Unlock the secrets of holistic pediatric care with Staten Island's own Dr. Vladimir Barayev, a pediatrician whose heart beats for his community. On today's Brain Power, we're not just celebrating Dr. Vlad's third practice anniversary; we're gaining a treasure trove of advice for families. Discover how Dr. Vlad's Direct Primary Care model revives the old-school charm of house calls, creating a personal touch in our high-speed world. This episode promises to guide you through nurturing not just your child's health but your family's well-being, with Dr. Vlad's indispensable insights on creating lasting, healthy habits.
Feel the ripple effect of a single good night's sleep on your child's behavior, nutrition, and even your family dynamics. Dr. Vlad explains why your cellphone might be the uninvited guest in your bedroom that's stealing your peace. Learn about the small but mighty steps that can lead to a healthier lifestyle, like integrating daily movement to boost your mood and cognitive function. It's all about the compound interest of consistent, incremental changes, and today, we lay out the blueprint for turning those tiny transformations into a family revolution.
Our conversation with Dr. Vlad concludes with the power of gratitude, breathing exercises for battling anxiety, and how these simple habits can lead to astonishing personal transformation. Hear how Dr. Vlad's upcoming book aims to democratize these life-changing strategies, with plans to distribute it freely for the benefit of all. So, join us as we share a heartfelt 'Namaste' for the incredible journey of pediatric care and the joy of shaping healthier, happier families.
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And join our Glow Health Circle! Weekly coaching calls for a close-knit community of like-minded parents, to get practical strategies for your child's whole-child well-being — from brain and gut health to navigating the environment. Let's thrive together!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of
Brain Power with Dr Eko.
I have a very special guesttoday, dr Vladimir Barayev.
He's an amazing pediatrician.
He loves kids, he has awonderful practice of statin
island and I'm going to let himintroduce himself fully, but I
just wanted to tell you yourinput treats today.
(00:21):
So welcome to the show, drVladimir.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (00:24):
Thank you so much for having me on.
It is a pleasure to be here, DrEko.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (00:29):
Yes, happy to have you.
So introduce yourself some moreto the parents, so that they
know all about you.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (00:36):
Absolutely I would love to.
My name is Dr Vladimir Barayevand I'm a board certified
pediatrician and I specialize inautism diagnosis.
I have my own direct primarycare concierge practice.
Well, I work here on statinisland, new York, being children
and families.
My practice is now three yearsold.
(00:58):
Yesterday was the thirdanniversary of the office and
we've been able to do a lot forthe community, able to help
families with a variety ofhealth needs and reestablish and
focus on the patient-doctorrelationship that they get the
(01:18):
exact kind of care that they'relooking for.
I have peace of mind, knowingthat someone cares about them
and their kids.
I've been.
One of the interestingexperiences that I've had as a
direct care doctor over the pastthree years is that we've had
some homebound children withspecial needs that could not
come out to see the doctor, butthey needed certain services and
(01:40):
there are not really anypediatric options for them.
So I would go to their homesand I would see them and take
care of them, and it's beenbeautiful that's fantastic.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (01:50):
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, Just like the
old days right, just like thegood old days.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (01:56):
I got my doctor bag, pack it, pack my
lollipops, pack the stickers, goto their home and hide their
dog, hide their grandma, andback home I go and you get food
while you're leaving.
Oh my goodness.
Food, alcohol, drinks, I mean Idon't.
(02:17):
I am very professional about it.
I don't generally have all fullbuffets in people's homes, but
I do take some of their kindgestures to thank them for that.
They appreciate what I do fortheir family and it's been very.
It's been also fascinating thatthere's not a lot of advice
(02:40):
from families, because we haveprofessionals from like
marketing and accounting andsales families and architects
and aerospace, and it's justbeen so fascinating to meet
these people and I honestlypreviously didn't really get to
meet that much in my career.
How was in working in the veryspecific areas in New York City
(03:03):
in the past, and now I'veexpanded my horizons by a lot.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (03:08):
That's wonderful and I just wanted to point out
for for any parents who might beasking, what is DPC really?
The big thing for me with it isthat you get to use to spend
the time that we need to witheach child.
So we are not, we're notblocked into.
Oh, my goodness.
You can only talk about onething at one visit and you have
(03:30):
10 minutes or 15 minutes max.
Dr Vlad would take the time heneeds to take care of your
children, right?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (03:38):
Absolutely .
The word time is here.
Parents really will want threemain things when they choose to
have a direct here doctor.
They want access.
They want to be able to reachtheir doctor and not have to
jump through to get to them.
They would want a good qualitydoctor.
They don't want to have to gothrough like other doctors that
(03:59):
they have met before or doctorsor staff before they see that
they want their doctor becausethe most trained, most qualified
person in the office take careof their child.
Thirdly, they want convenience.
So they want kids school-agechildren.
They get sick mostly in themiddle of the day in school and
they get sent home to school.
(04:20):
They want to see the doctorbetween that critical three to
five o'clock type slot and a lotof office don't have much
openings that are day to day,but I make sure to leave those
spaces available for familiesthat your child does have an
issue while they're in school.
Come back to school and see meand they love having my cell
number to be able to text me anyquestions or concerns so we can
(04:42):
have follow-up conversationsand we can work on things.
So when we look at health whatwe're going to be talking about
throughout our interview todaywhen we look at someone's health
.
If you want to change somethingwith your health, it's a gradual
change.
I'm going to change in a dayand during that whole process of
gradual change, you need thatcheerleader on your side.
(05:03):
You need your coach.
You need someone guiding youand supporting you all along
your process and path of change,just like our, what our
business school does for us.
It guides us along on our pathto success.
So I do the same thing for myfamilies.
In the practice.
They have my direct number.
They don't have to come inevery time when they need
guidance.
It's convenient.
It just texts me and wecommunicate and we keep you on
(05:26):
the right track.
There's ever a deviation.
It's right back on the straightand narrow path.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (05:31):
Yes, so if you're listening to this and
you're in the state of New York,find your way to see Dr Vlad.
You will thank me later.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (05:40):
Yes.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (05:46):
So, dr Vlad, you said you have this amazing,
interesting topic.
You wanted to talk to us todayabout habits.
So tell us how important habitsare for parents, for children
and how that impacts our health.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (06:00):
So I came across this realization after
finishing medical school andhaving some challenges in my own
life.
I personally was dissatisfiedwith my, the way that I was
taking care of my body and myhealth and my weights.
(06:20):
So I understood the medicine ofthe science behind nutrition.
It's pretty direct and simple.
It's nothing super complicatedabout, right Whole food,
plant-based diet.
Don't eat too many calories.
The more calories you eat, thehigher your weight than a go.
Try not to eat processed food.
Keep it simple, right.
Those people that understanddoesn't mean you can act on it.
