Joy and Full: Healthier with Sarah Wells, MD

The last day of January doesn't need to be the day you quit the goals you had when you started out. Instead, I've got 5 questions to run through each of your goals and habits you were setting to figure out what you can learn from this past month with them. This can inspire you as you move forward into a new month with freshly revised goals and plans.

I've spoken about being willing to try new strategies as needed, and different skillsets needed for different obstacles. In this episode, I give examples from my experience in what has looked like.

There a a number of benefits to winter exercise outdoors, especially when it's cold.

When you hear about the rise in obesity acrose the last 40 or 50 years, you may often hear talk about about how it's driven by an energy mismatch, where we just eat more than we should and don't move as much as we used to. Or maybe you hear about how we eat too many carbs these days, and that causes us to store too much fat. These are two of the common theories as to why human populations are increasing in weight.  But when you look at data about what has been happening in animal weights across the last 40 -50 years, you may--like me--start to wonder if there is more to the story. That brings to to talk about obesogens--what they are, how they cause problems, and what to do about them!

 This episode, I focus on the benefits of exercise in terms of your BRAIN HEALTH, and highlight some recent studies that tell us how much it benefits us. Exercise impacts our memory, learning, creativity, and function through increasing the brain's neuroplasticity. There is also evidence that new brain cells can be born and that our brain size increases! Benefits of exercise extend to impact anxiety, depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. 
In short: our brains LOVE exercise. Give this episode a listen if you want inspiration to get out there in the cold and move.

I keep running across more and more impacts that chronic inflammation has on our bodies. In this episode I share what I've learned about what it is, what drives it, and what diseases are impacted by it. The good news is there are things we can do to combat it and lower our inflammatory state! I'll talk about those too.

In this final part of the episodes about the new class of anti-obesity medications, I talk about  factors to consider in the decision to take medications or have surgery for Obesity. What about those who call it "cheating"? Is obesity a disease or is just driven by a set of lifestyle choices? Shouldn't we just "move more and eat less"? Is it that simple?

This episode is Part 3 of 3 

This episode we’ll revisit an approach to Christmas feasting where we get to strategically enter in to celebrations while learning to exercise restraint. Let's find ways to extract the wonderful feeling of the season in new ways that we haven’t been able to appreciate before, because we were SO focused on the food and the struggle of food decisions. I'll talk about tactical physical/food strategies as well as mindset shifts to make which will support the ability to feast with joy during the festive food gatherings of the season.

This is something that bears repeating!

Science has revealed in recent decades that the brain is trainable and physically changes in response to training. This is called neuroplasticity. 

This episode will cover what it is and how understanding how the brain functions in this way can help us improve our health building habits. I'll also give three specific tactics or strategies you can begin using right away to begin training your brain to support your decision to cultivate healthy behaviors. I include personal examples of how I use these tactics.

I'll also explore what the Bible says about the life of the mind and the training of the mind, and how it relates to what science has uncovered.

I’m revisiting these tips myself as we go full swing into these season of celebrations! Here I'll give you 12 tips--things that have worked for me--in enjoying healthier Christmas seasons.