Dr. Topher Fox

Can you really win by making 1% improvements?

Can you really improve your health by staking together small improvements over time?
While it may seem counterintuitive, making consistent small upgrades to your choices and behaviors can yield amazing results. Making a 1% improvement every day for a year leaves you 3700% better off (it's crazy, but true if you do the math).

The key is consistency. And consistency is not easy.

In this training we'll discuss one of our clients who has lost over 30 pounds and dropped her A1c from 6.5% to 5.8% by focusing on 1% improvements. We'll then discuss one practical example of how to make a 1% improvement with a "snack makeover."

Yes, you can win by making 1% improvements. Let's get started together today.

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The Brain-Behavior Gap

Have you ever had one of those moments where you stop all of a sudden and wonder, "when did I stop doing that?" I know meditation is good for me personally (I tend toward racing thoughts), but the habit of meditation has never been very "sticky" for me. Recently I had a busy week, and somewhere in the midst of it, my meditation habit fizzled out.

Do you have a recent experience like this? If so, let me share some insight from Kyra Bobinet, MD, a researcher at Stanford who I heard discuss behavior change on the Sigma Nutrition Radio podcast.

She tells a story of interviewing a woman in a weight loss program who was excited about the progress she was making, but then said, "I know what I should do and eat, I just don't know why I don't do it." That is a thought I've heard repeated in my clinic over and over through the years. Anyway, this thought motivated Dr. Bobinet to delve deep into what she termed the brain-behavior gap. That is, the gap that...

The 8 Pillars of Joy

My daughter Maddie is a science and math geek (much like her father). But she's also got this really cool artistic side. Take a look at the photo accompanying this blog post. Those are 3 art pieces Maddie and her friends are working on in her engineering class. They're currently on my garage floor as we're in the midst of social distancing and the schools are closed, so she brought them home to work on.

I was walking through the garage the other day when I stopped short as I took in the scene, and the range of possibilities for her life really struck me. She's interested in chemical engineering. But she's also working on designing a user interface for a non-profit. She's got so much potential, and so many doors open. I wonder where her life will take her?

The current reality, the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Tutu

After the fact, I began to appreciate the joy this brief moment provided. I believe I'm more aware of joy currently. In part, this is because our world...

Confession Time

My 15-year-old son has a metabolism like a hummingbird. It seems that if he doesn't eat every 2 hours he's likely to waste away. And because of this incredibly fast metabolism, he can get away with less than optimal food choices without showing any adverse effects.

It was therefore no surprise when I found a half eaten box of hot tamales, those little spicy cinnamon candies, in our pantry over the weekend.

You may recall that it's been about 2 months since I did my own Added Sugar Audit and took the majority of added sugar out of my own diet. However, I'm not militant about following this 100% and I do allow the occasional treat. And I really used to love hot tamales. So it seemed no big deal when I decided to have a couple while reading on Saturday.

Release the Beast

Apparently I still have a sugar fiend inside me, cause after those first two little candies, I couldn't stop thinking about hot tamales. I knew there were more. And two by two by two I kept going back...