Energetic, Focused, Peaceful
Do you realize how good you’re capable of feeling? Many people are living with chronic stress, nagging aches and pains, stomach problems, low energy, foggy thinking, and a poor immune system; and they’ve lost touch with what a healthy body feels like.
The human body is an incredible thing, but its basic needs are remarkably simple—food, activity, rest. Unfortunately, society has over-complicated these base ingredients with fad diets, gimmicky workouts, and a badge of honour for who survives on the least amount of sleep…
Nutrition
Whether you’re a gym-going CEO or an athlete preparing for The Tour de France, food has the potential to make or break you. You can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet, and you can’t gulp nutritional supplements expecting them to make up for real food.
Your brain and body works 24/7 to coordinate your thoughts, movements, breathing and heartbeat. This requires a constant supply of fuel, and just like a car, if you’re not getting the right fuel, you’re engine isn’t going to perform to its capability. Consuming whole, natural foods from the earth will give you the nutrients, vitamins and minerals, critical for cognitive function, energy levels, immune health, organ function, and muscle-building and repair.
Clean eating will change your life. When you revamp your eating habits, you’ll experience a greater sense of well-being, more restful sleep, a healthier weight, stronger muscles, faster recovery, reduced inflammation, and less chronic pain.
Sleep
Whether you are navigating a 10′ high skinny on your bike, railing gates at high-speed on your skis, or just maneuvering through rush hour traffic, the smallest fraction of time can drastically affect the moment. Sleep deprivation can have an enormous impact your ability to make split-second decisions, in fact a study by Stanford University found that those with poor sleep performed about the same as those who were legally drunk.
Sufficient shuteye (7–9hrs non-negotiable) will keep your immune system strong, so you’re less likely to get sick and you can recover quicker. Sleep is critical for your well-being, as it rejuvenates the mind and body, enabling you to function at your optimal level. Even potent supplements will do zilch if your sleep is suffering.
Sleep is like trail maintenance
When you sleep, your brain goes into clean-up mode. It’s like a trail maintenance day—it clears away information you no longer use, creating pathways for new information, allowing ideas to flow more freely, and it works creatively within REM to solve problems by allowing the brain to form connections between unrelated ideas.
Sleep is like a visit to the bike shop
Tissue regeneration is the key to a long and healthy life. Many factors such as malnutrition, vitamin deficiency and infection delay healing, but it’s also greatly affected by your amount of sleep. Sleeping is like dropping your bike off at the shop; it gets much needed TLC such as rebuilding parts, tweaks and adjustments, and a little scrub down. We need to give our cells time to repair, and it’s within “stage 3 slow-wave sleep”, that we get increased levels of growth hormone—an important factor in cell restoration and tissue regeneration.
Exercise
The best kind of exercise is the one you enjoy most, but also the one you can easily incorporate into your daily schedule and keep doing all your life.
Leading a vibrant life well into your 90’s means keeping active, but not to overexercising. It’s not about running marathons when you feel pain, powering through when your body is craving a rest day, and it’s not about neglecting a stretching and mindfulness routine.
A vibrant life means participating in a variety of activities that get your heart rate up and work your muscles. Humans evolved to walk, run, climb trees and mountains, and keeping this well-rounded fitness in our modern society can mean doing things like; taking the stairs, walking instead of driving when you can, getting into nature, and participating in a variety of sports and activities.
The Zesty Pyramid
Nutrition, sleep and exercise play a significant and inter-related role when it comes to your health and longevity.
By respecting these three pillars in life, you can have a greater chance of ensuring you age gracefully and live a vibrant life.
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