IFYL Just the Facts: Make Your Kids Read; Vibration Plates; Digital Detox

In this episode we discuss:

New Year’s Resolutions;

Social Media Kills Dancing;

Magical Sleep Powders.

And many more topics.

For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com

Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard

Transcript

Unknown: 0:08

Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard here with another just the facts episode of the show. This is where we take clips. This is tracks from this week's intelligence for your life radio show, and we give you just the facts. It's like taking the radio show, letting you put it in your pocket and take it with you wherever you need to go. That's what we're doing here, just the facts. Ma'am. I'm Sergeant Joe Friday, actually, no, I'm Gib Gerard, but here is John Tesh. So New Year's resolutions are typically big, vague promises, right? That mostly don't last, and you may have already given up on yours. I'm having trouble with mine, but there's an alternative. Choose a personal word for the year. Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonagall says having a word to guide you helps you focus on what's meaningful to you. Some experts call it a nudge word, because it gives you a little nudge to stay focused. How do you choose your word? Start by asking what you want more of this year? Is it calm? Is it connection? Is it more energy? Mcgonagall's sister once chose the word bounce to focus on resilience. So reflect on your favorite experiences, your hopes, your values and the areas in your life that deserve more attention. You might ask yourself, what matters most to me? Or how do I want to direct my energy? Some examples of words you can choose are balance, growth, kindness, health, fitness. A good word is one that guides your decisions, big and small. Now, once you choose your word, you got to make it visible. You put it on your bathroom mirror, the fridge, your computer monitor or make it your phone's wallpaper, then use that word to guide your behavior. Yes, it is the word for the year, right? My friends, next time you feel chilly, consider this feeling cold we now know is contagious, and seeing other people who look cold can make you feel cold too. The researchers at the University of Sussex, they tested the idea by asking study subjects to watch videos of people dipping their hands into water. In some clips, the water was icy, cold with floating chunks of ice. In others, it was warm enough to give off steam. Here's the surprising part, when people watch the icy water videos, their own hand, temperature dropped by about one half a degree may sound small, but scientists say it's enough to prove that temperature spreads from person to person. Psychiatrist Dr Neil Harrison led the study, and says the reason comes down to empathy. Humans are deeply social creatures, and one of the ways we've survived as a species is by learning from and syncing up with other people. Our brains are wired to mirror what we see. It's the same reason we yawn when somebody else yawns or feel itchy after watching somebody scratch, that unconscious mirroring helps us bond. And according to this research, our empathy is so powerful we can actually feel it when somebody else is cold, fascinating. So have you been seeing videos all over social media, people standing on vibration plates. I've done it. They're a hot fitness trend. They promise to do everything from tone your legs to improve circulation to helping with constipation, just by standing on them for a few minutes a day. But do they actually work? Well? Sports Medicine, physician Dr Gene doperick says vibration plates force your muscles to engage, especially your core, as your body works to stay balanced on the plate. Physical Therapists compare it to standing on the deck of a boat, and even simple moves like squats or planks can feel harder when your body is shaking. But vibration plates aren't a replacement for real exercise. Exercise Physiologist Ashton Dobbin says if you're hoping they will magically build muscle, you'll be disappointed, because traditional movement like walking or strength training still delivers better results. They can also make some people feel nauseous from motion sickness. Those plates can instead think of a vibration plate like a supplement. They can slightly amplify your workout, improve balance and increase circulation, but they will not replace a well rounded workout routine. There you go. So here's a simple idea that can improve your life. Pick one day a year to review your defaults. Now, defaults are the choices that get made for us when we don't actively decide things like subscriptions that auto renew retirement contributions that stay untouched, or apps that clutter up our phone and track our behavior simply because we've never removed them. Behavioral economist Ray Fishman says defaults are powerful because we tend to stick with them, not because they're great and improve our lives, but because changing them takes effort, and companies know this. That's why auto renew boxes are often pre checked and free trials turn into monthly charges. So a default day is about pausing long enough to ask, is this still working for me? Look through your bank and credit card statements and cancel things you no longer use, check your retirement contribution and make adjustments. Reorganize your phone so the apps you want to use are easy. Is to reach delete the ones you download it and never used again. Boy, do I have to do this. The beauty of a default day is that you only have to do it once a year, and when you reset them intentionally, you take back control, and you'll probably save some money too from our health and wellness files. It turns out that more of us than ever before are chasing better sleep, and now there's a booming business promising you can drink your way to sleep. Sleep. Drinks and powders are typically made with ingredients like magnesium, l theanine, vitamins and herbs and sales are surging. About 22% of American adults now say they drink beverages or use powders marketed for sleep. The brand som sleep doubled their sales last year, and dream water products were up over 30% they're now sold in airport kiosks all across North America, and even some hotels like Hilton and Choice Hotels have started carrying them. Sleep. Experts say some of the ingredients may help magnesium and l theanine have been studied and do trigger a relaxation response. Nutrients like vitamin b6, and zinc can increase the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, helping you fall asleep and stay asleep. However, sleep drinks are mainly for short term use and won't combat chronic insomnia. Experts are also warning that supplements can interact with some medication, so you got to