Looped into Activity
Neuro-Scientifically, Painlessly

Week 2  Day 1 

Looping In

Tak C. Poon, MD

Infographic from HealthCentral

MINDSET RESET

• You’re ot alone if you don’t exercise enough. Most people like the idea but can’t get into the discipline of doing it. “No time, etc., etc.” Let modern neuroscience come your rescue by looping you in. This week, you get to build a healthy activity habit that’s as easy, automatic, and pleasant as brushing your teeth daily. It’s no big deal—and that’s the key to the deal.

Breathing Room If you can breathe, you can relax.

• Done mindfully in various ways, breathing exercise is among the most popular and effective relaxation techniques worldwide for billions of people over millennia. It stands alone and is also integrated into many traditional practices, such as meditation, yoga, tai chi, and others.

MOVING

• Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for success – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timed. No unrealistic pipe dreams destined for disappointment.

• Take as many days as you need to reach a goal of 150 minutes a week (average 21 min/day) of moderate physical activity that you like, divided into any number of segments to fit your schedule. Walking is a good way to start.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand tall
Stretch far
Smile wide

EATING

• Last week, you successfully cut 5-10% of your sweet drinks (by diluting) and food portions (with or without snacking) and didn’t suffer.

• This week, get to the 10% reduction mark on both. Again, you’ll hardly notice it, especially when you do the trimming BEFORE starting to eat or drink.

QUOTES / QUIPS

"Discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons."

Jhoon Rhee

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all the others”

Marcus Cicero

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (2 min) GRATITUDE – Thank your body
Textcast –  

• The human body is the most amazing life form known. Originating from a single cell, tens of trillions of copies in your body diversify to function differently yet collectively in cooperation, coordination, and facilitation for one singular purpose: your life and optimal well-being.
  

• Warning: Once starting to look, you may find too much to be grateful for. Stress may vanish, and joy may explode from within. You may not be able to resist taking better care of yourself, and of all that’s around you. You may get busier, although you won’t feel it, and you’ll be resting better.

REMINDER:

Another Ex-Excuse:

“I can gain 5 pounds just walking by ___.”
Then plot another route to go around it every time,
and add the steps to your pedometer.

A Free Enhancer:

Get the Metacardio® mobile app on your iPhone for all 12 weeks of daily prompts with illustrative graphics, animations, audios, and videos. (All non-monetized. No one could pay me enough to have this much joy.)

Footnote for The Newcomer:

Healing Habits for a Happy, Healthy, Hasslefree Lifestyle for Life are success stories collected from some 2000 of my patients and coworkers in a non-profit private clinic after-hour coaching program over 25 years. This series of posts are Metacardio Methods’ daily checklists in that 3-month program.

Pick and choose which of the items are useful for you to follow. The nutritional suggestions are as applicable to weight loss as transitioning to a healthier eating habit.

Where relevant, all suggestions have been updated to current national health guidelines and state-of-the-art expert consensus. Wisdom from sages over the ages remains perennial.

The basis for these suggestions is discussed in long-hand on 15 prior posts here. All are archived under “Healing Habits Blog”.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 2

Brain over Body. Mind over M.A.T.R.

Image curated from iStock with subscription

MINDSET RESET

• What’s the M.A.T.R. neuroscience model? Your brain builds an unbreakable Habit Loop like spinning a spool of yarn.

  M = Motivation — since you’re here, you’ve already got it.

  A = Action — a small, easy task, like one stitch, put in as a routine, every day, at least.

  Trigger and Reward — tomorrow.

  
  

  Breathing Room

• an optional training/practice for a day to a week, then anytime at will.

  This is a good place to practice taking M.A.T.R. into your own hands.

MOVING

• Walk, don’t run, yet—unless you’re already fit.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand sturdily
Stretch fearlessly
Smile confidently

EATING

The less beef on your plate, the less beef with your weight. Set aside 1/10 of all food portions before eating.