(06:42):
There is another component ofactually incorporating that into
your life and getting resultsout of that, and that other
component, one of the ways toaccomplish it, is through your
habits.
So if we think about our lives,some research studies have
indicated that the majority ofthe time, from the moment we
(07:02):
wake up the moment we go tosleep, we're an autopilot.
We're not really purposefullythinking about each and every
step that we do.
Our brain's default mode is togo into a habit, because it's
more energy efficient.
Your brain doesn't have tothink hard.
Okay, how do I tie my shoes?
Okay, president, how do I drivea car?
Okay, president, the key.
No, it's a habit, it'sautomatic.
(07:24):
You've noticed that when you'redriven, sometimes on the way
home, that you may have dozedoff mentally.
You didn't close your eyes, butyou weren't.
You were like they do and then,before you know, you're already
in your driveway.
You don't need to remember allthe sweet things Because you're
an autopilot and we do this 80%of our day.
That's what the researchindicates 80% of our day.
(07:46):
There are ways that we canconstruct powerful, healthy
habits without having to forcethem into our lives, but by
taking little steps at a time.
So the three books that I readthat really enlightened me to
this and how powerful habitswere, were was one a book called
(08:08):
Habit by Charles Duhigg.
The second one was AtomicHabits by James Clear and the
third one was Tiny Habits by BJFalk.
So in those three they reallyoutline okay, if I want to get
this results, what habit is itgoing to take to get me to that
result?
And then I started applying itto my own lives.
(08:32):
The result that I want, I wantto weigh less, for example.
So I applied the principle ofadding small habits.
So in the beginning what I saidwas okay, habit number one
every single piece of food thatgoes in my mouth.
I'm going to write it down in afood journal Logging, because
(08:53):
research has proven that when wejournal our food, when we keep
track of it, we tend to be moremindful about our eating and we
tend to choose healthier options.
Invite versa when we'restressed and tired and we're not
thinking, we'll just putwhatever in our mouth, whatever
the next thing that's on ourtable and the environments that
(09:14):
we're living in, they'reobesogenic.
They promote us to addunnecessary calories that are
not necessary for survival, justfrom a standpoint of
convenience and pleasure.
But that doesn't get us to thehealthy and optimal life that we
would really want to have.
So I use that app, I said everytime I put it in my mouth and
(09:37):
then I worked on it until itbecame ingrained in me.
Then I said, okay, I also wouldlike to be more active and move
more.
So how do I establish aphysical activity app?
So I began with doing onepushup per day only.
That sounds insignificant, butby doing it every single day I
(09:58):
created a mental vote in my headsaying that I am the kind of
person that does pushups.
And over time I graduallyincreased it and increased it,
and to the point where I wasdoing 25 to 50 pushups a day
consistently because of habits.
Just how you can build goodhabits, you can also lose them
if you're not consistent withwhat you are doing.
(10:20):
So in my practice, when I workwith children pediatricians,
we're the ultimate preventativemedicine machines.
So whenever you see the wordpreventative medicine, they talk
about that for adults and heartdisease that starts in
childhood.
So we're doing preventativemedicine right from the moment
they're born and our colleaguesin OBGYN support us as well and
(10:41):
as well as our colleagues ininternal meds of line as support
us as well, and around thehealth Throughout the lifespan.
But I say we're the ultimateones because there are certain
habits we learn as kids thatdon't really have a drastic
impact.
Some children who eat junk foodall the time their metabolism
is so fast they don't feel therepercussions of that on their
(11:01):
bodies.
But once they eat that certainage when their metabolism slows
down and they have those samehorrible habits that they had
when they were kids of eatingjunk food, all of a sudden they
see this spike in poor healthoutcomes.
Why?
Because they never reallyestablished the appropriate
habits in childhood and neverdeveloped them.
(11:21):
You can apply this to all thefive major pillars of health in
my view, and I do that with my,with my paces and my practice.
So in my eyes, the five majorpillars of health are, of course
, number one, sleep nutrition.
In no particular order, theyjust have sleep nutrition,
movement, physical activity,stress management and your
(11:43):
ability to cope with life,because life, believe it or not,
stressful for everybody.
The only people that don't havestress are in the grays.
And number five, the fifthpillar, is, since we're social
animals, our relationship toother people.
Right, so by keeping all funand you can, you can subdivide
it, of course, like say oh, butyou missed something like your
(12:08):
intimate relationship versusyour friendship that all flumps
into relationships.
Right, you can be able to thinkgeneral in general aspects.
I'm a general thinker.
Right, so you can use habits toimprove all finds.
So I'm going to let's gothrough how you can use habits
to improve all finds.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:24):
Wonderful.
Let's do it.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (12:25):
What were some examples?
If it's OK with you, don't you?
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:29):
Yeah, let's go for it.
Ok, let's start with sleep, allright.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (12:33):
I can read you.
Let's start with sleep.
Sleep Number one, number onehabit when I get home, I'm going
to leave my cell phone in theliving room and not in my
bedroom every day.
Love it, tiny habit.
Better sleep.
You'd be amazed how much thatworks wonders.
You don't have to do anythingelse.
I'm going to leave myself on inthe living room and go upstairs
(12:56):
without it.
That's one habit.
Right, there are many, manymore, of course, and you could
build upon them.
That's one example.
And that's a tiny habit, that'sa atomic small.
I call the quantum habits, the,the theory habits that tell you
just the smallest.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:14):
So tell the parents why the cell phone?
Why is it important to haveyour cell phone away from your
bedroom?
Because it's the same thingthat goes for the kids.
The kids need to have theirtablets and their phone and all
of that, and even smart TVs,outside of the room.
So why?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (13:32):
Oh, you said that.
T-ball up for me to knock thatone out of the park.
Talk about a softball question.
I love it.
I love it.
Every BNN nutrition will talkin the hands of this question.
But so we know that, for anumber of reasons we know the
blue light on phones affects ourrelease of melatonin in the
brain, which will delay oursleep time.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:51):
Yeah.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (13:52):
And the constant pinging and alert
notifications will wake you upand arouse your brain versus
allowing you to wind down how wenaturally were supposed to be.
I'll have to think back.
When we were evolving from thesavannas of Africa, there were
no cell phones.
It was the sun and the moon, itwas daytime or nighttime.
(14:14):
The lions were going to comeget you or not get you.
It was very simple life backthen, and as we have become more
evolved and more complicated asa society, we're adding things
into our lives that go againstthe nature which we evolved with
.
Our nature was if it's lightout, we're awake.
(14:34):
If it's dark out, we're asleep.
Now, if it's dark out, it'sstill light in, the lights are
still on.
So I think that I mentionedanything as far as why we don't
want phones there.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (14:46):
Anything else you want?
No, not the big ones.
Yes, those are the big ones,correct?
And besides, we want the kidsto learn that the bedroom is for
sleeping and not for sleepingAbsolutely Other things.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (14:57):
For playing.
