Day 8 - Eastern Medicine for Mental Health

I was surprised that many American people told me that Asian people never gain weight because they have "better genes." That is not true. If Asian people ate like American people, they would all gain much more weight and be sicker than the average American. 

Dr. Kouda taught that most illnesses are caused by overeating nearly 50 years ago in Japan. If we don't correct our eating habits, trying any kind of healthy lifestyles, supplements, or health products won't prevent us from getting sick. 

The leading cause of death is now non-communicable disease, such as:

• Cardiovascular diseases (Heart, blood pressure)
• Cancers
• Chronic respiratory diseases (asthma, COPD)
• Diabetes
• Mental health conditions (depression, anxiety)
• Musculoskeletal disorders (osteoporosis, arthritis)
• Kidney disease
• Liver disease

 When we look at the risk factors,  the #1 risk is an unhealthy diet, and the best way to manage the illness is a healthy diet too. 

• Unhealthy diet
Physical inactivity
Tobacco use
Alcohol consumption

When people look at this kind of list, the first thing they try is increasing the physical activity by going to the gym. This is not sustainable and realistic. The order that we need to follow is this. 

1. Quit smoking
2. Quit Alcohol intake
3. Eating healthy
4. Regular exercise 

We need to try to reduce the amount we eat. 

Intermittent fasting has so many health benefits. 

I am 46 years old and I feel tired, have headaches, and lack motivation more and more often when I wake up in the morning, but I can manage this feeling by doing intermittent fasting every morning. Just by skipping my breakfast to rest my digestive system, all those feelings are gone by noon. 

I am not the kind of person who always eats too much, but I need to be careful watching how much I eat. Going through holidays, weekends, parties, and so on, gradually increase the amount I eat. 

The truth of eating is, "more we eat, more we get hungry."

we need to push the reset button to stop eating more and more periodically. 

Start the intermittent fasting is one of the best way to push the reset button to control the amount.  

Today, I'm back to o124.6. This is the second week, and my goal weight is 124.0 or less during this week.