1. Food is Fuel
What you eat and drink during the day has a lot to do with how well your body can rest at night. Start the day with a large glass of room-temperature water to properly hydrate you and get your digestive juices flowing. There is a unique opportunity to hydrate the body after a night of fasting that cannot be duplicated once something else has entered the digestive tract.
After that I like to fast on bulletproof butter coffee and green juice until lunch. I try to eat a healthy lunch and dinner, and minimize or eliminate sugar and white carbs. We crave stimulants like sugar, caffeine, and alcohol when we are tired, so once you start getting adequate sleep you’ll find your cravings will diminish significantly. So will your waistline because the cortisol levels (stress hormones) in your body will lower, too, and cortisol is known for packing on belly fat (and we certainly don’t need any more of that!).
I also like to avoid eating after 8 p.m. The body sleeps better if it doesn’t have to focus on digesting food during the night. Digestion takes a ton of energy, and during sleep you want the body focusing on repairing microscopic muscle tears, neural connections, and detoxification.
2. Exercise
I once met a doctor who said she wouldn’t see me if I didn’t agree to daily exercise. It’s THAT important. If you’re over 50 and not exercising, you could really be in trouble. I could go on and on about the benefits of exercising, but there are hundreds of benefits and thousands of blog posts to teach you all the “whys”. Seriously, just work it in.
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