Eat Your Ice Cream

Introduction

• “You have now lost that added time the gurus promised you. And you’ve lost it in the prime of your life.”
• “There’s a lot to be said for living fully and being present, not constantly monitoring our activity tracker or feeling guilty for not achieving every wellness goal.”

1. Avoid self-harm

• Don’t smoke
• Avoid alcohol (and drink driving or text and drive)
• Avoid too much UV rays: Wear clothes and apply sunscreen
• Get cancer screening (I’d add “appropriate”. Some tests such as PSA is not suitable for men without symptoms, but some clinics sell them in a package regardless. See national health screening recommendations in Singapore.)
  • “the vast majority of men with prostate cancer will die with prostate cancer, not of prostate cancer.”
• Avoid owning a gun (a non-issue in Singapore where it’s illegal to own firearms)
• Avoid drugs and colonic cleanse
• Consider the risks of extreme sports such as climbing Mt Everest and BASE jumping

2. Talk to people

• Aristotle: “man is by nature a social animal”
• Harvard Study of Adult Development → Second Generation Study (since 1938): “The people who were happiest, stayed healthiest as they grew old, and who lived the longest were the people who had the warmest connections with other people. In fact, good relationships were the strongest predictor of who was going to be happy and healthy as they grew old.”
• Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study: “they also found a strong association between increased social activities and diminished risk of developing functional impairments, such as needing help with dressing, walking indoors, and bathing.”
• “A recent meta-analysis spanning nearly 15,000 people in 10 countries found that more parental use of technology like smartphones is associated with worse cognitive and psychosocial outcomes in kids younger than 5 years old.”
  • “It also showed that more tech use by parents is associated with more screen time for these young kids.”
  • Limit phone rings and vibrations
  • Create phone-free zones
  • Weekly phone break (or use an Apple Watch with cellular data, like Geoffrey Litt does)

3. Mind

• Crystallized intelligence: knowledge accumulated over a lifetime and consolidated in the brain’s neocortex as long-term memories.
• Fluid intelligence: the complex ability to think critically, reason about novel or unfamiliar problems, and develop new skills.
• It is possible to delay the age-related onset and speed of cognitive deterioration by “exercising” your brain. Avoid passive activities (e.g. TV) and repeating the same activity over and over (e.g. crossword puzzles); they don’t enhance the breadth of our brain’s function.
• Education forced our brains to literally make new associations and connections between the brain cells.
• Avoid sweet, non-nutritious, ultra-processed food (linked to faster cognitive deterioration)
• Sleep enough (the book didn’t specify how much)
• Evidence for exercising to reduce the decline in mental functioning is mixed. (But no harm!)
• Social contact with friends seems to help more than family interactions (perhaps because the former requires more cognitive effort)
• Don’t retire. If you want, think about what you can do that would be useful and helpful to the lives of others.
• Benjamin Franklin: “When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensations and ruining his health in their pursuit, Mistaken man, said I, you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you give too much for your whistle.”

4. Food and drink

• What we eat affects our body and our brain health.
• Ultra-processed foods are essentially drugs. Researchers found that the brain circuits activated by foods with high fat and sugar content are similar to that activated by drugs and other abused substances in the brains of addicts.
• GLP-1 also causes a loss of muscle mass. After about a year, most people on GLP-1 drugs experience a plateau in their weight loss. Because the drugs are costly, require weekly injections, and have side effects, majority who try quit. Once they stop, they return to their baseline measurements in their weight, cardiovascular function, and kidney function.
• Exercising self-control over and over while trying to adhere to a complex and rigid diet will deplete willpower. We become exhausted fighting against temptations and cravings. Any extreme diet is hard to maintain for a long time.
• Food and drinks to avoid (just don’t have them at home)
  • No soda or diet soda (0 nutritional content) Coffee with sugar is the same!
  • No snacks (pastries, cereal) → Fruits, nuts, tortilla chips without salt
  • No ultra-processed foods (even white bread!)
  • Cut salt (or even none)
  • Limit alcohol to at most one a day
• Food and drinks to eat: yogurt, nuts, vegetables, fruits
  • Fermented foods, such as yogurt (good for gut microbiome)
  • Dairy in moderation (his argument that Dutch are tall because they eat dairy seems rather weird)
  • Enough protein and don’t over consume meat
    • Protein powders are usually highly processed and laced with sweeteners and heavy metals
  • Fiber (apples, kiwis, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, almonds)
    • Eating oranges is better than drinking the juices because the fruit has more fiber
  • Unsaturated fats (fish, almonds, avocados, extra-virgin olive oil, canola and sunflower oils, chia seeds)
  • Unprocessed carbohydrates (whole grain bread, non-instant oatmeal , fruits, vegetables, and beans)
  • Organic (mostly due to pesticides and chemicals)
  • Desserts (consider it a special occasion)
• Learn to cook (to control what you eat, especially salt) and try one new recipe every week. And don’t eat alone.
• He and his family ate both breakfast and dinner together. It is also a good opportunity to spend intentional time together.
• “How” to eat
  • Don’t skip breakfast
  • Avoid late-night snacking
  • Benefits of intermittent fasting are unclear but he fasts for 24 hours one day a week
• Evidence for most supplements is not definitive (except those for certain populations such as pregnant women, breastfed babies, and vegetarians)
  • Studies show that multivitamins are not beneficial
  • “Folate and iron for women of childbearing age. Vitamin B12 for vegetarians, vegans, and the elderly. Vitamin D for those who don’t get 15 minutes of sunlight a day. The rest is at your discretion but probably a waste of money.”

