When it comes to health and wellness, my philosophy is “keep it simple.” Great things aren't accomplished overnight and trying to do too much too quickly can become frustrating, counterproductive, and ultimately unsustainable.
I always recommend to my patients to “pick the low hanging fruit” first and then work forward from there. So for instance, if a patient wants to lose 50 pounds and really wants to be aggressive by completely upending their entire diet and says they want to work out for an hour and a half every day, I would say to them, “I think that's a great goal and you have amazing ambition, but let's take things one step at a time. Let's find a few of the ‘culprits’ we can eliminate first like that late night ice cream, or those 5-6 cookies you eat every day and make a gradual reduction in them over time while starting a gradually increasing exercise regimen.”
After a while, we can work on changing more foods, cutting back on others, starting new ones, etc. as well as beef up the exercise program. In my experience, the patients who make gradual lifestyle changes have a more sustained, long-lasting effect because they take the time to genuinely change lifestyle habits and not simply perform a “fad” change that is unsustainable. Habits that are formed over years are stubborn and need to be tackled with patience and persistence over time.
By Dr. Joshua Block, ThedaCare Physicians-Darboy
