A team of scientists from Britain, Singapore, and the Harvard School of Public Health have found that while eating fruit lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, drinking fruit (in the form of juice) actually increases it .
The study, which surveyed nearly 190,000 Britons over 24 years, found that blueberries were the best option, with three servings per week cutting the risk of diabetes by 26 percent. Grapes and apples also substantially lowered the risk of diabetes, while bananas, plums, and peaches had a negligible effect. Three weekly servings of fruit juice, on the other hand, upped the risk by eight percent.
Despite its convenience, juice is a far less healthy option than a real piece of fruit. Not only does the juicing process destroy a number of fruits’ beneficial compounds and antioxidants, it removes nearly all of the natural fiber. All sugar with none of the fiber? No, thanks — fiber carries a myriad of digestive benefits and is crucial for slowing the absorption of the fruit’s sugar and keeping its glycemic index low. This, the scientists hypothesized, may be why juice increases the risk of diabetes, and why a high intake of fruit juice has been linked to childhood obesity.
It’s important to note that while it’s often marketed as healthy and natural, juice is not a low-calorie beverage. Just eight ounces of regular orange juice, for instance, contains over 110 calories, the equivalent of almost two oranges. However, you won’t feel as filled up, because the juice doesn’t contain any fiber. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the calories are worth the vitamins — a single orange provides well over the recommended daily intake of vitamin C, and without as high a spike in blood sugar.
It’s probably better to just grab an apple. A bottle of juice can be a more portable source of vitamins than, say, a half-eaten banana. But whenever both are viable options, pick the fruit. The fiber will fill you up, the nutrients are intact, and it still tastes like nature’s candy.
The more responsibility we have, the more people need our time. As we progress in our careers we’re often in more meetings, on more calls, need to have more one-to-ones, and we have more areas across the business we need to stay on top of and drive… there just seems to be more. But the time we have doesn’t change. So how do the best leaders make it all work?
Here are five practical ways to manage your diary like a successful leader:
Plan realistic reactive time. It’s tempting and seems sensible to plan 100% of our day. I frequently ask coaching clients, “What percentage of your day on average is reactive?” That is, how much time is taken up by things that arise on the day, which genuinely need your attention and input? The answer is usually between 40–60%. So, by engaging in the discipline of only planning the remaining 60-40% and leaving the rest free for the reality of necessary reaction, we can build a diary that is sustainable.
Respond realistically not habitually. How do we find this extra time so that we can build in substantial necessary reactive time? One way is to push out deadlines even by a day or two. When a client, for example, asks, “When could we get that?” we often answer habitually with the soonest possible time we could get it to them, taking into account our other commitments in our diary. But we haven’t built in our necessary commitment to reactive time. Suggesting a day or two later, or a week or two later, is often surprisingly met with the response, “That’s fine, thanks.” Then we can deliver before expected deadlines and still build a little extra time in for our reactive realities.
Avoid the 25-minute meeting rule. People are regularly in meetings that last too long, often with little that directly involves them. One response can be to instigate a 25-minute maximum (or similar) meeting rule. But this seeming quick fix can undermine collaboration and creativity, which typically requires longer, giving people space to brainstorm. Instead, address the root of the problem and challenge managers to ensure and continually check the right people are in the room and encourage people to take some conversations “off-line.”
Carve out your best brain time. We all know when our best brain time is – when we have our most productive time for getting heavy thinking work done. For many it is in the morning. Whenever your personal best time is, plan your day to give yourself these energizing windows. If others arrange your diary, ensure they know to block out this time, and in the case of the organization-wide shared calendar, add this window as a calendar event to avoid others filling it up with meetings that may not be a priority or the best time for you.
Answer, “Yes…” It’s easy to get frustrated with constant interruptions when in the middle of some work, yet we know people interrupting often genuinely need our input. We can easily unintentionally follow, “Do you have a minute?” with, “No, I’m really busy” or “Yes” but with an accompanying facial expression that shows our frustration or we don’t look up from our computer. Great leaders answer either, “Yes, sure” and give their full attention, or “Yes, I’d be happy to chat, let’s find a time” and make plans for when it will work.
The best leaders are proactive and purposeful about their day, every day. It enables them to use their best brain time, ensure interactions with team are positive and productive, and are energized knowing that they run their diary – not it runs them.
Positive Psychology is revolutionizing how we experience happiness. Research-based and heart-opening, the tools and practices of this cutting-edge science have infused the lives and careers of thousands of people around the world with greater joy and meaning. Engage brain, body, and heart with a powerful combination of intellectual rigor, authentic connection, and physical expression—and find out what it’s like to have an embodied experience of whole-person well-being.
Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, has developed a Whole-Person Positive Psychology course. You’ll learn to bring about lasting change in yourself and in organizations, create healthy personal and professional relationships, build positive emotions and the resilience to deal with painful ones and develop grounded optimism as you reach towards your ideal self.
The course uses the SPIRE methodology for whole-person happiness—a pioneering approach that considers all aspects of your life: Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational and Emotional.
Whether you want to improve your home life, better your workplace, grow personally or professionally, or start a new career, the Certificate in Positive Psychology offers you in-depth study, world-class faculty, and transformative experiences. Across the course you will be teach about:
Students are exposed to the theoretical and practical implications of a positive focus; the positivity ratio; dealing with painful emotions through acceptance, gratitude and appreciation; and attaining lasting change.