Yes, yes, yeah, you're right, Iforgot that part Is that you
don't want to do anything inyour bed but sleep in it.
You want the kids to theirminds to associate bed, okay,
sleep, not playing and readingand writing all the other stuff
that we do, right, yeah, then.
So sleep, that was the big one,and I think sleep is probably
(15:20):
the keystone of all the habitsthat I've established in my life
.
That was probably number one.
That's probably number one, Iwould say.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (15:28):
Then Behavior right.
If you don't sleep, yourbehavior will be completely off.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (15:34):
Well, absolutely, sleep affects all
the other four out domains.
So sleep affects nutrition.
We know that people who sleepless tend to snack more
throughout the day becausethey're always tired and looking
for extra hit of glucose.
They're going to drinksomething.
Drink something with a lot ofsugar in it or only with extra
caffeine in it, which makes itharder to fall asleep the next
night.
Well, sleep affects yournutrition and your weight.
(15:56):
Then you're a religion of otherpeople.
Well, if you don't sleep well,you're cranky.
You're not going to have to bereligious.
You're not going to be Haitianwith other people.
You're not going to be kind andloving with other people.
If you're always grumpy andcranky and tired I know that's
true for me when I'm cranky,don't be around me.
I'm not this one.
Then, with physical activity,if you're tired, you're less
(16:16):
energized and you want to moveless.
And there are research papersshowing that people who sleep
less tend to move less.
Also, they don't want to move,and vice versa.
If you move less, you sleepworse, your sleep quality is
worse, you affect each otherback and forth.
And then the final pillar ofhealth.
I have a question.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (16:35):
Go ahead.
Yeah, that's why it's importantfor us to move.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (16:38):
That is the number one non-prescription
drug that will affect all of our.
Any health condition you canimagine is improved by increased
movement in the body.
We have to move our muscles,move our bodies for so many
reasons.
(16:58):
If I could think of what's thenumber one reason for me, I
would say it's mood and energy.
Personally, by moving the bodyearlier on the day, the rest of
my day, I have a lot more energy, my mood is much better and it
helps me stay focused and ontask.
For my other pillars of healthI can keep track of doing.
(17:19):
Well, for all the other aspectsof my health and there are many
other like scientific andmedical reasons, like, moving
gets the blood from our venoussystem back into our heart and
slowly draw our bodies.
There's no stasis of blood,right, we don't get blood clots,
there's only a scare like that.
Moving also prevents the body'snatural every year of our lives
as we age.
(17:39):
There's not someone for biopsy,but after a certain age they go
back over the age of 30.
Don't call me on that.
Our muscle mass decreases,right, cyclo-pina.
We age and we lose muscle mass.
You can slow down the rate atwhich your muscles deteriorate
by engaging in resistanceexercises and moving them and
cutting them against gravity.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (18:01):
I like to talk about is your brain needs the
worst oxygen in the body.
So if you don't move, you'renot feeling that brain what it
needs and that brain will notfunction well.
Hence your mood will be off andyou will be cranked Totally.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (18:18):
No question about it, no question.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (18:20):
Yeah, but thank you for sharing that.
I love those other examples.
It's more for the parents, butit's important that parents
teach their kids early on thereason why by muddling it.
So we're all together in thisfamily.
So, yeah, so goodly.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (18:38):
You can't practice pediatric medicine
unless you address the wholefamily.
There's no such thing as havinga healthy child and everyone
around them has poor healthhabits.
No, it's a package deal.
Your help in the family, movetowards help together as a unit,
because it's about theirenvironment, that that affects
our behaviors, the environmentthat you know.
(19:00):
That, how that old expressiongoes, show me where five closest
friends are.
Really you are.
It's true for our families,families who have issues, for
example, with weights.
Both their children also haveissues with weight, and vice
versa is true.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (19:16):
Yes, absolutely, because, yes, they're modally
made.
Plus, I've had parents say okay, child, are you listening to
what the doctor said?
You have to drink more waterand you have to eat better food,
you have to sleep better.
But then I always go back tothe parents like you're the one
buying the food.
Can you?
just your grocery makes me,because if my friend here,
(19:40):
doesn't see the things theyshouldn't be eating and they
will eat them.
So it's we is back to be theparents.
We need to do better and weneed to model things for our
kids, because they are likesponges and they suck up
everything we're giving off.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (19:54):
So yeah, can I get an amen?
Can I get an amen?
Amen?
And habits work for our parentsand kids alike.
We have to keep that in mind.
So, first, if we, if, if, withmy recommendation advice, I can
get a family to start adopting afamily of habits for the
parents, they'll what habitsthey're going to automatically
(20:14):
rub off on the children becauseof, like you said, that modeling
.
They learn more from what we dothan what we say.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (20:21):
Yes, that's so important.
And what was the last?
Have we done all five?
I think we've done sleepmovement relationships.
Relationships yeah, I had five.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (20:30):
Let's see sleep, movement, relationship,
nutrition, exact.
Oh, stress, yes, stressmanagement so things like
mindfulness, mindful activitiesthis is the stress management
man.
We have a epidemic in thisworld of loneliness, anxiety and
depression, and one of thereasons why you want to get that
(20:50):
phone out of the bedroom isbecause this little device with
a little social media engineinside of it shows you look at
what, how much fun all myfriends are having and how much
fun I'm not having.
I'm such a loser.
I know you're not.
This is, this is not reality atall.
Like if, if, people are postingtheir wonderful lives.
(21:13):
Good for them.
You know, stress management is awhole separate podcast in and
of itself, but it's one of thefive pillars of good health and
let's keep it simple.
Right?
Let's talk about what is onehabit you can adopt to improve
your stress and anxiety levels.
Specifically for that and thehabit is very simple I want you
(21:36):
to write one sentence per dayabout why you're grateful.
That's a good one man.
One sentence per day, that's atiny habit.
Do it every day.
It's like a Dr.
Yanni Friethoff has this amazingquote in his book.
He says it's called thetoothbrush level.
We call us things thetoothbrush level, because you
(21:59):
can pack a toothbrush with youand on each trip you go and it's
a quick, two minute thing thatyou do.
You could do it every day andthen it's a minimal amount of
effort you could put in.
So a toothbrush level of habitis writing at least one sentence
about what you're grateful fortoday.
Could be on your phone, couldbe on a paper who cares?
But just thinking about whatyou're grateful for reminds you
(22:22):
of all the wonderful thingsyou've been blessed with, first
of which being, or waking upalive.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:29):
Yes, yes, we got through all five.
I know that.
And yeah, the gratitude is mindblowing because when you really
embrace it, you can't bethankful and be complaining at
the same time.
The brain isn't so advanced toaccommodate both things, so it's
(22:51):
either you're thankful oryou're complaining, or you're
feeling bad.
