You guys! This book has CHANGED MY LIFE! Dr. Rangan Chatterjee gives us the tools to make simple changes in our lives that will change our lives! He takes us through 4 Pillars of Health: Relax, Eat, Move, and Sleep.
RELAX
"What I'm about to say probably sounds far-fetched, but here it is. The health problems of the majority of the patients I see-yes, the majority-are driven entirely by their lifestyle. It's not cuts or bruises or bacteria or a fungus or a virus or some tumor or hereditary disorder that's the source of their pain, but the way they're choosing to live. Their conditions are very often exacerbated by the fact that they're super busy. They wake up full stressed, rush to get the kids ready, do the school run, come back, try to juggle their jobs and their home life. On top of that, they might have other family members who require care and attention. From the moment they open their eyes, it's all go, go, go. Then, when their kids are finally in bed, they're straight into their emails or social media. At no point in the day are they just chilling out, or even alone. Everything they do is for someone else. When I mention this in my office, they roll their eyes, telling me, "But I just don't have time for me." To which I reply, "Well that, right there, is your problem.""
I don't know about you, but this sounded much like my life. Being a Stay-At-Home Momma, you do not get to choose when your workday starts, clock-out times do not exist, and you are on call 24-7! You have to go to work when you're sick, have a migraine, or are just simply exhausted.
In this book, Dr. Chatterjee gives us permission to Relax! He says, "I never thought that, as a doctor, I'd have to give anyone permission to do anything. I see my patients as adults who can make their own decisions. But daily experience has taught me that, when it comes to relaxation, a surprising number of people don't get any. So here I am, giving you doctor's orders: I want you to give daily relaxation as high a priority as food, movement, and sleep. I think our lack of routine switch-off time is one of the most pressing issues in modern society. For your health, it could hardly be more critical."
How many of you have scheduled daily free time? Yes, I said scheduled and daily! Dr. Chatterjee suggests having two 15-minute periods of time just for you per day. You could go for a walk (outside preferably), take a bath, read a book, sing, garden, or do just about anything that brings you happiness or joy!
He talks about enjoying a Screen-Free Sabbath. This where you do not get on any electronic device on Sundays. That means no Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Gaming, News, etc. This frees you up to spend uninterrupted quality time with your family, friends, neighbors, or even some quiet time alone.
How many of you practice some form of stillness everyday? Dr. Chatterjee suggests that practicing stillness for at least 5 minutes a day can improve such things as energy levels, being less reactive, and quality of sleep. For me, I practice at least 10 minutes of Meditation daily. I know it sounds weird, but with my migraines I can feel my brain rattling in the back of my head. Daily Mediation (I do mine in the mornings.) and evening Stillness allow my brain to relax. I can physically feel it calm down. Other improvements for me are: being in a positive mood, less explosive or reactive, I can handle stressful things more easily, less depressed, lessened anxiety, and just being more peaceful as a person.
EAT
Do you honestly know how much sugar you are consuming in a day? You may say that you are on a low-sugar diet by avoiding candy, pastries, and baked goods. While that is good, I want to make it absolutely clear that you are still getting added sugars in your diet if you are consuming any processed or prepackaged food items. If we are to truly "De-Normalize Sugar," then we must eliminate all processed and prepackaged food items from our diet or at least read the nutrition label to check sugar content.
Dr. Chatterjee gives helpful advice on how to increase your chances of success in removing sugar from your diet and he lists some strategies to help with sugar cravings.
I don't know about you, but eating Vegetables and enjoying them is just about the hardest thing I have ever done! However, the more ways I find to sneak them into my diet, the better I feel!
How many servings of Vegetables do you eat daily? Dr. Chatterjee suggests eating at least 5 servings of Vegetables a day, and wait for it...from all different colors! Different colored Vegetables contain different nutrients that are essential to our bodies. Here are a couple of his recommendations for increasing your Vegetable consumption: "(1) Add 2 Vegetables to every meal, including breakfast and (2) A tip that I use with my children is to serve them their Vegetables first. Only when they have eaten them will I dish out the rest of the meal. This works for adults too!"
