8 Non-Negotiables for living Large and Well

What I’ve learned about health, movement, and self-care as a big-bodied person

For most of my life, I didn’t have a consistent routine, and I took my health for granted. As a kid, I stayed up too late, slept in on weekends, played video games, and ate as much junk food as I could. I gained a lot of weight in my youth, and most of it settled around my belly and love handles. I can’t back this up with science, but I’m convinced the oldest weight we carry is the hardest to lose.

In early adulthood, music gave me a reason to move, but I still didn’t have the structure I needed to take care of myself. I drank too much, lived on fast food with my band, and didn’t set foot in a gym until my mid-20s. Even then, I couldn’t stick with it. I’d go hard for a few weeks, then miss a day, then a week, then months. My interest in fitness showed up in short bursts of effort, followed by long stretches of burnout and guilt.

Over the past few years, something shifted. I’ve found a routine that actually works for me, and I’ve been sticking with it. These are eight of my non-negotiables: core habits that help me live Large and Well.

Exercise and Stretching

For bigger-bodied people, movement is essential to our overall well-being. Everyone’s needs are different, but here’s what’s been working for me: I go to the gym five days a week, Monday through Friday. Lately, I’ve been lifting for 45 to 60 minutes, working hard with only short breaks between sets. After that, I hit the StairMaster for 500 to 1,000 steps, depending on energy levels that day. I’ve also gone through recent phases with the assault bike and high-volume kettlebell swings. I like to mix up my cardio now and then to avoid stagnation and boredom.

I can’t stress enough how important stretching is. I do some basic stretching every morning to limber up and then more in the gym. A few simple ones I recommend are sky reaches, deep squat sits, standing toe touches, seated floor stretches, cat-cow, pigeon pose, and cobra stretch.

The ultimate goal is to find and maintain a good balance of strength, flexibility, and cardio. You can’t have one without the others, and still expect to age gracefully. As bigger-bodied people, we need to care for our heart and lung health just as much as we care about building strength and maintaining mobility.

The gym isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. Some people thrive in group workouts like CrossFit, Hyrox, OrangeTheory, or F45. Others prefer exercising at home with YouTube instructors or fitness apps. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. What matters is that we work to improve our overall fitness, day by day.

My current lifting split looks like this:

• Monday: Legs

• Tuesday: Back / Arms / Shoulders

• Wednesday: Chest

• Thursday: Legs

• Friday: Back / Arms / Shoulders

As tall people, building muscle takes consistent effort. I recently started hitting major muscle groups twice a week, and I can already see and feel a difference. Since I lift five days a week, I have the flexibility to isolate different muscle groups each day. If you’re only going to the gym two or three times a week, you’ll need to pack more into each session. In that case, full-body workouts are a great way to make sure you’re training every major muscle group often enough.

Walking

I used to take my dog to the park three times a day. I’d kick a ball for him and often just scroll on my phone. Physically, I wasn’t getting much out of it. A few years ago, I switched things up. Now, we walk 5km every morning, first thing. We usually do a beautiful loop along Vancouver’s Olympic Village seawall, across the Cambie Bridge, and back home. I love the varied elevation and the daily chance to walk by the water.

Beyond the dog walks, I rack up even more steps at the gym and during work. Altogether, I average 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day. That’s a big leap from barely hitting 5,000 just a few years ago. I feel way better now, and some of my best thinking time happens on the long morning dog walks.

If getting outside isn’t an option, hop on a treadmill or StairMaster, or invest in a walking pad. Try mixing indoor and outdoor walks. Just get as many steps as you comfortably can each day.

Supplements

I’m the first to call out how almost everything in the health and wellness industry is a grift. I’ve fallen for trendy supplements and influencer hype. But after cutting through the endless noise, here’s what I’ve landed on: creatine and electrolytes genuinely make me feel better.