So our brains love the and Imean it helps us as human beings
to be more thankful, becausethen we are easier to be around
and then it opens up so much forus, right?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (23:08):
Yeah, even if things don't, but if you
don't want to write there'sanother one you don't want to
write.
We can do this together.
Let's do a timing habittogether.
Are you ready?
Dr. Hokehe Eko (23:18):
Okay.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (23:19):
Let us, together, do a boxed breath one
time.
We're going to breathe in forfour seconds, hold the breath
for four seconds, breathe outfor four seconds and wait for
four seconds.
We'll just do one rep, and wejust lowered our anxiety and
stress level.
Are you ready?
I'm going to count us down.
Okay, one, two, three, four,three, two, one.
(23:42):
Go Four, three, two, one.
Hold Four, three, two, one.
Breathe out Four, three, two,one and wait Four, three, four.
We just did the box, that wasit.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (23:58):
Whoa yeah, that definitely takes away.
I mean, it lowers your heartrate.
I could feel myself.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (24:06):
Very nice, you see.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (24:08):
That's a quick one.
Anyone can do that.
If you teach your kids that, sowhen they're upset they just do
it together, that definitelystrengthens the bond with you
and your family.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (24:21):
Yeah, that's great, one of my monsters
is I keep things really simple,because once things get
complicated, I can't wrap mybrain around it anymore.
Just keep it simple, simple,focus on the basics, the
fundamentals.
And yet, you know, can I tellyou now you know the results of
my personal embrace of habitswas when I started doing this
(24:43):
back in 2018?
I lost 33 pounds and I kept itoff for the last now six years.
Wow, yeah.
I don't are taking any specialdiet.
I don't partake in any specialexercises.
(25:04):
I promise you I'm not anozempic because my waist is up
and down.
I promise you I'm not a govright now.
I did all of it with habits andaffecting my environment to
support my habits as well, so Iwant to share the power of
(25:25):
habits and automatically makingthe right thing to do with the
easy things to do.
So I pack my lunch.
I know what I'm going to eatbefore I even I'm hungry, so I
have a habit 3M things beforethings happen.
That's my other habits planning.
I have to make a habit ofplanning things, though.
So that's just an example of onething that has really changed
(25:47):
my life a lot, and before this Iwas a doctor.
I knew everything aboutnutrition that I needed to know
and physical activity that Ineeded to know.
I didn't understand how toapply it, which is why any
physicians themselves.
In this country, we suffer andI did too with fatty liver,
heart disease, cholesterol,diabetes and stroke.
(26:07):
Nutrition is suffer with this.
Nutrition suffer with this.
Just because you know itdoesn't mean you can do it.
It doesn't do something, itdoes everything.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (26:16):
Absolutely.
I love it.
I think it's just so simplified.
Let's just start with one thing.
And even if you just pick oneof the five areas that you just
work on that, I've read lots ofplaces like 30 days and you like
solidify the habit.
So what if you just, even ifyou just told yourself for the
next week, do it a week at thetime, if that's what works for
(26:37):
you, but just one thing for aweek at a time, anybody can do
it, and it's even that you makeit like a challenge with you and
your whole family.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (26:46):
You and the kid.
But listen, the first one whofalls off has to wash all the
dishes for the next year, right?
I think so.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (26:55):
I think so Really, I think so oh yeah, yeah
.
I think about my teenagers andthe washing dishes saga.
That's a good one.
You see that happy jacket he'swearing Once he enters a room.
With that happy jacket,everybody has to be happy and
healthy just immediately theysee him.
That's right.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (27:15):
Smiling yes, you lose less energy than
frowning.
Oh, absolutely, it helps On theoutside.
You have to feel better on theinside, no matter how you start
it out.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (27:26):
Yep, you can share a smile.
That's a gift that doesn't costanything A smile, let's share a
smile all over.
So what's your one last tip forparents on kids, on how they
can easily implement habits tochange their lives, because
really that's what we're talkingabout transformation.
(27:46):
So what's your last tip for howthey can do that?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (27:51):
The last tip is all about starting small
and staying consistent.
We like to overwhelm ourselveswith the full to-do list of life
that we have to do.
In reality, none of that isactually necessary.
There are a few basic needs wehave as human beings, and if you
really slow your lights downand think about what those basic
(28:13):
needs are, they will come backto the five pillars of health.
In my eyes, I prioritize family, number one above all, then I
worry about my community and mypersonal health, in no
particular order.
My personal health probablygoes second, and then I worry
(28:36):
about having a good community tolive in.
My personal health, I focus onthe five pillars and I ask
myself which of my five pillarshave I not really kept up with
that well, and what do I need toreestablish?
What small things can I startdoing today?
Because the best time to startdoing something is 20 years ago,
(28:57):
but since you can't travel backin time, this second best time
is right now.
So think about one area of yourlife where you're unhappy and
you're struggling with regardsto health and say what's the
smallest thing I can do todayand repeat and then grow upon it
to get the result that I want.
(29:17):
Because, if you're given, thereason that these habits work so
well is that they work on thepower of compound interest.
So if someone tells you We'llgive you a million dollars today
, or we'll give you a pennytoday and we'll give you double
every day for 30 days, the valueof that penny doubled over 30
(29:42):
days is worth more than amillion dollars.
I think it was like three orfive, between three to five
million dollars.
I forgot what the exact mathwas.
You can type it out in your AIengine and ask like, how much
did it come out to?
Or Google it.
I think it was like three tofive million dollars.
You can charge multiplemillions of dollars as opposed
to just one million dollars.
But that's what happens whenyou are consistent and you are
(30:05):
multiplying the power.
But each day that you'rerepeating a small thing, you are
reinforcing into your mind, sothe next day it's easier to do
it, and the next day it's easierto do it, it becomes easier and
easier to do more of it, andthen you're going to start
seeing the results of it in yourbody and your health.
I think you only wanted onefinal thing.
I decided to expound on thatand make and say three final
(30:28):
points.
So thank you for indulging mein my very loquacious restocks.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (30:35):
Oh my goodness, that shows what an amazing and
compassionate physician you are,and everybody in Staten Island
and New York needs to find you.
That's what I.
That's my two cents to that one.
So well, thank you so much forbeing on here and please tell
our listeners how they can findout more about you.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (30:55):
Well, if you want to find out more about
Dr Vlad, there's a couple ofways to do it.
So on my website that's www.
sirivertownspeds.
com, I have it.
Instagram Facebook handle is atSIRivertownspeds on Instagram
and Facebook.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (31:12):
OK.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (31:13):
And also on my YouTube channel, which is
also you type inSIRivertownspeds.
These are the handles for theYouTube channel as well.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (31:23):
Wonderful.
So, yes, please follow Dr Vladand if you live in the area, go
visit him.
He's an amazing doctor.
So thank you so much for comingon here and sharing your wisdom
about the five, about the tinyhabits that will transform your
life.