One of my goals for 2021 is to UNPROCESS MY DIET! Dr. Chatterjee suggests avoiding food products that contain more than 5 ingredients. I also avoid food products that contain ingredients that I do not understand. My rule of thumb is: If I cannot pronounce it or it's not a natural ingredient, then it's not good for you!
"More and more people are finding out for themselves that when you return your diet to foods that are minimally processed, weight, appetite and general health all seem to take care of themselves. Consciously change your diet and you unconsciously change your health!"
I could go on and on about this section, because of my fascination with how food affects the body! However, I will end this section by making this one point VERY clear! When choosing what foods to put in your body, think quality over quantity (calories), fats, sugars, and carbs! Dr. Chatterjee says, "I don't like to demonize any one macronutrient, be it fat, carbs, sugar, or whatever. Food is much more complex than its isolated parts. Very few foods in nature actually comprise just one macronutrient--the majority are made up of various combinations. Eggs contain fats, protein and carbs. Even vegetables like kale and broccoli contain carbs as well as protein. So how can you possibly remove one isolated micronutrient from your diet? YOU CAN'T!"
MOVE
"Forget calories. Sorry to be blunt, but I believe our obsession with calories is not only misguided but also actively damaging our health, It reduces the importance of food and physical activity to a simple equation and it ignores entirely the massively connected biological machine that is the human being. Health is so much more than a comparison of calories in versus energy out. And you have to ask yourself whether our cultish adherence to this dubious idea is even working anyway."
"Another problem that has stemmed from the keep-fit craze is that it's conditioned us into seeing "exercise" as a thing that happens separately from the rest of our lives. We do it at specific times of the day, scheduled alongside the household chores. We do it in special clothes. we sometimes go to a particular place that charges us lots of money to do it--and then we leave, believing our "exercise" is now all finished until the next time and we can stop thinking about it."
"One increasing problem is that many people now, under the name of exercise, actually damage their health. Yes, it's true that as a society we don't move enough. But it's also true that some people actually need to do less. So many patients I see are feeling exhausted, working all hours of the day, not resting properly, and then working out hard at the gym. We've all got a reserve bank of energy, and we're constantly chipping away at it and not taking the time to replenish it. Like most things, exercise has its ideal dose. Are you overdosing?"
When I think of "overdosing," I think of drugs, caffeine, and food, but exercise was never included on that list. I never realized that someone could overdose on exercise!
I don't know about you, but for me exercise was becoming more of a chore, an item to be checked off on my list of many "to-do's," rather than a release, a rejuvenation, or something to make me feel better. The truth is it wasn't making me feel any better at all and I was getting angry with my body for not being able to push as hard as I used to before having my baby. It wasn't until I read this book and make some key changes, that I can honestly say that I enjoy exercise and I do it everyday!
Here are the key changes I have made from the suggestion of Dr. Chatterjee:
Change the term "Exercise" or "Workout" to MOVEMENT or for me Morning Movement.
Make a commitment to yourself to do your Movement for at least 5 minutes a day.
That's it! That's my secret!
Yes, I said move for at least 5 minutes a day! Why 5 minutes? Because 5 minutes is reachable! Everyone has 5 minutes. It doesn't matter how tired you are, what excuse you can come up with, or how sick you are, you have 5 minutes to invest in your health! I do my 5 minutes of morning movement on days when I have a cold, feel nauseous, or even have a migraine. My morning movement may only be 5 minutes of stretching on those days, but you know what? IT COUNTS! Why do I move on days that I'm sick? It's because I am always in a better mood after and it allows me to better show up for myself and my family!
On days when I wake up feeling good, I push harder by doing movements such as Barre, Dance, Pilates, or Strength, whereas on days I wake up feeling tired or my body is aching, I do more relaxed movements like Stretching or Yoga. You will start to understand just what your body is in need of, the more you listen to it.
Dr. Chatterjee suggests to make the world your gym. He recommends getting at least 10,000 steps a day. We, as human beings, oftentimes try to find ways to do less when it comes to movement and in order to get to 10,000 steps a day, we need to move more! That means parking away from the store, that means walking your kids to school (if the school is near by), that means taking the stairs, and that means making a conscious effort to move more!