The onsite schedule includes didactic lectures, reflective/introspective exercises such as meditation and journaling, connected learning through small groups or dyads, and optional movement breaks such as yoga.
What is Happiness?
This module begins by defining happiness as the overall experience of meaning and pleasure. Students are then introduced to the theory and practice of leading a happy life, one that combines positive emotions and a sense of purpose.
We all have dreams and aspirations, however most people’s dreams remain unrealized. This module looks at how we can cultivate the seed of hope and help it flourish. Topics covered include beliefs as self- fulfilling prophecies, setting goals, focusing on personal strengths, and learning from failure.
In this module—drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and techniques spanning the ABCs of psychology (affect, behavior, cognition)—students learn how to bring about personal and organizational change that lasts.
This module introduces well- researched and thoroughly validated tools and techniques that can enhance the quality of our lives. Topics include mindfulness meditation, physical exercise, nutrition, sleep, and human touch.
This module attempts to distinguish between myths and facts in the realm of relationships—whether between lovers, friends, family members, as well as teachers and students.
This module, while drawing on the strengths- based approach as well as solution-focused and evidence- based coaching, looks at a process to help individuals and organizations realize their goals and fulfill their potential.
Choice & Co-Creating Reality
Whether major choices such as deciding on the kind of work we want to pursue or the kind of person we want to spend our lives with, to minor choices such as the physical posture we choose to assume when walking into a room or the way we respond to a request from a colleague. It is through these choices—major and minor—that we become co- creators of our reality.
In this final module, participants move from students to teachers. By synthesizing and summarizing what is personally most compelling about positive psychology via the final project, and presenting to a small group of peers, this module emphasizes the concept of serving it forward—sharing with others key lessons learned.
The course is directed to coaches, leaders, teachers, health professionals, social workers, psychologists, and anyone who wants to make tomorrow a little bit better than today.
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.
Born in France, he is the son of the late Jean-François Revel a renowned French philosopher. Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles.
After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, Ricard decided to forsake his scientific career and concentrate on the practice of Tibetan Buddhism.
Ricard lived in the Himalayas studying with the Kangyur Rinpoche and some other great masters of that tradition and became the close student and attendant of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche until Rinpoche’s death in 1991. Since then, Ricard has dedicated his activities to fulfilling Khyentse Rinpoche’s vision.
Ricard has been called the “happiest person in the world” by several popular media.
Chatting over lunch and joking with coworkers may not seem like more than pleasant distractions at the office, but they could have an enormous impact on your work life. With employee engagement declining and more than eight in 10 American workers experiencing job-related stress — female employees being even more vulnerable to workplace tension than men — friendship could make the difference between happiness at work and burnout. Research has found that strong social connections at the office can boost productivity, and could make employees more passionate about their work and less likely to quit their jobs.
According to Christine M. Riordan, provost and professor of management at the University of Kentucky, camaraderie is a key ingredient to happiness at work for male and female employees. A study led by Riordan, published in the Journal of Business Psychology in the ‘90s, found that the mere opportunity for friendship increases employee job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness.
In a recent Harvard Business Review blog “We All Need Friends At Work,” Riordan pointed towards the multitude of evidence suggesting that office friendships can act as an antidote to dissatisfaction and disengagement at work. The type of relationships that go beyond casual chat buddies — what she calls “the good old-fashioned friendships created when we chit-chat, hang out, joke, and have fun with co-workers” — can have deep and far-ranging benefits in the workplace.
Camaraderie is more than just having fun… It is also about creating a common sense of purpose and the mentality that we are in it together. Studies have shown that soldiers form strong bonds during missions in part because they believe in the purpose of the mission, rely on each other, and share the good and the bad as a team. In short, camaraderie promotes a group loyalty that results in a shared commitment to and discipline toward the work.
Employees who enjoy this type of camaraderie are more likely to stay at their jobs and feel loyal to the company they work for. Riordan cites a 2012 Gallup report which found that 50 percent of employees with a best friend at work reported that they feel a strong connection with their company, compared to just 10 percent of employees without a best friend at work.
Still, many of us draw lines separating our work and personal lives, seeing friendship as something that happens outside of the office. Forbes writer Susannah Breslin, for one, has argued that female friendship shouldn’t have a central place in our work lives. According to Breslin, trying to make friends in the office is one of three common ways that women undermine themselves at work.
“You’re at work, but why? My guess is that if you ask most men, they won’t say they work to ‘make friends,’” she wrote. “But sometimes it seems like that’s a big part of what women are doing at work. Bonding.”
But for both male and female workers, building social connections is an important aspect of their work lives: According to the 2013 State of Friendship report, more than one in three adults has met at least one of their closest friends at work. This may be as good for corporate bottom-line objectives as it is for individual employees’ happiness levels, Jim Meyerle, co-founder of Evolv, a data analytics company that manages over 20 global workforces, has noted.
“Many employers do not fully understand just how impactful healthy friendships on the job are for improving overall workforce profitability — and this is particularly true in the hourly workforce, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of the positions in the U.S.,” Meyerle wrote in a Huffington Post blog. “… The data show friendship really matters.”