You may recognize Dr. Ian Smith as the straightforward, yet affable doctor on VH1’s fitness show Celebrity Fit Club and the Emmy-award winning talk show The Doctors. His latest venture is his NY Times best selling book, Supershred, which lays out a program to lose 20 lbs in 4 weeks. Ambitious as that sounds, it’s an example of his passion and confidence in helping make the American population more healthy and fit.
Dr. Ian sat down with BE for a quick chat on how folks can get fit healthy habits into their work schedule and what being healthy means to him.
What does being healthy encompass?
It’s mental physical and spiritual. The physical is being more in tune with your body and having control of your weight. Excess weight puts physical drain on on your body, on your joints and zaps your energy. It’s also about understanding your BMI (body mass index) and controlling it. If I could write one prescription for a healthy life, it would be to exercise. Movement affects every system in your body.
For the mental, it’s someone who is happy, confident and balanced. Someone who has a big perspective on life and is not caught up in the minutiae. One who has a healthy approach to failure just as they have for success.
As for the spirit, it’s not religious but finding your inner peace and understanding your core – who and what you are. That may sound cliche but a lot of people are out of touch with who they are. People are so preoccupied with paying bills, meeting deadlines and making money. People lose connection with who they are and you see a lot of people out there just …wandering.
Your latest book, Super Shred offers ways to lose 20 lbs in 4 weeks by counting calories and exercising. How do you suggest that can one keep up a diet and exercise routine in a busy schedule?
SuperShred is built for people who are busy and want to lose weight quickly on a hectic schedule. We tried to create a schedule where everything is spelled out for you everyday. We also created a program where the busy person – the house mom, the person at work or the retiree – can make adjustments to their schedule. What we have seen from the thousands of people who have been on the program is, they can adjust it to their lives. [Weightloss] programs must be sustainable as well as challenging.
What are some ways you think entrepreneurs can encourage more wellness for their employees?
Take a look at the work day. You can’t just have an elastic work day that last as long as it takes to get work done. If employers were more cognizant of the duration of the employee work day and the quality of the work, it could make a huge impact.
Studies have shown that that happy employees are more productive employees. Employers usually do not do a good job of thinking about the connection and the interface of the employees’ state of mind.
When employers intervene, they find more success rates and more allegiance, then employees tend to go above and beyond. Investing in prevention and wellness saves (the company) money and adds to the bottom line.
I also think that all employees should get a “you break†where one could do whatever he or she wants to do as long as it cannot be work related and it’s soothing to you.
You are very active on social media. How important is social media to the success of your healthy movements?
Anyone who doesn’t understand how social media can have a tremendous impact on these types of issues is totally lost. I was late to the game myself, as I thought it was more of a social thing like gossip. But there is huge practical benefit, beyond [discussing] what movie you saw.
With a touch of button one can access thousands of people who are online all
the time; asking questions, getting support reading posts and finding information. #ShredderNation is successful, as a large community of people are going through the same things. People find strength in numbers.Many people use lack of money as an excuse not to maintain healthy habits. What advice can you give those on a budget?
If living healthy is a priority for you, it’s not that expensive. Drinking 8 glasses of water a day, taking a walk, eliminating soda and reducing your fried foods costs nothing. There are a lot of things that people can do; they just have to be committed to it.