Many self-quantification enthusiasts, athletes, and biohackers report spending enough hours in bed each night, but upon review of their sleep cycles, find that an “8 hour sleep night” really only translates to a relatively disappointing 6, 6.5 or 7 hours of actual sleep. If you fall into this category, then keep reading, because I’ll dive into some of my top tips for reducing nighttime disturbances and restless sleep. 

What Causes Restless Sleep?

Restless sleep and sleep disturbances can be caused by a variety of factors, including stress, excess noise, restless or loud partners, pets, babies or and food timing. To reduce restlessness and to get more restful sleep, consider tips such as:

-Optimizing your sleep environment by ensuring your room is completely blacked out in darkness.

-Keep your bedroom is cool (I recommend 64-65 °F as the ideal sleep temperature).

-Avoid spicy food and heavy meals or high amounts of alcohol (more than two drinks) within 2 hours of bedtime, and avoid caffeinated beverages or energy supplements in the afternoon and evening.

-Complete any hard exercise sessions at least 3 hours prior to bedtime, and if you must workout closer to bedtime than that, lower your body’s core temperature with a post-workout cold shower (more details below)

-Install Iris on all your computers and switch it to sleep mode (or use this red light iPhone trick) our phone to night mode when the sun sets in whatever area of the world you happen to be in. 

When it comes to restfulness, in my experience the biggest variable above to make the most significant impact is to keep your body temperature low. Not only should you keep the room relatively cool, but you should also consider:

-An outdoor walk in the cold, a quick cold shower, or jump into a pool, lake, river or ocean if you’ve done a hard workout that night or eaten a very heavy meal. Some athletes are concerned a post-workout cold soak will blunt the hormetic response to exercise and limit muscle or mitochondrial gains, but this is only the case if you get very cold (such as a 10-minute ice bath). A 2-5 minute cold shower or cold soak or 10 minute outdoors cold walk will not impair exercise response.

-Wearing wool socks to bed. Research suggests that wearing wool socks to bed causes blood vessel dilation (vasodilation) that can warm the skin but lower the body’s overall core temperature, and can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep by over 15 minutes!

-Use breathable or cooling bed sheets. The best choice for cool, breathable sheets is linen, which tends to be cooler than cotton. For a more eco-friendly or hypoallergenic choice, bamboo is an excellent choice. It is hypoallergenic, and also feels gentle to the touch. If you must use cotton, look for a thread count lower than 400, which is thinner and cooler than higher thread count sheets.

Aside from thermoregulation and cooling the body, a few of my other favorite quick tips for reducing restlessness include:

-Plenty of morning sunlight and natural light exposure, which can jumpstart the circadian rhythm and allow for deeper sleep later at night. 

-Use of apps that enhance sleep, particularly when used with a “pink noise” setting. One of my favorites is Sleepstream, and another excellent app for sleep is Brain.fm. I recommend putting your phone in airplane mode and playing these apps next to your bed at night, or if in a particularly noisy area, using foam earplugs and/or a sleep-friendly set of headphones, such as the soft, side-sleeper friendly Sleepphones.

-Installing blackout curtains in the bedroom, turning off all light-producing devices or covering the lights with LED light-blocking tape, and donning red or orange blue-light blocking glasses whenever the sun sets in whatever area of the world you happen to be in. 

-Ensure your bedroom is a “safe place”, which your body primarily associates with sleep or sex only. Avoid taking your laptop into bed to work, or reading business books or other highly stimulating intellectual material prior to bed. Keep the TV out of the bedroom, or don’t watch TV in bed, even during the day. For the ultimate in feeling safe during sleep, consider the use of a gravity blanket, which can assist with activating your parasympathetic nervous system during sleep. 

-Don’t eat a heavy meal prior to bed, but if you do find yourself frequently waking, consider consuming a cocktail that will allow a slow “bleed” of calories and nutrients into your system during a night of sleep. I prefer a tablespoonful or two of coconut oil and almond butter drizzled with raw honey and a pinch of sea salt. The addition of collagen or glycine may also be helpful.

-Finally, any inhibitory neurotransmitter supplement, including GABA, passionflower, valerian root or chamomile, or a small dose of melatonin prior to bed.

Restless Sleep Summary

Cold, darkness, and silence are the holy grail of a good night of sleep. When you use the practical tips in this article to achieve each of these three keys, and simultaneously address exercise and eating patterns before bed, you’ll experience far fewer nighttime wakings and better daytime energy.

How about you? Have you found any particularly effective strategies for nighttime wakings and restlessness? Leave your tips below!

The post Restless Sleep: How to Stop Tossing and Turning appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What the Research Says About Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that your body produces naturally. It’s released by the pineal gland in the brain to help you fall asleep, and can support greater sleep quality. To understand the importance of melatonin, you need to know about circadian rhythms.

Your body has its own clock, so to speak. Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that carry out functions and processes in your body. For example, your digestive system will automatically produce proteins that help you break down meals during times when you’re likely to eat, and your endocrine system releases hormones that provide you energy at times when you’re active. In other words, your body knows what time it is, inherently, and makes adjustments accordingly. Feeling tired at night and awake in the morning are examples of a particular type of circadian rhythm called the sleep-wake cycle, and melatonin helps regulate it.

