Dear Reader,
I love the title of this report—Simple Changes, Big Rewards. Why? Because getting healthier doesn’t have to be difficult. Given the complexity of medical care today, you might be thinking, “Is he serious?” But after practicing primary care for 40 years, I can say emphatically: it’s true. Small changes can add up to surprisingly big course corrections. But which changes should you make? And how can you stick with them?
As an internist, I’ve seen people achieve remarkable changes in their lives one small step at a time. The day-to-day choices you make influence whether you maintain vitality as you age or develop life-shortening illnesses and disabling conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke.
It’s true that it isn’t easy to change ingrained habits like driving to nearby locations instead of walking, let’s say, or reaching for a donut instead of an apple. However, gradually working toward change improves your odds of success. And once a new, healthy habit takes root, I
guarantee it will be hard to break, too.
This Special Health Report highlights small changes you can make in seven areas of your life to enhance your health and happiness: stick to exercise, eat healthier, lose weight, ease stress, get more sleep, add more joy to your life, and break unhealthy habits. Guided by this report, month by month you make choices that appeal to you. In every chapter, “The goal” sets a target. “Six choices” offers changes that could help you move toward the goal. Each one is graded easy, medium, or hard. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll find an encouraging foothold. Or, if you’re already engaging in healthy behaviors, you can up the ante to reap greater benefits. Try mastering just one change at a time before moving on to the next. Each month, you can select a different goal from the seven goals or decide to explore further changes within the goal you’ve been working on.
While you can choose any of these seven areas to begin with, I usually advise my patients to choose “Stick to exercise” first. There are lots of reasons to exercise, but the main one is you can immediately see results. Wherever you are now on the physical activity spectrum, tomorrow you will see benefits like a better mood or a more restful night’s sleep. Recent studies show that the health benefits from even short bursts of exercise are real. Once you get moving, I find that the other simple changes actually feel even easier. Progress is a great motivator to want to do more.
Enjoy the change journey,
Howard E. LeWine, M.D.
Medical Editor
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