Really appreciate it and we'relooking waiting for that book of
yours about this the tinyhabits and how it transformed
(31:46):
your life, so so you can comeback on here and tell us all
about it.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (31:50):
Yeah, as soon as I finish that book, I'll
be right back here more thanyou get, as much as I possibly
can.
All the one of the things Iplan on doing with my book is I
really will consider just givingit away for free, because I
want I want to just spread themessage out as far as I can.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (32:06):
That's wonderful .
So thank you again, dr Vlad.
It's such a pleasure to talkwith you and to do life with you
as a fellow pediatrician, andthank you for the love and care
you show to your kids that youtake care of.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (32:21):
I too didn't need to even appreciate
life within you always, namaste.
Have a wonderful day.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (32:26):
Yes, you as well .
Okay, parents, see you on thenext episode.
Bye.
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of
Brain Power with Dr Eko.
I have a very special guesttoday, dr Vladimir Barayev.
He's an amazing pediatrician.
He loves kids, he has awonderful practice of statin
island and I'm going to let himintroduce himself fully, but I
just wanted to tell you yourinput treats today.
(00:21):
So welcome to the show, drVladimir.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (00:24):
Thank you so much for having me on.
It is a pleasure to be here, DrEko.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (00:29):
Yes, happy to have you.
So introduce yourself some moreto the parents, so that they
know all about you.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (00:36):
Absolutely I would love to.
My name is Dr Vladimir Barayevand I'm a board certified
pediatrician and I specialize inautism diagnosis.
I have my own direct primarycare concierge practice.
Well, I work here on statinisland, new York, being children
and families.
My practice is now three yearsold.
(00:58):
Yesterday was the thirdanniversary of the office and
we've been able to do a lot forthe community, able to help
families with a variety ofhealth needs and reestablish and
focus on the patient-doctorrelationship that they get the
(01:18):
exact kind of care that they'relooking for.
I have peace of mind, knowingthat someone cares about them
and their kids.
I've been.
One of the interestingexperiences that I've had as a
direct care doctor over the pastthree years is that we've had
some homebound children withspecial needs that could not
come out to see the doctor, butthey needed certain services and
(01:40):
there are not really anypediatric options for them.
So I would go to their homesand I would see them and take
care of them, and it's beenbeautiful that's fantastic.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (01:50):
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, Just like the
old days right, just like thegood old days.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (01:56):
I got my doctor bag, pack it, pack my
lollipops, pack the stickers, goto their home and hide their
dog, hide their grandma, andback home I go and you get food
while you're leaving.
Oh my goodness.
Food, alcohol, drinks, I mean Idon't.
(02:17):
I am very professional about it.
I don't generally have all fullbuffets in people's homes, but
I do take some of their kindgestures to thank them for that.
They appreciate what I do fortheir family and it's been very.
It's been also fascinating thatthere's not a lot of advice
(02:40):
from families, because we haveprofessionals from like
marketing and accounting andsales families and architects
and aerospace, and it's justbeen so fascinating to meet
these people and I honestlypreviously didn't really get to
meet that much in my career.
How was in working in the veryspecific areas in New York City
(03:03):
in the past, and now I'veexpanded my horizons by a lot.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (03:08):
That's wonderful and I just wanted to point out
for for any parents who might beasking, what is DPC really?
The big thing for me with it isthat you get to use to spend
the time that we need to witheach child.
So we are not, we're notblocked into.
Oh, my goodness.
You can only talk about onething at one visit and you have
(03:30):
10 minutes or 15 minutes max.
Dr Vlad would take the time heneeds to take care of your
children, right?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (03:38):
Absolutely .
The word time is here.
Parents really will want threemain things when they choose to
have a direct here doctor.
They want access.
They want to be able to reachtheir doctor and not have to
jump through to get to them.
They would want a good qualitydoctor.
They don't want to have to gothrough like other doctors that
(03:59):
they have met before or doctorsor staff before they see that
they want their doctor becausethe most trained, most qualified
person in the office take careof their child.
Thirdly, they want convenience.
So they want kids school-agechildren.
They get sick mostly in themiddle of the day in school and
they get sent home to school.
(04:20):
They want to see the doctorbetween that critical three to
five o'clock type slot and a lotof office don't have much
openings that are day to day,but I make sure to leave those
spaces available for familiesthat your child does have an
issue while they're in school.
Come back to school and see meand they love having my cell
number to be able to text me anyquestions or concerns so we can
(04:42):
have follow-up conversationsand we can work on things.
So when we look at health whatwe're going to be talking about
throughout our interview todaywhen we look at someone's health
.
If you want to change somethingwith your health, it's a gradual
change.
I'm going to change in a dayand during that whole process of
gradual change, you need thatcheerleader on your side.
(05:03):
You need your coach.
You need someone guiding youand supporting you all along
your process and path of change,just like our, what our
business school does for us.
It guides us along on our pathto success.
So I do the same thing for myfamilies.
In the practice.
They have my direct number.
They don't have to come inevery time when they need
guidance.
It's convenient.
It just texts me and wecommunicate and we keep you on
(05:26):
the right track.
There's ever a deviation.
It's right back on the straightand narrow path.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (05:31):
Yes, so if you're listening to this and
you're in the state of New York,find your way to see Dr Vlad.
You will thank me later.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (05:40):
Yes.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (05:46):
So, dr Vlad, you said you have this amazing,
interesting topic.
You wanted to talk to us todayabout habits.
So tell us how important habitsare for parents, for children
and how that impacts our health.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (06:00):
So I came across this realization after
finishing medical school andhaving some challenges in my own
life.
I personally was dissatisfiedwith my, the way that I was
taking care of my body and myhealth and my weights.
(06:20):
So I understood the medicine ofthe science behind nutrition.
It's pretty direct and simple.
It's nothing super complicatedabout, right Whole food,
plant-based diet.
Don't eat too many calories.
The more calories you eat, thehigher your weight than a go.
Try not to eat processed food.
Keep it simple, right.
Those people that understanddoesn't mean you can act on it.
(06:42):
There is another component ofactually incorporating that into
your life and getting resultsout of that, and that other
component, one of the ways toaccomplish it, is through your
habits.
So if we think about our lives,some research studies have
indicated that the majority ofthe time, from the moment we
(07:02):
wake up the moment we go tosleep, we're an autopilot.
We're not really purposefullythinking about each and every
step that we do.
Our brain's default mode is togo into a habit, because it's
more energy efficient.
Your brain doesn't have tothink hard.
Okay, how do I tie my shoes?
Okay, president, how do I drivea car?
Okay, president, the key.
No, it's a habit, it'sautomatic.
(07:24):
You've noticed that when you'redriven, sometimes on the way
home, that you may have dozedoff mentally.
You didn't close your eyes, butyou weren't.
You were like they do and then,before you know, you're already
in your driveway.
You don't need to remember allthe sweet things Because you're
an autopilot and we do this 80%of our day.
