3 Health Hacks for Writers from a Supernatural Thriller Author

Health hacks for writers—here are three from David Oppegaard, who’s new book, Claw Heart Mountain, released in January 2023.

by David Oppegaard

Writing is a grind.

I’ve been writing novels for almost thirty years (since I was fifteen) and I am currently working on my twenty-second novel.

That is a whole lot of sitting, typing, and staring at a computer monitor. And that doesn’t include all the additional sitting I’ve done as a lifelong bookworm, as well, which also needs to be considered in the health/writing equation.

Health Hacks for Writers 1. Why I Bought a Vegetable Juicer

All this sedentary time takes its toll, of course. One of my few regrets in life is that I didn’t take my physical health seriously until my mid-thirties, when I finally realized I needed to exercise on a daily basis and improve my diet.

The catalyst for this awareness was the film Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I watched it late at night and the next morning I woke up, inspired, and bought my first vegetable juicer.

The main juice I drink, the Mean Green, is composed of carrots, green apple, celery, lemon, ginger, cucumber, and kale. I’ve now been drinking it on a daily basis for nine years—it’s like a secret health weapon that never fails to give me energy and ticks off a good portion of the vegetable requirements for my daily diet.

Building on this daily juice, I usually go on a juice cleanse once or twice a year, which entails drinking four juices a day along with some healthy small portion additions, such as black bean soup. Even a three-day cleanse reboots your appetite and this past spring I actually did a forty-day cleanse with the help of salt supplements, which I highly recommend (I like the LMNT brand).

I also recommend splurging on a more expensive juicer if you plan to juice frequently, since the wear and tear on a juicer is significant and a good cheap juicer is hard to come by.

Health Hacks for Writers 2. Running is a Great Way to Clear Your Head

As for exercise, I got into running around the same time I got into juicing.

For a couple of years, I lost a lot of weight and ran daily, 5 or 6 miles, but after a while all the concrete sidewalk city running started to hurt my knees, so now I alternate between working out on our elliptical machine with running days.

I still run all year long, though, and find it helps with dealing with the grind of long Minnesotan winters. Running is a great way to clear your head and be out in the world for a little while. It gets your blood flowing and often leads to a meditative state helpful to plotting what you’re going to write next.

Haruki Murakami has a great memoir about writing and running called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir, in which he talks about the benefits running has had for his own writing.

Health Hacks for Writers 3. A Standing Desk Helps with Stiff Legs and Back

One more writing and health hack I’ve discovered to be helpful is the addition of a standing desk in my office.

It seems obvious, now, but I never seriously considered getting one until I got one at my work first and found it helped with stiff legs and a stiff back.

When I was shopping for a standing desk for my own office, the number one feature I was looking for was stability—I didn’t want the desk to shake and vibrate with every keystroke. Just like with our juicer, I splurged on an expensive model from FlexiSpot (the Pro Plus Standing Desk E7), bamboo top and everything (I figured it balanced out the inexpensive Ikea desk I had rocked for fifteen years and nearly as many novels).

Getting a home standing desk has been a revelation, even if I only use it one hour out of every three or four.

The Mental Health Benefits of Improved Diet and Exercise Can’t Be Overstated

I’d like to say that my health revolution eight years ago was a complete revolution, but after losing fifty pounds I’ve slowly gained it back after getting married (and happier) and now weigh about as much as I did when I started running and juicing.

I’m a hard drinker and late night snacker (I often fall into the “Hey you wrote a lot tonight you deserve a reward!” trap) and your forties and beyond is unforgiving to empty calories.

Still, despite the weight returning, my vitals at doctor checkups are much improved and I feel happier overall. The mental health benefits of improved diet and exercise cannot be overstated when it comes to writing—I just had to find the formats that worked for me and drum up the willpower to stay consistent.

Like writing a novel, eating and exercising is all about developing the habit. Even if you fall off course for a day or week or a month, good health is always waiting for you to return, just like the page itself. Both personal health and writing are worthy, lifelong pursuits that require faith in the process, even when you might not see the initial results you want.

The key is to remain almost irrationally stubborn and keep showing up.

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David Oppegaard is the author of Claw Heart Mountain, The Town Built on Sorrow, The Firebug of Balrog County, The Suicide Collectors, Wormwood, Nevada, And the Hills Opened Up, and The Ragged Mountains. His work has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and a Minnesota Book Award.

David’s work is a blend of science fiction, literary fiction, horror, and fantasy. He lives in St. Paul, MN, with his wife and their ravenous cat.

For more information, visit David’s website/blog and connect with him on Twitter.

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Claw Heart Mountain: