One BIG thing
I’m sorry. I lied.
Last week I wrote that there was no one “big thing,” no single secret to living a healthy, weller-than-well counterclockwise life. I said that “the small stuff” was all there was. Let me amend that.
The small, everyday choices we make (or don’t), ARE important. Consider the excellent list of small actions taken by several readers who responded to last week’s post.
But, truthfully, there are a few BIG-ticket items, one-off significant changes that can make a huge difference in how and how quickly (or slowly) we age. The obvious one is smoking. Quitting smoking is probably the single most important health decision a person can make. But I am betting that none of you reading this are smokers, so let’s move on. Here are my top 5 BIG things. (And I promise never to lie to you again).
1. Eat breakfast. You wake up your metabolism and signal your body that you don’t intend to continue starving it. (Remember, you just fasted for 8 or 9 or 10 hours. Your body is now concerned. If you don’t deal with that concern in the morning, your body will want to store as many of the calories contained in the next meal you eat as fat – to guard against starvation.) If you’ve never heard of the Sumo Wrestler’s “Diet,” this is how it works: Starve the body all day, then eat all your calories at once. Then go to sleep. That’s how Sumo Wrestler’s put on all that weight. They DON’T eat 7000 calories a day. They eat a moderate 2500-3500. At one meal. Of course, breakfast is nutrient-dense, protein-rich, calorie-controlled. Greek yogurt, blueberries and chopped almonds, for example. Sorry, pan au chocolat n’est pas bien.
2. Trade your desk for a standing desk (or even a treadmill desk). Sitting is the new smoking! Sitting for hours negates the fitness benefits of the time you spend in the gym or the lovely long walk you took with your dog. I’m sorry. It’s true. Proceedings of the Mayo Clinic just reported that, for every hour of sitting, you wipe out 14 percent of the health benefits of one hour of exercise. That means 7 hours of sitting puts you back at square one.
3. Sleep 7 hours. Or, gasp, even 8 if you can manage it. (I can’t.) I’ve gotten along on 6 hours a night for years and years because I love early mornings but can’t seem to get in bed until 11 (and then read for a half hour). By “gotten along,” I mean I have the energy to do what I need and want to do during the day. But the health and antiaging benefits of 7-8 hours of sleep are undeniable.
4. Find and/ or cultivate a fitness buddy or posse. Friendships grounded in physical activity (as opposed to meeting up for drinks or dinner) are rich and rewarding, a fun way to stay on track, a great way to keep moving and stay accountable. When I hooked up with the Sweat Chicas, my fitness life got a HUGE boost.
5. Eat (mostly) plants.
4 comments
Lauren,
I found your book very helpful and like so much of what is in this blog. But I have to admit to being a little confused as I read recent entries. You say eating breakfast is one of the most important big things, but I’ve seen at least two reports in the past several months, if memory serves, based on recent solid research, saying that the breakfast thing is pretty much a myth and doesn’t have much impact on one’s weight and overall health. I wish I could remember the sources, but I’m pretty sure these were current and solid. Then, a week or so ago, and again in this latest post, you say to eat mostly plants (which has always seemed sensible to me, but what do I know?!) but do not mention the recent major study (covered in the press a week or maybe two ago) confirming at least to some degree the whole high-protein, low-carb diet philosophy.
It may simply be that I’m missing something, but if, given the prominence of these reports (I’m hardly following the stuff closely but even so they have been unavoidable; again, sorry I don’t have sources at fingertips), if you could offer some explanation for why your emphasis on breakfast, primary plants, etc is still right that would help a lot.
Thanks for all your good work!
Daniel
Thanks for your thoughtful feedback and questions, Daniel. Especially thanks for your kind words about my work. I remain a fervent believer in breakfast as a way to jumpstart morning metabolism. I have never read anything that negates that. Many people who don’t eat bfast say they don’t because they are “just not hungry in the morning.” Could be. Also could be that they ate themselves into bed the night before, so of course they’re not hungry after lying in bed for 8 hrs. (I know…This was me.) About a mostly plant-based way of eating. I did NOT say no animal product, rather animal products as a condiment to plants. One can eat a satisfying high protein diet without eating lots of animal products. (I just had a 19g protein Boca burger for dinner.) And the “low carb” thing doesn’t hold water if you look at complex carbs high in fiber (many vegetables and fruits). Hope this helps.
Lauren, Thanks for your response.
Having just eaten my breakfast and boosted my metabolism (!) I figured I should be un-lazy and actually find the references I was referring to. The recent work on breakfast and metabolism/weight/health apparently is from the August issue of Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which made a bit of a splash a few weeks ago–the piece I read was in the Times, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/is-breakfast-overrated/. I think it raises some big questions about the breakfast thing. Perhaps the most needed sentence in the Times piece, to my eye, is about how Cornell researchers suggest that SOME people may benefit from skipping breakfast. I tend to think there’s a lot of variability and that if people learn to listen to their own bodies they can find what is best for them. Big if, I know. 🙂
Personally, I love breakfast and rarely miss it, although I do okay if I do. But between this research and the fact that I’ve known so many people who skip it and do well without it (and do not stuff themselves before bedtime) that I’m a little concerned about an overarching statement that breakfast is one of the very most important things (and implicitly) for everyone.
On plants and stuff, it’s a piece from Annals of Internal Medicine that was written up here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/health/low-carb-vs-low-fat-diet.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C{%221%22%3A%22RI%3A7%22}. The lead sentence (probably misleading) of that report in the Times is: “People who avoid carbohydrates and eat more fat, even saturated fat, lose more body fat and have fewer cardiovascular risks than people who follow the low-fat diet that health authorities have favored for decades, a major new study shows.” Not surprisingly the study has generated controversy, but it does appear to be a non-trivial piece of work.
Personally, again, I’m all for vegetables and whole grains. Certainly the planet cannot support the way them of us what are wealthy tend to eat meat these days, and then there’s the livestock industry, which is about as massive an institutionalization of cruelty and inhumanity as you can find. But still, the evolving research on this stuff is endlessly interesting and I think, where the results really hold up, can make a real difference in people’s lives. Thanks again for your coverage of all this and for your gracious acceptance of comments in this space.
I did read the NYT coverage, and I think it’s a great example of bad science reporting. That is, whenever there is any kind of a study that appears to go against everything we’ve heard, it gets big coverage, bigger than it deserves. We have decades and decades of research on kids and breakfast, for example, with CLEAR evidence that eating breakfast has a significant, positive impact on performance in school. On the carb/ fat thing: Absolutely correct that the Adkins/ paleo meat/fat diet leads to big weight loss. But eating is not about weight loss. It is about overall health. Also…people who use to the low-fat way of eating often neglect GOOD fats. And the carbs that need cutting are the empty simple carbs, not the complex ones found in vegetables, legumes and grains.
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