Showing posts with label new year's resolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new year's resolution. Show all posts

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Don't Let 2016 Get You Down!

Christmas holidays are over for me and the year is almost at its end. Most people have declared 2016 to be an awful year, the never ending list of celebrity deaths and countless negative political events seem to have shaped the year overview. In medical world it seems as if its even worse with junior doctors contracts being imposed, poor evidence circulating mainstream media and bombings of hospitals in the middle east (a recent BMJ editorial highlights this casting aside of moral boundaries, a dangerous development).

Its easy to think that it has indeed been a 'crap year' but I think this just highlights an underlying frustration with how things are going. Its for the first time I highly recommend we all listen to the Queen. And no not the Freddie Mercury kind, although 'don't stop me now' always made me feel hyped up in a 'tiger defying the laws of gravity' kind of way. For those who arn't familiar with it, every year on Christmas day just after lunch, the Queen gives a speech to the nation. It's usually just a well orchestrated and politically-correct summary of the charitable acts and travels around the world she undertook, this year despite not mentioning Brexit once (come on queenie, its history) and seeming to be fixated on the olympics (I bet she always wanted to compete that's why, corgie hurdles anyone?) she decided to focus on the theme of INSPIRATION.

Yes well, 2016 has left nothing to inspired from unless you are a fake news producer, a dedicated neoliberalist or loving Pokemon Go. We should all INSPIRE, take a deep breath (see what i did there) and take on 2017 with new vigor. And not just skip into 2017 like all the gym goers who will be skipping through the gym entrances on January 2nd to only find themselves two weeks later using their new running shoes to microwave pot noodles in (I might have exaggerated here) BUT to take on 2017 full on! 
What does that mean? you will ask, honestly I don't know, I'm writing in a stuffed airport lounge in Luton so its hard to be inspiring here, I guess what im trying to say is:
"Don't let 2016 get you down!" which may be hard to say to a hardcore Star Wars fan a day after Carrie Fisher (princess leia) dies (she died drowning in moonlight strangled by her own bra). 

Go into 2017:
  • Prepared for the worst (yes David Attenborough will die one day) 
  • Know your enemy! what is neoliberalism, best 2016 comebacks
  • Make a new years resolution 
  • Stick to your new years resolution (hardest challenge yet)
  • Read every day (top articles of 2016)
  • Always check the evidence and for gods sake don't listen to fake news

Sunday, 28 February 2016

Nutrition 101: Dr Gregers annual nutrition summaries, How Not To Die

Dr Greger is an internationally recognized expert in the field of nutrition. He created the website and youtube channel Nutritionfacts.org and he wrote the New York Times bestseller 'How not to die'. Every year he gives a presentation summarizing the latest in nutrition research and current understanding of the effects of nutrition on medical diseases.
His talks are absolutely brilliant and eye-opening,  The common theme circles around the benefits of a plant-based diet and how it can reverse and be used in the prevention of many diseases. (heart disease and diabetes just to name a couple.)
I think physicians and future doctors everywhere should watch his videos.
Here are the videos for the annual talks below:
2012:
2013:
2014:
2015:

Saturday, 16 January 2016

New year resolutions

People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions

That is even if only 8% actually achieve their goals

This site has all the facts: http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/

                         Prof Wiseman's top 10 tips to achieving your New Year's resolution:

1. Make only one resolution. Your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.

2. Don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to think about your resolution and instead take some time out a few days before and reflect upon what you really want to achieve.

3. Avoid previous resolutions. Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.

4. Don’t run with the crowd and go with the usual resolutions. Instead think about what you really want out of life.

5. Break your goal into a series of steps, focusing on creating sub-goals that are concrete, measurable and time-based.

6. Tell your friends and family about your goals. You're more likely to get support and want to avoid failure.

7. Regularly remind yourself of the benefits associated with achieving your goals by creating a checklist of how life would be better once you obtain your aim.

8. Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a sub-goal, thus maintaining motivation and a sense of progress.

9. Make your plans and progress concrete by keeping a handwritten journal, completing a computer spreadsheet or covering a notice board with graphs or pictures.

10. Expect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary setback rather than a reason to give up altogether.