Magic Pill, Episode #4: The Big Reasons For Small Changes

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Today's episode begins with a dramatic moment: A 49-year-old man tries out an online life expectancy calculator and realizes his lifestyle is so unhealthy he's likely to die in just five years. He panics, but he's wise enough to aim for a very slow, gradual change from couch-potato life to being active — and it has stuck. That's today's theme: Avoiding the overshoot. Listen to the full episode above.

A Closer Look

That vivid story comes from Tim Edgar, a professor at Tufts Medical School, and Dr. Eddie Phillips shares a study that brings it home: Two groups of people were given pedometers to count their steps. One group was told to aim for 10,000 steps a day. The other group was told to add steps more gradually, 500 at a time. The gradual group did much better, and Tim Edgar's experience — still active and 50 pounds thinner 10 years later — bears out the importance of going slow with change.

Enjoyed The Music?

That was Druzy performing the song "Can You Hear Me Knocking”.

Druzy is an LA-based electronic pop duo consisting of Brianna Conroy and Luc Alexiades. They gained traction from multiple blogs and on hype-machine after releasing their first EP Slow Down with EDM.com in 2015.

You can listen to the full Magic Pill playlist here.

CommonHealth Recommendations

--The Checkup, our podcast on Slate, revisits the Insanity workout, with a brief recap of Carey's sad tale of flunking it and additional wisdom from experts: Flunking The Insanity Workout But Coming Away Wiser.