We, as a society, have complicated exercise. Media says we must spend money to go to the most popular gym, on special clothes, or even on a fancy trainer. Let me simplify things for you, all you need is yourself and at least 5 minutes! You don't need a gym, you don't need special clothes, and you don't need a trainer. (If going to the gym, wearing the special clothes, and having a trainer gets you motivated or works for you, by all means do it! However, sometimes feeling like you need all of those things is expensive and overwhelming.) Let me tell you, my heart rate can get really high in just 5 minutes of a HIIT Exercise, lifting Weights, or even just doing something as simple as jumping jacks or high knees. Also, once you start to enjoy the side effects of moving your body, you will want to do more than 5 minutes!
SLEEP
"We're in the middle of a sleep deprivation epidemic. We not only have far too many distractions in our daily lives but we also live in a "sleep is for wimps" culture that associates this natural and critical bodily function with laziness. Scientists from Oxford University claim we're getting between one and two hours less sleep per night than we did sixty years ago. In the context of an eight-hour sleep cycle, that's a hugely significant drop of up to 25 percent. Want to know how damaging this is? It's actually possible to put a number on at least one aspect of it. Sleep deprivation is thought to cost the British economy about $55 billion a year."
Dr. Chatterjee suggests 5 things, that if adopted, can help us to get better sleep.
Create an Environment of Absolute Darkness
Embrace Morning Light
Create a Bedtime Routine
Manage Your Commotion
Enjoy Your Caffeine Before Noon
Did you know light plays a major role in our sleep? "Prioritizing sleep starts the minute we get up and one of the best things we can do is get outdoors in natural daylight. Light is quantified in units called lux. Full sunlight gives us about 30,000 lux, and going outside on a cloudy day gives roughly 10,000. If we're in a brightly lit indoor room, we're unlikely to be getting any more than 500 lux."
"Darkness is a signal to our bodies that it's time to rest." The more light we are exposed to after sunset, the harder time we will have sleeping. Dr. Chatterjee suggests limiting your exposure to bright lights before bed, including artificial indoor lights, Television lights, and all Screen lights. He also suggests adopting a "No-Tech 90" mindset, which is not using any technology for at least 90 minutes before bed.
While the "No-Tech 90" does help with my sleep, it also helps me to relax mentally or as Dr. Chatterjee says, "Manage Your Commotion." Here are a few other suggestions he provides to manage your commotion: "Don't watch the news, a thriller, or any similar commotion-causing program before bed, Don't discuss financial or stressful family matters in the evening, Make an entry in your gratitude journal before bed, and practicing Meditation before bed can help you quiet your mind." I have tried to adopt all of these practices in my evening routine and they seem to help me sleep better.
I know I have mentioned this before, but I feel like Mediation is worth mentioning again. I cannot be a stronger advocate for Mediation! It has helped me to quiet my brain and reduce my likelihood of getting a migraine. Which is a HUGE success for me! Meditation also helps to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. I have discovered this first hand and couldn't recommend it more!
When making decisions regarding your health please remember, "The mind all too often takes the path of least resistance and reverts to type. By designing our home environment we're controlling what can be controlled and maximizing our chances of success. Remember, about 90 percent of your health is determined by your environment, not your genes."
Dr. Chatterjee closes his book so profoundly, he says, "Now I've passed a distillation of this knowledge to you. And now you can't unknow it. The question is, what will you do with your newfound knowledge? Behavior change can be hard. I know this all too well. What makes the plan in this book different is that it is achievable for every single one of you. What job you are in doesn't matter, your ethical preference regarding food doesn't matter and where you live doesn't matter--everyone can apply its concepts in his or her own life. These small changes become your new habits and these new habits become your health. If ten minutes of meditation is too hard, start with one minute. If cutting out sugar is too daunting, start somewhere else. The key to this plan is balance--balance across all four pillars. Just as there is no One True Diet, there is no One Right Way to do this plan. Jump in and don't be afraid. Read it. Absorb it. Try it. Tell people about it. Succeed. Fail and try again. Above all, enjoy. It's a recipe for a longer, healthier and happier life. And you only have the one."
Thank you Dr. Chatterjee for gaining the knowledge needed to transform lives and sharing it with me and the world! Your words have truly changed my life!
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All quotes were taken directly from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's Book 'How To Make Disease Disappear.'
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For more information from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee or to follow him on Social Media please see the following links:
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