I've spent the last decade subjecting myself to pain and humiliation, hopefully for a good cause, which is self-improvement. And I've done this in three parts. So first I started with the mind. And I decided to try to get smarter by reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z -- or, more precisely, from "a-ak" to "Zywiec." And here's a little image of that. And this was an amazing year. It was really a fascinating journey. It was painful at times, especially for those around me. My wife started to fine me one dollar for every irrelevant fact I inserted into conversation. So it had its downsides.
我過去 10 年 飽受痛苦同屈辱 就係為咗: 自我提升 我從三方面入手 首先係由智慧入手 我決定由字母 A 到 Z 睇晒大英百科全書 嚟令自己聰明啲 準確啲嚟講 係由 a-ak 到 Zywiec 睇晒 依張相係全個系列嘅圖書 可以話,嗰年係好精彩嘅一年 亦係好有趣嘅經歷 不過都有痛苦嘅時候 特別係對我身邊嘅人 每次如果我傾計時講咗無關嘅嘢 我老婆就會罰我 1 美金 所以依個方法有缺點
But after that, I decided to work on the spirit. As I mentioned last year, I grew up with no religion at all. I'm Jewish, but I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is Italian. (Laughter) Not really. But I decided to learn about the Bible and my heritage by actually diving in and trying to live it and immerse myself in it. So I decided to follow all the rules of the Bible. And from the Ten Commandments to growing my beard -- because Leviticus says you cannot shave. So this is what I looked like by the end. Thank you for that reaction. (Laughter) I look a little like Moses, or Ted Kaczynski. I got both of them. So there was the topiary there. And there's the sheep.
不過之後 我決定要提升我嘅精神水平 上年我講過 我一直都無信仰 我係猶太人 但就同橄欖花園係美國一間 賣意大利菜嘅餐廳一樣搞笑 (笑聲) 其實唔係 我決定要通過親身經歷 嚟學習《聖經》 同埋我嘅民族歷史 我跟足《聖經》同《十誡》 入邊所有嘅規矩 譬如話留鬚 因為《利未記》提到唔畀剃鬚 依個就係我留咗一年鬚嘅樣啦 多謝你哋嘅反應 (笑聲) 我望落有啲似摩西 或者 Ted Kaczynski 兩個都有啲似啦 剪過之後就咁嘅樣 仲有隻綿羊
Now the final part of the trilogy was I wanted to focus on the body and try to be the healthiest person I could be, the healthiest person alive. So that's what I've been doing the last couple of years. And I just finished a couple of months ago. And I have to say, thank God. Because living so healthily was killing me. (Laughter) It was so overwhelming, because the amount of things you have to do, it's just mind-boggling. I was listening to all the experts and talking to sort of a board of medical advisers. And they were telling me all the things I had to do. I had to eat right, exercise, meditate, pet dogs, because that lowers the blood pressure. I wrote the book on a treadmill, and it took me about a thousand miles to write the book. I had to put on sunscreen. This was no small feat, because if you listen to dermatologists, they say that you should have a shot glass full of sunscreen. And you have to reapply it every two to four hours. So I think half of my book advance went into sunscreen. I was like a glazed doughnut for most of the year. There was the washing of hands. I had to do that properly. And my immunologist told me that I should also wipe down all of the remote controls and iPhones in my house, because those are just orgies of germs. So that took a lot of time.
