Take Five :: And Change your Life

“He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.” Arabian Proverb

Don’t tell my husband but I have a new crush. It’s not a food or a shoe crush – it’s a man crush! He’s a younger man, tall, handsome with a British accent. Oh my…

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is the author of six books, his most revolutionary Feel Better in 5. He is the resident doctor on BBC One’s Breakfast Show and a regular on BCC radio. His podcast is the number one podcast on Apple, and his TED Talk has over three million views.

Dr. Chatterjee says the key to success is in the five-minute plan. “In Feel Better in 5, “I’ve made health super simple. Everything in the book takes five minutes, maximum. Start small and keep it simple.”

Feel Better in Five

We are pretty overwhelmed, to begin with. So, when you add one more ‘must-do’ to your weekly routine, the needle on the overwhelmed chart begins to escalate. Unless, that one more thing, is easy to do, this is the key. “It sounds like a gimmick, but it’s really not, because if you look at all the behavioral science, this is the way that you create a new behavior – you don’t create a new behavior by making it difficult, you create a new behavior by making it easy.” For a simple thought, this one carries the full weight of reality.

We have all been at the beginning of January saying to ourselves, this will be my year. I have to get in shape. I have to cut back on sugar and alcohol. How is this for self-induced stress! Not good…The thought of the gym 3 days a week before 6 am is enough to make you want to stay in bed. But, if you follow Dr. Chatterjee’s advice and keep it simple. You’ll have no trouble getting up to do your daily 5-minute workout. If you keep it easy, you’re more likely to keep it up.

One of Dr. Chatterjee’s tricks is tagging a new habit with an old one. If you brew coffee every morning, you could do your 5 minutes while waiting for your coffee to brew. Good habits build up, just like bad habits, and it’s an excellent idea to reward your good habits with a wall chart or track on your phone. Visually seeing what you have accomplished in a week or a month will propel you toward further success.

Mind Body and Heart

Ideally, you will want to expand your workout to 15-minute, 3 – 5-minute workouts. Why three? All three are interconnected, selecting one five-minute intervention for the mind, one for the body, and one for the heart. Doing these three every day, five days a week will change your life. So, it literally becomes 15 minutes a day, five days a week is all you have to do. By doing this, you’re covering the three most important elements of a happy, healthy lifestyle.

Working on your mental health is most important. Especially if we have a habit of downplaying our stress, if we are feeling overwhelmed daily, we will want to concentrate on the mind movements. The body movements are actually a series of five-minute workouts, alternating with grounding your body through a one-minute quiet time. The workout can be strength, HIIT, or yoga – none of it requires any equipment. The third part is for the heart. The three combined are the primary key. All the recommended exercises and movements are listed in the book. And it is quite extensive and varied.

“When it comes to health, the heart does not receive as much attention as it should – it’s our primary connection to all things. Our connection with our self, our connection with our friends or our partners. When you miss one of these areas, it’s tough to make changes stick because they all feed into one another,” says Dr. Chattelerjee.

Restoring Harmony To Your Body

What’s amazing about the premise of the Feel better in 5 minutes is it restores harmony to your body. The connection between the three core pieces of the mind, body, and heart causes a ripple effect. You’ll find that you are eating healthier, sleeping more soundly, and have more energy. And a new feeling of empowerment because of your continued success.

Dr. Chatterjee is also passionate about the cycle of motivation. The majority of his patients come to him when their motivation is high. They want to be healthier and are willing to begin a new regime of exercise and nutrition. He found that when motivation begins to subside, and it will the patient will slowly ease back into his old ways. What his patients needed was a better system to keep the momentum moving forward.

He goes on to say, “The point I’m trying to make is, rule number one for behavior change, is you have to make it easy because even when your motivation levels out, as it will, you’ll still do it. This is a cornerstone rule.“

“The second most important rule is where you put that new behavior that you want to do. Right? Because a lot of us don’t really think about that. We think we’ll fit it in when we’ve got time. Schedule your behavior and be consistent.“

“I think if people think back to the behaviors that they’ve tried to introduce into their life and not managed to, I bet that they didn’t follow one of those two rules. That’s so, so important.”

Progressive Medicine

Dr. Chatterjee has dedicated the last twenty years of his practice to the belief in progressive medicine. Progressive medicine takes a full 360-degree approach to health and how the body’s systems can better work together to reduce the risk of chronic disease while improving vitality.

With progressive medicine, “I focus on finding the root cause of diseases and helping my patients make their illnesses disappear. This means that as a doctor, I focus on all of you, not just the symptoms. I don’t treat the disease. I treat the person.”

“The majority of my patients don’t need a pill, they need a lifestyle prescription.”

A Few Personal Thoughts

This post was originally published in 2020. I just recently ordered his newest book, Happy Mind, Happy Life. I’ll write a post/review to release shortly on the book and I’ll include a few highlights from his amazing podcast, available on Apple. I’ve downloaded the book, and I’m excited to hear more about what he has to say. The title – Happy Mind, Happy Life, had me the moment I read the title, considering that my default mindset is happy. I’m excited to read it; I feel today, we are challenged on so many levels all of which are capable of squashing our most positive, happy thoughts. So I’ll take whatever advice there is to fortify myself. And I cannot think of a more handsome, smart, kind man like Dr. Chatterje to lead the way.

Please let me know what you think about Dr. Chatterjee and his new progressive medicine. And, if any of you get into the 5-minute vibe…let me know!