SENTUL HEALTHY HAPPY LIVING AND PERSONAL
HEALTH
During each of my visits to Bogor, the focus
of the conversations has been Personal Health and Philosophical basis for the
union of Health and Happiness.
The reason or the force behind such
discussions is of course PJ who is the most considerate boss I have ever known
and it is incredible that the best boss is in Indonesia, and he is head and
shoulders above other bosses in the corporate world that I have known. In fact
he runs his organization on much more of a human potential rather than a
material potential. When I asked him why is that he spends so much time with
his managers but never discusses the business, he answered; I am interested in
their health and their happiness and the environment they live in. What they do
with the improvement in their lives is up to them. On an average day, the
managers may have up to 3 hours to share their thoughts and knowledge about
health and happiness with PJ, and at least one meal a day is shared together.
When I was there for six days, as could be seen in the photographs in an
earlier blog, none of us ever ate alone. There would always be five or six
people excluding PJ.
Even though I am a specialist physician, I
learn so much from them: their explanations are lived in experiences and
practical whereas an Indonesian doctor would tell you what he has learned or
read in a book or article, work done by others.
If an overweight, unhealthy person goes to
a Doctor and asks for advice, what he hears is:
Eat less and Exercise more and loose
weight. Every one knows WHAT is that to be done, but what they need advice is
on HOW to do it.
And, dangerously enough, if the doctor is a
peon of a drug company, he may prescribe one of the two recently approved,
expensive medications (which don't do their jobs well anyway) or an off the
label usage of some of the newer designer drugs (3 to 5 dollars per day!). If
they had a few seconds to spare, they may suggest a membership at a Gym (I saw
a Celebrity Gym at Botanic Mall in Bogor, with very few people inside). Gyms
are good at making your wallets weigh less and their tactics of signing up etc.
are well known.
Nothing of the above advice gives the
person who seeks the advice, HOW am I going to achieve Better Health?
What is missing in all the various Weight
Loss programmes is that the body is not a machine that just responds to
Exercise or diet composition in a prescribed fashion, plus a piecemeal approach
without a mind/body/spirit/environment connection cannot be expected to produce
good results. What these “experts” ignore is the fact that the body is a social
unit, part of the society in which it lives:
It includes connection with
Family
Friends
Job
Transportation
Politics of the Country
The fact that the social aspects of a body
can defy scientific knowledge of Nutritionists and Lifestyle Coaches
(especially from the Gym) are the two examples:
Despite high fat intake the French people
have half the cardiovascular diseases than the Americans who eat less fat than
the French with the thought that it would protect them against heart disease.
Playing Golf, which is very low intensity
in Physical Activity, has a prolonged effect on the longevity of the person, as
against very tough bodybuilding or cardio work out in a gym.
As an Anthropologist I can tell you the
reason for both are the social nature of eating and playing.
The French, even the busiest of executives
would take time out to have lunch, and the lunch is usually not a quick meal
but a prolonged affair. Canteens of high calibre are provided for most office
workers where the hour spent (very few workers in America get one hour for
lunch) socializing and believe it or not, the canteens even provide wine for
those who would like a sip.
Golf by its nature is social, and there are
rituals and participations, which are all very social in nature. The fact that
both, long lunches laden with fat or slow intensity exercise, are beneficial is
attributable to their sociability
Any health programme for a community that
does not take into consideration the various aspects of life a Body lives in
context is bound to fail.
In an article published in December 2012 in
Archives of Internal medicine, the results of an intervention among overweight
or obese adults who met the criteria for Pre Diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
Each group consisted of about 80
participants, all recruited from the lists of General Practitioners of medicine
First group received the USUAL care, the
kind of care given by doctors and nurses to people who are overweight and are
pre diabetic
The second group were given DVD
instructions and the self-directed actions were carried at home.
The third group had a special curriculum
delivered to them by a lifestyle coach, and in a small group.
There was a 3-month period of intense
coaching followed by a year of maintenance phase of coaching and communications
for groups 2 and 3
At the end of the 15 months, the social
group (no 3) had fared much better than both self directed group as well as the
usual care group. It is interesting to note that both successful aspects of
this programme were non medical (self directed and lifestyle coaching)
The social group lost 2.2 kg/m2 of BMI from
baseline, which is impressive, compared to 1.6 for self directed group at home
and the poorest at 0.9 was for the usual care group (in fact in real life,
majority of the patients or people who are overweight who seek advice would
fall into this group and thus would be disappointed with the results)
That is why the experienced reality of the
Sentul Healthy Happy Living Group is so successful. By August of 2012, the
members had lost a collective 70 kg and just three months later, another 20 kg.
Bringing the total up to 90 kg in weight loss. In short, each participant had
lost a minimum of 10 kg.
This is the reflection of the coordinator
of the group: PJ
People are not coerced to stay or prevented
from leaving. It is up to the individual whether or not they would like
continue participating in the activities of the group. So far all the
participants have been employees of the same firm.
Philosophy of PJ
Healthy bodies exist in context of Happy
minds.
Happy Bodies need good environment:
At home/families
At work
At the place of residence (suburb, village etc.)
During this visit to Bogor, the day begins
with a pick up at the hotel at 6 AM; we congregate or join in, around the Lake
at Sentul Golf Residences, and walk/jog for a minimum of one hour, not
including the time for socialization.
The kind of questions asked of me, because
of my role as a specialist Physician and Anthropologist, reflect the philosophy
of the group. I will give you one such example:
The manager of The Exotic Fish Farming and
Export asked me on my recent visit:
A lot of the time, 10-15 of the workers had
to work until very late at night, perhaps until about 5 am to pack the fish for
export.
What is your advice regarding their rest
period after working for such a long time?
And what should they eat? Is there any
specific kind of food that would give them a boost in energy?
A good practical question, not the kind I
am asked in my usual professional role as a Specialist Physician.
My answer after a little deliberation was:
When they finish at 5 AM, they should rest
at least 3-4 hours
Preferably in a quiet room, without too
much light.
If they have eyeshades to cover their eyes
while they sleep (if they don't, I will bring 15 on my next visit), they should
wear them.
After 3-4 hours of rest, they should drink
water and not any other soft drink or fruit juice. They could have a cup of Tea
(green Tea) or Coffee (not coffee mix, three in one) with brown sugar for
sweetener
Then they should exercise for one hour:
Walking/jogging/running, to the best of their capacity
Then Breakfast together, cooked in the
canteen of the fish packing plant:
Not too much rice
Chinese style breakfast or Bubur Ayam. Eggs
recommended. No noodles or pasta
Then go back to work.
Health is not an absence of Disease but it
is related to the state of your mind, and without working on your mind, the
body tend to deteriorate. All ancient philosophies state this fact which seem
obvious but neglected by the modern day purveyors of health who wish to sell
you
Instant Health
Pills for Better Health
Supplements for Health
The advice from the Sentul Healthy Happy
Living Group is
Get your mind ready to become Healthy in
your body and we can tell you HOW you can do it…as each one of us have done it,
including me, a Specialist Physician in the Metabolism of the Body.
On the last day of my stay in Bogor this
time, I could jog for ten laps around the Sentul Lake, a total distance of 6 km.
much to the cheer of the various members of the group, who knew this doctor who
at a BMI of 22 kg/M2 still was the fattest looking one in the group…
No Longer!
Come and see us at the Sentul Happy Healthy
Living and share our Spirit for Better Bodies in Better Societies.
(happy to have completed ten laps jogging around the lake at Sentul!)