That's what the researchindicates 80% of our day.
(07:46):
There are ways that we canconstruct powerful, healthy
habits without having to forcethem into our lives, but by
taking little steps at a time.
So the three books that I readthat really enlightened me to
this and how powerful habitswere, were was one a book called
(08:08):
Habit by Charles Duhigg.
The second one was AtomicHabits by James Clear and the
third one was Tiny Habits by BJFalk.
So in those three they reallyoutline okay, if I want to get
this results, what habit is itgoing to take to get me to that
result?
And then I started applying itto my own lives.
(08:32):
The result that I want, I wantto weigh less, for example.
So I applied the principle ofadding small habits.
So in the beginning what I saidwas okay, habit number one
every single piece of food thatgoes in my mouth.
I'm going to write it down in afood journal Logging, because
(08:53):
research has proven that when wejournal our food, when we keep
track of it, we tend to be moremindful about our eating and we
tend to choose healthier options.
Invite versa when we'restressed and tired and we're not
thinking, we'll just putwhatever in our mouth, whatever
the next thing that's on ourtable and the environments that
(09:14):
we're living in, they'reobesogenic.
They promote us to addunnecessary calories that are
not necessary for survival, justfrom a standpoint of
convenience and pleasure.
But that doesn't get us to thehealthy and optimal life that we
would really want to have.
So I use that app, I said everytime I put it in my mouth and
(09:37):
then I worked on it until itbecame ingrained in me.
Then I said, okay, I also wouldlike to be more active and move
more.
So how do I establish aphysical activity app?
So I began with doing onepushup per day only.
That sounds insignificant, butby doing it every single day I
(09:58):
created a mental vote in my headsaying that I am the kind of
person that does pushups.
And over time I graduallyincreased it and increased it,
and to the point where I wasdoing 25 to 50 pushups a day
consistently because of habits.
Just how you can build goodhabits, you can also lose them
if you're not consistent withwhat you are doing.
(10:20):
So in my practice, when I workwith children pediatricians,
we're the ultimate preventativemedicine machines.
So whenever you see the wordpreventative medicine, they talk
about that for adults and heartdisease that starts in
childhood.
So we're doing preventativemedicine right from the moment
they're born and our colleaguesin OBGYN support us as well and
(10:41):
as well as our colleagues ininternal meds of line as support
us as well, and around thehealth Throughout the lifespan.
But I say we're the ultimateones because there are certain
habits we learn as kids thatdon't really have a drastic
impact.
Some children who eat junk foodall the time their metabolism
is so fast they don't feel therepercussions of that on their
(11:01):
bodies.
But once they eat that certainage when their metabolism slows
down and they have those samehorrible habits that they had
when they were kids of eatingjunk food, all of a sudden they
see this spike in poor healthoutcomes.
Why?
Because they never reallyestablished the appropriate
habits in childhood and neverdeveloped them.
(11:21):
You can apply this to all thefive major pillars of health in
my view, and I do that with my,with my paces and my practice.
So in my eyes, the five majorpillars of health are, of course
, number one, sleep nutrition.
In no particular order, theyjust have sleep nutrition,
movement, physical activity,stress management and your
(11:43):
ability to cope with life,because life, believe it or not,
stressful for everybody.
The only people that don't havestress are in the grays.
And number five, the fifthpillar, is, since we're social
animals, our relationship toother people.
Right, so by keeping all funand you can, you can subdivide
it, of course, like say oh, butyou missed something like your
(12:08):
intimate relationship versusyour friendship that all flumps
into relationships.
Right, you can be able to thinkgeneral in general aspects.
I'm a general thinker.
Right, so you can use habits toimprove all finds.
So I'm going to let's gothrough how you can use habits
to improve all finds.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:24):
Wonderful.
Let's do it.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (12:25):
What were some examples?
If it's OK with you, don't you?
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:29):
Yeah, let's go for it.
Ok, let's start with sleep, allright.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (12:33):
I can read you.
Let's start with sleep.
Sleep Number one, number onehabit when I get home, I'm going
to leave my cell phone in theliving room and not in my
bedroom every day.
Love it, tiny habit.
Better sleep.
You'd be amazed how much thatworks wonders.
You don't have to do anythingelse.
I'm going to leave myself on inthe living room and go upstairs
(12:56):
without it.
That's one habit.
Right, there are many, manymore, of course, and you could
build upon them.
That's one example.
And that's a tiny habit, that'sa atomic small.
I call the quantum habits, the,the theory habits that tell you
just the smallest.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:14):
So tell the parents why the cell phone?
Why is it important to haveyour cell phone away from your
bedroom?
Because it's the same thingthat goes for the kids.
The kids need to have theirtablets and their phone and all
of that, and even smart TVs,outside of the room.
So why?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (13:32):
Oh, you said that.
T-ball up for me to knock thatone out of the park.
Talk about a softball question.
I love it.
I love it.
Every BNN nutrition will talkin the hands of this question.
But so we know that, for anumber of reasons we know the
blue light on phones affects ourrelease of melatonin in the
brain, which will delay oursleep time.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:51):
Yeah.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (13:52):
And the constant pinging and alert
notifications will wake you upand arouse your brain versus
allowing you to wind down how wenaturally were supposed to be.
I'll have to think back.
When we were evolving from thesavannas of Africa, there were
no cell phones.
It was the sun and the moon, itwas daytime or nighttime.
(14:14):
The lions were going to comeget you or not get you.
It was very simple life backthen, and as we have become more
evolved and more complicated asa society, we're adding things
into our lives that go againstthe nature which we evolved with
.
Our nature was if it's lightout, we're awake.
(14:34):
If it's dark out, we're asleep.
Now, if it's dark out, it'sstill light in, the lights are
still on.
So I think that I mentionedanything as far as why we don't
want phones there.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (14:46):
Anything else you want?
No, not the big ones.
Yes, those are the big ones,correct?
And besides, we want the kidsto learn that the bedroom is for
sleeping and not for sleepingAbsolutely Other things.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (14:57):
For playing.
Yes, yes, yeah, you're right, Iforgot that part Is that you
don't want to do anything inyour bed but sleep in it.
You want the kids to theirminds to associate bed, okay,
sleep, not playing and readingand writing all the other stuff
that we do, right, yeah, then.
So sleep, that was the big one,and I think sleep is probably
(15:20):
the keystone of all the habitsthat I've established in my life
.
That was probably number one.
That's probably number one, Iwould say.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (15:28):
Then Behavior right.
If you don't sleep, yourbehavior will be completely off.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (15:34):
Well, absolutely, sleep affects all
the other four out domains.
So sleep affects nutrition.
We know that people who sleepless tend to snack more
throughout the day becausethey're always tired and looking
for extra hit of glucose.
They're going to drinksomething.
