By Brian Morris, MD

A reason that diets don’t work is that most conventional diets simply provide information about what to eat and what to avoid. Similarly, most exercise and stress management programs focus on communicating information rather than strategies to adopt these habits for long-term success.

A successful program provides the information about what you should do and also the strategies for how to implement these tools to transform your life. For a program to actually work for the long-term, it must go beyond simply providing basic health information. Most of my patients know exactly how to practice a healthy lifestyle, but struggle to implement what they know on a regular basis. My patients usually tell me that they already know what to eat when we discuss which foods to eat at each meal. Thus, it’s clear that people need more than just information on what to do.

For example, if you’re having trouble sleeping, you need to know more than just the recommended amount of sleep you should have each night. Identifying the need for more sleep is just the first step. You also need to know the specific steps you should take to increase the quantity and quality of your sleep. We need both the “what to do” and the “how to do it” tools and strategies necessary to implement a healthy lifestyle into daily life. Usually it’s best to look for a healthy living program that teaches practical strategies to implement the changes needed to improve health.