During the day, contact with natural light stimulates your brain to send signals that promote alertness. As the sun goes down, darkness influences the brain to release melatonin, which helps you wind down and ultimately fall asleep. But in the modern world, most of us don’t get up and go to bed according to the sun.

Staying up late disrupts the body’s normal sleep-wake cycle, and exposure to artificial light reduces the amount of melatonin that’s produced. This is why sleep experts recommend dimming your lights an hour or so before you go to bed, hanging blackout curtains over your bedroom windows, and avoiding blue light—a type of wavelength that is present in electronics such as computer screens that essentially tricks your body into thinking it’s daytime, boosting attentiveness.

Melatonin supplements exist to offer nutritional support for sleep problems, and they’re quite popular: a 2012 study by the National Institutes of Health found that melatonin was the fourth most used natural nutritional product by U.S. adults.

Scientists aren’t sure exactly how melatonin supports sleep, but it is known to inhibit dopamine, a hormone that promotes alertness.

Whatever the mechanism, there is a large body of research showing that melatonin can aid sleep. A 2018 study found that subjects with sleep trouble who took a low dose of melatonin one hour prior to bedtime—in addition to following a regimented bed and wakeup time schedule—slept better. Furthermore, compared to a placebo, they fell asleep 34 minutes earlier.

A meta-analysis of 19 studies covering 1,683 subjects showed that melatonin could help increase total sleep time and overall sleep quality. Here, melatonin users fell asleep an average of seven minutes faster, stayed asleep roughly eight minutes longer, and said they slept better than subjects taking a placebo.

Another meta-analysis of 12 studies found that melatonin supplementation helped people fall asleep faster, and better regulate their sleep and wakeup times.

Many people turn to sleep aids to help them adjust their sleep-wake cycles while traveling. Moving across time zones, such as when flying across the country or internationally, can result in sleep disturbances commonly called jet lag. There is much evidence that melatonin can help with this specific problem. Two reviews (1, 2) have suggested that melatonin can help to reset sleep-wake cycles and support better sleep in jet lag sufferers. 

Those who work nights may benefit from melatonin in the same way. Having to stay alert at times that are out of sync with the body’s circadian rhythm can harm sleep, but a review in Sleep Medicine Clinics implies that shift workers may be able to realign their sleep patterns with melatonin use. Another trial in the journal of Sleep Research determined that melatonin helped night shift workers get more sleep during the daytime (when they go to bed).

Uses of Melatonin

Melatonin is best known for its ability to aid sleep, but its supplementation has also been linked to other health benefits, although to a much lesser degree.

One trial showed that daily melatonin use for several months helped protect retinas, the light-sensitive tissue in eyeballs. Two other studies (1, 2) indicate that melatonin may be helpful in stimulating release of growth hormone—the chemical that helps the body maintain its tissues, build muscle, and use fat for fuel. It’s too soon to say if melatonin can really support eye health, athletic performance, or body composition, but the research shows promise.

What To Think About Before Buying Melatonin

Melatonin supplementation appears to be safe for healthy adults. Side effects, if any, are generally mild, and may include headache, dizziness, nausea, and daytime drowsiness. These effects, however, have only been reported with high doses and extended-release formulas—not what you’d get from responsible use of the typical melatonin supplement. There is no evidence that you can build up a tolerance to melatonin that would reduce its effectiveness.

The authors of an article in StatPearls (linked above) sum it up well: “Melatonin is a safe first-line sleep aid that may help promote a regular sleep cycle.”

Liquid Melatonin Vs. Gummies Vs. Tablets

Supplemental melatonin is available in several forms that are taken orally, including chewable gummies, capsules, tablets, and liquid sprays. Research hasn’t picked a clear winner as far as effectiveness, so the best delivery method is mainly a matter of preference.

Gummy melatonin often comes in berry flavors and may remind one of candy. However, like candy, it usually contains some sugar, so those watching their sugar/carb intake may want to opt for another type of supplement. The same goes for melatonin lozenges.

Capsules can be swallowed quickly, and tablets dissolve in the mouth (a good option for people who dislike swallowing pills).

Liquid sprays allow one to enjoy some flavor but not have to swallow or chew. They’re also highly portable.

“I love taking melatonin as a spray,” says Shawn Stevenson, a sleep expert and the author of Sleep Smarter and Eat Smarter (now available at themodelhealthshow.com). “I spray it under the tongue and hold it for a little bit of time to help with the absorption. Taking it sublingually means a faster route to the bloodstream—melatonin doesn’t have to navigate through the digestive tract, where you’ll lose some of it, before it enters your system.”

Who Would Benefit From Taking Melatonin Spray?

Sprays generally supply smaller doses of melatonin (3 milligrams or so, while gummies can offer up to 10 mg in a serving), but this can be ideal for those starting out with the supplement, and who need to gauge their tolerance. This is one reason SleepFoundation.org endorses Onnit’s melatonin spray.