I’ve cycled on and off creatine for years, and I can confidently say I feel noticeably stronger and more capable in the gym when I take 5 to 10 grams of creatine monohydrate daily. The brand I use is Creapure, which is widely considered one of the best. It’s made in Germany, rigorously tested, and 99.9% pure. I mix creatine with Organika electrolytes in my water bottle and sip it throughout my workout. It’s simple and easy to remember. Electrolytes help with hydration and blood pressure regulation, while creatine supports strength and cognitive function. When I’m consistent with it, I feel 20 percent stronger in the gym.

The only other supplements I take are a daily probiotic for gut health (I use Seed probiotics) and a clean whey protein (I use Body Energy Club Clean Whey). At 6'8" and 295 pounds, getting enough protein is a challenge. A scoop or two of whey a day helps a lot.

I know there’s value in other supplements beyond what I’m currently taking, but I want to get blood work done first and understand where I might have deficiencies before adding anything new. I’ve made the mistake of taking random supplements in the past. That’s usually a waste of money, and can be a health risk. You should be able to explain why you take something, and what it’s doing for you.

Mouth Tape

I used to feel exhausted all the time. I snored loudly, my wife hated it, and I often woke up a few times a night, convinced I had sleep apnea. I took a sleep test, and the results were inconclusive: “mild apnea,” a few breathing interruptions throughout the night, but not enough to warrant a CPAP.

I tried things like wedge pillows and mouth guards to stop the snoring, or the feeling that I wasn’t breathing well, but nothing really worked. Then I discovered mouth taping.

I bought some basic 3M medical tape. At first, I layered small strips across my lips in random patterns until my wife pointed out that I could just put one long piece horizontally across my mouth.

Now, after about a year of taping, I sleep way better. My Apple Watch tracks my breathing, and I stay within a healthy 12 to 20 breaths per minute. I no longer feel that afternoon energy crash.

You don’t need expensive specialty tape. I use 3M medical tape, and it works fine. It doesn’t irritate my skin or mess with my moustache or beard. Sometimes there’s a slight tug when I take it off in the morning, especially when my facial hair is longer, but it’s no big deal. A $20 box of 12 rolls lasts forever. I truly can’t recommend it enough.

If I go to bed feeling a bit congested, I’ll still tape, but I leave a small gap at the corner of my mouth where I don’t press it down. Then I focus on regulating my breathing, alternating between mouth and nose inhalation. Usually, my nose clears up within a few minutes and I can seal the rest of the tape. If I’m properly sick though, I skip it. Just use your best judgement.

Note: To be clear, I’m not suggesting that mouth tape cures sleep apnea. I’m not a doctor. I’m simply sharing that mouth taping has helped me sleep better and wake up feeling more rested. Your experience may be different.

Avoiding Alcohol

Alcohol was always around me. Never an addiction, just ever-present. On tour with my bands, drinking was part of the daily routine. At home, working in bars, I’d catch a buzz during my shift, then race through last call and cash out so my colleagues and I could grab a few drinks before the 3am spots closed.

When I quit drinking on January 2nd of this year, I told myself, “I’ve been drunk thousands of times, all over the world. I think I’m good.” I also realized that, given my size, I could drink a lot, but I never did anything particularly memorable or cool. I’d just sit around, calmly chatting with friends while absolutely pounding beers for no real reason. I spent way too much money and wrecked the entire next day, just to shoot the shit. Trust me, I’m a chatter. I can shoot the shit sober, no problem.

It’s pretty counterproductive to work out five days a week and then guzzle alcohol on the weekend. For years, my weekends were all about undoing the good things I’d accomplished Monday through Friday. And let’s be honest, we all make bad food choices when we’re drunk. I love waking up early on a Saturday or Sunday with a clear head, going for a long walk with my wife and dog, and hitting the local farmers market. The days of feeling like I got hit by a truck are behind me.

Since I stopped drinking, I’ve been enjoying a lot of non-alcoholic beers like Corona Sunbrew, Guinness 0%, and some of the great options from Athletic Brewing. My absolute favourite is Henry and His Science from Mikkeller.

Since cutting out alcohol, I’ve felt a major shift. My Apple Watch used to highlight my racing pulse during sleep after nights of drinking, and it was alarming to see. As big-bodied people, just existing in larger frames is already hard on our organs. We have to consciously care for ourselves. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is one of the worst things we can put our bodies through. Full stop.

