The Four Pillar Plan - Deepstash
The Four Pillar Plan

Matthew Clark's Key Ideas from The Four Pillar Plan
by Rangan Chatterjee

Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:

11 ideas

·

23.9K reads

102

1

Explore the World's Best Ideas

Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.

Maintaining a healthy body: the four pillars

Maintaining a healthy body: the four pillars

The four pillars are relaxation, food, movement, and sleep.

Many of us recognise the importance of food and movement, but sleep and relaxation are very much undervalued.

A lot of people’s diet and movement aren’t too bad, and rather than trying to become perfect in those areas, or get a 5% improvement, they’re much better off if they focus on the other pillars.

313

3.59K reads

A progressive approach to managing your lifestyle

Doctors should stop focusing on symptoms and start looking at the body as a whole.

Doctors should also take into account how all parts of the bodywork together to maintain health. This is called progressive medicine.

259

3.05K reads

Relaxation

Relaxation

Most people underestimate the importance of relaxing and fail to do so regularly. In fact, relaxing is essential for your health because not doing so can cause serious damage.

When we’re stressed, our body produces cortisol. This is the body’s way of dealing with stress. But in today’s world, where stress is always present, we produce too much cortisol.

279

2.43K reads

A daily practice of stillness

This is just a moment in the day when you press the pause button. Try starting with just two minutes of meditation a day. That daily practice will start to have a massive impact on your overall health.

  • You can be mindfully listening to your favorite music on your phone through headphones, for example – as long as you’re not scrolling social media at the same time.
  • You can also try 3-4-5 breathing – you breathe in for three, hold for four, and breathe out for five. When our out-breath is longer than our in-breath, we activate the relaxation part of our nervous system.

343

2.23K reads

Eat

Eat

There is no one-size-fits-all diet that will work for everyone.

Instead, try to focus on general changes you can make, which include eating five portions of different vegetables every day and drinking eight glasses of water.

266

2.18K reads

The 12-hour window

You don’t actually need to change what you eat, just when you eat. In our modern culture, we’re eating all the time. When we’re eating late in the evening, we’re generally just a bit bored. We’ve got what I call an itchy mouth. It’s just something to do.

When you restrict your eating window a huge amount of benefits kick in to the body. You can get better control of your blood sugar and your weight, and your immune system functions better. Your mitochondria, which are the energy factories of your body, also work more efficiently.

279

2.02K reads

Less sugar

Less sugar

One thing all doctors can agree on with every diet is that we consume far too much sugar. 

You may think you’re good at avoiding sugar. Unfortunately, its normalized nature in our lives makes this hard to do. Our breakfast cereals, granola bars, sports drinks, and just about everything you love to eat is riddled with the stuff. To fight back, we each need to de-normalize sugar. 

This starts with knowing what’s in the foods you already eat. Check labels before you buy. Be careful to learn and watch out for the many different words that companies use to disguise sugar.

263

1.51K reads

Move

A problem that many of us have is that we either exercise excessively or not enough. So most of us stress out over not having enough time to do our workouts, or we give up because we just can’t fit it in. 

A better way is to focus on movement each day rather than exercise. The easiest option is to incorporate more walking. Additionally, trying some simple strength-training exercises can help. These don’t have to be strenuous or time-consuming. They can be as easy as doing a few lunges, push-ups, or squats on your break at work.

269

1.48K reads

Sleep

Sleep

Most people who are having trouble with sleep are doing something in their everyday lives that’s affecting their ability to sleep.

Make sure you have a period without tech  – ideally 90 minutes but as long as you can manage if not – before bed.

267

1.65K reads

The quality of rest

Improving the quality of our rest is as simple as evaluating it against three standards:

  • Do you feel refreshed when you wake up?
  • Do you wake up at around the same time each day without an alarm?
  • Can you fall asleep within 30 minutes of laying in the bed?

280

1.78K reads

RANGAN CHATTERJEE

“We’re all familiar with the idea that lifestyle can be the cause of disease. What’s not common knowledge is that a change in lifestyle can also be the treatment and prevent us from getting sick in the first place.”

RANGAN CHATTERJEE

266

1.93K reads

IDEAS CURATED BY

matclar

Diplomatic Services operational officer

Matthew Clark's ideas are part of this journey:

The Imposter Cure

Learn more about health with this collection

Strategies for building self-confidence

Techniques for embracing your strengths and accomplishments

Tips for seeking support and feedback

Related collections

Discover Key Ideas from Books on Similar Topics

Glucose Revolution

1 idea

Glucose Revolution

Jessie Inchauspe

SuperLife

19 ideas

SuperLife

Darin Olien

Eat That Frog!

24 ideas

Eat That Frog!

Brian Tracy

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates