Probiotics a good thing?

Over the last few years we are seeing the term “probiotics” being placed on various foods and being touted with many health benefits.  Probiotics refers to live micro-organisms that interact with your existing bacteria in your digestive lining to produce a positive effect on your health, primarily your immune system.

The general research has been very promising that these probiotics can help reduce the length of an illness in people compared to placebo interactions. Those taking the probiotics also showed increase in biological markers for improved immune function. While the results from these early studies are very encouraging, the problem is that every individual strain of probiotic strain has different effects. Currently there is no consensus on which the best are and how much of any of them we need to be the most beneficial. So don’t believe the hype on why you need to buy one type over another. And realize the probiotic effects may be limited, so don’t think overdosing on them is protecting you extra from other poor diet and health practices.  And just taking them in supplement form may do you no good, so it is best to get it in real foods so you at least get the other benefits from a healthy food.

So even though the research is not yet fully complete, it still might be beneficial to incorporate foods like yogurt with live bacterial cultures into your diet. Even if the probiotics don’t do anything for you, you still have eaten a nutritious food that has lots of other good benefits.

Switch part III - Shape the path

We have our riders directed and our elephants motivated; now it is time to shape the path. 

First thing is to tweak the environment. When the situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation. The best way to eat more fruits and vegetables is to only have fruits and vegetables in the house to eat. If there are no potato chips in the cupboard you are less likely to eat them at night when you go looking for a snack. Use a smaller plate if portion control is a problem. After making your bed place your bible on top so you have to pick it up before going to bed at night and you’re more likely to spend some time reading it. Don’t have clothes drying on the treadmill so it is easier to get on.

Next step is build habits. Look for ways to encourage habits. Place your work out clothes out on the floor, so when you wake up you step into them and get your daily walk done before the TV goes on. Pre-make healthy lunches and diners; so when you are rushed for time you have a healthy option instead of eating fast food. Use checklists to make sure you have walked 30 minutes at least 5 times each week. While recording your 5 fruits and vegetable servings, have a spot to write down one thing your thankful for each day. Find ways to encourage those habits, workout with a spouse or friend. Post on Facebook everyday what your exercise was or something that you are grateful for. Fill your grocery cart up with fruits and vegetables first then go down the processed food isle.

Last thing is to rally the herd. Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. Get the whole family involved. Get your work unit doing an exercise challenge like Live Healthy Iowa or 10,000 steps per day challenge. Start a healthy recipe exchange with friends on Facebook. Start a small group of friends doing a bible study once a week to help develop an attitude of gratitude.

For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. When it comes to your health that somebody is you. Direct the rider, motivate the elephant and shape the path to help you switch into the healthier you.

Switch Part II - Motivate the elephant

Last time we started looking at Chip and Dan Heath’s book entitled “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” and how it applies to improving our health.

Directing the rider as we talked about last week, usually isn’t hard as most rational people will agree that exercise, a good diet and stress reduction are staples to improving our health. The problem usually arises in motivating the elephant, the emotional side. No matter how smart our rider is, if the elephant doesn’t want to give up potato chips and sitting in front of the TV we are going to have a hard time making a change.

First step to motivate the elephant is finding the feeling. Knowing something is never going to be enough to cause change. You have to feel something for it to stick. How does it feel when it is difficult to get up from a chair? Not be able to climb a flight of stairs without stopping half way to catch your breath? Having to sit and watch your grandkids play and not be able to join in? What did it feel like when you could run a mile? What was it like to not be on 4 or 5 different medications because of health issues you have going on? How much fun would it be to play tag with your grandchildren in the yard? You have to find the feeling of why getting healthier is important to you, knowing you need to get healthier is never going to be enough.

The next thing is to shrink the change. Our emotional elephant can get spooked very easily when the task looks like it is too big to accomplish. We need to break down the change until it no longer spooks the elephant. Walking for 30 minutes seems impossible when you currently can’t walk more then 5 minutes without needing a break. But I can probably walk 6 minutes by the end of next week if I add 10 seconds every day. If I did that every week, in 6 months I would be walking for 30 minutes. Adding six helpings of fruits and vegetables is a lot when I’m lucky to get in one. But I can go from one to two for a month, keeping adding one per month and in less then 6 months I am where I want to be.

The last thing is to grow your people. This means to cultivate a sense of identity and instill a growth mind-set. People with a growth mind-set see their abilities are like muscles that can grow and change, fixed mind-set people passively accept status quo and don’t challenge it. A growth mind-set individual recognizes that failure is a natural part of the change process not a sign of overall defeat. The challenges now are the price for the pay off later as time goes by working toward success. A growth mind-set can be taught and practice is the key because everything is hard before it becomes easy.

The last thing we will discuss next week is shaping the path for the rider and elephant.

Switch - Getting to a healthier you

Chip and Dan Heath wrote a wonderful book entitled “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard”. It looks at ways to try and help us make changes. And most of us will agree change can be hard.  Many of us can improve our health with some changes to our lifestyle and habits, but often times these changes may be hard. Let’s look at applying principles of the book to improving health.

They point out that each us has an emotional side and a rational side. These two parts of our brains thinking are sometimes referred to the rider (rational) and the elephant (emotional). The rider can steer the elephant, but if the elephant wants to go somewhere else it can always overpower the rider. In order to be successful in changing things you have to reach both and clear a path for them to succeed. In short you have to “Direct the Rider”, “Motivate the Elephant” and “Shape the Path”.

Directing the rider isn’t to difficult because most rational people know that better eating, more exercise and controlling our stress is healthy for us. But here are a few things to help the rider.

First when it comes to directing the rider look for bright spots. Investigate times in your past that you may have been a little healthier with better diet, exercise and stress reduction. What was going on then and then clone it. Did you eat better because you ate home cooked meals instead of fast food? But now as the kids got older and you are taxing them to and from places it is easier to drive through for dinner? Maybe make your meals ahead of time so you can do the drive through at your own house. Did you exercise more because it seemed like you had more time? With the business of life, finding time is often times difficult. Maybe create a half hour of time by cutting out a half hour of TV each night.
Another technique to direct the rider is by scripting the critical moves. Don’t think in terms of the big picture (eat healthier, get more exercise, reduce my stress), think in terms of specific behaviors. Think eat one fruit for breakfast each day, two vegetables for lunch and half of my plate at dinner should be fruits and vegetables. Think no more chips and cookies for snacks only fruits and vegetables. Think walk 30 minutes every night with my spouse instead of TV. Think lift some weights on Tuesday and Thursday. Think spend 10 minutes each night before bed doing some meditation and relaxation breathing.

The last point for directing the rider is point to the destination. Change is easier when you know where you are going and why it’s worth it. I will be eating 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day and my cholesterol will be under 200 in 6 months, so I can get off cholesterol medication. I will be walking for 30 minutes each night, so I have energy and endurance to play with my grandchildren.

Next time will discuss motivating the elephant.