Bidet

My wife thinks I’m nuts for jumping into butt talk this early in my Substack journey, but I’m obsessed with my bidet and I truly feel like it’s changed my life for the better. So here we go.

When I was young, I didn’t know much about hygiene. I showered, put on deodorant, and wore mostly clean clothes. The one fatal flaw? I hadn’t learned that you need to properly wash inside all the crevices of your body. There were a few brutal moments in early grade school when I clearly smelled like shit (or if we want to get scientific, ‘swass’) and got called out for it. It was decades ago, but I’ll never forget how it made me feel.

As I got older, I became obsessed with staying clean. I’d shower immediately after using the bathroom and did everything I could to avoid being “the big stinky guy.” I think this fear is kind of unique to big people. As a kid, I’d get blamed any time someone farted near me in school. Blame it on the big guy. To this day, I avoid farting in public at all costs. It wasn’t me. Please don’t blame it on the big guy.

Things changed for the better when I bought a basic bidet attachment for my toilet. There are a lot of brands out there that all do the same thing. Tushy is a popular one. Mine’s called Pickets. It cost about 40 bucks on Amazon and was surprisingly easy to install.

Bidet life is nice. Every time I use the bathroom, I walk away knowing I couldn’t be cleaner. Once shamed as a little kid for how I smelled, the bidet helped me let go of that lingering anxiety and embarrassment.

I was just talking bidets with my father-in-law, Joe, when he dropped this gem I have to share: ‘Why would you wipe your ass with a tree or a leaf when you could wash it?’ Wise words from a wise guy.

Fitness Tracker

When I got curious about my health data, I found an open-box Apple Watch SE for $200 and gave it a shot. It’s been great.

My watch tracks sleep, heart rate, standing hours, workout calories, and more. Some say Apple Watches overestimate results, like calories burned. Honestly, who cares? Seeing positive results and trends keeps me motivated. It encourages me to keep moving. Apple Watch users will relate to me when I say I have to close all my rings!

You don’t specifically need an Apple Watch. Big brands like Garmin, Whoop, Fitbit, and Oura Ring all do similar things. I’m an iPhone user, so I bought what made sense for me.

If you’re serious about moving more and monitoring your overall health, a fitness tracker is totally worth it. You don’t need to spend a fortune. Just get a basic one to start and see if you like it.

No Junk Food at Home

I love candy. Any sour candy is undoubtedly my biggest weakness when it comes to eating well. I used to walk into the grocery store with good intentions and walk out with a bag of fuzzy peaches, sour watermelons, or Jolly Rancher gummies. So I made a simple rule: no candy at home. The only exception I make is for Smart Sweets. Way lower in sugar and still hits the spot. Costco has six-packs, and I’m all over that.

I’m not militant. If someone brings candy to work, or there’s a bowl out at a friend’s place, I’ll get into it (I’ll probably go a bit too hard if I’m being honest). I’m not trying to deny my candy craving altogether. I need to enjoy my life. The goal is to create an environment that sets me up for success.

It doesn’t matter if your thing is chips, chocolate, or ice cream, it’s all the same deal: don’t bring it into your home. That choice goes a long way.

These days, I fill my grocery cart with whole, nutrient-dense foods: fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, and plain Greek yogurt. If there’s no garbage food and drink in the house, there’s nothing there to tempt me when I’m itching for treats.

Conclusion

These are eight of the habits that have helped me live Large and Well. I know some of these are high-level. I’ll dig into more specific routines and strategies in future posts. I wanted to start here, with some core non-negotiables that have made a big difference in my life so far.

For those of us in bigger bodies, life gets better when we build strength, care for our heart and lungs, stretch and move, eat food that nourishes us, and feel clean and comfortable in our skin. These habits aren’t about chasing perfection. They’re about creating a solid foundation that helps us feel a little better, day by day.

Thanks for reading. Next week: fashion wins, fashion fails, and how I learned to feel good in my clothes.

Kai