always talk to your doctor. Plus you can also get the same results much more cheaply by having a simple bedtime routine, like sipping some chamomile tea while winding down with a good book. There you go. The latest on these sleep drinks. Here's a conversation starter for you. A new report from the New York Times finds that a lot of high school students aren't reading whole books anymore. Instead, teachers have students read excerpts, articles and short passages instead. And you can probably guess why social media has crushed attention spans. It's a big reason why reading for pleasure has declined, and students' reading scores are at historic lows, by the way, another reason why students aren't reading whole books anymore. Time between classes, homework, extracurricular activities and student clubs, kids barely have time to get through an entire novel today. Teachers also let students watch movie adaptations instead of reading or many of them let kids listen to audio books. It can also be cheaper for schools to let kids read articles or watch videos than to buy books for the whole class. And research shows that 20 years ago, English teachers assigned between five and seven full books a year. Today, that number is closer to two. Critics worry that kids are missing out on the stamina and the deeper thinking that comes from sustained reading. I remember the stamina. Well, it looks like the work week is changing. For a lot of people these days, the work week now starts on Sunday, not Monday. This is true for me. A growing number of white collar employees now use Sunday to get ahead on their work. They do it so Monday isn't so stressful, and they have more flexibility during the week to meet a friend for lunch, leave early to pick up the kids or run a few errands. Experts say this shift is tied to how work has changed. Smartphones and laptops have blurred boundaries, and now some workers are choosing to let work infringe on their home life instead of fighting against it. The data backs this up. By the way, the workforce analytics company active track reports that white collar workers are 10% more likely to log into work during the weekend, and the average employee spends more than five hours working across Saturday and Sunday. Plus a Microsoft report found workers get interrupted roughly every two minutes during the traditional work day, but on weekends, people can work without their email constantly pinging or being dragged into a meeting. Experts say the key difference here is choice. These workers aren't wrapped up in a grind culture. They're working weekends so they can free up their time during the week. It makes sense. Remember the phrase when people used to say Dance like nobody's watching? Well today, turns out a lot of people are afraid to dance because everybody's watching and filming it. There's a growing feeling that social media is killing dancing in public. Teenagers at school dances, 20 somethings at night clubs, concert goers, even wedding guests, all seem to be feeling the same way. It's too easy for somebody to pull out their phone and turn your goofy dance moves into a viral video. So people, many of them, would rather just stand still or stay seated. I stayed seated a lot during high school. Choreographer and Brown University professor Sydney skybette are told The Wall Street Journal that what looks like boredom in crowds is really just self preservation. People are protecting themselves from becoming a meme. Performers are noticing too. They're being told by their fans that they don't dance in public anymore because they're afraid of being filmed looking awkward. That may be why more venues are starting to restrict phone use at many concerts and clubs now people have to lock their devices away. I've seen this. Phones are being banned from weddings and on dance floors altogether. And DJs say when phones disappear, people do finally let go. It turns out a little privacy might be exactly what dancing needs to make a comeback if you are thinking about spending less time on your phone this year, while you're not alone, it turns out your brain would really appreciate this too. More people are making a digital detox, their new resolution. In fact, it's even more popular than losing weight, and research published in Psychological Science finds that cutting back on social media can quickly improve mood, sleep and mental health. In one study, people who cut back on social media to only 30 minutes a day saw meaningful drops in anxiety, depression and insomnia in just a week, they even picked up old hobbies again. Dr John Torres is the Director of Digital psychiatry at Beth, Israel, and he says constant scrolling keeps us in a state of low level stimulation and distraction, and when we quiet that mental noise, our nervous system finally gets a break. But not all screen time is equal video heavy apps like Tiktok and Snapchat were the hardest to Gib up, and they're also the most stimulating for the brain. The takeaway isn't to quit technology altogether, it's it's small breaks from constant digital input can help your brain reset. It can lift your mood and make everyday life feel more grounded. Once again. It's worth a try. Well, look at this. Pizza parties are out these days and sushi nights are in, and parents say it is destroying their budgets. Across the country, kids are skipping chicken nuggets and asking for shrimp tempura, salmon rolls and even curated sushi boxes, with some families spending well over$100 per meal. Sushi chefs say they're now serving children as young as six in restaurants, often as a quote reward for finishing homework or getting an A food historian Trevor Corson says Gen alpha, which are kids up to age 14, don't see raw fish as exotic or strange. Sushi is everywhere now it's at grocery stores take out counters birthday parties and kids don't have the same hesitation adults once had about eating it. Industry numbers back this up. Retail sushi sales in the US alone hit nearly $3 billion last year, and that number keeps climbing. Restaurant executives say sushi also makes kids feel grown up. It is seen as an adult food, which makes it more appealing, and parents admit they're torn. Sushi is expensive, but it's also something their kids genuinely enjoy and nutritionally. It beats the nuggets. Wall Street Journal is calling sushi the new chicken fingers. That's it for the show today. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you like the show, please rate comment and subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. It helps us out a lot when you do that. We also try to respond to every mention the show, every DM about the show. You can tell us what you think about it, because ultimately, we do the show for you guys. So thank you so much for listening. You.