In general, melatonin supplements can be helpful to anyone suffering from sleep problems or trying to adjust their sleep-wake cycle. They may also be appropriate for those whose behaviors can jeopardize the body’s own production of the hormone. Supplementation may help in these cases to get it back on track.

One study in Toxicology and Industrial Health showed that teenage women who smoked had reduced melatonin production, probably due to tobacco smoke’s oxidative effects. Researchers also suggest that supplementing with melatonin may help with the cellular damage induced by cigarette smoke.

If you’re the type who likes to wind down with a few drinks in the evening, you should know that they’re not helping you sleep better. A study in Chronobiology International looked at men in their 20s and found that alcohol consumption one hour before bed reduced melatonin levels up to 19%. If your work life resembles the movie Office Space (minus the humor), you’re also at risk. A 2015 study revealed that subjects whose workspaces did not have a window, thereby denying them exposure to natural light during the day, had lower melatonin levels at night, and higher levels of stress hormones.

The post What To Know About Liquid Melatonin appeared first on Onnit Academy.

When it comes to health, there is one criminally overlooked element: sleep.
Good sleep helps you shed fat for good, stave off disease, stay productive, and improve virtually every function of your mind and body. That’s what Shawn Stevenson learned when a degenerative bone disease crushed his dream of becoming a professional athlete.

Like many of us, he gave up on his health and his body, until he decided there must be a better way. Through better sleep and optimized nutrition, Stevenson not only healed his body but also achieved fitness and business goals he never thought possible. Now a world-renowned health expert and host of the top-rated podcast The Model Health Show, Stevenson shares his health advice with fans in more than 150 countries each
week.

What’s his #1 rule for better health? Get high-quality sleep.

Now in the Sleep Smarter 14-Day Sleep Makeover, you’ll have access to Stevenson’s easy tips and tricks to discover the best sleep and best health of your life. With the 14-Day Sleep Makeover, you’ll learn unique strategies like:

• How to create the ideal sleep sanctuary.
• How to hack sunlight to regulate your circadian rhythms.
• Which clinically proven sleep nutrients and supplements you need and why.

Also included are stress-reduction exercises and fitness tips to keep you mentally and physically sharp. The Sleep Smarter 14-Day Sleep Makeover is the much-needed guide for achieving the rest, body, and life you truly deserve.

If you are interested in exploring more ways to optimize your sleep, check out this guide’s companion book “Sleep Smarter” at Onnit.com/sleep-smarter.

Download HERE

The post The Sleep Smarter 14-Day Sleep Makeover Journal appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Especially when you look over at the clock and see it’s almost time to get up.

That means you’re not going to sleep for a lot longer, and you’re going to feel like crap until you do.

A poor night’s sleep feels like a punishment. It can turn a good day bad and ruin the next one before it even begins, but sleeping pills and calling in sick aren’t your only refuge.

We talked to Shawn Stevenson—author of Sleep Smarter (sleepsmarterbook.com) and creator of The Model Health Show, which often features as the top fitness and nutrition podcast on iTunes—for tips to go from restless nights to pleasant dreams.

4 Ways To Sleep Better

1. Train In The Morning

“The timing of your workout can make a world of difference for your sleep quality,” says Stevenson. He cites a study conducted by Appalachian State University that compared the effect of workouts done at different times of day. Subjects exercised at either 7 a.m., 1p.m., or 7 p.m.

“The morning exercisers spent more time in the deepest, most anabolic [muscle-building] stages of sleep that night. For some people, it was up to 75% more time.”

Why? Stevenson says it has to do with the hormones cortisol and melatonin. As you may know, cortisol is a stress hormone. It comes with your body’s “fight or flight” response and is naturally high in the morning—peaking between 6 and 8 a.m.—so that you can be alert for the day and get things done. Melatonin is a hormone produced in your pineal gland that helps to induce sleep. Your body naturally releases more of it at night.

“Everything you put in your belly is influencing melatonin production, storage, and utilization.”

There’s an inverse relationship between cortisol and melatonin. “If cortisol is elevated, melatonin is on the ground floor,” says Stevenson. If, however, your cortisol is elevated in the evening—due to stress or activity (such as late-night workouts)—melatonin has a hard time doing its job to relax you.

“If you’re not training already, start in the morning,” says Stevenson, and let cortisol work for you. And if you’re training later in the day and find that you’re not sleeping well, try pushing your sessions up earlier.

2. Sleep In The Dark

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But most people have more lights on in their bedrooms than they realize and it’s harming their sleep.

Stevenson points to a Cornell University study where a subject slept in a dark room but had a light the size of a quarter shone behind the person’s knee.

“That was enough to disrupt the sleep cycle,” says Stevenson. “You have photoreceptors in your skin, so your skin picks up light.” Interestingly, moonlight doesn’t have the same effect, but streetlights or a neighbor’s porch light beaming in through your window can hurt sleep quality or keep you up.

“Get some blackout curtains,” says Stevenson. Turn off all electronics or cover them up so your room becomes as much of a cave as possible.

