"Be born to different parents," my psychiatrist said.
I was in his office for multiple complex reasons, but a fundamental intervention was sleep. I was complaining that I needed more sleep than average. For most of my life, I've needed 9 to 9 1/2 hours to be rested for the day. Even then I might take a short nap at midday. I had just asked what I could do to get by on less sleep.
It was another lesson in, "You got the brain you got, buddy, best you learn how to use it."
At the time I learned my brain wanted the amount of sleep it wanted. I was the parent of two young children with a full-time job with a primary workplace 1200 miles from my primary home.
Simple. Not easy.
During that same period, right around my turning 40, my yearly check--up with my primary care physician showed a five-pound weight gain. I'm tall. It didn't make an appearance difference. Maybe all my activity is creating more muscle mass, I thought optimistically. Ten years marched on with five pounds adding on and noted at each annual physical. I had acquired 50 pounds of body fat.
My father-in-law was an endocrinologist. I asked him for advice.
"Fewer trips of fork to mouth," he replied.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Now it's a lesson in, "You got the body you got, buddy, best you learn how to use it."
Simple. Not easy
I spent the next ten years focusing on getting more sleep and eating less food. All of this required first learning about sleep and nutrition, becoming conscious how my way of life impacted these, becoming more consciously aware of my habits and behaviors. Painfully changing a lot of them.
I kept sleep journals. I kept food journals, recording everything I ate. I learned about the calorie and nutrition density of the various foods.
The next five years showed five-pounds-a-year less on the doctors' scale. At the same time, though year five showed now 25-pounds less than five years ago, the check up also showed a rise in my blood sugar levels into the pre-diabetes range. My doctor observed I had a family history of late-onset diabetes that I'd likely inherited.
""You got the genetics you got, buddy, best you learn how to use it."
Now I learned about the glycemic index. I dropped out added sugars. Dropped out what fellow Irish-in-America Frank McCourt always lovingly described as "floury white potatoes." Eliminated nearly all processed foods -- all of this nearly impossible when traveling. Nonetheless five years later, 25 more pounds of body fat eliminated. Blood sugar levels normal, whatever that means. The good news is I've been in remission for ten years now.
This is consistent with research that says durable behavior change takes ten years, with two to three years putting one on a reliable path.
I did all this because I want a healthy brain, or at least my best shot at it, should I get to old age,. Allowing our brain the sleep it wants, and keeping excess blood sugar out of it, are two of the best things we can do for cognitive longevity.
Simple.
Not easy.
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper