My Top 5 Takeaways from Eat, Move, Sleep by Tom Rath
I have reached the end of Eat, Move, Sleep, and it really was a great read this second time around. And sharing about what I read has really helped me to better remember some of those key takeaways that can be really motivating in how I make decisions for my day to day health.
So let me give you a quick review of the book, what I've determined to be my top 5 takeaways from the 30 chapters that I read and how I plan to apply what I learned moving forward. Because what's the point of learning all these new facts and information, if you're not going to apply it.
#5 Takeaway
This one made me have a moment of I absolutely need to apply this asap. My ranked #5 takeaway confronted me about the use of the snooze button. How many times do you hit the snooze button? Or better yet, how many backup alarms do you have to represent the snooze button on your phone? We convince ourselves that it's allowing us to get more sleep, but in reality, it's not.
In Ch. 12 of Eat, Move, Sleep, my takeaway was that there are studies out there that prove that those extra few minutes or so doesn't count to help you feel better rested because it doesn't add to the total amount of deep sleep that your body needs to feel more alert. Tom says it's better for you to sleep all the way up to the time so that you're in deep sleep longer than to interrupt it just to hit the snooze button 10 times thinking that you're squeezing out more energy from your sleep.
To apply this tip, I got rid of the multiple alarms (you know the 6:00am, 6:10am, 6:15am etc?), but I do have 2 alarms. One is from using this app called Sleep Cycle. It's set up to monitor you as you sleep to begin waking you up at the best time within the 30min window of when you need to get up depending on what state of sleep you're in. It wants to wake you up when you're closest to already feeling yourself come out of deep sleep. This helps you not to feel startled out of your sleep and feeling groggy.
Most of the time, I obey its calling and get up feeling pretty refreshed. However, there are some days that are harder than others mainly because I went to sleep late or didn't get the full amount of sleep I wanted due to interruptions. That's where my second alarm comes into play. I got it off Amazon where I have it set that 10min before I'm suppose to wake up, it starts to light up the room kind of like a sunrise. This helps me because if for whatever reason I'm feeling stubborn, one thing I can't ignore is that light waking me up. I'm telling you all that this has been my dynamic duo in waking up in the morning. So I've officially gotten rid of 10 alarms repeating every 5 min.
#4 Takeaway
Here’s what I learned about juice and dried fruit. From Ch. 19's Eat, Move, Sleep takeaway, Tom talks about how juice is worse than eating the fruit and you know what's worst than juicing? Dried fruits.
Now when I first heard about dried fruits being nothing but candy, I was shook cause I really thought I was doing something healthy by eating my little dried cranberries and dried apple slices. Tom says that eating that stuff gives you all the sugar and none of the nutrition that you need from fruit. That a cup of dried cranberries actually gives you a whopping 78 grams of sugar. Honestly my first reaction was that that's an exaggeration. Ain't no way a cup of dried cranberries is 78grams! So I did my googles. Chile, 1/3 of cup is 25grams of sugar meaning he was close enough because that would yield 75g for a cup. That's a whole lot of sugar. Compare that to eating 1 cup of fresh cranberries and you'll only eat 6g of sugar at most. No wonder that stat exists that says Americans end up eating 150lbs of sugar in a day!
So I've cut out juice for the most part out of my diet as I now mainly focus on water and tea. I try now to focus on hitting my fruit goal of at least 2 pieces of fruit a day by adding it to my protein smoothies. And dried fruit has been completely cut out of my diet. I use to get to a point where the only time I have any kind of dried fruit is eating the That's It bars and I only ate that if I was on a run and unfortunately didn't have time to grab something to eat. So it just kept my stomach from growling. But honestly I don’t really miss it anymore. Not only because it's dried fruit with still a lot of sugar but because those bars are so expensive! I got to stick to this budget!
#3 Takeaway
Over the recent years, it seems like everyone has some type of watch tracker or fitibit like device. To some it seemed like we were crazy to want to know how many steps we took or our heart rate at random times of day. And while others may think it’s pointless or even obsessive, my takeaway from Ch. 27 of Eat, Move Sleep is that it's the best trick in sticking to your health habits. Research that Tom found shared that trackers that are aligned your habits even with basic activities can help encourage you to stay active. You'll notice just how much you got out of that long walk from the back of a parking lot or how lifting and carrying that box counted as a workout.
Best of all, it'll motivate you to do more. Those notifications are a form of nudging. Even though you may not hit your goal, you're going to be reminded that that goal exists from your tracker. Eventually with enough nudges, you're going to start being more proactive on it. So if you're struggling to start those healthy habits, get some technology that can help track where you are now. It could be the motivation you need that may not always be instant but over time it'll push you in the right direction.
For me this has been very true, I've had an Apple watch for many years now. And you know Apple watches will always send you a nudge to stand up, move around and things like that. It'll celebrate you if you reached a goal and dare you to beat that goal the next day. And like most people I'm sure, I didn't really give it too much attention however in the back of my mind I would think, man I really need to get on top of my fitness goals.
Last year, I decided to do a 10K step challenge where I have been taking 10K steps a day. How I did it is that I would get up around 5am. No, please don’t assume that I’m a morning person, but somehow I managed to make myself go to bed on time and my body grew adjusted to this routine. So I would get up up at 5 and instead of sitting down when I pray and read my bible, I walk on the treadmill at a steady pace that's enough for me to get steps in but not too much where I can't speak to God. By the time I finish, I'm usually around 2,500-3,000 steps in. Then I would go about my normal day. On average I get around 4,000 and maybe even 5,000 steps if I went into the office. Our building is huge so you can definitely get steps in. I added bonus steps by purposely parking further away in the parking garage and using the stairs instead of the elevator if it’s 4 floors or less. I remember noticing that I would get less winded over time with doing this.