QUOTES / QUIPS

No pain, no strain, no drain. Weight loss is your gain.
Use your brain, that's the game, simple and plain.

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (2 min) GRATITUDE – Thank everybody
Textcast –  

• Ever hosted a party for 30-40 very different people? Now, try to command the 30-40 trillion cells in your body to make them do all that the body needs 24/7/366/lifelong. Aren’t you grateful for auto-pilot?

• And that’s just your body. What about all the other bodies it takes to make anything in your life possible, starting with the two bodies who made you?

• Before you fall asleep every night, think of one thing you are grateful for. No repeat. It gets harder after a few nights, but you’ll find your days easier. 

  
  

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 3

Once Cued Up, Triggers Will Ignite

Image curated from iStock with subscription

MINDSET RESET

• Link a daily activity you always like to do as a Trigger to exercise.  Examples: Make watching the daily news the Trigger to walk in place or up and down a sturdy box; a video series makes a great Trigger to do the treadmill or bike.

  In the M.A.T.R. habit model, T = Trigger, a cue. The video is the car key; the exercise is the drive—to a healing habit. No drive, no key. No discipline needed.

  
  

  Breathing Room

• Breathing sustains life. And when it is practiced in certain time-honored routines, it also sustains good living.

  
  

MOVING

• Couple exercise with a daily must-do activity, like watching videos. Build up the exercise part gradually to your comfort level.  Then, exercise wouldn’t feel like “exercise”. Link them into a no-brainer pair, like brushing your teeth and rinsing your mouth.

• After exercise, feel guilt-free for not resisting a rest.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Be stiff with your stand.
Be flexible with your stretch.
Be a puddle with your smile.

EATING

You drink up to (not a typo) 18 lumps of sugar in a can of soda. Cutting out 2 by pouring away 10% isn't a big sacrifice.

QUOTES / QUIPS

Nice threads! Even doing just one stitch at a time,
when the stitches line up over time, you can't tear them apart.
That’s how your brain forms habits–both good and bad ones. 

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (2 min) GRATITUDE–  How Moving
Textcast –  

• Take walking. The biomechanics alone are so sophisticated that no computer animation or robotics has mimicked a person’s walk to look real. Running or dancing takes you to yet another level.

• Even if you aren’t walking, your other 200 bones, 300 joints, 600 muscles, and 1,200 tendons are still being choreographed to your facial expressions and body motions.

• We even glide on water, fly through air en mass, and venture into outer space with our human extensions. So much to be grateful for!
  

REMINDER:

Count a different blessing every night while you still can.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 4

Rewarding Awards

Image curated from iStock with subscription

MINDSET RESET

And the honor goes to…

R = Rewards in the M.A.T.R. neuroscience habit model.

• Design your own milestone posts and reward system. Spoil yourself with fun fineries, not fattening foods.

• Once you get your brain circuitry “looped”, it won’t break, and the habit itself becomes its own best reward, for good.

  
  

  Breathing Room

•  sharing various well-tested techniques to help you build a habitual breathing exercise routine

• Once you’ve gotten into this wonderful habit, you’ll never stop. You’ll do it while riding a vehicle, an airplane, and every chance you get.

  
  

MOVING

• While you walk, enjoy designing your rewards at the milestones of your choice. It’s your academy awards.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand even if you are the only one left.
Stretch even if no one else dares.
Smile even if everyone has forgotten how.

EATING

Greasier Fries => Fatter Thighs

QUOTES / QUIPS

"Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out."

Robert Collier

Pass enough milestones to make quitting
feel like pain and punishment.  

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (2 min) GRATITUDE - Making and Breaking Metabolism
Textcast –  

• Your (busy)body’s Metabolism is a miraculous process of constantly making good and breaking bad.

• Whatever you eat, within hours, Metabolism turns it into you. Every year, Metabolism breaks down 99% of all your body parts and rebuilds them anew.

• If making outpaces breaking (by over-eating), you grow fat. Nonstop overgrowth is called cancer. Unless too far gone, both are reversible. Simply regulate your eating and activity better; your Metabolism will do the rest—exactly right.

