By JUDD MATSUNAGA, ESQ.
This article is the second installment of a four-part series from Harvard Medical School’s Special Health Report titled “Self-Care: A Step-by-Step Wellness Plan for Body, Mind, and Spirit.”
In Part 1 (Rafu Shimpo, “How to Thrive in 2025,” Jan. 17, 2025), we discussed how improvements to your body, mind, and spirit are all essential to good health. This second article focuses on caring for the body, specifically through nutrition, physical activity, and sleep.
Nutrition — Unfortunately, the standard American diet is the opposite of self-care. The problem is largely rooted in the high levels of processed carbohydrates that’s laden with saturated fat, salt, and sugar. Not only are they nutritionally poor, but they also increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, depression, dementia, and chronic inflammation.
“Inflammation in the brain translates into low mood, anxiety, hypervigilance, brain fog, and loss of joy,” says Dr. Drew Ramsey, who wrote the 2021 book “Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety.” By contrast, a diet rich in minimally processed whole foods — fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish — helps to tamp down chronic inflammation and keeps your body and brain functioning at their best.
The purpose of changing your diet is to start feeling good right away, not to achieve some distant payoff through dietary deprivation. In fact, by eating a healthy diet, you start to feel better within days. A healthy diet boosts energy and enhances mental well-being within days, nourishing both body and brain.
The Harvard Self-Care guide gives the following 10 tips/strategies to build healthier means and snacks:
1. Substitute beans, fish, skinless chicken breast, or tofu for red meat .
2. Make a vegetable your side dish instead of French fries when eating out.
3. Use low-fat or non-fat dairy products or unsweetened non-dairy milks like almond, cashew, or soy instead of whole milk.
4. Season your foods with lemon, garlic, onion, and spices rather than salt.
5. Buy fewer packaged foods. Shop the perimeter of the store, where the whole foods are.
6. Instead of soda, drink unsweetened coffee or tea, herbal tea, or water flavored with fresh fruit.
7. Read food labels, and choose foods with less added sugar, saturated fat, and salt.
8. Buy healthy snacks like apples instead of cookies and crackers, and keep them where you’ll see them.
9. Top sandwiches with vegetables like avocado, tomatoes, or cucumber instead of with cheese, and use mustard rather than mayonnaise.
10. Cook in bulk and save the leftovers for another meal.
Finally, as a visual guide, nutrition experts at Harvard Medical School have developed the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, which isn’t a diet so much as an easy guide to plant-based eating. Here is a summary of the main points:
- Half of your plate should contain fruits and vegetables. (French fries and ketchup don’t count as vegetables.)
- A quarter of your plate should be filled with whole grains, such as barley, quinoa, oats, or brown rice.
- The final quarter should consist of healthy sources of protein, like fish, poultry, beans, and nuts.
Physical Activity — Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. It helps prevent life-threatening ailments like heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. If that’s not self-care, what is? But too many adults don’t exercise enough because exercise becomes something that’s “good for you” and therefore more of a chore. If you don’t already have the disease, the threat of future illness might not motivate you to get up off the couch.
Just as with a healthy diet, exercise is not just about gaining some hypothetical reward in years to come. Exercise can also provide much more immediate payoffs — things that might bring a smile to your face right now. The Self-Care Special Report from Harvard Medical School says that physical activity increases energy in at least five distinct ways:
1. Every time you engage your muscles in any type of exercise, more mitochondria are produced in your muscle cells. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, because they convert food and oxygen into energy.
2. Exercise boosts your body’s oxygen-carrying capacity, which helps you use energy more efficiently.
3. Exercise also releases low levels of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which make you feel energized.
4. Exercise increases levels of the “feel-good” hormones called endorphins, which make you feel more energized by boosting your mood.
5. Regular aerobic exercise almost guarantees that you will sleep more soundly, i.e., one of the few documented ways to increase restorative deep sleep.
However, because there are many reasons people fall short, the Harvard Report includes the following 10 tips for getting more exercise, many without even leaving the house. Try these simple strategies to get yourself moving more:
1. Set your alarm for five minutes earlier than you need to wake up in the morning. Use that time to do some gentle stretches or march in place.
2. Also set alarms on your phone or computer to go off at various times during the day. When the alarm rings, get up and walk, jog in place, or lift weights for five minutes.
