Tag: Lifestyle Medicine
-
The benefits of binge eating
The exam was a week away. I had been studying for this for months, I was only going to get one shot at passing it, and the pass rate was 80%. Boy oh boy was I stressed. I snapped at my partner, I kept zoning out when playing with my toddler, and I had the…
-
Punchdancing
I ran back through the gates of my hall of residence and immediately stopped. It was getting dark and the bright lights of the dining hall lit up the faces of my peers inside. I had no desire to join them. I was too pent up. Too nervous about exams, too on-the-edge with my friends.…
-
I bombed my med school interview. It saved my life.
I stood at the back of Burger Fuel on Queen St, staring at the menu on the board behind the counter. My eyes darted across the different items on offer too fast to actually read anything. Frantic. Desperate. The queue was getting shorter and I still didn’t know what to order. Heat crept up my…
-
The headache of electric lights
“Take a video of the light on your phone,” suggested my colleague, pointing up at the long fluorescent lamps that lit up the office. “A video? Why?” “I read that some lamps flicker. You can’t see it but if you take a video then watch the video on your phone you might be able to…
-
No, I won’t weigh your daughter
“She just doesn’t understand that she can’t be like her friends. They all go out and get chocolate bars and junk food and I just need someone to make her understand that she’s not a normal teenager. Dancers can’t do those things.” The woman on the phone kept up her diatribe, hardly drawing breath. “I’d…
-
Why you should stop making New Years resolutions
When I was 19, my older brother bet me that I couldn’t go three months without consuming added sugar. My stubborn adolescent self began the challenge immediately. For the next three months, I watched wistfully as my family ate perfectly ordinary things like spaghetti and cheese toasties (added sugar in the spaghetti), my mum’s homemade…
-
Overindulging and the holidays
Every year someone asks me how they can avoid overeating during the festive season. I could give them a yarn about only making one or two desserts for Christmas, instead of five, as the more varieties of food on offer, the more you’re likely to eat… But I think giving answers like that, even if…
-
Growing older doesn’t mean growing old
My preschooler shuffled around on his seat until his face was almost pressed against the glass of the gondola. The whir of the cables serenaded us over rocks, grass and the odd sheep, until a small shudder rocked the gondola and we stopped. “Why have we stopped?” My son asked, clearly slightly worried that his…
-
What is lifestyle medicine?
Today I received confirmation that my fellowship to the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine has been approved: I’m officially a fellow. While it’s a big deal to me, I know it means next to nothing to most people, because most people have never heard of lifestyle medicine! Let’s change that. Lifestyle medicine is a branch…
-
Go to sleep
A while back, I conducted a little experiment on myself. For three nights I went to sleep at the same time as my preschooler – 7.30pm. I wanted to see how I would feel if I slept more, so I just closed my eyes and drifted off a couple hours earlier than I usually would…