Habits of Health

Listen up class!  Today we have something special to bring you.  It is our first of a series of posts from Dr. Wayne Andersen. 

A new book due out this summer, by well-respected physician Dr. Wayne Andersen, seeks to take a revolutionary approach to creating optimal health and weight management by offering common sense advice and direction, supported by proven, medical data.  In his book, Habits of Health, Dr. Andersen, a board certified critical care physician, does not advocate fad dieting or a miracle wonder cure; rather, it provides the knowledge and support to help people achieve optimal health.  The book seeks to offer an easy guide to establish long-lasting, improved health.

Dr. Andersen graduated from the University for the Health Sciences medical school in Kansas City, where he was valedictorian of his graduating class. Dr. Andersen became the tenth physician Board Certified in Critical Care.  For 18 years, Dr. Andersen directed the Surgical Critical Care Program at Grandview Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, and was Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Andersen is currently Medical Director of Medifast, Inc., an innovative leader in the production, distribution and sale of weight management and health management products.  As the chief architect of Take Shape for Life, Dr. Andersen has built an integrated support system that helps people make the necessary changes in their lifestyles to create optimal health. Dr. Andersen provides leading nutritional solutions, medical support and the support of caring individuals, to provide the necessary one-on-one interaction so vital in changing peoples’ lives. Dr. Andersen resides in Annapolis, Md.

Habits of Health seeks to help people to be the healthiest they can be with what they have.  Through his book and the accompanying workbook, Dr. Andersen provides a roadmap and an opportunity for people to choose a better life. 

“This book stresses the fact that achieving optimal health is an active process, and it is reminds people that the small things we do every day make all the difference,” Andersen said.  “Everyone has the fundamental choice and opportunity to choose a better life for themselves, and in this book I show them how to do that. I want to show people they have the power to create optimal health within themselves.”

The book is available for preorder at the beginning of July and will go on sale in bookstores nationwide end of July.

Visit http://drwayneandersen.com to learn more and purchase Habits of Health.

Now for your reading pleasure, our first in a series of posts:

Surviving in an unhealthy environment (being too busy, fast food appeal, stress, etc) by Dr. Wayne Andersen

When people tell me they don’t have the time to be healthy, that they are just too busy, I say: “If you are reacting to your life and your circumstances, that is absolutely right. You don’t have time.” If you say that you are just too busy to be healthy, then that means you are going through life not prioritizing your health. 

It starts with an understanding of priorities. 

Yes, you do have time. We have to go back to the beginning and ask a fundamental question: If you had the choice to choose optimal health, would you take it?  Everyone would say yes. If they hesitate, it’s not because they don’t want it, it’s because they don’t think they can get it. We choose to be free; it’s inherent in us.  We go out of our way to obtain freedom. It’s the same thing with health. Once you make the choice of optimal health as your goal, you arrange your life around achieving that.

If you wanted to become a world class pianist what would you do everyday?  You would practice. If you came home tired you would still go down to the piano rather than the couch because it would support your primary choice.  Secondary choices are not necessarily things you want to do but you do them anyway because they support what you really want.

Sit down and determine your current reality and organize your life around what really matters. One of your choices should be optimal health. We live in an obesegenic world (definition of obesegenic: likely to cause someone to become excessively fat.) The forces over us are not our friends. They are not there to support us. They are there to sell product. Every day there is something new to make it easier and easier to keep you from doing any motion at all. If you simply give into those forces, they will overcome you.

You have to take control of your health and your life.  You have to go into your kitchen and investigate the “landmines.” In general, you have to reorganize your life around things that are healthy. Get a big trash bag and remove as much of the processed food as you can, the foods with lots of salts, saturated fats or heavy animal fats.  Go to the grocery store and shop around the perimeter aisles.  Buy high quality food. Yes it is expensive, but these foods will last.  Processed foods increase your appetite and cravings because they are loaded with sugars and salts. Our palette is totally obliterated that we hardly taste our food, so we eat larger quantities to signal we are done.  High quality food has higher nutritional content.  Hunger will go down, taste satisfaction will go back up. We get 95% of our taste satisfaction in the first three bites, so make it count!

Is it okay to eat fast food every once in awhile?  Absolutely.  Is it the best for you?  No. But if you are taking care of yourself and treat yourself everyone once in awhile, it will have a minimal effect.  I am not a purist. We live in a world where there is a lot of temptation, with lots things we love and crave. There is no need to eliminate those things from our diet. Simply change your daily choices to support health.  I strongly recommend everyone eat every three hours, 25% starch, 25% protein and the rest vegetables and fruit.  If you want to go and have an Italian ice, it’s a better choice than having a bucket of Häagen-Dazs. It should just be the exception, not the norm.

My mindset is this: focus on what you want to create. Then give yourself a couple of choices. Once you have deprogrammed your body, fast foods and processed foods don’t taste very good any more.  It’s not that I deny myself from going to McDonald’s. I choose not to go there, not because I’m denying myself, but because I honestly don’t desire it any more.  Most people eat fast food because they are out on a really busy day and it is there. It is convenient. Drive up, plop down money and food is right there. No mess, no fuss. You have to think ahead. Understand that you have complete control. Spend 20 minutes, cut up fresh carrots and celery, nuts and fruits and put them in a bag to eat when you’re on the run.

Keep in mind that stress response can make you unhealthy also.  Being stressed is tremendously dangerous over time because it affects sleep, causes weight gain and other secondary conditions. Stress needs to be released naturally.

About 27,000 emblems and logos stimulate and bombard us on a daily basis. Cell phones, iphones, blackberries… it is all overwhelming. We are constantly in communication.  And as wonderful as these tools are because they give us mobility, it doesn’t allow the body to discharge. Your body needs time to defrag, needs time to rest. Constant input into brain causes stress.

Many people now are actually addicted to stress.  Stress creates a feel-good chemistry, which lasts a while then goes away. When it goes away, you want it again which is tremendously dangerous to the body.  One of the best ways to relieve stress is exercise, quick exercises designed to release extra stress chemicals. Take time to actually turn off the stimuli.  Get in a position when you can create downtime and give the body some time to get back in balance.  Make time for your brain to settle down and turn off your hypothalamus and hippocampus, the emotional areas in your brain. Go for walk, relax, reprogram your thought process, meditate, whatever. Your brain is designed to be in relaxation mode, not this constant agitated, very high-emotional state. Look at the Okinawans. They live very controlled lives.  They control their stress, they don’t use a lot of new technologies, and they maintain balance. If you are spiritual person, you can use faith-based program as a form of meditation, but it doesn’t have to be connected to religion. Simply being around people who are your advocates and your friends relieves stress too.