Eat, Move, Sleep

Rebecca Hyde Rowan Public Library

            “Eat Move Sleep” is Tom Rath’s formula for well-being.  The three activities are interconnected: eating a healthy breakfast increases your activity during the day, which makes for a much better night’s sleep, which makes it even easier to eat well and move more tomorrow.  Note that there are no commas in the book title.

            Rath’s premise is that most of your risk in life lies in the choices you make, not in your family tree.  So what are these small daily choices with big life-giving dividends?  Keep inactivity from killing you.  Most of us have a 10-hour span of limited activity, which for most of us includes our “work.”  It’s an epidemic of inactivity, mirrored in increases in diabetes and obesity rates.  So follow the twenty-minute rule:  at the very least, every twenty minutes, stand up and move around you workspace.

            The Rath advice for eating is “forget fad diets, forever.”  Most diets target a single element at the expense of the whole equation.  And calorie counting is insufficient.  Rath also dismisses the notion that it’s “ok” to eat everything in moderation, which is just an excuse to eat whatever you want.  Quality is more important than quantity.  What should be your overall approach to choosing foods?  Select foods with less fat, fewer carbohydrates, with as little added sugar as possible.  Make that your commitment instead of worrying about losing the extra pounds.

            As for sleep, just remember you are a different person (not nice) when you operate on insufficient sleep.  A study estimates that losing 90 minutes of sleep reduces daytime alertness by nearly one-third.  There is a cascade effect:  you achieve less at work, skip regular exercise, and have poorer interactions with colleagues and family.  An extra hour of sleep could be as important as one more hour of work.  Need more sleep?  Add more in 15-minute increments to your nightly schedule.  Rath sums it up: The person you want to fly your airplane, teach your children, or lead your organization tomorrow is the one who sleeps soundly tonight.