  
  

REMINDERS:

250 to 500 calorie deficit a day (1/8 to 1/4 of your food portions) will result in 1-2 pound weight loss a week. Maintain a good trend. Ignore minor day-to-day variations on the scale.

Another Ex-excuse:

“I can’t get started.”
Starting is easy. Keeping at anything is hard.
Once you let your neuro-loop do the work, you won’t want to quit.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 5 

Can't Defy Math or Gravity

Image generated by Gemini A.I.

MINDSET RESET

Oh, get a life!

• It takes one hour of walking to “burn off” a small 300-calorie cookie. You have time for that?

• Don’t get into debt. Burn off extra calories first, like pre-paying your debit card, then figure out how much more food you can eat to balance your daily calories.

  
  

  Breathing Room

• Take a few minutes to Re-sync / Re-set / Re-start / Refresh / Reprieve / Re-vitalize — all that just by Re-breathing!

  See the miracle of the breath, or Chi, in the Textcast below.

  
  

MOVING

• Calorie "burning" math you’d hate:

  1-inch cookie = 100 Cal = 1 mile = 20-min walk
  A slice of lava cake is a 10-mile walk, jog, or run.
  
  Who has the time? Or energy?

  
  

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand as if you won’t forever stay young.
Stretch as if you may be getting old.
Smile as if you are always just a child.

EATING

• Water fills you up but doesn't fill you OUT.

• Pour out and water down your sweet drinks by 10%.

  
  

QUOTES / QUIPS

Upgrade your stress circuit breakers to light up,
not blow out the body's intricate electrical grids.

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (3 min) GRATITUDE – Private Utilities: plumbing, electrical, ventilation
Textcast –  

• Your body has 25 trillion blood cells circulating in a 60,000-mile piping system, speeding at 20 seconds per round trip, covering 12,000 miles a day, ¼ million trips in a 4-month tenure—all for no bonus mileage points.

• The propeller is your heart, pumping 100,000 times a day, 24/7/366 nonstop, 3 billion times a lifetime, all precisely timed. You are correct to FEEL that it is more than just a sub-pump.

• Focus intensely on safeguarding the stress fuses in your body’s intricate nerve center, so you don’t keep blowing out its electrical grid.

• Breathing is more than just a vital ventilatory function. The ancient mystical term, Chi, means more than breath, air, energy, and vitality. In its invisible ways, it manifests much of life’s mysteries.

• What throws on the switches so your lungs know to breathe, your heart to beat, your brain to think, your senses to feel, and how? Even without any answers, be grateful it all works without much of your effort. When’s the last time you punched in as the supervisor?

  
  

REMINDERS:

Walk with buddies – your “step”-brothers and “step”-sisters.

Another Ex-excuse:

“Oh, I’ll walk it off later.”
Oh, Get a Life! Who has the time to burn off the excess?
Even if you promise, do the math.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 6

Readying For Weight Rebound

Image generated by Gemini A.I.

MINDSET RESET

• Devil Slide — The stubborn body reset 3-6 months after weight loss. Well-planned pre-sets can override that.

• 3-6 months after losing enough weight, your body’s biology has a built-in reset to gain it all back and then some. It’s not your fault.

• Don’t break the thread, and spin that habit brain loop real tight these 3 months, so that it won’t unspool.

• Be prepared that when you hit the “devil slide”, you can cut food intake another 1/8 or boost exercise to 200 minutes a week, or a bit of both.

  Breathing Room

• A relaxation training/practice for a day to a week, then anytime at will.

• If you slide off and nod off, enjoy your best nap in a long time. 

  
  

MOVING

• Don’t break your exercise streak. Even one spin is good. At least put on your workout clothes just to keep the yarn intact.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand like things will never change.
Stretch like things will always change.
Smile, and your world will change with you.

EATING

• Diluting helps Digesting.