3. Take the long route. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Get off the bus at an earlier stop. Park in the farthest spot in the lot. Walk a lap around the mall or supermarket before you start shopping.
4. Pace back and forth or go for a walk while you talk on the phone.
5. Do one active chore a day. Vacuum your rugs, mow the lawn, or clean out the basement.
6. While you watch TV or stream shows, use the commercial breaks to do a plank, march in place, or stretch.
7. Instead of having a friend over for coffee, meet for a walk instead. Or play pickleball, try a round of golf, or go dancing.
8. March in place while you microwave your food. Do half-squats or heel lifts while you wait for your coffee to brew.
9. Get a treadmill desk, or replace your office chair with a stability ball. Another option is a minicycle, which you can pedal while you read or watch TV.
10. Bike or walk to work if you live close enough.
As always, safety first. Definitely talk to a doctor if you have any significant health problems, particularly an injury or a chronic or unstable health condition such as heart disease, back or knee problems, or balance problems; if you have had surgery recently; or if you take medication that makes you dizzy or lightheaded.
Sleep — You spend about one-third of your life asleep. That might seem like a colossal waste of time, but sleep serves several important purposes. Far from being a luxury, sleep is now known to be essential for good health and optimal functioning. Sleep restores the body, mind, and soul, making it one of the best forms of self-care imaginable.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep nightly. The sweet spot seems to be in the seven- to nine-hour range for most adults. Yet Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. An estimated 50 million to 70 million Americans have difficulty sleeping For one in 10, poor sleep is a daily occurrence.
Medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and thyroid disease bring symptoms like pain, shortness of breath, or a frequent need to use the bathroom that can prevent you from falling asleep or jolt you awake in the middle of the night. Medications you take to manage these conditions, including beta blockers, steroids, diuretics, and antidepressants, cause sleeplessness as a side effect.
Another possibility is that your bedtime habits are preventing you from sleeping. The blue light that cell phones, TVs, and computers emit blocks the release of melatonin, a hormone that signals your body when it is time to sleep. Research finds that about 70% of adults use electronic devices in bed, and nearly 15% spend an hour or more on these devices.
Doomscrolling on social media or watching a violent movie stimulates your brain enough to keep you awake. Eating a large meal, especially one that is accompanied by a few glasses of wine or coffee, is another known sleep disruptor. The food makes you uncomfortably full or triggers heartburn, while the caffeine stimulates your brain. Although alcohol makes you feel drowsy, it disrupts your REM sleep and ultimately gives you poorer-quality rest.
The following are10 tips from Harvard Medical School to sleep longer and more soundly:
1. Create a sleep sanctuary in your bedroom. Reduce clutter, which can be distracting and anxiety-provoking. Use blackout curtains to keep the room dark, or wear an eye mask.
2. If outside noise is an issue, consider buying a white-noise machine to drown it out.
3. Keep electronic devices like your computer, cellphone, and tablet out of your bedroom. Or at least turn them off an hour before bed.
4. Try to go to sleep at the same time each night. About two hours before bedtime, dim the lights to prepare your body for sleep.
5. Avoid caffeine and alcohol for at least four to six hours before bedtime. Drink all liquids sparingly close to bedtime, to prevent a full bladder from waking you up.
6. Eat a moderate-sized dinner two to three hours before bed. Have just enough food to ensure that you are neither too hungry nor too full during the night.
7. Do something calming before you go to bed, such as meditating, taking a warm bath, drinking a cup of chamomile tea, or listening to gentle music.
8. Try to get outdoors in the morning. The sunlight helps set your internal clock.
9. Limit daytime naps to 20 minutes or less, and do not take them late in the day (after 3 p.m.).
10. If you can’t sleep, don’t watch the clock. Get out of bed and do something calming, like reading a book, until you start to feel sleepy.
In conclusion, once you give healthy living a chance, you won’t want to go back to your old ways, because you will simply feel better in mind, body, and spirit. But don’t take the scientist’s word for it. Experiment, and see for yourself. Notice how you feel after trying any of these self- care tasks. If you feel better, try to hold on to that feeling, and let it motivate you to continue.
Judd Matsunaga, Esq., is the founding partner of the Law Of-fices of Matsunaga & Associates, specializing in estate/Medi-Cal planning, probate, personal injury and real estate law. With offices in Torrance, Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena and Fountain Valley, he can be reached at (800) 411-0546. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.