This document provides strategies for writers to maintain physical and mental health. It discusses common health issues writers face such as sedentary lifestyles and stress, and provides solutions like exercising regularly, eating nutritious snacks, practicing good ergonomics, managing stress through meditation, getting quality sleep, and avoiding unhealthy substances. The goal is to help writers lead healthy lifestyles to avoid illness and injuries that could prevent them from writing.

1. How To Be A Healthy
Writer
Kim Foster, M.D.
www.kimfoster.com

2. Can being a writer kill you?

3. Famous Writers In Notoriously Poor Health

4. WHY is writing an unhealthy occupation?
Physical Health Issues:
• sedentary
• poor nutrition
• obesity
• muscle weakness
• back strain
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• eye strain
• poor digestion
Mental Health Issues:
• stress
• financial stress
• creative stress (the
pressure to produce,
self-doubt, etc.)
• rejection & critics
• deadlines
• insomnia
• isolation
• substances

5. So…let’s have some solutions.
Part One:
Strategies to keep you physically healthy.
Part Two:
Strategies to keep you mentally healthy.
(although the two are very much interconnected)

6. exercise

7. “Keep your butt in the chair” is great for
your writing productivity...
NOT SO AWESOME FOR YOUR BUTT.
exercise

8. The reason exercise is important for
writers?
If you DIE, you can’t write BOOKS.
exercise

9. solution #1: walk & plot!

10. solution #2:
treadmill desk!

11. solution #3:
accumulate your exercise
Goal: 2.5 hours per week of moderate activity
...but collect it in 10 minute mini-workouts!
exercise
Mini-workout ideas:
•turn on music & dance in your living room
•climb up & down the stairs for 10 minutes
•walk briskly to the store
•pull weeds in your garden for 10 minutes
•ride your bike around the neighborhood
•vigorously clean something in your house
•exercise during commercial breaks:
crunches, lunges, hula hoop

12. solution #4: yoga at home

13. nutrition

14. 12 Great Writers And Their Favourite Snacks
nutrition
The New York Times, July 2011

15. Solution #1: practice healthy snacking
The Ideal Writerly Snack:
-can be eaten while sitting at a desk
-will keep you feeling full
-not high in sugar or salt
-provides a sustained release of energy ie.
protein and complex carbs
nutrition

16. Snack Ideas:
• Smoothies
• Homemade Trailmix
• Multigrain ryvita bread with peanut butter and
apple slices
• Fruit: apple slices, grapes
• Cheese
• Low fat greek yogurt topped with fresh fruit,
honey, nuts, or granola
• Raw veggies and hummus
• Celery and cashew butter/peanut butter
• Olives
• Air-popped popcorn
• Edamame
• Apple with cheese and a handful of nuts
• Hard-boiled egg
(and don’t
forget
water!)

17. Solution #2: Keep track of your diet
Why?
• Accountability
• Mindfulness
• Portion awareness
• Highlights connections to stress, emotion, timing,
nutrition
location
• Can DOUBLE your weight loss
How?
• notebook/journal
• speech-to-text function on your phone
• computer program
• app

18. Solution #3: Become A Portion Control Pro
-shrink your dishes
-beware buffets
-order the lunch size
-80% rule
-divide your plate
-be mindful when eating with friends
-keep serving dishes off the table
-eat with your left hand
-turn off the TV
-deal with cravings
-beware large containers
-Pistachio principle
-chew more
-watch your liquids
nutrition

19. Solution #4: Supplement your diet
Supplements for writers to consider:
• Vitamin D
• Omega-3
• Calcium
nutrition

20. injuries & repetitive strain
the dangerous life of a writer?
injuries & repetitive strain

21. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

22. How To Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:
• Reduce your force and relax your grip
• Take frequent breaks
• Watch your form
• Improve your posture
• Keep your hands warm

23. Back strain

24. How To Prevent Back Strain:
• Core strength
• Take frequent breaks
• Back stretches
• Work on your posture
• The right chair
• Sit with knees a little higher than hips &
rest your feet on a stool

25. Eye strain

26. How To Prevent Eye Strain:
• Make it bigger
• Blink
• Don’t squint
• Push your monitor away
• Elevate your chair
• Position your lights
• Print it out
• Take breaks
• Get glare-reducing eye wear
• Do your important work in the morning

27. mental health

29. Why is being a writer so bad for mental
health?
• stress
• financial stress
• creative stress (the pressure to
produce, self-doubt, etc.)
• rejection & critics
• deadlines
• insomnia
• isolation
• substances

31. How To Cope With Stress
• Yoga
• Breathing exercises
• Meditation
• Exercise
• Music
• Self-talk
• Regular sleep
• Vitamin D
• Omega-3
• Green tea
• Spirituality
• Journaling
• Social connections
& support network
• Massage therapy
• Aromatherapy
• Reading
• Gardening
• Progressive muscle
relaxation
• Practice optimism

32. How to get a good night’s sleep:
• Sleep schedule
• The right environment
• Beware blue light
• Limit caffeine
• Curb evening alcohol
• A relaxing bedtime routine
• Exercise
• Harmonize with daylight
• Meditate
• Bedtime snack
• Wear socks

33. Meditation: Why?
Studies have shown that meditation can:
• counter the impact of stress
• significantly reduce depression relapse
• slow immune system decline in HIV patients
• reduce pain sensitivity
• help reduce drug addiction, smoking, binge
eating, and anger
• improve insomnia
• reduce anxiety and panic attacks
• increase empathy
• improve the ability to work under pressure
• improve mental sharpness and information
processing

34. Meditation: How?
Types:
-guided meditation
-mantra meditation
-mindfulness
meditation
-transcendental
meditation
-Qi Gong
-Tai Chi
-yoga
Common Elements of
meditation:
-focused attention
-relaxed breathing
-a quiet setting
-a comfortable position
How to start?
start with just a few minutes, everyday,
built into your regular routine

35. depression

36. Are you depressed?
Over the last 2 weeks, have you been bothered by any of the
following problems:
1. Little interest or pleasure in doing things.
2. Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.
3. Trouble falling/staying asleep, or sleeping too much.
4. Feeling tired or having little energy.
5. Poor appetite or overeating.
6. Feeling bad about yourself, that you’re a failure, or that
you have let yourself or your family down.
7. Trouble concentrating on things.
8. Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could
have noticed, or the opposite—being so fidgety or restless
that you have been moving around more than usual.
9. Thoughts that you would be better off dead or of
hurting yourself in some way.

37. substances &
habits

38. 3. Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking?
4. Have you ever felt you
needed a drink first thing in
the morning (Eye-opener)
to steady your nerves or to
get rid of a hangover?
CAGE:
1. Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
2. Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?

39. How To Quit Smoking
Methods:
•Cold turkey
•Nicotine patches
•Nicotine gum
•Medication
•Hypnosis
•Counselling
•Support groups
Tips:
•Set a meaningful quit date
•Make a plan for vulnerable
times
•What to do with your hands?
•What to do with your mouth?
•Enlist support from friends &
family
•Talk to your doctor

40. The question you’re all afraid to ask:
What about coffee?

41. The research is in: coffee is good for you.
Coffee may decrease your risk of Parkinson’s
and Alzheimer’s.
Coffee can help ward off depression.
Coffee may reduce your risk of diabetes.
Coffee can make you a better writer.
A 2011 study showed that caffeine improved
subjects’ ability to proofread and spot errors in
their grammar.