Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Keeping Fit and Staying Healthy the Easy Way: How I Work Crossover

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Keeping Fit and Staying Healthy the Easy Way: How I Work Crossover · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: Today.
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  Speaker 2: This is doctor Justin Colson, the founder of Happy Families
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  Speaker 2: dot com, dot you, the host of the hit TV
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  Speaker 2: show Parental Guidance Channel nine, and the author of a
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  Speaker 2: whole bunch of books about how to make your family happier.
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  Speaker 2: And Kylie, my wife, and I are the parents of
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  Speaker 2: six kids. As you might have noticed on the Happy
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  Speaker 2: Families podcast. For the last couple of weeks, I've been
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  Speaker 2: joining forces in a really fun collaboration about how we
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  Speaker 2: can get more balance, more health, more well being into
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  Speaker 2: our lives. I've been joining with doctor Amantha im from
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  Speaker 2: the How I Work podcast. We're going to do it
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  Speaker 2: again today and again next week.
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  Speaker 1: Today.
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  Speaker 2: Our conversation censers around how we can be physically healthy
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  Speaker 2: in our lives, in our families and at work. Amantha,
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  Speaker 2: this is an area that I know you are so
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  Speaker 2: passionate about. I've got a bit of skin in the
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  Speaker 2: game as well. I've made no secret of the fact
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  Speaker 2: that I love to bike, ride, I love to surf.
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  Speaker 2: Anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows
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  Speaker 2: that stuff. But you've dived into the research and what
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  Speaker 2: I'd love to hear you share is what you've found
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  Speaker 2: in terms of research benefits for physical activity, just the summary.
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  Speaker 3: What do we know overall, Well, we know that it's
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  Speaker 3: probably the biggest lever we can pull to live a
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  Speaker 3: longer and healthier and happier life. So it certainly helps
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  Speaker 3: with physical health, that's not surprising. But it also helps
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  Speaker 3: massively with mental health. And certainly there's some research that
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  Speaker 3: I've read that has compared the impact of regular exercise,
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  Speaker 3: cardiovascular exercise specifically, and they've compared that to antidepressant medication
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  Speaker 3: and the results in terms of reducing symptoms for depression
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  Speaker 3: are pretty much on par which I think is quite amazing.
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  Speaker 3: So the effects of medication without any of the side effects.
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  Speaker 1: So I came across a brand new study.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, I mentioned it on one of my podcasts
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  Speaker 2: a little over a month ago.
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  Speaker 1: University of South Australia.
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  Speaker 2: They did a huge meta analysis where they study all
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  Speaker 2: the studies, something like ninety plus studies with one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and twenty thousand participants, and they published in the British
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  Speaker 2: Medical Journal. I think that they said that exercise, physical exercise,
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  Speaker 2: even in the short term, like within the first week
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  Speaker 2: or so, can be one and a half times more
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  Speaker 2: effective than psychopharmacology. And one and a half times more
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  Speaker 2: effective than sitting down on the couch and telling somebody
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  Speaker 2: about your problems.
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  Speaker 1: Like it's that, it's that profoundly powerful.
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  Speaker 2: The thing is, when I think about a conversation like this,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a keen cyclist. I'm awake at four o'clock several
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  Speaker 2: mornings a week so that I can ride my bike,
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  Speaker 2: or I go surfing when the serf's on. You love
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  Speaker 2: the gym, you love to be fit. I mean, this
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  Speaker 2: is something that you've been really clear about on your
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  Speaker 2: podcast for a long time now. Not everybody feels the
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  Speaker 2: same way that you and I feel about moving their bodies.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we all know we're supposed to do it.
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  Speaker 2: But if you say to somebody, why don't you sign
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  Speaker 2: up for yoga or pilates, or go to the gym
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  Speaker 2: and pump some weights, or go on a bike ride,
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  Speaker 2: see if you can ride twenty k's or sign up
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  Speaker 2: for that five k or ten k fun run, go
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  Speaker 2: and do park run on a Saturday morning.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes people will say, no, I don't like exercise.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't feel nice, and I don't have time to
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  Speaker 2: sign up for a class or do that thing every day.
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  Speaker 2: In your research, what have you found in terms of
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  Speaker 2: the necessity that we are exercising frequently and intensely and
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  Speaker 2: having that structured kind of exercise.
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  Speaker 1: Is it important? Does it work at there are other
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  Speaker 1: ways around this?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I've got a couple of strategies that I think
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  Speaker 3: might help. Firstly, if you look at the exercise guidelines
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  Speaker 3: from the government or from the World Health Organization, they
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  Speaker 3: say that we should be doing I think up to
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  Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty minutes of moderate intensity exercise every week.