When I would get home, I usually would be somewhere around 7,500 steps so instead of sitting on my couch to scroll on my phone or to read, I got on my treadmill. For Christmas, I got what I wanted on my list which was a little standing tray that sits on the arms of my treadmill. I can sit things on it to do whatever I need. I will be honest that I've even played the Sims 4 on my laptop on that tray and that really helps to get steps in without even thinking about how long it’s been. (Sims players, I know you understand as time can really fly by.) But bottomline is that my watch helped me to track it to make sure I'm getting my steps in and it nudges me of how many I've gotten so far.
An app that I really like is the Pacer app because they have different challenges to help motivate you and interact with others who are also setting those type of goals but honestly your iphone has a lot of stats already so it's just a nice to have. Just know that there isn't an app that's going to instantly let you know that you've hit 10,000 steps as soon as you hit it as I have learned. But if you know of one, let me know! One thing about it is that my apps are showing me my streaks and that has been a huge motivation for me to keep going so that I don't break the streak…until I did and struggled to get back.
But after thinking about what a great track record I had at that time, I really need to get back to this. Getting up early is such a cheat code to reaching any goal in my opinion. And now that I’ve added my Oura Ring to the mix, I’m even more obsessed with my body data to recommit to my health goals.
#2 Takeaway
This one is something that I've always wondered but heard different perspectives about. When you think about what's the worst thing to eat what is it? Do you think of dairy? Meat? I mean sugar is a given and bread turns into sugar so we're not talking about those two categories. Apparently there is an order of best to worst to eat according to Tom Rath and that's what was my takeaway from Ch. 10 of Eat, Move, Sleep.
So if we were to go from healthy to junk it would be start with fruits and vegetables, then nuts, then seafood, white meat (like chicken, turkey), dairy, red meat, and then processed meat. Processed meat are hot dogs, bologna, jerky, ham, sausages, bacon, and yes, deli meat. It's anything that is preserved by smoking, salting, curing, or adding chemical preservatives according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center. You increase your risk of cancer, heart diseases, and diabetes if you regularly eat processed meat. So if you're looking for a true baby step in improving your health, maybe the first best step is limiting how much processed meat you eat.
Bacon lovers, I understand. Hang in there okay?
How I'm applying this? Welp I'm struggling. I'm not about to lie to you. Out of all the takeaways this may be the hardest one. I started out this year saying I was going to cut out processed meat and just focus on that for now. However I've definitely had some hot dogs, some sausage biscuits, some burgers with bacon from Tug’s, some prime rib from Belle Tavern, and a turkey sandwich from Groovy Gratitude. It's just so hard to say goodbye.
But I'm going to recommit to this. I just know that this is going to be a one day at a time thing. At minimum, I'm not buying it to keep in the house to cook which is a good baby step of refusing to cook it yourself. So if I can just muster the discipline to avoid it when I go out, then we'll make some progress there. Just keep me in your prayers because I absolutely can't bring myself to eat carrot hot dogs. Sorry Auntie Tab.
My #1 Takeaway from Eat, Move, Sleep
And now we have arrived to my favorite number 1 takeaway that I read. And just remember that as I rank these, it's through a very slim margin that any is better than another because all the tips were useful to me. So with this tip, I want to ask you. Have you ever had some really bland food before? Like they barely put any seasoning. Just salt, pepper, and well wishes. Well I've now learned some info from Ch. 25 of Eat Move Sleep to encourage the use of more seasonings and these aren't salt based.
There's research that says that certain seasonings can help decrease the likelihood of developing cancer in the body. Some of those seasonings are cinnamon, garlic, nutmeg, parsley and turmeric. Some more that I found in my googles listed rosemary, thyme, oregano, ginger, and cayenne pepper. So all the more reason to explore what seasonings can really aid in your body's health.
Now I've taken on the approach to generously season my food without salt based seasonings. I think that's where we can get in trouble when you start overloading with salt and butter. So I'm all for seasoning your food, especially with the good cancer fighting seasonings because not only are you doing your tastebuds a favor but your immune system as well.
I think this is an easy tip like I mentioned because I have two drawers full of seasonings. I really actually need to do a better job of organizing my seasonings because it's slightly chaotic. Not fully, just slightly. And I use so many of them, that I've opted to buy the big jars from Costco for some of them. I love using cinnamon and nutmeg on my oatmeal instead of sugar. It’s a great substitute and has a good taste to it. Most of my roasted vegetables have some thyme or basil on it along with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil. I like trying different cuisines so I'm currently practicing with Jamaican jerk flavors and Ethiopian berbere flavors. Don't ask me to bring a dish to the cookout because I'm still in the kindergarten phase of this, okay?
But the point is explore. Try new recipes. You may surprise yourself with how much more delicious things can taste if you get out of your comfort zone. Now if any of you have some great recipes using turmeric, please let me know because that is a currently underused spice in my cabinet but I'm looking to change that.
So overall those are my takeaways that I’m putting into practice. I plan to give myself grace and keep working to find the right tweaks to my habits that works for me and you should do the same. Don't expect to get it right in the first week. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So just do your best because that's all you and I can do, chile.
What were your takeaways? If you’ve read the book, please share what takeaways you had from it. If you haven’t read the book yet, tell me your thoughts about the takeaways that I’ve posted. (And check out my review to help you decide if this is truly the book for you.) I hope this has encouraged you to read the book if you haven't or that you've enjoyed hearing my take on it if you have. Take care and happy reading!
