Mind & Body Sync!!!
Have you folks felt your body get beaten up by end of your 9 to 5 working day? If the answer is yes, then I am sure you are like me, I used to think my fatigue is mainly due to the new work from home madness of jumping between meetings to meetings and switching the context constantly or dealing with unrealistic work expectations or dealing with people :). Well, don't be surprised, more than 95% of working professionals always tend to fall in to that trap. Do you really think your body tiredness is just because of work? Answer is no. It is your mind that makes you tired and if you pair it with poor life style, eating habits, it becomes a chronic issue of constant energy loss which make us blame it on others. Everything in Life is a choice we make.
Good news is, all these emotions are completely normal and one can devise a strategy to use art of living to overcome these challenges. First and foremost, I am not a certified healthy mind coach nor an expert in biology to define what goes through in your body to make you feel tired, however I am going to walk you through a conscious lifestyle shift that I made 18 months ago to alleviate constant fatigue both in mind & body. It has tremendously helped me to become healthier and encouraged me to share the ideas with others so you can validate and make a choice for yourself.
Lets dive into what science has to say about the best lifestyle humans should follow. It is not something new to all of us, our parents, grand parents and ancestors always preached us in many ways. Healthy food, good physical activity, 7 or more hours of peaceful sleep are the 3 major components that make your body/mind to be in best sync. We tend to forget these 3 simple steps and easily lose our rhythm of life. Perhaps, our body is one of the most fascinating machine ever created, it provides ample cue whenever it goes out of balance however we neglect and keep beating it.
Fundamental shift we need is to start with a good food lifestyle. Whether you are a meatarian or vegetarian or vegan or keto person, what goes in your mouth after you wake up determines your energy level throughout the day.
Healthy Food
I start my day with water (10 to 18 ounces) preferably mild warm with or without honey. Perform few stretches(we will talk in detail in next section) and then clear your gut(depends on what you ate last night, hopefully more fiber :)).
If you are a coffee addict like me, you can have 8 ounce of coffee with no sugar, milk is optional but I prefer my coffee bold and black approximately 1 hour from my stretches.
Pick a breakfast that you like but key is to blend in fruits, healthy carbs(Yeah bread is not healthy carbs but we are not going to be picky here, after all we are sane humans. It's ok to have some sugar :)), proteins(peanut butter, eggs, cheese or milk or your choice).
By the time you finish your breakfast, your first meeting marathon might start. Don't forget to fill your water bottle, preferably 18 to 24 ounce. You need to drink 3 bottles of 18 to 24 ounces of water on a daily basis. I usually place a voluntarily 5-7 minute break every 2 hours to grab more water & stretch.
One thing I forgot to mention is, for body to be happy it got to have a daily schedule. If you pick 8 or 9 am for breakfast, stick to the same time every day as much as possible. Your goal is not become an army commander in chief but train your body to adapt to a lifestyle.
At lunch (possibly around noon to 2 pm or 1 to 1:30 PM), I prefer to have a mix of carbs(Keto/Paleo folks can skip this, 100 gms), protein(20 gms atleast), fiber(veggies, salad etc., 100 gms atleast). Drink hot water after 5 to 10 minutes of your lunch. Don't drink water in between the meal unless you need to. It slows your digestion and often increases the bloating. Take time, eat slowly to enjoy the meal than shoveling it through in between meetings.
If you prefer evening workout activities like me then a healthy snack (7 to 10 gm protein bar, trail mix, juice) around 3 to 4 pm or 1 hour before workout will help your body have energy during workout. Post workout, based on intensity, you can have recovery drinks( I do banana dates shake, protein juice or millets/sweet potatoes).
I know most of the working professionals will make bad choices for breakfast, lunch but have a strong healthy and heavy dinner assuming body picks the good stuff. Your first meal of the day has to be great rather last. Dinner should be light(I prefer sandwich/clear soup or veggie salad or small quantity of millets or wheat breads/roti's with a protein side). Leave atleast 3 hours between dinner to your bed time(Please refer to Sleep cycle post dinner routine).
Physical Activities
I wanted to share a brilliant quote from famous positive psychologist Robert Biswas-Diener
“Once you start making the effort to ‘wake yourself up’—that is, be more mindful in your activities—you suddenly start appreciating life a lot more.” –Robert Biswas-Diener
Stretching
It is essential to wake up our muscles like we wake up our mind/body from sleep. It is mandatory to pick 5 minutes after you wake up and 5 minutes before you go to bed for simple stretching. It balances your muscle flexions and stabilizes the human body orientation
Link below shares basic stretching to kick-start your day
https://www.bupa.co.uk/newsroom/ourviews/waking-up-stretching
Link below shares basic stretching to end your day
https://www.healthline.com/health/stretching-before-bed
Beware, during first few days to weeks, stretching can be challenging and might not be fully achievable. Goal here is to be consistent and make slow progress. Rome was not built in one day, please have patience. I guarantee that by few weeks, you should see overall improvement in your flexibility.
