This past weekend, I attended Dr. Oz‘s Health and Happiness Summit at Radio City Music Hall. The event featured renowned nutrition, fitness, and health experts who spoke on each of his or her areas of expertise about where health and happiness meet. That included tips on losing weight, improving one’s skin, eating healthier or getting better sleep.
I was live-tweeting the event, but I realize not everyone’s on Twitter or follows every single update. The experts relayed such great info though, I thought I’d share my notes here too:
– “Twenty-five of us are suffering from diseases that are a direct result of lifestyle choices.” -Lisa Oz
– “Eat real foods. Your grocery store is your pharmacy. Eat a plant based diet — it keeps toxins out of your body.” -Lisa Oz (who is, yes, also vegetarian)
– According to Dr. Michael Breus (aka The Sleep Doctor), your brain is most active during REM sleep…sometimes even more than when you’re awake.
– 75% of adults frequently have a sleep problem, such as waking during the night.
– Almost 50% of people snore.
– There are 88 clinical sleep disorder.
– 70 million Americans suffer from a sleep problem.
– “When you’re sleep deprived, you’re not as creative. Everything you do, you can do better with sleep!” – Dr. Breus
– With good sleep, you can (surprise) lose weight too. Dr. Breus did a study with Glamour in which they changed nothing in the participants habits expect that they got more sleep. Over a period of 10 weeks, participants lost 3-15 pounds each!
– With 8 hours of sleep, you can look 3 years younger. When you don’t get enough sleep, it causes puffy eyes, dark circles and lifeless skin color.
– For better sleep, take your vitamins! Vitamin B3 increases effectiveness of tryptophan and lengthens REM sleep. Vitamin B6 is required for serotonin production (the calming hormone), and B12 helps sustain a normal sleep pattern. Foods rich in vitamin B are whole grains, cereal, nuts, broccoli, an potatoes. Foods rich in trytophan include whole grains, dairy, meat, eggs, broccoli, and asparagus.
– Dr. Breus’ 5 steps to getting good sleep: 1) Select a bed time and stick to it; 2) Stop caffeine by 2pm 3) Limit alcohol 3 hrs before bed; 4) Limit exercise to 4 hrs before bed 5) get 15 min of sunlight everyday (you’ll be happier and more relaxed)
– According to Dr. Rovina Brock (Dr. Ro), 72% of Americans are overweight or obese; 1 in 3 kids are overweight or obese.
– “Change the way you think about food” Dr. Ro suggests your plate to have 50% veggies, 25% lean protein, 25% whole grains.
– Fiber and water are the key to weight loss. It revs up metabolism. Dr. Ro said you should be drinking half your body weight in water daily!
– Dr. Ro also suggests drinking 2 to 3 cups of dandelion root tea everyday to help with weight loss. It helps burn fat 25% faster.
– “On the days you don’t eat protein, are the days you age.” Dr. Nicholas Perricone
– The common denominator in many diseases (diabetes, heart disease, cancer) is inflammation. The foods you eat and your lifestyle choices causes much of this.
– Watercress salad is a natural dieuretic (and it makes skin to glow!). Dr. Perricone also recommends salmon for protein, & blueberries as excellent antioxidants/anti-inflammatories.
– Don’t give up chocolate! Look for bars with high cocoa content (about 70% cocoa, and less sugar/fat). It has catacins that decrease inflammation and protects your heart and brain.
– In a recent study, researchers took people who were diagnosed with depression and gave half of them prescription drugs. The other half were only given salmon and fish oil supplements every day. At the end of the study, the group who took the omega 3 fish oil supplements showed even more alleviated signs of their depression than those who took the prescription drugs.
– “Roughly 50% of your happiness is genetic and 10% is based on your life circumstances..but you can use simple techniques to boost the whopping 40% that lies in your direct control, and thereby achieve significant increases in your emotional well-being.” -Montel Williams
– “Thoughts held long enough become beliefs. Beliefs become part of your biology.” – Montel Williams
– “Your gut produces more neutrotransmitters than your brain.” – Dr. Christiane Northrup
– “Every thought you think changes your hormones.” – Dr. Christiane Northrup
– “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it’s self-perservation.” -Dr. Northrup
– Ever wonder where the term “Mad Hatter” came from? Turns out workers in hat factories were exposed to so much toxic mercury they’d be diagnosed with mental illnesses afterwards (like Alzheimer’s)
– Dr. Myron Wentz recommends replacing your electric alarms with battery operated ones to reduce exposure to harmful electro magnetic fields (EMF)
– Most people have no idea that the air inside your home is 3 times more polluted than air outside from even the most polluted cities like NYC (!). This is caused from air fresheners, fragrances, cleaning supplies, etc. The simplest solution? Crack a window.
