The long hours and tough job of being a truck driver can weigh heavily on your health. That’s why we thought it was important to offer a list of important tips for healthy driving.
We care deeply about our drivers, and wish the best for them. Giving our drivers all the tools that they need to be better, safer, and more efficient is deeply important to us. So here are 5 tips for healthy driving!
Drink water
This one might seem obvious, but dehydration is a serious problem that leads to some pretty severe things. Now you might have heard before that you should “Drink 8 glasses a day!” believe it or not, this is a total myth. This is just something someone said once upon a time, and it took off – quickly turning into “fact”.
Your body is already armed with the ability to detect dehydration, it’s called thirst. Just drink when you’re thirsty. What is important is to drink water. Soda dehydrates you more because of the sugar, and is also the leading cause of obesity.
Eat Those Greens!
Our body runs off of things called vitamins. These give our cells energy, our hair its essential oils, our immune system white blood cells, and natural sugars. These vitamins are great for your body, make you feel full with very minimal calories, and gives your body a break from the grease and salt that you can find all too often on the road. Just keep a bag of apples in the truck with you. They are small, take little clean-up, and can do wonders for your body…but be careful! Eating a whole bag is just as bad as a soda. Sugar is still sugar.
Avoid Over-Use Of Stimulants
lets face it, coffee is a lifeline for many adults, and is actually good for you! But too much of anything will begin to hurt your body. Extended use of too much sugar and caffeine will begin to build up your tolerance, and it will stop working. Remember, everything in moderation.
Stay away from supplements. The supplement industry is 100% unregulated. The factories can put whatever they want into these bottles, and do not have to tell you whats in them. This can be very dangerous and potentially deadly.
Sleep!
Going to bed at a decent time, consistently is vital to every day life. Lack of sleep can lead to cognitive dissonance, immune system damage, mood changes, and even hallucinations. Sleeping is great. This is your body’s time to heal wounds or muscles, think through complex problems, and regulate hormones. Getting plenty of sleep is one the most important things in your day.
Proper Posture
Sitting in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time is not only, well, uncomfortable…but is also detrimental to your spine, hips and legs. Odd positions can warp your spine, shift your hips, and shave down joints. A warped spine causes a hunchback, leans, migraines, and balance issues. Clearly this is not something anyone wants to happen, but the worst part is you wont even know that it is happening until you look in the mirror and find you’re leaning sideways!
This is one of the most common things to happen to truck drivers, they’re called musculoskeletal disorders. Anything that changes the curvature of your spine is added to this group.