5. Exercise

• 3 types of essential exercises
  • Aerobic (works your heart, lungs, and circulatory system): Find a type of cardio that you like to do, do it for a min of 75 minutes per week, and don’t worry about what zone you are in
  • Strength (to increase and maintain muscle mass): Weightlifting, pushups, pull ups, swimming, squats, climbing stairs, walking uphill, cycling, skating, and dancing
  • Balance and flexibility: Yoga, stretching
• He doesn’t recommend heavy-contact sports because of the significant risk of serious head injuries.
• CDC recommends 150 minutes per week (~20 minutes per day) of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week (~10 minutes per day) of vigorous exercise
• Downsides: Injuries and sudden death
  • Wear protective equipment
  • Focus on flexibility and balance
  • Warm up (10-15 minutes; the heart undergoes physiological changes that increase its blood flow and prepare it for exercise)
  • Cross train
  • If injury, don’t rush the recovery and rehabilitate properly (I once had runner’s knee for months because I didn’t do the rehabilitation exercises diligently and kept rushing back to exercise)
• VO2 max is a measure of a person's maximum ability to consume oxygen assessed at peak performance. It's one of the most predictive biometrics for cardiovascular health and overall mortality.
  • Measuring this accurately is complicated and requires a sports lab. Fitness trackers can provide a good rough estimate.
• The greater your grip strength, the lower your mortality risk. This probably has little to do with the strength in our hands and arms and more to do with overall frailty and lack of full-body conditioning.

6. Sleep

• 7-8 hours is a good rule of thumb
• Avoid caffeine intake at least 6-7 hours before bedtime and minimize naps, especially from the mid-afternoon on
• Myth: You need less sleep as you age. As we get older, we sleep less because of a decrease in deep, slow-wave sleep and a tendency to wake up more often. But that doesn't mean we need less sleep. To get the right amount, we may need to supplement with a nap.
• If you are an early bird, you are sleepy in the afternoon and need to be in bed before about 9pm. Be sure you don't schedule too many important meetings or try to make big decisions in the late afternoon or evening—that is the time you will have less energy and mental focus. Also don't attend lots of late-night parties. Get home early enough to go to bed and have a good night's sleep.
• Tips
  • Keep bedroom dark and cool
  • Avoid caffeine 7 hours before usual bedtime
  • Avoid alcohol close to bedtime
  • No screens an hour before bed
  • Exercise regularly and eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
  • Don't nap after 2pm
  • Avoid staring at the clock if you wake up at night
• Sleep medications are generally not effective in giving us deep, restorative sleep.
• Sleep trackers are generally not accurate and can make you more anxious. "The most accurate measure of good sleep is how you feel upon waking."

Afterword

• It's not necessary to score 100% in every area. A few occasional lapses won't measurably reduce your life and can even make you feel better.
• Wellness is not any single choice or action or diet. It's the cumulation of years and decades of the right lifestyle.
• Wellness is not just about the physical (food, exercise, sleep) but also the social and mental.
• Wellness is a lifestyle made up of overlapping patterns of behavior, all of which reinforce each other (e.g. exercising helps with sleep).
• An unfulfilling life, no matter how long and healthy, is not the ideal. A long life is worthwhile only if it is filled with meaningful relationships and activities.
• Benjamin Franklin: Be useful
  • Challenge yourself and constantly improve
  • Devote yourself to friends and acquaintances
  • Commit yourself to making the world a better place