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  Speaker 3: And I imagine you know people listening to this, they're busy,
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  Speaker 3: and if they don't have a regular exercise routine in
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  Speaker 3: right now, that's a huge ask to go. You need
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  Speaker 3: to find one hundred and fifty extra minutes in your
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  Speaker 3: week to move your body.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I've got a question about that though. That's two
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  Speaker 2: and a half hours across seven days. It's not a
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  Speaker 2: huge amount of time really, so that's not a question
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  Speaker 2: as a statement, But what's moderate intensity?
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  Speaker 1: What does that actually mean?
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  Speaker 3: Modern intensity means where let's say you're going on a
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  Speaker 3: fast walk, so you can still have a conversation, but
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  Speaker 3: you're a bit huffy and puffy. I would say it
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  Speaker 3: is a good definition of moderate intensity. But you're right, like,
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  Speaker 3: if you break it down over seven days, it's not
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  Speaker 3: that much. But still I feel like it's a big
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  Speaker 3: hurdle to a lot of people developing a regularly team.
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  Speaker 3: But there's some really exciting research that came out earlier
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  Speaker 3: this year into a concept called VILPA. So that is
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  Speaker 3: an acronym that stands for vigorous. Yeah, it's cool. It's
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  Speaker 3: vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity. So this is so VILPA.
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  Speaker 3: Might be you're walking to the train station and you
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  Speaker 3: can see the train at the place platform, you are
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  Speaker 3: not at the platform, so you sprint for a minute
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  Speaker 3: to get to the platform. It might be you're playing
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  Speaker 3: chasy with your kids in the backyard and you do
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  Speaker 3: a quick sprint to get to them. Those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 3: So VILPA is typically bounce of intense activity that have
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  Speaker 3: just woven into our day to day kind of choices
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  Speaker 3: that we make. They might last for a minute or two,
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  Speaker 3: and what we know is that if you do just
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  Speaker 3: three or four minutes of VILPA per day, that's been
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  Speaker 3: associated with a forty percent reduction in all cause mortality,
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  Speaker 3: which basically means death from any cause, which is pretty
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  Speaker 3: amazing compared to not building any kind of VILPA into
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  Speaker 3: your day and just kind of going about your day
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  Speaker 3: fairly set andree that's astonishing.
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  Speaker 1: Forty percent is a really big number. Are you familiar
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  Speaker 1: with the idea of a blue zone, A blue zone.
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  Speaker 3: Like in terms of exercise.
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  Speaker 2: Intensity, the blue zone in terms of aging, longevity and health.
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  Speaker 2: So I wish I could remember the book that I
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  Speaker 2: read about it in There's been a whole lot of
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  Speaker 2: research done. There are certain communities around the world where
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  Speaker 2: people live much longer than most humans live, and they
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  Speaker 2: live much more actively and happily. They're well being is high.
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  Speaker 2: It's not that they're living longer and dying longer. They're
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  Speaker 2: actually living longer and then dying quickly of natural causes
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  Speaker 2: when their body says, okay, I'm actually done now, rather
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  Speaker 2: than having this long term decades of medication as we
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  Speaker 2: slowly pass away.
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  Speaker 1: In a nursing home. These blue zones, there's just certain communities.
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  Speaker 2: I remember reading about one in Japan where the average
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  Speaker 2: age that people live to is somewhere around about one
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  Speaker 2: hundred to one hundred and five. And what the research
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  Speaker 2: was suggesting was, I guess it ties in with this
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  Speaker 2: Vilpa thing. They don't sit on couches. They get on
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  Speaker 2: and off the floor like twenty or thirty times a
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  Speaker 2: day when they're walking, and then they sit down. They
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  Speaker 2: sit down on the ground, and then they have to
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  Speaker 2: do the extra work getting from the ground instead of
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  Speaker 2: getting off the couch, a totally different amount of effort,
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  Speaker 2: even the way they use the bathroom. So we've got
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  Speaker 2: these very comfortable well I don't know how comfortable you
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  Speaker 2: do is, but they're more comfortable than having to squat
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  Speaker 2: over a hole I guess what I'm saying. But that
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  Speaker 2: requires the use of leg muscles, and so I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if it's the same as vigorous, intimatetent last of
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  Speaker 2: physical activity, but there's this ongoing use of the body,
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  Speaker 2: this physical activity, just regular daily movement. And it made
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  Speaker 2: me think, maybe we should get on the floor with
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  Speaker 2: the kids more. Maybe we should go and kick that footy,
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  Speaker 2: or throw that frisbee, or go for that walk along
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  Speaker 2: the beach.
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  Speaker 1: This is what I'm getting from you.