喺三部曲嘅最後一部裏邊 我想將重點放喺身體 我嘗試活得健康、成為最健康嘅人 所以我過去幾年就係做緊依啲嘢 而前幾個月我先啱啱完成依啲嘢 我想講:感謝上帝! 因為咁健康生活真係好攞命 (笑聲) 真係好難頂 因為你要做好多好多嘢 多到難以置信 我聽過所有專家嘅意見 仲同過好多醫學專家傾過計 佢哋個個都話我知我要做嘅嘢 包括要正確飲食 做運動、冥想同埋養狗 因為呢啲都可以降血壓 我又喺跑步機上邊邊跑邊寫書 結果用咗我大概跑 1,000 英里嘅時間 嚟寫一本書 我仲要搽太陽油 搽太陽油係好大工程嚟 因為如果你聽皮膚科醫生嘅話 你需要搽一個細酒杯嘅份量 而且每四個鐘就要補搽一次 我估有一半寫書嘅時間用咗嚟搽太陽油 於是我變成一隻搽咗油嘅冬甩 有成差唔多一年 然後到洗手 我要好認真咁洗 而且我個免疫醫生話 要抹乾淨屋企所有遙控同手機 因為佢哋都係細菌嘅樂園 又一次用咗我好多時間
I also tried to be the safest person I could be, because that's a part of health. I was inspired by the Danish Safety Council. They started a public campaign that says, "A walking helmet is a good helmet." So they believe you should not just wear helmets for biking, but also for walking around. And you can see there they're shopping with their helmets. (Laughter) Well yeah, I tried that. Now it's a little extreme, I admit. But if you think about this, this is actually -- the "Freakonomics" authors wrote about this -- that more people die on a per mile basis from drunk walking than from drunk driving. So something to think about tonight if you've had a couple.
我仲開始用萬事安全嘅心態生活 因為咁樣生活先至健康 丹麥安全局推廣一個運動 倡議「行路戴頭盔係好事」 佢哋認為唔單止踩單車嘅時候要戴頭盔 行路嘅時候都要 你哋睇下 佢哋行街都戴頭盔 (笑聲) 係呀,我都跟住做 我承認我係有啲極端 但係如果你諗諗 正如魔鬼經濟學嘅作家所寫 如果以每公里計 飲醉酒跌死嘅人多過醉酒駕駛死嘅人 如果你飲咗酒 咁你今晚要諗下喇
So I finished, and it was a success in a sense. All of the markers went in the right direction. My cholesterol went down, I lost weight, my wife stopped telling me that I looked pregnant. So that was nice. And it was successful overall. But I also learned that I was too healthy, and that was unhealthy. I was so focused on doing all these things that I was neglecting my friends and family. And as Dan Buettner can tell you, having a strong social network is so crucial to our health.
我最終都完成咗呢三部曲 而亦可以話係成功嘅 所有健康指標都朝住正確嘅方向發展 我嘅膽固醇降低咗,體重減少咗 我老婆唔再話我肥 所以幾好 總體嚟講幾成功 我都意識到我太健康喇 但咁樣其實唔健康 因為太專注做健康嘅嘢 令我忽略咗我嘅屋企人同朋友 正如 Dan Buettner 話 一個強大嘅社交網絡 對我哋嘅健康非常重要
So I finished. And I kind of went overboard on the week after the project was over. I went to the dark side, and I just indulged myself. It was like something out of Caligula. (Laughter) Without the sex part. Because I have three young kids, so that wasn't happening. But the over-eating and over-drinking, definitely. And I finally have stabilized. So now I'm back to adopting many -- not all; I don't wear a helmet anymore -- but dozens of healthy behaviors that I adopted during my year. It was really a life-changing project. And I, of course, don't have time to go into all of them. Let me just tell you two really quickly.
最後我完成咗依個健康計劃 不過健康計劃結束之後嘅一個禮拜 我停曬所有健康習慣 做返以前嘅自己,放縱自己 好啲似羅馬帝國卡利古拉暴君一樣 (笑聲) 不過唔包括性方面 因為我屋企有三個小朋友 所以唔會喺性方面放縱 不過我絕對有暴飲暴食 但最後我做返健康嘅嘢 宜家我回復正常 做返好多健康習慣 不過我冇再戴頭盔行路 依個健康計劃改變咗我嘅生活 但我無時間同你哋一一列舉 等我簡短咁講兩點
The first is -- and this was surprising to me; I didn't expect this to come out -- but I live a much quieter life now. Because we live in such a noisy world. There's trains and planes and cars and Bill O'Reilly, he's very noisy. (Laughter) And this is a real underestimated, under-appreciated health hazard -- not just because it harms our hearing, which it obviously does, but it actually initiates the fight-or-flight response. A loud noise will get your fight-or-flight response going. And this, over the years, can cause real damage, cardiovascular damage. The World Health Organization just did a big study that they published this year. And it was done in Europe. And they estimated that 1.6 million years of healthy living are lost every year in Europe because of noise pollution. So they think it's actually very deadly.