3. Eat Sleep-Supporting Nutrients

“The gut-brain health connection is huge for sleep quality,” says Stevenson. “Everything you put in your belly is influencing melatonin production, storage, and utilization.” By eating more of the foods that contain the precursors of sleep hormones, you can improve your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and enjoy higher-quality rest.

If you stay up past that time, those enzymes can be used to keep you awake rather than for recovery. “That’s why you get a second wind right before you go to bed, which makes you feel like staying up and watching TV.” 

Stevenson recommends fresh, cold-pressed cherry juice, which is a natural source of melatonin, while meats like poultry contain tryptophan. “Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, which is a precursor to melatonin.” Want some meat-free options? Hempseeds and green, leafy vegetables are good options.

Melatonin is also available as a supplement and has been shown to be beneficial. A 2013 meta-analysis published in Plos One found that supplemental melatonin helped subjects’ get to sleep, and promoted sleep duration and overall quality of sleep. It was also reported that these positive effects did not appear to dissipate with prolonged melatonin use.

4. Go To Bed Between 9 and 11 p.m.

That’s the ideal window for most people, according to Stevenson. The body experiences a natural drop in core temperature to facilitate sleep during that period, “and it increases enzymatic activity that helps repair the brain and tissues.”

If you stay up past that time, those enzymes can be used to keep you awake rather than for recovery. “That’s why you can get a second wind right before you go to bed, which makes you feel like staying up and watching TV.” By establishing a pattern—ideally, going to bed and waking up at the same time on a daily basis—you train your body to shut down when you want sleep and wake up when it needs to.

The post 4 Ways To Sleep Better appeared first on Onnit Academy.

It is not their fault. Most of what the fitness and fat loss industry puts out is not designed to fully work, otherwise everyone would be walking around lean and healthy. If you show people how to lose fat and keep it off long term there is no chance of having them as a repeat customer.

I think of fat loss like a math problem. The “answer” to this math equation is what we want to look like after losing body fat. The steps or habits required to lose body fat are the “parts of the equation”.

You already have the answer, but if you can never get the right parts to the math problem you can’t solve your fat loss problem.

This report is designed to help people figure out their personal parts of the fat loss equation that will work. No two people are the exact same so what may work great for a friend may not be as effective for you.

I encourage everyone to experiment to see what works best for them, and adopt one habit every two weeks.

Fat loss takes time and dedication, it has taken a while for many people to gain weight so it will take time to lose it as well.

Give yourself at least 6 months to reach your goal instead of getting desperate and going on a crash and burn style diet that will result in metabolic damage commit to checking your desperation and realizing if you adopt these habits over a period of time you can enjoy fat loss as a result of getting healthier.

1. Avoid Processed Carbohydrates

Processed carbohydrates include bread, pasta, crackers, muffins, gluten free products, chips, sugar, fruit juices, oats with sugar, breakfast cereals, “health” bars, pastries and grains.

Processed carbs raise our blood sugar rapidly, causing the release of our main fat storage hormone insulin.

When we keep blood sugar and insulin low by avoiding processed carbohydrates and sugars our body is able to burn excess body fat as fuel instead of needing carbs and sugars constantly.

Blood sugar helps to drive appetite, and by balancing our blood sugar with a reduction of processed managing appetite will become easier.

2. Eat More Protein

Protein is one of the highest satiety foods, meaning it will leave you feeling satisfied and fuller for a longer period of time reducing cravings for snacks.

The thermic effect of food is the increased energy expended by the body to process that food. Protein rich foods have the greatest thermic effect increasing energy expenditure to process them. Muscles helps us to burn fat, and protein is needed to build muscle.

3. Sleep At Least 8 Hours A Night

Sleep is when the body is the most anabolic and when we build muscle. Adequate sleep is also pivotal to recover from exercise. Not getting enough sleep leads to an increase in appetite and increases cravings for carbohydrates and sugar.

Sleep deprivation also causes elevated blood sugar without the introduction of foods which decreases our tolerance to carbohydrates making it harder for us to burn stored body fat as fuel.​

4. Clean Out Your Pantry and Fridge

Recognize the foods that are creating roadblocks in your your fat loss goals and remove them from your house. A drug addict who is getting clean doesn’t keep their stash around because they already paid for it.

Put the trigger foods in a bag and hand them to a homeless person on the side of the road. You just did a good deed and helped yourself. By keeping these trigger foods around the house you’re draining your willpower.

By removing those foods you can now dedicate that will power to building complimentary habits to your fat loss journey.

5. Be Aware Of How Much You’re Eating

Low carb is great for taming hunger and reducing insulin, but calories do need to be taken into account and definitely not obsessed over. Balance is what we are looking for here.

As you approach your ideal body weight or body composition, what worked in the past may no longer be effective. Losing the last few pounds requires more fine tuning, if it is no longer working changes need to be made to reach new goals.

There is absolutely a metabolic advantage to eating real foods, but if fat loss has stalled calories and lifestyle habits may need to be adjusted.