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  Speaker 2: If we want to live and work happy, then moving
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  Speaker 2: our bodies matters, Amantha In But you are known as
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  Speaker 2: a productivity specialist. I mean, this is the sort of
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  Speaker 2: thing that you do. So many parents, so many adults,
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  Speaker 2: so many people will say I really should exercise, but
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  Speaker 2: I just I don't know. What would you say would
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  Speaker 2: be useful to create an exercise habit, even if it's
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  Speaker 2: only five or ten minutes a day, something really simple?
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  Speaker 1: How do you build that habit?
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  Speaker 3: Something that I have used a lot in my life
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  Speaker 3: is a strategy called temptation bundling. So this is where
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  Speaker 3: you think about the activity that you do not like doing,
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  Speaker 3: and for a lot of people that is exercise. Most
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  Speaker 3: people don't like riding on a bike, justin, un like
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  Speaker 3: you who gets so much joy from it. Like, put
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  Speaker 3: most people on an exercise bike and they are very unhappy.
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  Speaker 3: So identify the type of exercise that maybe you want
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  Speaker 3: to do, but then with temptation bundling, you pair it
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  Speaker 3: with something that does bring you joy or does bring you.
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  Speaker 1: Pleasure, like eating chocolate.
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  Speaker 3: Like eating chocolate, but maybe not while you're on the
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  Speaker 3: exercise bike. Let's go with another example. So this is
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  Speaker 3: from my life justin. So I have an exercise bike
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  Speaker 3: at home, but I do not like the exercise bike
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  Speaker 3: right now. I'm very into slow jogging on rainy day
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  Speaker 3: is an exercise bike is preferable, but I don't like it.
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  Speaker 3: And so what I do is I say to myself, okay,
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  Speaker 3: that like there are a few TV shows. Some TV
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  Speaker 3: shows I like that I feel no guilt watching, like Succession,
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  Speaker 3: but other TV shows I feel a major amount of
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  Speaker 3: guilt watching, like the bachel Atpte. Not the Israelian one.
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  Speaker 3: It has to be the US. It's so trashy.
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  Speaker 1: And I used to think you were so great, and
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  Speaker 1: then you've said.
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  Speaker 3: That, But but you can still think I'm great because
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  Speaker 3: I don't let myself watch it unless I'm on the
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  Speaker 3: exercise bike. So I am bundling this thing that brings
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  Speaker 3: me so much guilty pleasure. But it's no longer guilty
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  Speaker 3: because I'm on the exercise bike. It's just bringing me
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  Speaker 3: pleasure and it's distracting me from the pain of the
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  Speaker 3: exercise bike. So we can apply that to anything that
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  Speaker 3: we don't like doing. So think about the unpleasurable activity.
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  Speaker 3: And today we're obviously talking about exercise, you know, in
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  Speaker 3: the context of physical health. But find some thing that
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  Speaker 3: you really love that you can do with it, Like
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  Speaker 3: it might be going for a walk and listening to
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  Speaker 3: your favorite podcast, for example, and only letting yourself do
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  Speaker 3: that when you're walking, which makes it even more pleasurable
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  Speaker 3: the unpleasurable activity.
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  Speaker 1: So this reminds me of two things.
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  Speaker 2: It reminds me of the habit stacking principle, which I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure you're very, very familiar with, rather than temptation bundling.
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  Speaker 2: It's just, okay, I already do this thing all the time,
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  Speaker 2: So every time I do this thing, I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: do this other thing. I'm going to do some exercise.
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  Speaker 2: I wish I could remember where I read it. It would
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  Speaker 2: have been at least ten years ago now, but I
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  Speaker 2: read in a book somebody was talking about the way
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  Speaker 2: they habit stacked.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted to do more push ups in their life,
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  Speaker 1: but they could.
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  Speaker 2: They just didn't want to do them in the morning,
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  Speaker 2: and there was no other convenient time, And so they
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  Speaker 2: made this commitment that every time they went to the
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  Speaker 2: bathroom during the day, when they left the bathroom, they'd
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  Speaker 2: find a place where it was hygienic enough to get
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  Speaker 2: down on the floor and they would go and.
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  Speaker 1: Do ten or twenty push ups.
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  Speaker 2: And they're stacking an exercise habit on top of something
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  Speaker 2: that they already do. It sort of fits in with
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  Speaker 2: the temptation bubbling, but it's just a different take on it,
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  Speaker 2: I guess. And I started doing that and for a
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  Speaker 2: little while I actually had a chest amanthe. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it was amazing because and then I let the habit go.