– You control over 70% of how well you live. How? Keep your blood pressure in check (ideal 115/75), don’t smoke, exercise at least 30 minutes daily, incorporate a healthy diet that’s easy to love, and keep stress under control. – Dr. Oz.
– Your ideal waist size should be less than your height divided by 2. – Dr. Oz.
– Another reason to keep that waist trim: a big belly puts pressure on kidneys and hurts the liver.
– Half an hour before meal, Dr. Oz recommends eating a handful of nuts. It helps control hunger.
– “Make a goal for yourself at the beginning of the week. Every Saturday, act on that goal you’ve written down the week before.” Lisa Oz
– “Look into the mirror every night before bed, look into your eyes and say “I love you.” By day 20 your life will change. Day 30 you will absolutely believe your worthy of being loved.” Dr. Northrup
– “Everyday, I pray and meditate — my intention is to be led by my spirit and not my ego.” – Dr. Ro
Finally, Montel Williams’ Living Well Emotionally Program: 17 tips for a Happier Life
1. Three Good Things: keep a personal “Gratitude Journal,” and at the end of every day, write down three good things that happened to you, and why.
2. Make a Gratitude Visit: write a thank-you testimonial message to someone who positively affected your life, and deliver the message to them.
3. Discover your Signature Strengths: and use them in a new way.
4. Put Compassion into Action: through your personal acts of kindness.
5. Savor the Beauty of Little Things: and feel the joy of simple pleasures.
6. Nurture Your Social Bonds: give priority to close relationships.
7. Get Moving: at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on most days of the week.
8. Nurture Your Body: with the Happiness Diet. You can feel happier and more energetic, and fight the risks of depression and many chronic diseases if you work toward a healthy food lifestyle pattern, combined with regular physical activity, where you:
• Base your diet on a foundation of a rich variety of many different vegetables and fruits – – especially in their unprocessed states.
• Include healthy carbohydrates from whole grains; and healthy fats and protein from foods like fish, beans, and nuts.
• Minimize saturated and trans fats, sodium, processed foods, added sugars and cholesterol in your diet.
• Be mindful of your calories-in and calories-out, to work toward a healthy body weight.
• Don’t skip meals, starve yourself or go on fad diets.
9. Think Positive: cultivate an optimistic mindset. Project happiness: you can sometimes “act” yourself into a happier frame of mind.
10. Reverse the Downward Spiral of Negative Thoughts: by igniting an upward spiral of positive emotions:
• Find positive meaning in adversity.
• Find positive meaning in ordinary events.
• Find positive meaning in compassionately helping others.
• Find positive meaning by feeling gratitude for simple things.
11. Realize that enduring happiness doesn’t come from material success alone.
People adapt to changing circumstances—even to wealth or a disability. Thus, wealth is like health: its utter absence breeds misery, but having it (or any circumstance we long for) doesn’t guarantee happiness.
12. Stay in the Flow Zone: seek work and leisure that engages your skills.
13. Take time to recharge yourself: Give your body the sleep it wants.
Happy people live active vigorous lives yet reserve time for renewing sleep and solitude. Many people suffer from a sleep debt, with resulting fatigue and gloomy moods.
14. Nurture your spiritual self: if you’re so inclined.
15. Learn to Let Go: practice forgiveness and letting go of anger.
16. If You’re Depressed: get a professional team and professional tools. If you think you might be depressed, seek professional help immediately, and ask your doctor or therapist about promising interventions like:
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Anti-depressant medications (make sure you thoroughly educate yourself on benefits and side effects)
• Light Therapy
• Omega 3 supplementation
17. Realize that the key to happiness lies within you: in your own intentional activity, in what you do and how you think.
Hope you guys found some of these tips/quotes helpful!!
x
Shy
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This is amazing. Thanks Shy.
wow – you took some great notes! The only thing i remembered that you did not specifically call out was the chocolate should be 70% or more of cocoa content for best benefits. Thanks for journaling everything from the show!
Good catch! And thanks for noting..I’ll add it to the post!
I wanted to distinguish what can support a bee in one’s moving spirit so that’s about it not who could not offer an literal answer.