Earlier this summer, the UK saw the demise of one of its favourite people: Dr Michael Mosley. You may not know him, but he was a popular TV and radio doctor, who had been broadcasting for nearly 20 years. He had an appealing down-to-earth manner, and seemed to give a lot of good advice. He was not averse to experimenting on himself, having been injected with snake venom and been infected with parasitic tapeworms, in order to gauge their effects on his physiology. In fact, after working around the edges of media for years, he was brought to a wider public on a TV show after he had received a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, whereupon he decided to find out if he could ‘diet’ his way back to health. He undertook an intermittent fasting regime (severely reducing calorific intake for two days each week), and at the end of the programme he had lost 9kg and his diabetes was in remission, after the fat had ‘drained out of his pancreas and liver.’ He wrote a number of books about weight loss (although not everyone agreed with his conclusions), and had recently become even better known through a series on TV and radio called ‘Just one thing,’1 about how simple changes can transform your life.
He was very well known in the UK, and well-liked. At the start of June 2024, he was on holiday with his wife on the Greek island of Symi, just off the Turkish coast. He left his wife on the beach to walk home in the blisteringly hot early afternoon, but instead for some reason he took a path up into the arid hills of the island. CCTV captured his last moments, as he descended from the hills towards the coast and a beach, becoming increasingly weak in the heat, before finally collapsing and dying behind the boundary wall of a cafe, being unfound for several days. He was just 67.
I thought it might be useful to share with you some of the tips and tricks that he felt could help to transform your life. Firstly, 10 ‘rules’ to help you change:
- Make it simple;
- Be realistic;
- Create a trigger;
- Know why you are doing it;
- Stick with it for at least a month;
- Try to replace bad habits with good ones;
- Try to do it daily;
- Involve a friend or loved one;
- Be kind to yourself;
- Keep a record.
Applying those ‘rules’ to how you make changes (in order for them to be more likely to ‘stick’), he suggested the following regime (which will be easier for some to follow than for others):
Early morning: Do ‘intelligent’ exercises (squats, press-ups etc); Take a cold shower; Sing; Meditate; Take an early-morning walk.
Breakfast: Change your mealtimes (delay breakfast - and eat earlier in the evenings); Drink water; Eat some bacteria in fermented foods and drinks; Stand on one leg; Drink coffee (in moderation).
Mid-Morning: Take a break (a few times a day); Take deep breaths; Exercise less, but more often; Take eccentric exercise such as walking downhill; Think yourself stronger by mentally rehearsing a skill or an activity.
Lunchtime: Enjoy oily fish; Eat beetroot; Eat an apple a day; Get some sun (in moderation); Take a nap.
Afternoon: Get some house plants (for your mental health); Play video games (to sharpen your mind); Enjoy green spaces; Stand up and move around; Eat dark chocolate (again, in moderation).
Evening: Dance; Learn a new skill; Take a hot bath to relax; Read; Count your blessings.
Well, I don’t know about you, but it sounds like a very nice day to me. I’d add in seeing friends and family, and maybe taking in a movie, and then it’s approaching being a perfect day. There’s no alcohol in there, no smoking, no hot-dogs, no bacon - all known carcinogens. Those are probably the bad habits we should be kicking to welcome in the new good habits.
So, Oxford-educated Dr Mosley gave good advice, backed up with science, that may have helped many people in the past, and could help you and me today - even after he himself is gone. The question is, why did he take that fateful walk in the mid-afternoon heat? Undoubtedly, he didn’t realise how indistinct the path would be, how far it was, how searingly hot it would become and the roughness of the terrain. So, it seems, even clever people make mistakes.
1 ‘Just one thing,’ Dr Michael Mosley
