There are really two things that drive New Year's resolution success. Number one is telling somebody about your goal. Chances are, they'll either join you in pursuing it or at least support you. Number two is to be concrete and specific. You don't want a goal like "becoming a better person," because there's no objective way to judge that. It's got to be something like "I'm going to call my mother once a week." Or "I'm going to cut my body mass index to 25." It can't be fudgeable.
We need a wholesale reevaluation of what health feels like. Most Americans don't even know what that is anymore. I want to tell people, "Listen, there are places where you can focus on your health, and it can actually be simple."
Medicine is a jealous mistress. It demands all your time.
Surgery has trained me better than anything else to connect with people.
It's a big issue for me - feeling like I should be helping every person who asks for something or who has a problem.
That's how most men connect - in bed. The physical connection is important because it reinforces the emotional one.
Here's the number one reason Americans are heavy: The brain, very smartly, wants nutrition. But the average American is not eating nutrients; he or she is eating empty calories. So you finish that 2,000 calories and your brain says, Keep going until you get nutrients.
The more decisions we make in a day, the more likely we are to make bad decisions - because deciding wears us down. You start making decisions in the morning, and by the middle of the afternoon, you're running on fumes.
One way to fuel the brain to make more decisions is to feed it carbs. So as the day goes on, you start to crave more carbs - especially women, because women tend to make more of the day-to-day decisions in our lives than men.
It takes around 30 minutes for your body to realize you're full, so if you're hungry when you sit down to eat, and you eat as quickly as most Americans do, you're just going to keep throwing down food before that feeling kicks in.
Much of eating is about customs and habits, and we've developed some unfortunate ones. Not enough families eat together. We eat in front of the TV while we're absorbed in a program. You know, the average person will eat up to 50 percent more food when distracted.
Our ancestors had to eat whenever food was around. And we're actually still hardwired the same way. The big difference is we don't have to hunt for our food. For us, "hunting" comes down to sliding the milk carton out of the way.
We know what we should and shouldn't put in our mouths, but in those times that pull on our souls, we revert to what's emotionally comfortable.
People change based on what they feel, not what they know. Which means that understanding all that advice doesn't matter if there's no deep, profound, visceral awareness of why it's important.
Any food products made from flour, especially whole-wheat flour, form gas when broken down in the large intestine. Beware of eating these types of food before bedtime to avoid feeling inflated in the morning.
Sweeteners, which can be up to 300 times sweeter than natural sugar, are known to increase appetite and result in overeating. Be on the lookout for artificial sweeteners, and when possible, steer clear of them.
Avoid buying frozen dinners and processed foods, as they are often overloaded with salt.
Rather than munching on a bag of potato chips, stick to fresh fruit and veggies.
The transfats found in margarine, packaged cookies, crackers and pasta increase fat in your midsection, and can actually redistribute fat from other parts of the body to the belly.
Before you reach for the saltshaker, consider swapping your snacks for a healthier option.
Blend all ingredients. Drink with probiotic straws to maximize the benefits of a healthy diet and support normal absorption and assimilation of nutrients in the gut.
Packaged foods, partially hydrogenated oils and enriched flours are not your friends. Above all, remember this one word: transfats. Avoid it at all costs.
I believe science has a wonderful ability, in an unbiased way, to offer hope to many people who are confused, but it's not the only way to find hope.
If you can laugh your way through life, you can have a good time as you're going through the sometimes troubling time that we have in our lives.
If you change your lifestyle, remember it's not a wind sprint, but it's a marathon you're embarked on, and you'll be able to stay there.
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