Eat Move Sleep. Tom Rath

— to take the first step.

      Each chapter has three research-based findings and concludes with three ideas for how you can apply them in your life. Challenge yourself to use at least one idea per day for the next month. Write them down. Post them somewhere in your home or office. See if you can make good decisions automatic.

      If one of these strategies works for you, stick with it. If not, move on to the next one. It’s up to you to determine which ideas make sense and can improve your life the most. No one can do everything in this book, period. But you should be able to add at least a few ideas into your daily routine. On the book’s website, www.eatmovesleep.com, you can:

       • Create a personalized Eat Move Sleep Plan based on your needs and behaviors

       • Use the Reference Explorer for direct links to more than 400 academic journals, books, articles, and notes

       • Download the First 30 Days Challenge and other tools to use with friends, groups, and teams

      Have fun. The key is to create a plan that works for your unique situation. If you apply some of the ideas with at least one friend, you can greatly increase your odds of building new habits. Or, if you prefer to test things as you go, keep moving at your own pace. Creating a few new patterns in the next month will lead to healthier choices for years to come.

      The Eat, Move, Sleep Equation

      Starting your day with a healthy breakfast increases your odds of being active in the hours that follow. This helps you eat well throughout the day. Consuming the right foods and adding activity makes for a much better night’s sleep. This sound night of sleep will make it even easier to eat well and move more tomorrow.

      In contrast, a lousy night of sleep immediately threatens the other two areas. That bad night of sleep makes you crave a less healthy breakfast and decreases your odds of being active. In the worst-case scenario, all three elements start to work against you, creating a downward spiral that makes each day progressively worse. This is why the book is structured to help you work on all three elements together and not broken into three parts about eating, moving, and sleeping.

      New research shows that tackling multiple elements at the same time increases your odds of success, compared to initiating a new diet or exercise program in isolation. Eating, moving, and sleeping well are even easier if you work on all three simultaneously. These three ingredients for a good day build on one another. When these elements are working together, they create an upward spiral and progressively better days.

      If you eat, move, and sleep well today, you will have more energy tomorrow. You will treat your friends and family better. You will achieve more at work and give more to your community.

      It all starts with making decisions like tomorrow depends on it.

The Three Building Blocks

       1

Forget Fad Diets, Forever

      If you find yourself confused by the latest diet trends and information, you are not alone. According to one report, three out of every four people claim that today’s ever-changing dietary guidelines make it hard to eat healthy. More than half of people surveyed find it easier to figure out their income taxes than to know how to eat right.

      This could explain why a majority of Americans are trying to lose weight, yet two-thirds are overweight or obese. One problem is that being “on a diet” is a temporary effort that assumes an endpoint. Many popular diets are destined to fail. When you see a book or advertisement claiming you can be healthy by doing just one thing for weeks on end, stop and think about the ramifications.

      The quality of what you eat matters far more than the overall quantity. This is the primary finding from a landmark Harvard study that tracked more than 100,000 people for two decades. The researchers discovered that the types of foods you consume influence your health more than your total caloric intake. Quality of food matters even more than levels of physical activity. As one of the Harvard researchers put it, “The notion that it’s okay to eat everything in moderation is just an excuse to eat whatever you want.”

      Many popular diets have some helpful elements, but only if they are part of a more holistic approach to eating. Think of all the diets you have tried. Keep the best elements of these diets in mind as you make choices. For your overall approach to eating, avoid anything that is fried, consume fewer refined carbohydrates, and eat as little added sugar as possible.

      Eating well does not need to be difficult or complicated. It is possible for healthy eating to be sustainable and even enjoyable. Set your sights on foods that are good for your near-term energy and long-term health. Making a commitment to eating the right foods every day is a lot easier than jumping from one diet to the next.

      Once you start eating better, give it time — a lot of time. People often bounce from diet to diet because they grow impatient. The body takes a long time to react to these dietary changes, usually a year or more, according to experts. Instead of worrying about losing 10 pounds in the next month, focus on making better decisions the next time you eat. When you make better choices in the moment, it benefits your overall health and well-being.

Make Inactivity Your Enemy

      Exercise alone is not enough. Working out three times a week is not enough. Being active throughout the day is what keeps you healthy.

      For centuries, our ancestors spent a large portion of their time moving around on foot. From the days of hunting wild animals to more recent times working on farms, a typical workday used to be spent doing physical labor. Over the past century, this has changed dramatically.

      On average, we now spend more time sitting down (9.3 hours) than sleeping in a given day. The human body is not built for this, and the obesity and diabetes it contributes to is a major public health problem. Watching your diet and exercising 30 minutes a day will not be enough to offset many hours of sitting.

      When I was growing up, my days were filled with physical activity. I spent most of my time running around the neighborhood with friends, playing basketball in my driveway, and practicing for other sports. When I look back, it is no wonder I felt so good and had boundless energy. Most of my waking hours were spent in motion.

      This is why it was a rude awakening when I started working full time. All of a sudden, the majority of my time was spent sitting. On my best days, I would spend an hour working out. Then I spent about an hour walking around my home and office. Add eight hours of sleep, and that left about 14 hours a day of sitting in a chair, car, or couch. Not exactly the active lifestyle I was used to before signing on to a desk job.

      Reducing this chronic inactivity is even more essential than brief periods of vigorous exercise. When scientists from the National Institutes of Health followed 240,000 adults for a decade, they discovered that exercise alone is insufficient. Even seven hours a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity was not enough to keep people alive. Among the most active group studied, who exercised more than seven hours a week, those who spent the most time sitting had a 50 percent greater risk of death from any cause. They also doubled their odds of dying from heart disease. Exercise clearly helps, but it will not offset several hours of sitting.

      Yet when you look at a typical day, it is easy to see how long periods of time when you are not in motion can add up. The challenge is to examine each of these situations. Figure out how to slowly add a little movement, or at least spend less time sitting each day. There are literally hundreds of moments in a day when you can embed extra activity into your routine.