Drink something with a lot ofsugar in it or only with extra
caffeine in it, which makes itharder to fall asleep the next
night.
Well, sleep affects yournutrition and your weight.
(15:56):
Then you're a religion of otherpeople.
Well, if you don't sleep well,you're cranky.
You're not going to have to bereligious.
You're not going to be Haitianwith other people.
You're not going to be kind andloving with other people.
If you're always grumpy andcranky and tired I know that's
true for me when I'm cranky,don't be around me.
I'm not this one.
Then, with physical activity,if you're tired, you're less
(16:16):
energized and you want to moveless.
And there are research papersshowing that people who sleep
less tend to move less.
Also, they don't want to move,and vice versa.
If you move less, you sleepworse, your sleep quality is
worse, you affect each otherback and forth.
And then the final pillar ofhealth.
I have a question.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (16:35):
Go ahead.
Yeah, that's why it's importantfor us to move.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (16:38):
That is the number one non-prescription
drug that will affect all of our.
Any health condition you canimagine is improved by increased
movement in the body.
We have to move our muscles,move our bodies for so many
reasons.
(16:58):
If I could think of what's thenumber one reason for me, I
would say it's mood and energy.
Personally, by moving the bodyearlier on the day, the rest of
my day, I have a lot more energy, my mood is much better and it
helps me stay focused and ontask.
For my other pillars of healthI can keep track of doing.
(17:19):
Well, for all the other aspectsof my health and there are many
other like scientific andmedical reasons, like, moving
gets the blood from our venoussystem back into our heart and
slowly draw our bodies.
There's no stasis of blood,right, we don't get blood clots,
there's only a scare like that.
Moving also prevents the body'snatural every year of our lives
as we age.
(17:39):
There's not someone for biopsy,but after a certain age they go
back over the age of 30.
Don't call me on that.
Our muscle mass decreases,right, cyclo-pina.
We age and we lose muscle mass.
You can slow down the rate atwhich your muscles deteriorate
by engaging in resistanceexercises and moving them and
cutting them against gravity.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (18:01):
I like to talk about is your brain needs the
worst oxygen in the body.
So if you don't move, you'renot feeling that brain what it
needs and that brain will notfunction well.
Hence your mood will be off andyou will be cranked Totally.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (18:18):
No question about it, no question.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (18:20):
Yeah, but thank you for sharing that.
I love those other examples.
It's more for the parents, butit's important that parents
teach their kids early on thereason why by muddling it.
So we're all together in thisfamily.
So, yeah, so goodly.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (18:38):
You can't practice pediatric medicine
unless you address the wholefamily.
There's no such thing as havinga healthy child and everyone
around them has poor healthhabits.
No, it's a package deal.
Your help in the family, movetowards help together as a unit,
because it's about theirenvironment, that that affects
our behaviors, the environmentthat you know.
(19:00):
That, how that old expressiongoes, show me where five closest
friends are.
Really you are.
It's true for our families,families who have issues, for
example, with weights.
Both their children also haveissues with weight, and vice
versa is true.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (19:16):
Yes, absolutely, because, yes, they're modally
made.
Plus, I've had parents say okay, child, are you listening to
what the doctor said?
You have to drink more waterand you have to eat better food,
you have to sleep better.
But then I always go back tothe parents like you're the one
buying the food.
Can you?
just your grocery makes me,because if my friend here,
(19:40):
doesn't see the things theyshouldn't be eating and they
will eat them.
So it's we is back to be theparents.
We need to do better and weneed to model things for our
kids, because they are likesponges and they suck up
everything we're giving off.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (19:54):
So yeah, can I get an amen?
Can I get an amen?
Amen?
And habits work for our parentsand kids alike.
We have to keep that in mind.
So, first, if we, if, if, withmy recommendation advice, I can
get a family to start adopting afamily of habits for the
parents, they'll what habitsthey're going to automatically
(20:14):
rub off on the children becauseof, like you said, that modeling
.
They learn more from what we dothan what we say.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (20:21):
Yes, that's so important.
And what was the last?
Have we done all five?
I think we've done sleepmovement relationships.
Relationships yeah, I had five.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (20:30):
Let's see sleep, movement, relationship,
nutrition, exact.
Oh, stress, yes, stressmanagement so things like
mindfulness, mindful activitiesthis is the stress management
man.
We have a epidemic in thisworld of loneliness, anxiety and
depression, and one of thereasons why you want to get that
(20:50):
phone out of the bedroom isbecause this little device with
a little social media engineinside of it shows you look at
what, how much fun all myfriends are having and how much
fun I'm not having.
I'm such a loser.
I know you're not.
This is, this is not reality atall.
Like if, if, people are postingtheir wonderful lives.
(21:13):
Good for them.
You know, stress management is awhole separate podcast in and
of itself, but it's one of thefive pillars of good health and
let's keep it simple.
Right?
Let's talk about what is onehabit you can adopt to improve
your stress and anxiety levels.
Specifically for that and thehabit is very simple I want you
(21:36):
to write one sentence per dayabout why you're grateful.
That's a good one man.
One sentence per day, that's atiny habit.
Do it every day.
It's like a Dr.
Yanni Friethoff has this amazingquote in his book.
He says it's called thetoothbrush level.
We call us things thetoothbrush level, because you
(21:59):
can pack a toothbrush with youand on each trip you go and it's
a quick, two minute thing thatyou do.
You could do it every day andthen it's a minimal amount of
effort you could put in.
So a toothbrush level of habitis writing at least one sentence
about what you're grateful fortoday.
Could be on your phone, couldbe on a paper who cares?
But just thinking about whatyou're grateful for reminds you
(22:22):
of all the wonderful thingsyou've been blessed with, first
of which being, or waking upalive.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:29):
Yes, yes, we got through all five.
I know that.
And yeah, the gratitude is mindblowing because when you really
embrace it, you can't bethankful and be complaining at
the same time.
The brain isn't so advanced toaccommodate both things, so it's
(22:51):
either you're thankful oryou're complaining, or you're
feeling bad.
So our brains love the and Imean it helps us as human beings
to be more thankful, becausethen we are easier to be around
and then it opens up so much forus, right?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (23:08):
Yeah, even if things don't, but if you
don't want to write there'sanother one you don't want to
write.
We can do this together.
Let's do a timing habittogether.
Are you ready?
Dr. Hokehe Eko (23:18):
Okay.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (23:19):
Let us, together, do a boxed breath one
time.
We're going to breathe in forfour seconds, hold the breath
for four seconds, breathe outfor four seconds and wait for
four seconds.
We'll just do one rep, and wejust lowered our anxiety and
stress level.
Are you ready?
I'm going to count us down.
Okay, one, two, three, four,three, two, one.
(23:42):
Go Four, three, two, one.
Hold Four, three, two, one.
Breathe out Four, three, two,one and wait Four, three, four.
We just did the box, that wasit.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (23:58):
Whoa yeah, that definitely takes away.
