Lifestyle Basics
#1 – Movement – Steps Per Day (10,000)
- Grab yourself a pedometer, watch or ring that will measure your steps per day
- 10 minute walk equates to 1,000 steps
- if your averaging 12-15,000 steps per day than that is a cardio workout
- walking after your meals helps improve digestion
- walking is great way to give yourself a break from looking down at your phone and or computer for many hours a day
- walking can spur ideas and help work through problems
#2 – Movement – Weight Train 2x per week
- train with weights at least 2x per week. Preferably a total body routine where you can exercise the fundamental movement patterns.
- Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Carry, Crawl, jump
- Strength training is associated with stronger bones, ligaments, joints, muscles. It is especially important as we age.
- Build muscle because it costs more to maintain. Our bodies will allocate the calories.
#3 – Nutrition – Eat 80% Full
- Eating smaller portions and or eating until you feel 80% full will help with digestion , energy levels, weight management , increased satiety , better relationship with food, normalized appetite, understanding the difference between true hunger and eating to cope with your feelings.
- This is a mindful approach to eating and will pay dividends into the future.
#4 – Stress Management / Recovery – I am grateful for …
- reminding yourself of 3 things your grateful for each day is a re framing exercises to take back control of what you are focusing on. Comparison syndrome is easy to fall into these days because of the access to social media. It becomes easy to want what others have and think that what they have is so great because of a picture or video they posted. Sooner or later you are down a rabbit hole of self depreciation and wishing you were someone else. Spiraling into a mess of emotions and coping with indulgences that satisfy our impulse to change the horrible feeling we have and make us feel happy.
- New Strategy – pause and remind yourself of what you are grateful for in that moment.
#5 – Stress Management / Recovery – Sleep before 11 pm
- Sleep is low hanging fruit to improve your overall mood.
- Sleep is boring for a lot of us because we are so overstimulated going to bed that when we finally lay down, turn off the phone, teevee, computer are mind is racing and it takes minutes to calm the mind back down and prepare for bed.
- This is arguably the most important habit to get good at that pays huge dividends in your mental well being.
- During the sleep, our body repairs itself and most important detoxes itself in the later stages of sleep.
- every 90 minutes our bodies go from a waking state to a deep sleep state and in undulates back and forth 4 to 5 times a night depending on how many hours of sleep your getting…the kicker is during the 5,6,7 cycles of those minute cycles is when our brain detoxes and repairs itself.
- Cycles 1-4 are associated with body repair
- Cycles 5-7 are associated with brain repair