This is the third article in the Legal Pillars Of Wellness series. If you’re just joining us, over the course of the next few months, this series will explore each of the following legal pillars of wellness (listed below) and will specifically focus on issues, ideas, and suggestions related to law students, bar exam takers, and lawyers. All previous articles in the series are linked below. I hope you’ll follow along with us.
Legal Pillars of Wellness
- Mental & Emotional Wellness;
- Environmental Wellness;
- Physical Wellness;
- Financial Wellness;
- Spiritual Wellness;
- Intellectual Wellness;
- Occupational Wellness; and
- Social Wellness.
Pillar #3: Physical Wellness
For the purpose of the legal pillars of wellness, we’ll define physical wellness as having a healthy quality of life with a focus on physical fitness, medical wellness, nutrition, sleep hygiene, and reducing or eliminating harmful vices.
I need to preface this article with an important caveat. One of my personal mottos in life is that “I only run if someone is chasing me… with scissors.” To say that I am a physical fitness or nutrition expert would be a bald-faced lie. I have, however, been on a journey over the last few years to feel less like shit and improve my physical wellness.
A few years ago, I lived a completely sedentary lifestyle and ate a lot of garbage. I gained a ton of weight and had countless aches and pains. My back and hips constantly hurt, and I basically had a non-stop migraine for three years straight.
I felt awful physically, and it was starting to impact my mental and emotional wellness as well. And, I really, REALLY did not want to deal with it. I knew that it was going to be hard work and involve lifestyle changes that I did not want to make.
I honestly can’t remember what finally got me to start making changes. But, I remember reading somewhere that you have to “choose your hard.” And the way I saw it, yes, it was going to be hard to make major lifestyle changes, but it was already hard feeling exhausted, achy, and uncomfortable all the time. In late 2016, I embarked on my own physical wellness journey. While it has rarely been easy, I truly believe it has had a tremendous impact on my overall wellness.
So, it is with this background and context that I share some suggestions for improving your physical wellness.
Physical Fitness
Movement is so important to your physical well-being and overall wellness. But maybe you get overwhelmed thinking physical fitness means that you have to become this super healthy, gym-crazed person who works out every day. In fact, it is this exact mindset that prevented me from working on my physical fitness for a long time. Once I finally decided that I needed to start moving more, I started small. I forced myself to get out for a walk for 15 minutes a day and worked my way up to 30 minutes. Once that felt comfortable for me, I started adding in some at-home stretching and yoga. When I was ready (about six months into my journey) to actually start working out, I first tried at-home workouts. This didn’t work for me because I genuinely do not enjoy working out and could not hold myself accountable to this plan. But, this might be a good option for a more disciplined person.
Eventually, I joined a gym with my friend, and I try to go three to four times a week. Sometimes I go zero times. Even if I only go once, I try to start each week with a fresh slate and just do the best I can to get some movement in. Another option for you outdoorsy types is to pick up an active hobby such as hiking, rock climbing, skiing, or rollerblading (is that still a thing?). I think the important message here is that you don’t have to go all in and start some intense workout regimen. You can start where you are and build up to where you want to be.
Medical Wellness
Most law students and lawyers are busy folks, so just the thought of scheduling annual physicals and wellness check-ups can seem, quite frankly, annoying and logistically difficult. But, you should do it anyway. Engaging in good preventative medical care, however frustrating, helps with early detection of diseases and allows you to keep your health and wellness a priority. So, don’t wait for a medical issue to get completely out of hand or rely on the WebMD symptom checker to diagnose yourself (I see you, I am you); take the time to get proper medical care.
Nutrition
I regularly talk to my bar exam students about the importance of paying attention to their nutrition during bar prep. I very eloquently tell them, “If you eat like shit, you’ll feel like shit.” Much like physical fitness, many people see nutrition as an all or nothing endeavor. We feel like if we aren’t eating a raw, vegan, gluten-free, paleo, keto diet, we might as well just eat a Big Mac followed by a chocolate shake. But, you and I know that isn’t true.
This, again, isn’t about perfection or an all-or-nothing approach, but about making mostly good choices to fuel your body with. This isn’t about finding one perfect diet or way of living or even about losing weight. It is about experimenting with which foods work for you and don’t work for you and eating accordingly.
On a similar note, we are all super dehydrated. We don’t drink enough freaking water. I certainly don’t (thanks, mom). And it is terrible for us. Dehydration can make you feel tired and dizzy and give you a headache. As busy legal professionals, do we really need ONE more thing depleting our energy? I’m a work in progress on this one, but I find that I drink more water when I keep my water bottle filled with cold water and carry it with me at all times.
Sleep Hygiene
Most people do not get enough sleep and don’t realize quite how damaging that is to our overall health. A lack of sleep impairs your cognitive functioning. Specifically, it decreases attention, concentration, reasoning, and problem-solving. What could possibly go wrong for a lawyer or law student having these problems? Further, not getting enough sleep also puts you at health risks for, among other things, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Sleep deprivation is also linked to depression and impaired judgment.
Also, once you accumulate a sleep debt, you will carry it with you until you get caught up. For example, if you get one hour of sleep less than you need every night for a week, you’ll have a seven-hour sleep debt and will need to sleep one hour extra each night for a week to catch up. The further in sleep debt you get, the harder it is to recover.
In order to ensure you are getting enough sleep, you should try to go to sleep and wake at roughly the same time each day, limit screen time before bed, and institute an evening “wind-down” routine to get you ready for sleep.
Cut Back on Vices
The legal profession unquestionably has a drug and alcohol addiction problem. While the reason for the reliance on these things is likely more related to mental and emotional wellness issues, they greatly impact physical well-being. Consider what vices you may be engaging in, even recreationally, such as drinking too much, smoking, using drugs, or engaging in unprotected sex, and seek strategies to reduce or eliminate them from your life.
A quick note on making your physical wellness plan work
If you, like I, are not an active person by nature and face deep resistance about improving your physical wellness, I highly recommend you find an accountability partner. My physical wellness journey is far from perfect, but I’ve managed to make consistent progress through the help of my accountability partner. Find someone who you can share your goals with, check-in with, and get support from. It makes all the difference.
Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at info@vincoprep.com.