I mean, it lowers your heartrate.
I could feel myself.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (24:06):
Very nice, you see.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (24:08):
That's a quick one.
Anyone can do that.
If you teach your kids that, sowhen they're upset they just do
it together, that definitelystrengthens the bond with you
and your family.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (24:21):
Yeah, that's great, one of my monsters
is I keep things really simple,because once things get
complicated, I can't wrap mybrain around it anymore.
Just keep it simple, simple,focus on the basics, the
fundamentals.
And yet, you know, can I tellyou now you know the results of
my personal embrace of habitswas when I started doing this
(24:43):
back in 2018?
I lost 33 pounds and I kept itoff for the last now six years.
Wow, yeah.
I don't are taking any specialdiet.
I don't partake in any specialexercises.
(25:04):
I promise you I'm not anozempic because my waist is up
and down.
I promise you I'm not a govright now.
I did all of it with habits andaffecting my environment to
support my habits as well, so Iwant to share the power of
(25:25):
habits and automatically makingthe right thing to do with the
easy things to do.
So I pack my lunch.
I know what I'm going to eatbefore I even I'm hungry, so I
have a habit 3M things beforethings happen.
That's my other habits planning.
I have to make a habit ofplanning things, though.
So that's just an example of onething that has really changed
(25:47):
my life a lot, and before this Iwas a doctor.
I knew everything aboutnutrition that I needed to know
and physical activity that Ineeded to know.
I didn't understand how toapply it, which is why any
physicians themselves.
In this country, we suffer andI did too with fatty liver,
heart disease, cholesterol,diabetes and stroke.
(26:07):
Nutrition is suffer with this.
Nutrition suffer with this.
Just because you know itdoesn't mean you can do it.
It doesn't do something, itdoes everything.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (26:16):
Absolutely.
I love it.
I think it's just so simplified.
Let's just start with one thing.
And even if you just pick oneof the five areas that you just
work on that, I've read lots ofplaces like 30 days and you like
solidify the habit.
So what if you just, even ifyou just told yourself for the
next week, do it a week at thetime, if that's what works for
(26:37):
you, but just one thing for aweek at a time, anybody can do
it, and it's even that you makeit like a challenge with you and
your whole family.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (26:46):
You and the kid.
But listen, the first one whofalls off has to wash all the
dishes for the next year, right?
I think so.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (26:55):
I think so Really, I think so oh yeah, yeah
.
I think about my teenagers andthe washing dishes saga.
That's a good one.
You see that happy jacket he'swearing Once he enters a room.
With that happy jacket,everybody has to be happy and
healthy just immediately theysee him.
That's right.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (27:15):
Smiling yes, you lose less energy than
frowning.
Oh, absolutely, it helps On theoutside.
You have to feel better on theinside, no matter how you start
it out.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (27:26):
Yep, you can share a smile.
That's a gift that doesn't costanything A smile, let's share a
smile all over.
So what's your one last tip forparents on kids, on how they
can easily implement habits tochange their lives, because
really that's what we're talkingabout transformation.
(27:46):
So what's your last tip for howthey can do that?
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (27:51):
The last tip is all about starting small
and staying consistent.
We like to overwhelm ourselveswith the full to-do list of life
that we have to do.
In reality, none of that isactually necessary.
There are a few basic needs wehave as human beings, and if you
really slow your lights downand think about what those basic
(28:13):
needs are, they will come backto the five pillars of health.
In my eyes, I prioritize family, number one above all, then I
worry about my community and mypersonal health, in no
particular order.
My personal health probablygoes second, and then I worry
(28:36):
about having a good community tolive in.
My personal health, I focus onthe five pillars and I ask
myself which of my five pillarshave I not really kept up with
that well, and what do I need toreestablish?
What small things can I startdoing today?
Because the best time to startdoing something is 20 years ago,
(28:57):
but since you can't travel backin time, this second best time
is right now.
So think about one area of yourlife where you're unhappy and
you're struggling with regardsto health and say what's the
smallest thing I can do todayand repeat and then grow upon it
to get the result that I want.
(29:17):
Because, if you're given, thereason that these habits work so
well is that they work on thepower of compound interest.
So if someone tells you We'llgive you a million dollars today
, or we'll give you a pennytoday and we'll give you double
every day for 30 days, the valueof that penny doubled over 30
(29:42):
days is worth more than amillion dollars.
I think it was like three orfive, between three to five
million dollars.
I forgot what the exact mathwas.
You can type it out in your AIengine and ask like, how much
did it come out to?
Or Google it.
I think it was like three tofive million dollars.
You can charge multiplemillions of dollars as opposed
to just one million dollars.
But that's what happens whenyou are consistent and you are
(30:05):
multiplying the power.
But each day that you'rerepeating a small thing, you are
reinforcing into your mind, sothe next day it's easier to do
it, and the next day it's easierto do it, it becomes easier and
easier to do more of it, andthen you're going to start
seeing the results of it in yourbody and your health.
I think you only wanted onefinal thing.
I decided to expound on thatand make and say three final
(30:28):
points.
So thank you for indulging mein my very loquacious restocks.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (30:35):
Oh my goodness, that shows what an amazing and
compassionate physician you are,and everybody in Staten Island
and New York needs to find you.
That's what I.
That's my two cents to that one.
So well, thank you so much forbeing on here and please tell
our listeners how they can findout more about you.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (30:55):
Well, if you want to find out more about
Dr Vlad, there's a couple ofways to do it.
So on my website that's www.
sirivertownspeds.
com, I have it.
Instagram Facebook handle is atSIRivertownspeds on Instagram
and Facebook.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (31:12):
OK.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (31:13):
And also on my YouTube channel, which is
also you type inSIRivertownspeds.
These are the handles for theYouTube channel as well.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (31:23):
Wonderful.
So, yes, please follow Dr Vladand if you live in the area, go
visit him.
He's an amazing doctor.
So thank you so much for comingon here and sharing your wisdom
about the five, about the tinyhabits that will transform your
life.
Really appreciate it and we'relooking waiting for that book of
yours about this the tinyhabits and how it transformed
(31:46):
your life, so so you can comeback on here and tell us all
about it.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (31:50):
Yeah, as soon as I finish that book, I'll
be right back here more thanyou get, as much as I possibly
can.
All the one of the things Iplan on doing with my book is I
really will consider just givingit away for free, because I
want I want to just spread themessage out as far as I can.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (32:06):
That's wonderful .
So thank you again, dr Vlad.
It's such a pleasure to talkwith you and to do life with you
as a fellow pediatrician, andthank you for the love and care
you show to your kids that youtake care of.
Dr. Vladimir Barayev (32:21):
I too didn't need to even appreciate
life within you always, namaste.
Have a wonderful day.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (32:26):
Yes, you as well .
Okay, parents, see you on thenext episode.
Bye.
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