Key Messages
Rangan Chatterjee’s Four Pillars Of Health: Relax, Eat, Move And Sleep
If you want to make positive changes to your lifestyle, but don’t know where to start because you lack the time, Rangan Chatterjee’s “The 4 Pillar Plan” is the book for you.
His approach to medicine simplifies health and dieting and flips our notion of a burden on its head.
Chatterjee outlines four basic pillars for living a healthier body and mind: relax, eat, move, and sleep.
The smallest improvements in these areas can bring about immense gains in your overall health and well-being.
Discover how sugar affects your taste buds; learn some helpful breathing exercises that will bring inner peace; and find out why excessive exercise might be doing more harm than good.
Following Chatterjee’s plan and focusing on the four pillars of relax, eat, move, sleep (and repeat!), will do wonders for your life.
Do We Need To Look Beyond Medicine To Treat Illness?
Maintaining a healthy body isn’t solely about treating the symptoms of illness, it’s about taking a progressive approach to managing your lifestyle.
To shift the focus from addressing only symptoms and towards more comprehensive care, practices should look at not one but all aspects of an individual’s health.
That’s where The 4 Pillar Plan comes in.
According to the author, depression is caused by a variety of conditions including poor diet, stress, or too much or too little physical activity.
By recognizing that our bodies are interconnected systems, rather than just looking at what’s happening on the surface level, he believes we can make real changes in our health and performance.
For example, if you have a rash on your arm – something seemingly simple – it could be pointing to an overly reactive immune system directly linked to stress or food tolerance issues- indicating there might be an underlying bacterial disturbance in the gut.
Applying ointment then is not enough- this is where lifestyle intervention through diet and stress relief come into play to help support long term health outcomes.
The book encourages readers to adjust their lifestyles by focusing on four key pillars: relax, eat, move and sleep.
By doing so, Chatterjee claims he has helped people out of depression, reversed type 2 diabetes and even relieved menopause symptoms.
It goes to show how powerful adopting this progressive approach can be and why it’s essential for maintaining optimum health!
Take Time For Relaxation: Why We All Need To Unwind And De-Stress
We’re all familiar with the feeling of being rushed, of always having to be doing something.
But what we don’t realise is how important it is to make time for relaxation.
According to The 4 Pillar Plan book, taking just 15 minutes a day for relaxation can have huge benefits for your health.
Our bodies are still basically the same as our hunter-gatherer ancestors from thousands of years ago, which means that if we stay in a state of high stress for too long, then our bodies produce the fight-or-flight hormone cortisol in order to respond.
Elevated cortisol levels lead to increased heart rate, loss of appetite, and other adverse effects.
That’s why it’s so important to find time each day to relax and reset.
Whether it’s enjoying a cup of tea at a café or reading a magazine, make sure you give yourself 15 minutes every day just do something for yourself that doesn’t involve your phone, computer or tablet.
And don’t feel guilty about doing this – your health depends on it!
Rediscovering The Power Of Stillness – A Hunter-Gatherer’s Approach To Stress Relief
It’s no secret that our daily lives are getting increasingly noisy, and it’s taking a toll on our health.
Hunter-gatherers lived very quiet lives, with long stretches of silence during the day when they were hunting and sitting still around a campfire at night.
It was this kind of stillness that humans were naturally built for, but our modern world doesn’t make it easy to incorporate into our daily routines – with social media, TV series, and busy schedules making it difficult to carve out moments of silence.
That’s why it’s so important to make stillness part of your day and reduce the noise in order to give your body and brain time to reset.
Studies have shown that stillness increases gray matter in the brain – grey matter is responsible for controlling muscles, sensory perception, sight, hearing, memory etc.
A great way to achieve this is through regular breathing exercises – something as simple as 3-4-5 breathing will help promote calmness as it gives you time to focus solely on breath.
The exercise involves inhaling for three seconds, holding your breath for four seconds and exhaling over five seconds – all in one continuous movement.
You can do this anywhere; whether you’re at home or in the car.
Small steps like these can reap huge rewards – why not start by incorporating stillness into your day with a simple breathing exercise?
Take Control: Improve Your Dietary Health And Taste By Reducing Sugar Intake
We all know that sugar can be really bad both for our health and our tastebuds.
In fact, the number of people with type two diabetes in the UK has skyrocketed due to overconsumption of sugar – almost 3.5 million cases today.
That’s why it is so important to try and de-normalize sugar in our diets as much as possible.
A study conducted in 2016 showed how too much sugar can affect our senses – one group was fed a sugary diet while another was put on a low-sugar diet.
Afterwards, when asked to rate the sweetness of the same dessert, the group on the low-sugar diet found it much sweeter than the group used to eating a lot of sugar.
As time went on, their taste buds actually became more sensitive to sweetnesses!
So if we want improved dietary health and truly enjoy our food again, we have to commit ourselves to reduce the amount of sugar in our diets.
Don’t be fooled though – check everything you buy for its sugar content even if you wouldn’t expect there is any being added like meat or eggs!
Start ridding your kitchen cupboards of sugary treats and become more conscious about adding unnecessary sugars into your diet; your body will thank you for it!