第一,令我好意外嘅 就係我宜家嘅生活更加靜 我哋生活喺一個好嘈嘅環境 火車、飛機同汽車 仲有電視機上 Bill O'Reilly 呢個人 都好嘈 (笑聲) 好多人都低估咗、忽略依個健康風險 噪音好明顯會影響我哋嘅聽力 而且仲會引起戰鬥或逃跑反應 一下好大嘅聲會引起你嘅戰鬥或逃跑反應 幾年之後就會造成慢性嘅破壞 例如破壞心血管 世界衛生組織進行做咗一項大研究 並且喺今年啱啱發布 依項研究喺歐洲進行 佢哋估計 每年歐洲因為噪音污染 令一百六十萬人損失咗一年嘅健康生活 所以佢哋認為噪音可以致命
And by the way, it's also terrible for your brain. It really impairs cognition. And our Founding Fathers knew about this. When they wrote the Constitution, they put dirt all over the cobblestones outside the hall so that they could concentrate. So without noise reduction technology, our country would not exist. So as a patriot, I felt it was important to -- I wear all the earplugs and the earphones, and it's really improved my life in a surprising and unexpected way.
另外 噪音對個腦都唔好 佢會破壞你嘅知覺 就連美國建國之父都知道 因為當佢哋撰寫《美國憲法》嘅時候 佢哋曾經喺大堂外嘅石卵 鋪滿泥土嚟減低噪音 等佢哋可以專心寫 所以,如果無減噪技術 美國可能唔存在 作為一個愛國者 我覺得戴耳塞同耳機非常重要 而且佢仲好意外咁改善我嘅生活 第二點,亦都係最後一樣我想要講嘅
And the second point I want to make, the final point, is that -- and it's actually been a theme of TEDMED -- that joy is so important to your health, that very few of these behaviors will stick with me unless there's some sense of pleasure and joy in them. And just to give you one instance of this: food. The junk food industry is really great at pressing our pleasure buttons and figuring out what's the most pleasurable. But I think we can use their techniques and apply them to healthy food. To give just one example, we love crunchiness, mouthfeel. So I basically have tried to incorporate crunchiness into a lot of my recipes -- throw in some sunflower seeds. And you can almost trick yourself into thinking you're eating Doritos. (Laughter) And it has made me a healthier person.
依個亦係 TED 醫學嘅主題︰ 就係快樂對於健康好重要 以我為例 家下我維持到嘅健康行為 都係一啲會令我開心嘅 舉一個例子:食物 垃圾食物行業非常擅於帶畀我哋快樂 同埋知道咩可以令我哋最開心 但我認為我哋可以將佢哋嘅技巧 用喺健康食物之上 譬如話 我哋好喜歡脆口、有口感嘅嘢 所以我嘗試將香脆口感融入我嘅食譜 例如放啲瓜子 雖然可能你會以為自己食緊粟米片 (笑聲) 咁食法仲可以令我變得更健康
So that is it. The book about it comes out in April. It's called "Drop Dead Healthy." And I hope that I don't get sick during the book tour. That's my greatest hope.
就係咁 依個計劃嘅書會喺 4 月出版 叫做《Drop Dead Healthy》 我希望喺新書宣傳途中唔會病倒 呢個係我最大願望
So thank you very much.
多謝各位!
(Applause)
(掌聲)