Doctors (and twin brothers) Xand and Chris van Tulleken share four powerful tips they’ve learned from investigating myths about wellness and health.
A giant cup of instant black coffee and no food is not what you’d expect the host of a wellness podcast to eat for breakfast.
However, this is what Dr. Chris van Tulleken, who hosts the BBC podcast “What’s Up Docs” alongside his identical twin brother, Dr. Xand, confesses to consuming.
“I’m approaching middle age, so I don’t want to eat all day. My way of not eating all day is not eating breakfast,” he says.
It’s this kind of honesty about not leading a perfect life and facing things they know they should do but still don’t that makes them so close to the audience.
The brothers are both doctors and have become famous thanks to their television and radio work: they host the children’s series “Operation Ouch!” and Xand is one of the resident experts on the BBC’s “Morning Live”, while Chris is known for his best-selling book “Ultra-Processed People”.
On the podcast they often disagree with each other about different opinions regarding health and wellness, just like in real life.
Xand laughs after Chris says it’s hard to work “with a brother like Xand, who is so incredibly annoying.”
But the brothers actually love working together, and Chris admits that he started the podcast “pretty selfishly because we were just trying to answer our own questions.”
“But it turns out our problems are similar to everyone else’s.”
They say the podcast has changed their lives for the better and describe how they changed their behavior over the course of more than 30 episodes.
1. Don’t worry too much about getting eight hours of sleep
Like most of us, the brothers thought that eight hours was the ideal level of sleep and that getting less than that was a failure. Now they are much less dogmatic.
The brothers say a healthy amount of sleep can range from six to ten hours.
“There’s so much anxiety about getting eight hours of sleep, but some of the biggest things in my life, like raising kids, I’ve solved with sleep deprivation,” Chris says.
Realizing that everything from winning wars to taking exams was often done with very little sleep made them realize that sleep deprivation can sharpen concentration in the short term.
Xand says this helped him “eliminate all that anxiety” around ideal sleep patterns and times.
“It no longer dominates my life and I think about it a lot less.”
He also feels much more comfortable taking a nap when needed and says he sometimes “takes a 20-minute nap if he’s exhausted.”
2. Pause before saying yes or no
They both find it difficult to say “no”, and Xand says it can be “almost physically painful”.
Now they have learned the “power of the pause”. If something doesn’t require an immediate decision, they ask for more time to think about it so they don’t feel pressured to say yes.
Chris says this has helped him face difficult conversations that he might otherwise have put off. However, he admits that he is still learning to be more assertive.
“I know I should be, but for some reason I can’t, and I know I have to focus on this.”
The podcast episode on this topic also taught them that they needed to define what their values are and then evaluate whether the requests fit them. For Xand, the priority was spending more time with his wife and two children.
Since then he has managed to say no to several things that he would otherwise have accepted in order to have a more peaceful life.
“I recently said no to a very large and important work project, even though there was a lot of pressure to accept it, but it didn’t fit into my other commitments and what I wanted to do.”
3. Brush your teeth mindfully
One of the most practical tips the brothers adopted was how they brush their teeth.
This small gesture has become a conscious task and Xand explains that it has completely changed the way he brushes his teeth.
“My wife Dolly no longer complained about my bad breath after the episode.
“I hold my toothbrush at a different angle and don’t look at my phone while brushing my teeth.”
Although Chris is shocked that his brother was using his cell phone while brushing his teeth, he agrees with the effectiveness of these changes.
“It’s a matter of angleing your toothbrush, being gentler, and having a better idea of what you’re trying to achieve: You want to clean every surface of every tooth.”
4. Willpower does not exist
Many people believe that difficulty dieting, exercising, or quitting bad habits is due to personal weakness, and Xand shares these sentiments.
“I feel lazy and inadequate most of the time.
“I go to Manchester every week and usually arrive late after a long train journey, order a takeaway and don’t get any exercise, and then tell myself off.”
This podcast episode’s expert guest, psychologist Kimberley Wilson, helped Xand understand that “there is no such thing as willpower.”
Willpower isn’t something magical inside you, but rather your ability to persist at something, which “depends on how you organize the world around you,” he says.
For example, by planning ahead and thinking about what you’ll have for dinner, you can avoid takeout and eat something healthy more easily.
Since the episode, Xand has managed to increase the amount of exercise he does, but he still doesn’t enjoy doing it.
“I get on the exercise bike and have these negative thoughts while I exercise,” he says.
Another simple change he made was to carry a bag of apples with him on his regular trips between London and Manchester, instead of buying unhealthy snacks on the train.
Chris understood that willpower doesn’t mean increasing your tolerance for discomfort and suffering, but being more organized.
“I started cooking in large quantities, which now frees up time for me to do things like read with my daughter.”
Despite all the changes they’ve made, the brothers are the first to admit they don’t follow all the experts’ advice.
Take sunscreen, for example. “A dermatologist gave us great advice,” says Chris, “but there’s something about the sun that really draws us in. Academically, we know that sun exposure is bad for you and causes cancer, but we’re still drawn to it.”
This tension, between what we know and what we do, is at the heart of their podcast.
If there’s one thing Doctors hopes listeners take away from the show, it’s that struggling with your health isn’t a personal failure.
“Much of your health and well-being is not your fault,” says Xand.
“There are many forces trying to divert your money, your attention and your time from the things that really matter. What we’re trying to do is eliminate these distractions, help you identify your values and align your life with them.”
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