6. Lift Heavy Weights ( 3­-4 times per week)

The more muscle we build the more fat we will be able to burn. Heavy weight training increases insulin sensitivity meaning your body will able to use carbohydrates more effectively and less carbs will be stored as fat. Heavy lifting usually falls into the 3-­6 rep range and 3-­5 sets.

Use full body compound lifts: cleans, squat, deadlift, push press, dumbbell lunges, pull ups. Learn proper form first, you can’t train if you’re injured.

7. Stress Management

We evolved to handle short bouts of acute stress pretty well, in paleolithic times we might have ran from a large animal or hunted for food causing stress. What we are not adapted to handle is the chronic low grade daily stressors.

Stress increases hungry and increases the cravings for sugar while making it more difficult to burn fat. Schedule daily stress management practices: meditation, walks in a park or nature, reading a calming book, yoga. Make them a part of your daily ritual, but don’t stress about them.

8. Consume Healthy Fats

Fat has been demonized and blamed for a lot of health problems in the past. We have come to find out that the basis for these claims were built on bad science, and hand picked data. Since the adoption of the low fat, highly processed carbohydrate diet our health has steadily declined.

By consuming more healthy fats, and reducing processed carbohydrates we allow our body to burn dietary and body fat as our fuel. Fat slows gastric emptying, which keeps us fuller for longer preventing unnecessary snacks and cravings.

9. Be Patient

One unhealthy meal did not cause you to gain fat, just like one healthy meal will not cause you to become leaner. It takes time and and consistency to reach fat loss goals, realizing this upfront helps to alleviate stress and gets people away from the damaging “diet” paradigm.

This is a lifestyle change you are not jumping on another crash diet. Learn to appreciate the journey and realize how far you have come. Your habits are changing into a lifestyle, that alone is a reason to be proud of yourself.

10. Sprint (1­-2 times per week)

Sprinting is anabolic, which means it builds muscle and strength. It is far more efficient at burning fat than chronic cardio, and takes a fraction of the time. Sprinting makes the body keep burning fat even after the sprint session has been completed.

The beauty is that sprinting can even be done slowly such as pushing a weighted sled, or on an exercise bike and still get the benefits without impact.

11. Set Goals

Set a short term goal and a deadline that you are going to it by. This helps to avoid the I’ll start on “monday” procrastination. Some people wait a month before they decide monday has come around. Write your goals down and put them on the walls of your bedroom and on the fridge.

Place a picture of yourself that you do not like on the fridge or cupboard to remind you to stay on track if needed. Tell people around you about your goals and the deadline for them. Social accountability is a great motivator, especially when you know someone else is holding you accountable.

12. Develop Routines

Willpower is a finite resource, the more you use the less you have for later. Without routines and habits in place we are constantly using that willpower to make decisions that are seemingly pointless, but empty the willpower jar over time.

Success or failure comes down to establishing good or bad habits making certain decisions automatic with no willpower required. The more healthy nutrition and exercise habits become routines, the less willpower is required, and they become easier to maintain.

13. Get Others To Join You

Having other friends to share successes, motivational quotes, recipes and even slip ups is a great way to feel supported when making big changes. Social accountability is a great way to keep on track, especially if you make it a challenge and are in healthy competition with a friend you are trying to beat.

There are going to be the situations that test your dedication, having other people to keep you on track can be really helpful when faced with the temptation to go off course.

The post 13 Steps To Sustainable Fat Loss appeared first on Onnit Academy.

“I swear to lose 20lbs!”

“I will quit soda forever!”

“I’m gunna get ripped!!”

I’m not here to burst any bubbles. By all means get out there and show the world your ripped self by summer, but until then here’s some stuff that will make you a healthier, stronger, leaner, more mobile and a generally more tolerable human being.

I can promise you this: If you adhere to these tips (and few more of your own), you will most likely get to your ideal body as a byproduct of living the lifestyle that is health and fitness.

1. Drink Lemon Juice with Apple Cider Vinegar

I’ve been doing this for years now as soon as I wake up and it’s done wonders for my digestion. The enzymes from the ACV and lemon will help stimulate your digestive track (hint hint, you’re gonna be clean) and does an amazing job and waking you up without the need of coffee. Don’t worry. Coffee still happens.

It’s just 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar and juice from one lemon in glass of lukewarm water.

If it’s too strong for you, add a teaspoon of raw honey to lessen the kick. I incorporate cinnamon, turmeric and some cayenne occasionally for a super-charged starter that will most likely help me live forever.

2. Stretch More – Especially Before You Go to Sleep

This INSANELY easy tactic will do wonders for you. You’ll sleep better, wake up feeling less tight, and have more energy. You will simultaneously get a better night’s sleep and drop the stress that keeps you up late while becoming more in tune with your body.

No need for a 90-minute yoga session here. My nightly routine involves setting the timer for 10-30 minutes and going through a series of stretches and movements that help loosen up and alleviate tension for me. My routine will be different from my clients’ or from yours. Make this your own based on your trouble areas.

