Work, health and everything else with Ben Musio

Problem Busters

The Problem Busters explore how to stay healthy while working from home with Ben Musio, health advocate and as with many of us right now, a work from home employee.

We discuss how Covid-19 has affected our mental and physical health, the highs and lows of working from home and share the tech and gear we simply wouldn't be without in this new home office environment.

We talk home gyms, the importance of getting outside, how JustEat has become Ben's best friend and how the little things are now so important after a year of working from home.

About the show:

Problem Busters is a show that explores solutions to the biggest and the smallest of problems. Hosts Jonathan Goodwin and Oliver Happy discuss making the world a better place with guests from far and wide.

About our guest:

Ben Musio is a husband, father to be and a Tax Advisor. A lifelong learner, Ben is interested in keeping fit both in body and in mind. He lives with his wife in the South East of England.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-musio-143886174/

Show mentions:

• Office for national statistics reports that in the UK in Jan, adults staying at home or only leaving for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical needs continued to increase, to 65% of adults this week; the highest proportion since May 2020.
• Lockdown has been harder for some, and easier for others. Especially more introverted folks
• Just Eat as your best friend
• 05:50 Because I didn't have to present in a suit, it was easy to let myself go while working from home and to transition to put on a "winter coat"
• Sport is good for introducing structure into your life, but when that is taken away, it's important to get yourself back into a fitness regime
• Walking the dog as a way to have companionship and also to get you out of the house
• Kids not going in to school is difficult enough in terms of home schooling, but the communication was lax via the school, we found out over the news!
• 12:30 mental health connected to physical health
• Intermittent fasting as a way to control grazing on food
• Making time to exercise is an important part of the day
• 13:40 Mental health being as if not more important than physical health
• The ability to say how are you, are you finding this difficult like I am? Has been so important
• Supporting each other as the way through this.
• Workmates were the only people you really get to see during the day, even outside of lockdown.
• 15:25 there has been a positive shift in discussing mental health becoming a normal topic of conversation
• Intermittent fasting being where there is a window during the day where you can eat, and outside of that time window you drink mostly water. This being a way to extend the period of burning fuel (fat) that you normally get between meals or while sleeping.
• Flexitarianism is growing (as is being vegan) during the pandemic. People are eating less meat.
• 22:00 There is no magic bullet to losing weight, if you eat too many calories and don't exercise, you will like me, gain weight <-------
• When we are hungry, are we hungry or are we just thirsty?
• You lose weight in the kitchen and build muscle in the gym
• Weightlifting and compound movements as an enjoyable way to exercise.
• Building up a very minimal home gym as a long-term investment
• Winter swimming as a way to get exercise and a worldwide boom in it as time has gone on in the pandemic
• The cold shower in the morning as a way to boost immunity
• The pandemic as something that has accelerated the trend towards mental health becoming something that is now OK to talk about
• 29:00 Mental health has entered the mainstream and is now OK to talk about
• There is an awareness about the need for mental health and it is vital that people feel OK to talk about it.
• 31:40 There has been a stigma about feeling unwell mentally and not telling people about it. Now it is becoming a lot more acceptable. <-------
• Asking about wellbeing in your team being an important factor of leading a team, especially in stressful environments and during lockdown.
• Outgoing people are really struggling during lockdown, a real struggle for many.
• Jordan Peterson put it well: Some formats of prayer help you meditate and be thankful for the day. That regime of quietness as a chance to reflect.
• Book: How not to worry
• Yoga as a way to remain calm and to repair the back after a weight lifting injury.
• YouTube: Craig Budsic and yoga for back pain
• Meditation and setting a habit of finding a moment for quiet as a way to centre the self
• Yoga at the end of a weight lifting session as a way to warm down
• Sam Harris as a way to begin to meditate
• Book: Jordan Peterson - 12 rules for life
• Avoiding the echo chamber of reading The Guardian and not hearing things outside of your comfort zone. Reading things and listening to things that you don't agree with.
• YouTube: Slovoy Malesic as a Marxist and a debator with Jordon Peterson
• 44:00 self-directed learning and enjoying learning
• YouTube: Wisecrack and the philosphy of things
• Listening to a podcast as a way to switch off and to continue learning.
• Episode: Teach the world to code with Alice Lieutier
• School, home community and home life all have a huge impact on schooling experience.
• 47:00 Life isn't about school, it's about finding what you are interested in and going and doing it. <--------
• Related episode: Teach the world to code
• Teaching and teachers as such an important part of early life. Needing to attract and incentivise and look after teachers as they are so vital to learning.
• Religion and the role of bringing a community of strangers together.
• Religion as a way to bring people together. As a common ground.
• The healthy habits that underlie a lot of religions. A template of how to live at that time.
• Faith as the universal thread that unites people of all religions at a base level.
• Fermented foods and sauerkraut as something important to digestion. Kimchi as a great alternative to sauerkraut. Kefir as a lactose-free dairy alternative.
• Vitamin D as a great go-to vitamin
• Cod-liver oil and butter tabs
• The uptake of vitamins being better (for some) when you have them with something.
• Mixed race and darker skinned people needing to take more Vitamin D
• Taking Magnesium for energy when fasting.
• Multivitamins are good while eating
• Electrolytes as an essential replenishment during a prolonged fasting period
• Powdered bone broth as a source of nutrition along with utah sea salts
• Jamaican oxtail stew as a slow-cooked preparation.
• If you eat rubbish food, you feel rubbish.
• 01:03:00 eating leading to how you feel. it is all at our fingertips but it is just turning this to action. It's not complicated but we make it more complicated than it needs to be.
• Cutting out meat for 2 months as leading to a lower heart rate during exercise or gaming, along with cutting out coffee (as measured by the Garmin).
• Working from home kit and what to look at to work more freely
• Flexispot standing desks and standing desk pads
• An external screen as an important step to lifting the gaze
• Get yourself a proper office chair instead of being huddled over a dining room chair on a table at the wrong height
• Garmin watch as a way to remind me when to be active
• The kettlebell as a way to do short exercises in breaks from working
• The Apple Watch reminding you to take a walk.
• An awareness of steps and getting in your steps per day
• Blue light blocking computer glasses
• Penguin vertical mouse and wrist pads
• SAD lamps and the concept of the artificial sun as a way to increase wellbeing and alertness at the desk.
• Getting outside as the most important part to good health.
• Would love to see critical thinking introduced into education more widely. The ability to look behind the headline, to investigate and to make up your own mind.
• Critical thinking as a much needed skill and practice right now.
• Being able to question things is important, regardless of what your viewpoint is. Questioning, holding people to account and starting with teaching kids this at a young age.

Logo and concept by Christy O'Connor