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  Speaker 2: But again, this exercise, it works, and I think I
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  Speaker 2: want to put in another plug as well for nature
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  Speaker 2: as there's something about being in nature that is both
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  Speaker 2: soothing and invigorating, and researchers have found that it encourages
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  Speaker 2: pro social behavior in kids and in adults, that feeling
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  Speaker 2: of awe and wonder. And there's just something great about
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  Speaker 2: being up early, watching the sunrise as you ride your
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  Speaker 2: bike along the coast or through the mountains.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm I'm getting on a ba again. Sorry about that, but.
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  Speaker 2: These are these are kind of my ideas. Last word,
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  Speaker 2: I guess, if we really want to help our family
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  Speaker 2: to be healthier, I'm thinking now about the parents who
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  Speaker 2: are worried about their kids spending too much time in
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  Speaker 2: front of screens and just not building those good health
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  Speaker 2: habits that encourage physical wellness and exercise. What else sort
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  Speaker 2: of springs to mind for you? If there was one
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  Speaker 2: more thing that you could throw out there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think almost a combination of what we've been
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  Speaker 3: talking about in terms of habit stacking, which I love
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  Speaker 3: for people that want to know more about that. Bj
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  Speaker 3: Fog wrote a book called Tiny Habits, who I think
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  Speaker 3: was one of the first people to talk about habit
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  Speaker 3: stacking in the public eye, but also temptation bundling. So,
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  Speaker 3: for example, I'm sure that many people have kids that
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  Speaker 3: like their devices and want to be playing more Minecraft
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  Speaker 3: or more Roadblocks or something like that, or is that
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  Speaker 3: just my daughter? Probably not, So you could say to them, Okay,
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  Speaker 3: you can do that, but give me ten squats or
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  Speaker 3: ten push ups or ten burpies verse for example, and
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  Speaker 3: every five minutes we're going to take a burpee break.
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  Speaker 3: So incorporating it either through habits stacking, so it's like
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  Speaker 3: that's the thing that you do before you can unlock
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  Speaker 3: your screen time or building it in both those things
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  Speaker 3: could make getting your kids or encouraging your kids to
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  Speaker 3: exercise an easier ask.
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  Speaker 2: I love this and it's just prompts one more quick
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  Speaker 2: thought for me, and that is if the kids don't
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  Speaker 2: want to move their bodies, you know what is so
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  Speaker 2: effective at getting them to move their bodies is you
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  Speaker 2: moving yours and doing it with them, just the quality
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  Speaker 2: of connection. My kids are quite happy to go for
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  Speaker 2: a walk with me. They're happy to go for a
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  Speaker 2: run with me or a ride with me, so long
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  Speaker 2: as I go slow enough. But even if I'm just
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  Speaker 2: doing some physical activity, like recently did the beep test
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  Speaker 2: in the backyard and the kids were like, oh, we're
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  Speaker 2: in They just wanted to see how far they could
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  Speaker 2: run and for what level they could get to. There's
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  Speaker 2: something about connection and physical activity that is great for relationships.
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  Speaker 2: It's great for the family, and it's great for our
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  Speaker 2: well being.
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  Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more. And I just want to share
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  Speaker 3: one more anecdote on that. I mentioned that now my
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  Speaker 3: cardiovascular exercise of choice is slow jogging. I've never been thought.
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  Speaker 2: That I can't do slow jogging. If I'm going to run,
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  Speaker 2: it's got to be fast for me.
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  Speaker 3: I just want to avoid getting injured because I used
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  Speaker 3: to do a bit of jogging, but I got injured,
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  Speaker 3: and this was many years ago, and then I just
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  Speaker 3: left that side of me behind. But then my daughter
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  Speaker 3: has run club Thursday before school, and she's not a
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  Speaker 3: mad keen runner, but she does voluntarily participate in run club,
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  Speaker 3: and I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could
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  Speaker 3: do that with her because they often look for parent
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  Speaker 3: volunteers because they're running through the streets of the suburb
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  Speaker 3: where the school's located. And so I did couch to
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  Speaker 3: five k and I'm now like a runner or slash
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  Speaker 3: slow jogger again, because I thought, wouldn't that be a
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  Speaker 3: great connection opportunity once a week with my daughter to
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  Speaker 3: participate in run club together. And now I can run
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  Speaker 3: far enough that I can do that with her.
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  Speaker 2: I love collaborating with people, and I love the conversation
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  Speaker 2: that doctor Amantha Mbre and I have just had. The
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  Speaker 2: Happy Families podcast for Today has been produced by the
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio Network Australia. Our executive producer is Craig Bruce and
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Kyli and I will be back tomorrow on the Happy
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Families Podcast. If you'd like morofol about making your family happier,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: please visit Happyfamilies dot com, dot you or.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Check out our Facebook page.
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  Speaker 2: Doctor Justin Colson's Happy Families