3. Drink 2-4 Cups of Green Tea (Decaffeinated if You Must) a Day

One of the main reasons green tea is so good for is EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) which has been shown to possibly lessen the likelihood of certain cancers, increase fat-burning and performance, help with mental clarity and much more.

Stopping at different points in the day for a cup of tea is, at the very least, therapeutic and allows you to sit back and breathe for a minute or two. That in itself is important for most of us. Make it a habit to stop at least once a day for a cup of tea and ponder what is really important in life, Daniel-san.

4. Meditate

To expand on your mental health, very few things are as powerful as meditation is on cultivating a stress-free, creative, focused mindset. If you’re one of those people that say you can’t meditate because you can’t still your mind, then join the club. The point of meditating is to learn how to control and manage thoughts and, therefore, your mind.

When you try and force it, it won’t happen. When you relax and allow thoughts to travel through without giving them any attention, you learn to separate the noise from the useful. You create a buffer from stress, worry and anxiety as you put this into daily practice. 10 minutes a day will keep the doctor away (in my opinion) and the more, the better. Find the time and toss the excuses. Get it done.

5. Drink Water. Lots More Than You Think (Just Not All at Once)

So simple, yet so ignored. When clients mention to me that their weight loss has stalled, they don’t feel as good as they have, or their sleep is off, my first question is almost always, “Are you drinking enough water.”

What’s easy to do is easy not to do. I don’t care how you do it, but get the amount of water you need every day without fail. Only a small percentage of dehydration is enough to weaken you and make you fatigue faster. Drink up, buttercup.

6. Laugh More

I measure the emotional success of a day by how hard I laughed at any given point. Barring illness or tragedy I make sure to laugh on the daily.

This means being with or talking to people that will elicit that kind of response. Why? There hasn’t been a definitive study to prove laugher will cure ya, but if you’re laughing, chances are you’re enjoying life and not letting things bring you down. Find something or someone that makes you laugh at least a few times a week. If it’s a hearty enough laugh session, at least it will be good for the abs.

7. Walk More

Walking is my therapy. Sometimes I listen to something educational or inspirational, sometimes I bust out my “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” mix, but most of the time it’s just me. There are a couple of reasons to do this.

The first is that it allows me to go over issues/problems clearly and in-depth to find the best possible solution. Walking helps oxygenate the brain and stimulate your creative juices giving you extreme amounts of clarity. The second reason is at the end of the day it’s only you. You can surround yourself with friends and family, but if you aren’t comfortable by yourself, then no one will satisfy you. Learn to enjoy the hell out of yourself.

8. Eat Vegetables – More Than You Think You Need

Do I need to expand on this? I’m not. Eat your greens (and other colors, too).

9. Lift Heavy Things Regularly

Ah, strength. A great workout cures just about everything life throws at you. Beyond the ego and aesthetics of being strong and lean, I look at the elderly around me as a glimpse into my future.

The 70 and 80 year olds I know that lift weights regularly are vibrant and full of life. They’re happier and just enjoy every day with the vitality of those half their age. On the other hand those that don’t, well, we’ve all seen the unfortunate side effects of inactivity in our family and loved ones. The body degrades slowly at first and then what seems to be at an exponential rate. From there it’s all downhill as posture goes and then balance.

Long story short start lifting heavy regularly to avoid this grim future. You don’t need to be hitting back-breaking PRs every day (or ever really) but it needs to challenge you.

10. Go to Sleep

This is your free recovery session. Instead of shelling out the big bucks for methods and supplements that aren’t even proven yet, just get some sleep. Getting the right amount of sleep for you can help improve your memory, will naturally increase growth hormone, and can potentially help you live longer. Bonus points for going to bed and waking up at the same time each night and day.

11. Journal Daily

This is your life and you only get one. “If it’s worth living, it’s worth recording,” as Jim Rohn once said. I truly believe journaling is one of the best things you can do for mental health. It allows you get the good the bad and the ugly from your day out on paper. It’s incredibly therapeutic and just as in my walks it allows me to hash out the details and work through issues I’m having with my business.

It takes a bit of discipline to actually sit in solitude and open up your journal, so suck it up for a few days and you’ll eventually be doing it on the regular. I recommend setting up an appointment with yourself to write either in the evening or first thing in the morning. Make it a part of your routine.

12. Match Your Behaviors with Your Goals

Have a mission and work towards it every day. Ask yourself how what you’re doing make you healthier.

Being productive and making progress is one of the best feelings in the world. You feel sure, confident, and stress-free. It’s those who battle with what they want right now and what they want most that live a life of regret and stress. Don’t be that person. Decide what you want and go for it every damn day.

 13. Cook for Yourself

Cooking is an underrated skill as the choices for foods around us are just about limitless. The problem is no matter how clean you think you’re eating, you really never know what’s going into your foods if you’re not cooking it yourself.

I’ll always remember when I worked in a restaurant as a teenager. I would order a side of chicken and broccoli along with a side of beans. A very healthy meal, right? After a couple of times eating this meal I realized something was up. I finally watched the cook prepare it. A ladle of oil went on the chicken as well as on the broccoli. A FREAKING LADLE!! That means I was eating an extra 30g of fat (at least). No bueno.

