Join Gina Lokna, MD, a sports medicine physician, in exploring “Wellness as a Lifestyle.” Dr. Lokna provides a detailed framework for understanding and implementing lifestyle medicine, focusing on six key pillars: nutrition, exercise, stress management, social support, avoiding risky behaviors, and sleep. She offers practical advice on creating SMART goals, choosing balanced exercises, and building a healthy diet. Dr. Lokna also covers important topics like sleep hygiene, stress management, and the role of social connections in health. This video is an excellent resource for anyone looking to adopt a whole-person approach to fitness and wellness, providing actionable, evidence-based strategies for achieving optimal health.
Quick insights
- Exercise is foundational: physical movement, strength training, and flexibility are essential for long-term health. Dr. Lokna recommends starting small with goals set around including both cardiovascular activity and strength and flexibility training each week.
- SMART Goals for wellness: Dr. Lokna encourages breaking down goals into manageable steps using the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. This method helps ensure that progress is measurable and sustainable.
- Nutrition is key: a whole-food, plant-predominant diet rich in nutrients, healthy fats, fiber, and clean proteins can play a major role in preventing and reversing chronic diseases. Dr. Lokna emphasizes simple, healthy eating strategies that are accessible to everyone.
- Sleep and stress management: adequate sleep (7-9 hours for adults) is crucial for mental and physical health, while managing stress through mindfulness, meditation, and social connection can significantly improve quality of life.
- Whole-person wellness: Dr. Lokna advocates for an integrative approach that includes building strong social connections, avoiding risky behaviors, and nurturing a balanced lifestyle that supports mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Featured expert: Gina Lokna, MD
Gina Lokna, MD, is a dedicated sports medicine physician with a collaborative teaching style that engages patients of all fitness levels in treating musculoskeletal injuries and conditions. She emphasizes a whole-person approach to fitness and wellness, partnering with her patients to provide exercise prescriptions, injury treatment and prevention, fitness assessments, and integrative lifestyle interventions to support optimal health.
With clinical expertise in the Sports Performance Lab, Dr. Lokna offers specialized care for children and adults, including exercise testing, body composition analysis, biomechanical assessments, and comprehensive fitness evaluations. Her philosophy of care centers on encouraging patients to achieve their best health through personalized and integrative strategies.
Video highlights
00:00 – Introduction
Dr. Gina Lokna introduces herself and presents her topic of “Wellness as a Lifestyle.” She aims to provide viewers with an understanding of what a wellness lifestyle could look like, offering a framework for accessible tools and a whole-person approach to wellness.
01:20 – Learning objectives
Dr. Lokna outlines the lecture’s focus on lifestyle medicine, which includes six pillars that overview wellness, actionable evidence-based practices, and how to set SMART goals.
02:23 – What is lifestyle medicine and the six pillars?
Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based approach to preventing, treating, and even reversing disease by replacing unhealthy behaviors with positive ones. The six pillars include nutrition, exercise, stress management, social support, avoiding risky behaviors, and sleep.
03:02 – Creating SMART Goals for exercise
Dr. Lokna explains that SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. Exercise is a foundation of wellness, and it’s essential to move, get strong, and improve stability/flexibility. She provides guidelines for a balanced exercise program:
- 150-250 minutes of cardio/aerobic exercise weekly
- 3 days of strength/resistance training weekly
- 2-3 days of stretching/stability exercises weekly Starting where you are and incorporating movement into your daily routine, even if you’re busy, is key.
10:35 – Why should we strength train?
Strength training is vital at all ages, especially as we age, for bone health and reducing the risk of osteoporosis and falls. It improves joint pain, function, stability, metabolism, insulin resistance, and blood sugar control. Strength training can be done at home with free weights, ankle weights, or resistance bands.
16:03 – Flexibility and stability
Flexibility and stability exercises are often overlooked but are crucial for joint lubrication, muscle flexibility, joint support, and reducing fall risk. These can include informal stretching, group classes, or activities like tai chi.
19:08 – Examples of exercise SMART Goals
Dr. Lokna shares her 2024 SMART goals, including strength training 2-3 days a week and tracking progress on her calendar. Other goals include post-meal movement and increasing cardio exercise.
20:50 – Exploring the nutrition pillar of lifestyle medicine
Dr. Lokna emphasizes a whole foods, plant-predominant diet, minimizing processed foods, and eating a variety of nutrient-dense foods. Key components include high-fiber foods, healthy fats, proteins from beans/legumes, grass-fed meats, wild-caught fish, and complex carbohydrates. She advises eating fewer sugary drinks, processed meats, and snacks.
28:08 – Building a balanced meal
Dr. Lokna suggests building a balanced dinner plate with half vegetables, a quarter protein (1.2-1.8 g/kg/day), and a quarter complex carbohydrates (e.g., sweet potatoes, quinoa, farro).
32:30 – Sleep hygiene
Sleep is crucial for mental health. Dr. Lokna discusses how to assess sleep needs, with adults needing 7-9 hours and adolescents 8-10 hours of sleep. Sleep quality is influenced by factors like hormone cycles, stress, and room temperature. Good sleep hygiene involves controlling light exposure and creating sleep rituals. She advises avoiding caffeine close to bedtime and not overusing sleep aids.
40:23 – Stress management
Our bodies can handle short bursts of acute stress, but managing stress effectively involves building stress resilience and adapting positively to challenges. Stress hormesis, or small doses of controlled stress, can train the body to handle stress better.
47:22 – Social pillar
Dr. Lokna highlights the importance of social connections for health and well-being.
48:30 – Avoiding risky behaviors
This pillar often focuses on avoiding substances but can include any behavior that doesn’t support health. Dr. Lokna emphasizes compassion and understanding the broader issues influencing these choices.
49:40 – Closing remarks
Dr. Lokna concludes by reminding viewers that changing behaviors takes time. She encourages seeking support and accessing tools to navigate this journey without guilt or shame.
Resources
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References
- Pate, R. R., et al. (1995). Physical activity and public health. JAMA, 273(5), 402-407. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1995.03520290054029
- Walker, M. P. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Scribner.
- Lokna, G. (2023). Wellness as a lifestyle: An integrative approach to health and fitness. UC Davis Health Lectures.
- Adams, M., & Bateman, C. (2015). Plant-based diets and metabolic health: A review. Nutritional Journal, 14(112), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-015-0112-5