Hi All,
Thanks for taking the time to check in this week! Congratulations on all of your good efforts towards your weight loss goals.
While we travel this weight loss journey together it’s important to know that, as
Dr. McDougall says, the most important thing to get right is the food. This group puts a lot of focus on going over and reinforcing the MWL food guidelines, as well as learning strategies to implement them in the face of uncertain conditions. But, there are more steps one can take towards healthy, happy living and today I thought I would highlight a couple of resources that may add to your knowledge of ways to improve your wellbeing and personal life satisfaction.
Jeff Novick’s thread
Triage Your Health Efforts: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is an excellent summary of where we should focus our efforts to maximize our health. Here is a list of the 5 Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics identified as most important in reducing early mortality:
1) Smoking: not smoking, including ex-smokers;
2) BMI: body mass index 18 to under 25 Kg/m2;
3) Diet: 3 or more portions of fruit &/or veggies/day was accepted as ‘healthy’, together with < 30% of calories from fat;
4) Physical activity: walking 2 or more miles to work each day, or cycling ten or more miles to work each day,
5) Alcohol: three or fewer units per day
Also be sure to read the post (in the same thread) in which Jeff selectively summarizes
Dr. David’s Katz’s 6 key domains of importance to lifestyle medicine:
First, we cannot personalize care for genes and intestinal microbes, and leave out the person. So, the first tier of hierarchical personalization is holistic. I have the 6 key domains of importance to lifestyle medicine in mind: social connections and relationships; stress and mental health; sleep; toxic exposures (substances, chronic pain, harsh environments at work or home, etc.); physical activity; and dietary pattern. Fundamentally, we can’t hope to personalize care without knowing who a person is, in the context of their life.
The reason I was thinking about these other healthy lifestyle factors this week is because I recently finished reading a book called
Why We Sleep** by
Dr. Matthew Walker and I was trying to remember if sleep was listed as one of the 5 Healthy Lifestyle factors (It was talked about by Jeff
here.
) Based on how much importance Dr. Walker places on getting enough sleep for good health I would like to share a guide that he draws from in the appendix of the book on tips to have a good night sleep put out by the
National Institute of Health:
A Good Night’s Sleep.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning a bit more about
why we sleep and dream. I have heard Dr. Lisle discuss it in at least one interview which is available on YouTube I think (if anyone remembers which one, please feel free to link it).
And now I will take Dr. Walker’s advise and bid you all a good night! Best wishes for the coming week.
Sweet dreams,
Amy
** Here is an excellent op-ed/summary of the book by past BMJ editor Richard Smith:
Why We Sleep: One of Those Rare Books that Changes Your Worldview and Should Change Society and Medicine.
Here are the results for the fourth week in June:Next Weigh-In is on Friday, July 5th, 2019Total group loss reported in 2019: 311.72 pounds
June 2019 Weight Loss Group :: Monthly Weigh-In Results
Total group loss in January 2019: 140.53 pounds
Total group loss in February 2019: 78.64 pounds
Total group loss in March 2019: 7.4 pounds
Total group loss in April 2019: 33.55 pounds
Total group loss in May 2019: 38.2 pounds
Total group loss in June 2019: 13.4 poundsWeek ending 06/28/2019: 6 participants reported a total loss of 1.9 pounds
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Cmwann - 1.0
Spirit3330 - 0.6
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Total gains: 1.6
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ShortnSweet - 2.0
LauraG - 1.0
Belana - 0.5
Moonlight - 0.0
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Total losses: 3.5
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Total group loss in June 2019: 13.4 pounds
Week ending 06/28/2019: 6 participants reported a total loss of 1.9 pounds
Week ending 06/21/2019: 9 participants reported a total loss of 5.2 pounds
Week ending 06/14/2019: 6 participants reported a total loss of 4.3 pounds
Week ending 06/07/2019: 15 participants reported a total loss of 2.0 pounds