The Healthy Programmer, Second Edition

Refactor Your Fitness, Improve Your Mind

by Joe Kutner

To keep doing what you love, you need to maintain your own systems, not just the ones you write code for. Regular exercise and proper nutrition help you learn, remember, concentrate, and be creative—skills critical to doing your job well. In this book you’ll see how to change your work habits, master exercises that make working at a computer more comfortable, and develop a plan to keep fit, healthy, and sharp for years to come.

Printed in full color.

Programmers are thinking about their health now more than ever, but a lot has changed in the years since The Healthy Programmer was first published. New research has expanded the science of what it means to be healthy, and new technologies make tracking your health easier than ever before.

The Healthy Programmer gives you a daily plan of action that’s incremental and iterative just like the software development processes you’re used to. Every tip, trick, and best practice is backed up by the advice of doctors, scientists, therapists, nutritionists, and numerous fitness experts.

In this second edition, you’ll review the latest scientific research to understand how being healthy is good for your body and mind, including a new chapter on mental health. You’ll start by adding a small amount of simple activity to your day—no trips to the gym needed. You’ll mitigate back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches, and many other common sources of pain. You’ll also refactor your diet to properly fuel your body without gaining weight or feeling hungry. Then, you’ll turn the exercises and activities into a pragmatic workout methodology that doesn’t interfere with the demands of your job and may actually improve your cognitive skills.

You’ll also discover the secrets of prominent figures in the software community who turned their health around by making diet and exercise changes. Finally, you’ll make your healthy lifestyle pragmatic, attainable, and fun. If you’re going to live well, you should enjoy it.

• Errata, typos, suggestions

Releases:

• B1.0 2025/01/28

Note: Contents and extracts of beta books will change as the book is developed.

Preface

• Making Changes
  • Your Job Is Not Your Lifestyle
  • Unit-Testing Your Health
  • The Mind-Body Connection
  • An Iterative Approach to Health
  • The Science Behind Habits
  • Reprogramming Your Habits
  • Retrospective
• Bootstrapping Your Health excerpt
  • Thinking on Your Feet
  • Walking Your Way to Better Health
  • The Time of Your Life
  • Learning How to Walk
  • Getting Out the Door
  • Retrospective
• A Farewell to Chairs?
  • Sitting Considered Harmful
  • Standing Up for the Truth
  • Enhancing Your Workstation
  • Retrospective
• Agile Dieting
  • An Iterative Approach to Dieting
  • Balanced Nutrition Over Idiosyncratic Diets
  • Eating Your Brains Out
  • Counting Calories Over Following Trends
  • Adjusting Your Caloric Intake
  • Individual Tastes Over Predefined Menus
  • Retrospective
• Preventing Back Pain
  • Unit-Testing Your Core Muscles
  • Understanding the Anatomy of the Back
  • Strengthening Your Powerhouse
  • Developing Better Ergonomics
  • Retrospective
• Preventing Wrist Pain
  • Unit-Testing Your Wrists
  • Understanding the Causes of Wrist Pain
  • Using Exercise to Prevent Pain
  • Reducing Tension with the Alexander Technique
  • Restricting Movement with Braces
  • Retrospective
• Preventing Headaches and Eye Strain excerpt
  • Unit-Testing Your Vision
  • Avoiding Computer Vision Syndrome
  • Avoiding Headache Triggers
  • Treating Headache Symptoms
  • Retrospective
• Making Exercise Pragmatic
  • Exercising Your Brain
  • Taking Healthy Pomodoro Breaks
  • Keeping a Log
  • Playing Games with Your Health
  • Taking Your Fitness to the Web
  • Retrospective
• Thinking Outside the Cube
  • Dosing on Vitamin D
  • Shedding Light on the Vitamin D Hype
  • Boosting Your Immune System
  • Dealing with Colds and COVID
  • Thinking Under the Trees
  • Retrospective
• Refactoring Your Fitness
  • Warming Up
  • Understanding the Dimensions of Fitness
  • Unit-Testing Your Fitness
  • Upgrading Your Hardware
  • Retrospective
• Teaming Up
  • Message-Passing
  • Investing in Your Health
  • Playing Well with Others
  • Building a Better Team
  • Retrospective
• Onward, Healthy Programmer
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Creating Social Habits
  • The Joy of Being Healthy
• Goals
• Examples
  • Examples of Fruit/Vegetable Servings
  • Example Day
• Further Reading
  • Books
  • Publications
• Bibliography