• Save the 1/8 plate set-aside — for later, a pet, or compost?

• Composting for the environment is better than decomposing your commitment.

  
  

QUOTES / QUIPS

Inflammation is your body's on-demand blow torch to quick-seal an injury.
Undue stress, unhealthy lifestyle, and toxic environment
leave it full-on, scorching your inside.     

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (3 min) GRATITUDE – Genes and Jeans alike, not fixed
Textcast –  

• The DNA we’ve inherited from our ancient past is not meant for today’s way of life. So, we have to adjust our present lifestyle to our pre-existing genetics, starting with lower carbs and higher activities, like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Nurture over Nature.

• A Stanford lifestyle training study showed that when people were (temporarily) misled to believe how their DNA had “fated” them to be, their health outcome would be just like that. After giving them the correct information, their outcome would change. Belief was a stronger determinant than DNA. Mind over matter!

• You cannot change your “fixed” genes, but you can willfully alter your “flippable” Epigenetics. These are switches on your DNA that can be turned on or off by external levers: air, water, chemical environment, your gut’s microbial makeup, and your body’s level of inflammation—all strongly subject to what you eat, how you move, and your stress resilience.

• You cannot change ancestral genes, but you can change present-day habits to fit into fitter denim jeans. You are not fixed but free to be what you are by changing your mind, lifestyle, and environment.

  
  

REMINDERS:

Take a selfie today and compare it with one in 3 months to prove that you can fix what you used to believe as fixed.

Another Ex-excuse:

“It’s genetics. Nothing I can do.”
Science update: The Human Genome Project has not found any massive mutation in the past 50 years—the same period when obesity blew up globally. Genomics has shown that new habits and environments can alter how your DNA works.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 2 Day 7

Stitching Up a Banner of Health and Happiness

Image generated by Gemini A.I.

MINDSET RESET

You did it!

• Build this keystone lifestyle habit by setting your mind and M.A.T.R. to it, and you can do many other things in life.
  

Discipline, in the beginning, is merely taking one more step when you want to quit.
Soon, it becomes a habit you cannot break.
From then on, it hardly takes effort anymore.

“Your thoughts become your actions. Your actions become your habits…Your habits, your character…Your character, your destiny.”
So, your destiny starts out in your thoughts and ends up in your habits.
It’s all in your hands.

Breathing Room

• Avoid the temptation to take in a big deep breath and hold it. That will only tense you up. Breathing out easily is where you feel most relaxed.

MOVING

• Re-stitching your jeans can make them fit. Re-stitching your exercise habits can make you fit, despite your genes.

• Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
  (Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
  Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
  Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:

Stand because you can be as firm as ice.
Stretch because you can be as fluid as water.
Smile because you can be fluffy as steam.

EATING

• Eat less, enjoy more.

• Sparkling Water = champagne for the champ without the pain but with all the sparkles

QUOTES / QUIPS

Re-stitching can alter your jeans.
Re-vamping your mind, habits, and environment
can veto your genes.

Metacardio©

Wrap the past and gift to a better future with the present of gratitude.

Metacardio©

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast – (3 min) GRATITUDE – Do you mind? Thanks!
Textcast –  

• This week, you have seen the countless miracles that work your body—even though you’re mostly an absentee supervisor. Imagine what a little attention can do using your mind, nutrition, activity, and focus.

• Frequent breaks to stand-stretch-smile and 10,000 steps a day are good lubricants for your unique body movements. The two-way nature of your Metabolism allows you to slim down and even cut cancer risk. You know first-hand how your heart feels affects how it beats. In Breathing Room practice, you experience how your breathing pattern (Chi vitality) affects your reaction to stressors, and vice versa. Safeguard your stress fuses to light up, not blow out, the body’s electrical grids.

REMINDER:

Even your genes don’t dictate your looks or your life since your mind and actions have the ultimate executive power. Exercise that power by choosing lifestyle habits for a better body-mind-spirit outcome.

Coming Up Next:

Week 3 — De-Stress in Distress