Be in control of your diet and start cooking. At first, make it easy and always cook using things you enjoy. I promise it gets easier and is FAR more satisfying than most restaurants.

14. Cut Out the Sugar

Excess sugar creates an inflammatory response that we still don’t have a full grasp on what the potential long-term damage can be. The notion that sugar feeds cancer is still highly debated and the evidence is swaying in the direction that it does not, however, excess sugar does create a host of issues from obesity and diabetes to digestive problems and arthritis.

Put it this way. Have you ever had a huge serving of sweets and felt REALLY good about yourself? On occasion, I love me some donuts (probably more than I should), but if you’re taking in sweets daily – regardless of how it fits your macros, you will not be performing at your best (unless you’re an elite athlete training hours and hours a day).

Keep that sugar in check.

15. Stop Giving a Shit

Words to live by. If you’re the type of person that is constantly worried what people think of you, you are always going to have a level of stress you’ll never be able to rid yourself of.

There are few things more liberating than knowing who you are, why you do what you do, and making no apology for it. Does this mean you have carte blanche to be a dick? No. Compassion and consideration are important, but overly worrying about your image means you’re not living life on your terms. Stop giving a crap of what people think about you and do what needs to be done.

My challenge to you is to start making a strong effort to instill a few (or all) of these ideas into your life and see what happens. Nobody’s perfect despite what their moms say. You can only work towards progression, not perfection. So if you falter, that’s ok.

Always remember it’s what you do most of the time and not once in awhile that will make the greatest impact on your body.

Stay Strong!

The post 15 Tips for a Healthier, Stronger, Happier You appeared first on Onnit Academy.

He said, “Sleep.”

In our culture sleep seems to be synonymous with lazy. Yet, how many Americans are sleep deprived and over-stressed? But hey, they’re chasing that dream. Git R Done…but there will most likely be a price to pay at the end of the rampage.

I am not a big promoter of balance. I believe balance is unattainable and as successful human beings we are always tipping the scale of balance in one area of our lives or another. Let’s face it, if one of my wife’s bosses asks her to get a two day project done on Thursday night, she can’t say that won’t work with my balanced lifestyle.

Yet, when she asks for 8 weeks off to go to a Yoga Teacher Certification in Central America – they better say “Yes” or I am going to be walking down to that office with more than just a powerblock and a couple Sandbags.

So to think that you will always be getting 10 hours of “baby” sleep is unrealistic unless you are a professional athlete or professional college student and recovery is part of your job. For the rest of us, sleep may be erratic, but we should try to keep it as consistent as possible.

Back to this baby idea – we love to post pictures or videos of babies squatting or breathing, but what about how kids sleep as they grow? I remember being a little kid and trying to shake my head to keep myself up past 8:30pm to watch the Packers on Monday Night Football.

It didn’t matter how many ridiculous passes Brett Favre threw off his back foot, my body was shutting it down. As we get older, we can override this sequence of events through our habits and lifestyle choices, but naturally we should be going to bed before 10:30.

The ideal sleep time of at least 8 hours is posted all over the place. The model range of 10pm-6am is also hard to argue with, but many people don’t know the WHY behind these numbers – so I’ll give you a few bullets.

The pituitary gland, or the “master” endocrine organ, is highly affected by a lack of sleep. And sleep loss has the ability to dramatically affect the entire endocrine system. So if you care about things like your Thyroid function, Growth, or Reproduction – you should get some shut eye.

● Generally during sleep our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) activity is decreased and our parasympathetic nervous system activity is increased. Most of us in today’s society live in a very sympathetic driven state, so you should shut  this bad boy down at night.

● From 11pm-1am, the adrenal glands do the majority of their recovery and recharging. The gallbladder also dumps most of its toxins during this time period. If you are awake, these toxins will back up in the liver.

● Sleep recharges our immune systems which is why people with better sleep patterns are probably more resilient to the bug that has hit the rest of the office.

● Sleep promotes a balance in our satiety hormones and thus helps control our hunger more naturally.

● Sleep deficiency is also linked to an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Ummm. Yea.

So the next time you hear Lil Wayne say, “sleep when you’re dead”, remember that Lil Wayne may not be the best model for human health and he also doesn’t know how to use apostrophes. Goodnight.

References

1. “The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Hormones and Metabolism.” Medscape. N.p., n.d. Web.
2. Davis, Reed. “Lecture 5 DRESS for Success.” Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Lecture.
3. “How Much Sleep Is Enough?” – NHLBI, NIH. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

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Don’t drink coffee at this time, but drink coffee at this time, work out at this time, eat carbs at this time, and on down the line. This may be a great way to get clicks, but these generalizations are likely ineffective for any one individual, and perhaps even dangerous.

Many people know about cortisol which peaks in the morning to wake us and then dwindles as the day progresses. Melatonin on the other hand wanes in the morning and creeps back up to its peak in the evening allowing us to go to sleep. Both ideally and theoretically.