Cardio
Blood circulation to muscles and organs is an essential part of our body's overall health. You can do cardio anytime but I recommend atleast 15 minutes before the start your day. It will make your day extremely delightful. You can choose walking, jogging, running, elliptical, skipping, HIIT workout, anything you like. I prefer to walk and practice deep breathing. One who sees sunrise gets oxygenated much more efficiently than who don't. If you have time you can do cardio up-to 1 hour but anything beyond 1 hour is simply not sustainable in the long run for working professionals.
Strength training
So far what we have seen is called "KTLO' - Keep the lights on feature. If you eat healthy, remain moderately active(stretching and cardio), you can definitely maintain your physical stamina minus a minor degradation of power due to aging. Perhaps, for many of us that is still exceeding the expectations performance :). For workers like creative artists, entrepreneurs, home makers, health care, essential services, engineers, architects, corporate leaders, deal with so much uncertainty than many others. I strongly encourage you to think about having a goal for strength training with minimum two sessions per week. Well, I don't want to sound as if I am running a gym membership commercial. I don't have any gym membership. Perhaps, I don't recommend gym for reasons I believe is not suitable for many working professionals. What I am going to recommend is a list of simple strength training workouts that I hand picked for my cycling sport and proved to be super efficient for me and my friends
- Lunges
- Squats
- Pull up (Resistant band and start with 10,20 LB resistance then add on when you become stronger)
- Dead lift (If you have dumbbells or barbells)
- Planks
- Farmers Carry
- Bird Dog
- Step-ups
- Bicycle kicks
Pick any two circuits for each week and alternate them as needed. All circuits are in below format. Also once you gain consistency, you can customize this to any possible extent. Sky is the limit. Goal here is gain consistency, consistency, consistency. Quality over quantity. Don't rush through this. Your body takes 22 days or more to adapt to changes. Take it in a slow pace and focus on the daily increments.
- 20 minutes session
- 10 reps X 3 sets
- Take enough break and water between each set
Circuit 1
- Lunges, Pull Up, Plank, Farmers Carry
Circuit 2
- Squats, Bird Dog, Bicycle Kicks, Set-Ups
Circuit 3
- Deadlift, Bird Dog, Plank, Lunges
Things you may need to buy - Lets make Jeff Bezos a trillionaire :)
Super customizable dumbell/barbell set, you can pick 11 or 16 lbs. I have 16 lbs which is more than sufficient for most of the workouts
Resistance band
Step Up(Choose 4 risers option)
Sleep Cycle
Third but most important component is quality sleep. I have a rule of no electronic gadgets, web surfing 30-45 minutes before my sleep cycle and after waking up. You got to detox your mind by reducing the context switch. Instagram, facebook, etc. scrolling are new dope to your brain. 10 minutes scrolling of these social media posts can bring in 1000+ context switches in your brain that it takes more than 10 hours to process it in your sub-conscious mind. Don't stress your already beaten up brain by feeding more junk. It's okay, get off from social media, you can click on like the button next day. Your friends won't have any issues, I guess :).
Pick 7 hours of quality sleep, atleast 5 to 6 times a week. If you have successfully adopted step 1- healthy food, step 2 - physical activities but miss step 3 - sleep cycle, then your mind-body integration won't happen. Your trump card to success is step 3 - sleep cycle. Anxiety, stress, mood for next day is determined by your sleep. Please be mindful of this step.
Where the heck we spoke Mind-Body Sync
Alright, I know I started with a blog title Mind-Body sync and so far I haven't clearly explained what the heck is mind-body sync! Well, everything that we do in step 1 and 2 helps your body have controlled level of chemical reactions( everything in the list can cause a reaction to your body - digestion, blood sugar levels, thoughts, emotions, beliefs and many more) with either positive or negative outcomes. Food and physical activity drives a sense of positive accomplishment and energizes your body in a right way to tackle the challenges that your mind wants to perform. Step 3 helps us to heal and rejuvenate better. I firmly believe that, one who follows these 3 steps will be much resilient to the ever demanding life style challenges that we are all going through now. I will end this blog with a famous quote from Dr. Greg Kushnick, a famous NY therapist - "Your mind, body, meaningful relationships are the only investments that can buy happiness". Let's sync our mind and body from now on and remain happy forever. May the force be with you!!!
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