Take the stairs not the escalator or elevator. The gym I go to is underground and there are escalators and stairs. I’m always amazed when I see people who’ve been exercising at the gym on the treadmill or ironically, the stair master machine who end up choosing to take the escalator rather than the stairs! Every bit of extra exercise adds up, make it tougher on yourself and you’ll feel better.
Learn to cook! When you cook your own food, you know exactly what is and is not in your food. Many packaged and prepared foods use unhealthy oils, hidden unhealthy sugars such as corn syrup, and add exorbitant amounts of salt. Food manufacturers and restaurants know that salt, fat, and sugar make food taste better. Start simple with salads, like this tofu Caprese salad.
Eat fresh fruit. Avoid juices and dried fruit. While these may seem like good alternatives, we often over eat these. Yes, it may take more time to cut up and wash fruits such as apples and cherries, but the vitamins you get from fresh produce is always superior to processed versions.
Stop circling around the parking lot for the space closest to the store or your work place. Instead, pick a spot a little further away. Walking even an extra 2-3 minutes adds up when you consider how often we do it.
Carry your groceries in a basket not a cart. When you have to hold a basket you realize how much you’ve bought. This can help remind you to avoid over-shopping. Lifting that basket as you walk through the supermarket also helps to increase upper arm strength.
Take those electronic devices away from your kids for an hour or more. Go outside and play catch, tag, kickball, softball, frisbee, etc. By playing together as a family, you will teach your kids the value of physical activity and social skills. Sadly, these are being lost in our digital age. It may take more effort to engage your kids, but well worth it!
Turn waiting time into exercise time. If you are like me, you hate being put on hold while you are on the phone. I routinely put the phone on speaker and start doing squats or lunges until someone picks up the phone. It makes the time go faster and you get a decent workout.
The renowned author of books relating to healthy eating, Michael Pollan wrote in his book Food Rules, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. In just three sentences, he is able to summarize how we should all be approaching our daily eating habits. I actually have this quote framed on my office desk to remind myself and my patients the importance of eating properly.
“Eat food” means we should be nourishing ourselves and not eating “food-like substances.” What are “food-like substances”? These are things that look like food but are adulterated by man-made chemicals. Did you ever have trouble pronouncing the ingredients on a packaged item? If so, then you may want to skip that food.
“Not too much” refers to the fact that we should be eating reasonable portions relative to our activity level. Most of us these days live primarily sedentary lifestyles, sitting in an office, relaxing at home on the couch, or even me writing this blog right now. We need to eat accordingly and avoid excess calories. This can also refer to the fact that we should reduce our intake of high calorie foods such as fats and sugars.
“Mostly plants” references the fact that a lot of the studies regarding diets and health are finding that ingesting too much meat increases our risks of cardiovascular disease. Almost all animal protein will also come with some fat, usually the saturated type which can clog our arteries. Eating plants is also usually associated with a lower caloric intake. Plant fibers make us feel more full without providing a lot of calories compared to the same amount of meat protein.
Currently, there are so many fad diets out there such as Paleo, Whole30, Ketogenic, Intermittent Fasting, to name a few. While there are benefits to some aspects of some of these diets, most of them are not sustainable in the long run. Sure, maybe someone could follow it for six months or even a year, but for the rest of your life? Not likely. I recommend we eat sensibly most of the time and live by Mr. Pollan’s three simple sentences.
Constipation is among one of the most common gastrointestinal issues. There are many factors contributing to constipation including a low fiber/lack of water in diet, medications such as opioids, and diseases such as hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid). A classmate of mine from residency training recently made an amazing series of videos on YouTube. Dr. Jamie Malcolm is a board-certified gastroenterologist and internist and he did an excellent job describing the symptoms and some remedies.
Whole grains are amazingly good for you. They are high in fiber, which helps to lower cholesterol. They act like tiny sponges that can suck up cholesterols and fats that we eat and pass them out of our body. They are also very filling without adding many calories. Increased fiber in our diets has also been shown to reduce colon cancer. The thinking is that they keep things moving along in our digestive tract including some chemicals known to cause cancer, called carcinogens.
Types of whole grains include: quinoa, wheat berry, spelt, amaranth, farro, buckwheat, barley, and oats. These are great substitutes for rice in meals and go great with all sorts of seasonings. They keep for a long time in the pantry without refrigeration and are relatively inexpensive. Recently, I was making dinner and realized I didn’t have quinoa to make for dinner. However, I did find steel cut oats. Oats for dinner? It was actually quite good and I felt amazing the next day! I didn’t cook it into a porridge as one would have for breakfast, but I removed it from heat while it was still grainy, but slightly soft. I also added some fresh herbs and spices. As I have said in previous blogs, don’t let traditional concepts of what foods are “breakfast/lunch/dinner” foods guide your diet. I will definitely be cooking oats as a side dish for dinner in the future and maybe even incorporate them into salads for lunch. Look out for my posts in the recipe section in the near future!
We are learning that sleep is so important for our health. Need more proof, read The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington (yes, the founder of The Huffington Post). There are two points that she makes beautifully. First, she mentions that we as a society have relegated one of the most important aspect of our lives to something that is insignificant. Take for example, in comic books when a character is sleeping there is a thought bubble in which there are “ZZZ’s”. Arianna points out this is symbolic of a society that has assigned the most insignificant and last letter of the alphabet to something we should be prioritizing. Maybe they should have a thought bubble with “AAA’s”. She also has an epiphany that is somewhat philosophical. She thinks that if she had prioritized sleep in her younger days, she could have been far more successful and productive now. From a scientific perspective, this is very possible. Scientists have found that brain development in humans is thought to extend to about 25 years old. That means you still develop connections in your brain up until that point, after which its all gradually downhill from there. I have been guilty of many “all nighters” studying and movie marathons in my high school and college years. Could that have stunted my potential and what I could have been capable of achieving further down in my life? Possibly. It is a frightening thought. I would encourage people with children to teach them the importance of getting a good night’s sleep each and every night.