Melatonin and cortisol are not the only peaks and valleys in the system, but without getting them back in step you won’t be able to correct other hormonal imbalances.

Every hormone in the body is pulsatile and the brain is constantly collecting data and adapting to whatever situation we give it.

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Cortisol Dysregulation & Circadian Rhythms

Dr. Gottfried puts cortisol dysregulation at 92% of the population. We don’t live in a primal world. Some people never see the sun, let alone feel it on their skin. We can do anything we want whenever we want. We aren’t active throughout the day, but instead exercise in spurts.

90 cents of every dollar we spend on food is thrown away on processed garbage which dismantles our internal clocks through blood sugar spikes, insulin surges, and food sensitives/allergies.

Most of our lives are not ideal, and thus theoretically most Americans do not have intact circadian rhythms. I haven’t tested a single person with a normal cortisol rhythm on an Adrenal Stress Index (and I service a high end demographic in one of the healthiest cities in the United States).

In fact, I rarely ever run them because we can save money and work on lifestyle changes to actually fix the underlying problem instead. If they need buy in, I’ll order the panel and explain to them that their HPA axis is struggling and/or dysregulated.

Sometimes people need to see numbers, sometimes they don’t. You have to decide how long of a lever you need to move the client to the correct actions for them.

Hans Seyle founded various stages of “Adrenal Fatigue”, however, I don’t believe in the linearity of those stages. For most people, adrenal burnout or fatigue is likely brain based (only a very small portion of the population has actual Addison’s disease or the destruction of adrenal tissue).

As Nora Gedgaudas puts it, the adrenal glands are just hormone factories doing what they are told to do. To fix the problem you have to change the message to and from the brain, and this is why adrenal fatigue supplement protocols are a waste of money without appropriate lifestyle change.

You can’t out supplement lifestyle, no matter how much vitamin C and adrenal glandulars you are inhaling. Sometimes you may need supplements to correct certain issues you can’t fix with lifestyle alone, but ultimately you have to change the message to the brain by breaking the stress response and telling the body there is not a charging bison and a five alarm fire around every street corner.

This again is highly individual and you have to figure out what their stressors are: environmental, over-exercising, under-exercising, emotional stories they replay again and again in their heads, underlying infections, blood sugar swings, food intolerances, and/or a combination of the above.

The Most Common Example of Cortisol Dysregulation

Now say you have a client who comes to you and claims to be an Owl. They are most productive in the evening and wouldn’t dream of going to bed before midnight. They “feel” fine, but crave sugar, and get irritable between meals. They also wouldn’t dream of eating a big breakfast.

The first and most common form of cortisol dysregulation is an inverted rhythm. Meaning cortisol is higher at night than in the morning. Due to this rhythm, this person feels dog tired in the morning and progressively gets more energy as the day goes on.

They may still get really tired in the afternoon if this has been going on for a long time, but then they catch a second wind and perk back up in the evening. Due to cortisol being high in the evening, they aren’t going to be able to get a good night’s rest and the horrific cycle continues.

Now say a trainer has read some chronobiology texts and believes in the Owl vs. Lark philosophy. Great, no problem, but you better damn well know that your client is in an ideal state before you go justifying having them work out at 6pm, which will likely push their circadian rhythm back even farther and feed the underlying problem.

This is because if they are in the above pattern of cortisol dysregulation what they need to do is exactly the opposite of what they will want to do.

They first need to reestablish their cortisol awakening response which can be done with a very short bout of exercise upon waking (talking 5-10 min), they have to eat something for breakfast that has protein and fat, and they have to control their blood sugar throughout the day.

They then need to do cover all the other aspects involved in building health: investigate underlying and unseen causes of stress, limit work and emotional stress whenever possible, move every day, get sunlight especially in the morning, and unplug at night.

But none of those other strategies will work if you just let them do what they want.

They may hate you for a time, but in two months when they feel better than they ever have and are sleeping like a baby from 10pm to 6am, you will be the hero.

And if they are in fact an Owl and have given it their best shot, done some serious healing, and you retest their rhythm and it is normal, then you can play with pushing some things back.

Hack Your Sleep Hormones & Optimize Your Sleep

We are animals and we live with the sun, the moon, and also with the seasons. We have daily, monthly, and seasonal rhythms. Our culture has thrown away these ebbs and flows and replaced them with 24 hour grocery stores with every color food you could dream of.

This is only bad if you let it be, but making the assumption that we can construct and popularize rash generalizations on what rhythm every person should have is asinine and dangerous.

Biological rhythms live with the individual and should be treated as such. We must look objectively at the situation and collect data whether it is in the form of an ASI, blood work, and/or questionnaires.

Then we must further individualize the recommendations to maximize adherence because that ultimately is all that matters.

Are you an insightful enough professional to ask the hard questions and to figure out how to get the results very few can?
Are you a coach who is athlete centered and not tied to what you think should happen or what worked for you?
Are you a client who is receptive and confident enough to live outside the norms of a society that is smothering the essence of what it means to be human with concrete, anti-depressants, and flashing lights?

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