In July’s part 1 of “The 4 Fundamentals For Maintaining Your Health”, we discussed how your health can impact your business and how, starting with exercise, you can vastly improve your lifespan and, more importantly, your healthspan.
Now let’s look at the next three fundamentals for maintaining your health: Sleep, Nutrition, and Mental Health.
Sleep
Around 1% of the population can operate optimally on less than 7 hours of sleep per night. The other 99% require at least 7 hours. 8 to 9 hours is optimal. If you believe you are one of the 1% who can thrive on less than 7 hours of sleep per night, chances are, you have just gotten used to going about your day with an unrested body.
Sleep is critical to your health and to having the mental fortitude to tackle the challenges in everyday life.
Here are some protocols to help you get a good night’s sleep:
- Wake up at the same time each day – Train your body’s circadian rhythm to know when sleep time is and when it’s time to wake up. You will sleep deeper, wake up naturally, and be more refreshed.
- Exposure to sunlight first thing in the morning – Sunlight elevates dopamine levels. Dopamine is the drug that helps us want to strive and accomplish. Sunlight exposure first thing in the morning also helps develop a consistent circadian rhythm by training our body when to fully wake up.
- Limit daytime naps to less than 90 min – If you don’t, you may have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep in the evenings.
- No caffeine 8 – 10 hours before bed – Like naps, you could find yourself laying awake staring at the ceiling.
- No alcohol – The research is clear on this, while alcohol is a depresant and can put you to sleep, it is not the deep sleep state required for proper rest and you can expect to wake up often. Avoid alcohol as much as possible.
- Exercise – Regular exercise promotes great sleep. Period.
Nutrients
For the most part, the only thing your body has to fuel and repair itself is what you put into your mouth. For this reason, nutrition is obviously fundamental to your health. From getting the proper nutrients that drive your internal functions, to preventing excess fat stores around your organs, nutrition can’t be ignored.
- Eat a balanced diet – Eating a variety of healthy, colourful, unprocessed foods will ensure you get the diverse nutrient requirements that your body needs.
- Lots of fruits and vegetables, like LOTS – Based on the research, there is no upper limit on the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables. Eat as many as you can and as often as you can. Juicing fruits and vegetables does not count.
- Offset sugar with fibre – Added sugar is the enemy. It does not matter if it is sugar in the raw, high fructose corn syrup or is in 100% real fruit juice. Sugar is sugar. Avoid added sugar that is not offset by fibre. Plain Cheerios for example is 1 gram of sugar and 1 gram of fiber (that’s good). Choose eating whole fruits and drinking smoothies vs juices that have taken out the fibre.
- Lots of protein – More than anything else, maintaining muscle mass later in life will help you stay active. Protein is necessary for building and maintaining muscle. Eat a lot of it from a variety of sources.
- Embrace moderation – Eat less. North Americans consume way too many calories and it shows in our waist lines. But more importantly, it shows in the fat that builds around our organs, ultimately harming their function. Make and serve less food when you eat at home and get a “to-go” box from a restaurant and pack up 50% of your meal at the start.
- Go for high nutrient density and low calories per pound – The #1 thing that will keep you satiated longer is the weight of your food. Choose foods that are high nutrients and low calories per pound. Lean turkey, fruits like apples and bananas, salads (easy on the dressing), potatoes (with salt and pepper only), sweet potatoes, and plain oatmeal with berries, are great examples.
- Drink more water – Your body needs more water than you are likely drinking. Drink 3 – 4 litres of plain water each day depending on your body weight. This will help with your appetite, energy levels and overall body function.
- Avoid alcohol – It’s not just bad for your sleep, but it has been well researched that no amount of alcohol is safe for consumption. Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer in men and women. Not to mention other affects on your liver and brain function.
Mental Health
As Peter Attia, MD and Bill Gifford elegantly pointed out in their book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, no conversation about health is complete without discussing mental health.
Note: If you are struggling with mental healh, please contact a professional immediately. You are not alone and there are a vast amount of services and resources available.
Here are a few things that are proven to help you stay in a great mental state, more often:
- Exercise – In many cases, exercise had been shown to be as effective for treating depression as many prescrition drugs.Breathe – Your body needs oxygen. Taking time to focus on taking deep breaths throughout the day can help immensly in improving your mood and lowering stress.
- Get social – While this might be the last thing you feel like doing, initiate a coffee date with friends or invite someone for a walk or hike. Getting around the right people fuels our soul.
- Sleep – They have identified sleep as one of the most important factors for first responders who are dealing with PTSD. This can help you as well. Every life problem feels less daunting after a good night sleep.
- Focus on what you can control – Life is full of problems. Get used to it because it is not going to change. The key is to focus on what decisions and actions that you can take to improve your circumstances and the circumstances of those around you. You can’t control the weather, political change, interest rates and so many other things, but you can control what you do next. When you feel out of control, take a moment to step back and make a list of things you can control. Then start working on those.
- Practice gratitude – As we mentioned, we all have problems, but we also have so many things to be grateful for in life. Look around you and note all of the things that you can be grateful for. Is the room you are in heated or air conditioned? Be grateful for all of the people who made that possible. Did the sun come up this morning, be grateful for that. It is tough to feel bad when you are focused on all of the things in life that are amazing.
- Take time for yourself – Go somewhere quiet and just reflect personally. Ask yourself what is going well for you? What are good at? What things can you control and change in your life? Or, just listen to your thoughts and write down what comes up for you. You might be surprised at what you learn.
- Seek professional advice – As we said at the beginning of our discussion on mental health. If you are struggling, please seek professional advice.
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The 4 fundamentals of health; exercise, sleep, nutrition and mental health, work together to help you feel great, and increase your health span. This will give you the opportunity to not only build a better real estate business, but do more of the things you love.
