Let's talk lifestyle. Like many of the guests on T-Cast Lauren Imparato has an impressive resume. She has worked on Wall Street, been a Morgan Stanley VP and the founder of health, lifestyle, and wellness company I.AM.YOU. She is also the author of the international bestseller, RETOX, which presents a unique and realistic take on health and wellness for real life.
Tired of the constant calls for dietary purity, radical changes in lifestyle, constant pushes to seek some sort of perfection in this world, Lauren wanted to offer something else. Something for regular people who lead normal lives with jobs and family. People for whom always preparing the perfect healthy meal is difficult and whose lives exclude the possibility of spending hours a day doing…anything other than what is needed for the present moment can wrap their heads around.
The kind of diet and lifestyle changes most health and fitness people recommend are just not sustainable in the long term for most people. Whether it’s a vegan diet, keto, carnivore, no TV, etc, these things are all but impossible to keep up for more than a few weeks or months for the vast majority of people who are mostly concerned with getting bills paid and having a bit left over. The fact is that the present climate of the health and wellness world fuels a boom and bust cycle that in turn feeds into the already high levels of stress and anxiety experienced by the modern westerner. Lauren wrote RETOX to remind people that it’s okay to enjoy life a little bit. To go out dancing and have a steak from time to time. She’s sort of like the Ramones of the health word, sick of the normal and here to shake things up.
This applies to the way Lauren looks at data as it is used in the health and wellness industry. We have tons of apps and devices that collect data that pertains to our health. Mostly, all they do is spit out a number, something that doesn’t usually matter to our overall health. How many steps you got, how much you slept last night, your current heart rate. For the most part, they don’t really tell you what you might have done wrong and certainly not how you can make it better, not without selling you a mess of supplements and programs you may or may not need. In fact, her focus really isn’t on what you should take out of your life but on what you should add in from one day to the next. That’s because what you need to be healthy, both mentally and physically, might vary from one day to the next. The only real principles are that we need to move, eat, and connect with someone emotionally. Some days that’s a trip to the gym, a steak, and calling mom; others, it might be a walk through the park, a salad, and a date night with your spouse. You have to listen to yourself a bit and figure out what is needed each day.
It’s important to understand that this is not some new version of finding the right ‘work/life’ balance. Striving to find some mythical perfect balance only tends to fuel the anxiety and winds up being counterproductive. After all, some days will require a twelve hour day at work, others only six. You have to be a little flexible and willing to roll with the punches a bit. And of course if you are focusing too much or not enough on work you will need to swing the other direction a bit. If you are paying attention to what you and those around you need you will self-correct before things get too out of whack and damaging.
The full interview with Lauren was fascinating and I strongly recommend you head over to T-Cast to check out her thoughts on technology, the issues with the alternative medicine world, and the importance of taking responsibility for yourself.
What’s your health and lifestyle worth?
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