Page 36 - Charlie the Keen Kid

A word of encouragement About the author

Congratulations for choosing this book and making healthy lifestyle habits a priority. Dr. Alexandra Bernhardi is a General Practitioner (‘Family Doctor’) based in Queensland, Australia. She specialises in
Integrative Medicine and enjoys getting to the root cause of diseases while staying on top of emerging science with an
You may have identified a couple of areas that you would like to work on or you may have realised that your busy life has open mind.
taken you down a different pathway and you want to get back on track. We all know how tricky it can be to unlearn old • Dr. Alex grew up in Germany and studied medicine at Hannover Medical School, complemented by further education in
habits and form new and better ones. The following strategies will make it easier for you: acupuncture and naturopathy.
• Be clear about your goals and define the habits that you need to adapt in order to reach them. For example, in order to • She completed a doctoral thesis (‘PhD med’) in the field of obstetrics in 1999.
eat a healthier diet (goal), you will first need to buy fresh vegetables (habit).
• Visualise your goals. Ask yourself, can you see your child as a healthy and successful young adult in their chosen work • Dr. Alex moved to Australia in 2005 with her three young children and attained Fellowship of the Royal Australian
College of General Practice (RACGP) in 2009.
environment?
• Only change one habit at a time. This way you don’t feel overwhelmed. Once this habit has become a routine, move on • She joined the Australasian College for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (ACNEM) in 2015 and regularly
undertakes specialised training in all aspects of Integrative Medicine - a modality that combines the best of
to the next one. conventional medicine with evidence-based complementary approaches.
• Start with the easiest habit. This way you set your child and yourself up for success. • Dr. Alex dedicates a lot of her time to provide patients with objective education, as she believes that each patient’s

• Start small. If your child struggles to fall asleep before 10pm, move your goal forward in 15 minute increments instead autonomy is an integral part of the patient’s healing journey.
of setting a 7pm bedtime overnight. • She is fascinated by the complexity of the human body and the similarities between human and global health.
• Reward yourself and your child along the way. Create a list with small rewards that align with your new goals and • Raising her own children as a mother and observing and learning from her patients as a doctor has given her deep
choose one for each step you have mastered. insights into some of the root causes of our modern lives’ problems.
• Be patient and persistent. Forming new habits requires repetition until it has become a routine that no longer needs any • Dr. Alex is passionate about nutrition and environmental health and believes that children deserve more education
thinking or willpower. about the foundations of good health in order to support their natural motivation of ‘doing the right thing’.
• When you slip, get back on track quickly. Missing your habit once has no measurable impact on your long-term
progress. Dr. Alex hopes to see this project reach children and educators all over the world and contribute to making their life easier
and the world a better place.
Forming healthy lifestyle habits is not a race - they are there for good.

All parents want the best for their children. Luckily, when it comes down to leading a healthy and successful life, what’s “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
best for the children is also best for us adults. Sometimes, we just need a gentle reminder. All what you need to do now is
take the next step. It will be your win. - Frederick Douglass

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