effects in other areas of my life. There are some micro-moments where I felt I was more confident.
Back in my high school days, my friends would often ask why am I wearing a jacket in our non-airconditioned public high school. That was when I was borderline normal to overweight in the BMI scale. This habit of mine continued post-pandemic, I still wear jackets in my first few pre-scheduled runs at night. During those times, I didn’t know why I was wearing an extra layer of protection. Now, in retrospect, I realized that it was my subconscious response to hide my size. Perhaps by wearing a jacket, I can hide some of my biggest insecurities. Recently, when I run and when I go to the gym, I don’t wear these extra layers of protection anymore. These are just some of the manifestations that there was a change in my confidence.
As I attend some exchange programs and serve as resource speakers in some esteemed organizations, I feel more confident standing up on the stage because I look better than my previous self.
On top of this, I believe that better physical health led to better mental clarity for me. This is essential as I am always trying to improve my productivity in the things I do.
Future-proofing my health habits
Of course, this would go to waste if I suddenly change my mind and go back to my old sedentary self. I then tried to make these habits easier to do and invested in some things that can make this lifestyle sustainable.
My Singaporean friend advised me to invest in a body composition weighing scale, and that the useful life of the asset is worth its price. It was worth about 50 Starbucks cups, but at the same time, it was worth 3 months of my groceries. I decided to make the purchase because it will help me continue my commitment to better health.
I also tried to gamify my habits, including a certain reward when I lose certain kilos, carry heavier weights, as well as getting more and more running/marathon medals. It’s doing me magic.
I am thankful that I had that blood checkup in January. Funnily enough, that test was suggested by my dermatologist. Her only concern back then was if I was in a good health condition to take some pimple-removing drug. This is the story of how solving my pimples led me to solve my overall health instead, and the story of how a liver concern led me to love myself a little bit more.
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