From St. Helena Star, August 13, 2010:

By Doug Ernst, PUBLISHER
(Last in a series)
Friday, August 13, 2010

Dr. Arlene Taylor

If you want to change your behavior, you need to change your routines, according to Dr. Arlene Taylor, an expert on how the brain works.

For example, if you’re like me, you plop down in front of the television after dinner and munch on whatever happens to taste good. That routine became life-threatening to me.

The good news, says Dr. Taylor, is that we all have the ability to create a new signal light in our brains, allowing us to bypass the comfy old sofa and go somewhere else after dinner. Walking the dog while listening to the radio has become my new routine. It helps me digest dinner, it’s good exercise and I am getting to know my neighbors. It’s also good for the dog.

Within 21 days, a new routine can form a new outline in the brain, said Taylor. And, within six to eight weeks, the new routine of walking the dog will become stronger than the old couch potato routine.

If I do end up in front of the television, it’s in a different room. And the snacks are apples and nuts.