Experience The Benefits Of Micro-Fasting: Give Your Body’S Inner House A Daily Tidy Up
Fasting allows your body to naturally cleanse itself on a daily basis with the process of autophagy.
To reap the greatest benefits, it is recommended to introduce 12-hour micro-fasts into your daily routine.
Start by choosing a 12-hour eating window that suits you best.
For maximum efficiency, try to keep the same window consistently each day.
During this period forgo only water, tea, and coffee outside of regular meals.
If friends and family are fasting together, it will make sticking to the plan much easier.
Lastly, if things are going well you could even reduce the time window down further still in order to get even greater results from autophagy’s cell repair processes.
Don’t worry if there are some slip ups along the way — simply focus on getting back into a regular schedule as soon as possible.
Striking The Right Balance: How To Incorporate More Movement Into Your Everyday Life
Rather than over-exercising or not getting enough exercise, the key to a healthy lifestyle is to incorporate movement into your everyday routine.
World Health Organisation (WHO) studies show that many Americans and Europeans are not active enough – with 50 percent of women and 40 percent of men falling short.
Meanwhile in South East Asia, the figures are 15 and 19 percent respectively.
It’s important to remember that too much exercise can be damaging; a growing number of cardiologists believe participating in endurance events such as marathons too regularly may have negative effects on the heart.
What’s more, research suggests taking exercise too far can lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome – where waste material from food digestion leaks through the digestive tract into the bloodstream, putting immense stress on the immune system.
The solution? Stop thinking about exercise as an abstract concept and start viewing it as what it is intended for – movement!
Our bodies are designed for movement; we should embrace this natural affinity for mobility rather than stressing ourselves further with punishing fitness regimes.
Embrace movement in its broadest sense; from walking between meetings at work to joining an extra spin class if you’d like some variation.
In short, instead of worrying about exercising excessively or insufficiently, let’s make movement part of our everyday lives so we can live healthy and active lifestyles!
Integrate Movement Into Your Life For Optimal Health And Well-Being
If want to live a healthier life, try integrating walking and strength training into your day-to-day life.
To begin with, aim for 10,000 steps a day – although it’s not the number that matters, setting goals is a good place to start.
Then, try to walk instead of taking the bus as much as possible and take the stairs over elevators.
Making it a habit to stand up and walk around after you’ve been sitting for an hour will help keep you motivated.
When it comes to strength training, you don’t have to rush off to the gym – getting creative with your surroundings can be just as effective.
Examples of quick but beneficial exercises include five to ten squats, calf raises, press-ups, tricep dips and lunges.
Incorporating these exercises into your life at least twice a week can make a huge difference in terms of overall health and well-being!
Unlock The Power Of Sleep: Simple Tips To Improve Quality Rest And Reap Its Benefits
Proper sleep is key to keeping a healthy lifestyle.
When asleep, the body repairs itself and cleans away the waste that has built up during the day.
Not only is the amount of sleep important, but also the quality.
Poor quality of sleep can leave you feeling drained and unfocused, and can even increase your risk for being overweight or developing stress-related conditions.
Good quality sleep gives you more energy, improves your attention span, and helps you learn better.
It also lets your body’s internal clock run effectively and sets your biological rhythm in top condition.
To ensure a good night’s sleep, look for these three signs: feeling refreshed after waking up; not needing an alarm to wake up at the same time every morning; falling asleep within 30 minutes of lying down in bed.
If you score 6 out of 6 on these measures, then you have a healthy sleeping routine; if not, there are lifestyle changes that can help improve it!
Embrace Darkness And Follow A Set Bedtime Routine To Improve Your Sleep
If you’re looking to improve your sleep habits and overall health, it’s important to immerse yourself in darkness and follow a consistent bedtime routine.
Darkness helps signal to your body that it’s time for rest, activating the hormone melatonin which encourages sleepiness.
To create an environment conducive to rest, avoid light pollution as much as possible—dimming or turning off all electronic devices (TVs, smartphones, computers), investing in blackout blinds for your windows and taping over stand by lights.
Having a set bedtime is also essential; form a daily rhythm by going to bed and getting up at the same times each day.
Find calming activities such as stretching, listening to music or doing breathing exercises during the hour before bedtime, then switch off all electronics ninety minutes before settling into bed hands-free of screens (No-Tech 90!) Finally, wind down further with some reading in dim red light until you begin to feel sleepy – then switch off all light sources and enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep!
Wrap Up
In the end, The 4 Pillar Plan encourages readers to adopt a healthy lifestyle that keeps your mental and physical health in balance.
It outlines few simple practices based on four pillars – relaxation, food, movement and sleep.
This is achievable for everyone who takes their wellbeing seriously.
For relaxation, engage in 3-4-5 breathing strategies, reduce or eliminate sugar from your diet and fast for 12 hours each day.
The book also promotes walking more often and introducing simple movements into your everyday routine.
Finally, to ensure proper rest, make sure that your bedroom is dark during bedtime and avoid exposure to any screens.
A great way of starting on this road to wellness is by making one full day without screens available in your weekly schedule – the perfect opportunity to relax while being present with family or friends.
