002 // Your body runs on clocks [Circadian Health]
002 // Circadian Health - Body Clock Alignment
If you missed last week's email, Step 1 to a Healthy Life [Morning By Design], you can read it here.
You may have heard the analogy of your body as a car that needs "good fuel", so "eat healthy". This is an oversimplified, shallow explanation of yourself and you can kindly toss it away.
The truth is, your body is a living, breathing miracle. An intricate and masterfully woven web of systems (digestive, respiratory, nervous, etc...) that are highly intelligent and adaptive, working together every minute of every day to keep you alive and functioning. Your body is probably the greatest unsung hero of all time, so take a moment to say "thank you" for it's hard work.
With this understanding, we can no longer approach our health through one-off tactics like:
- To lose weight, change your diet.
- To get fit, go to the gym.
Although beneficial, it's still the "fuel in the car" approach.
A better analogy goes something like this: Your body functions like a symphonic orchestra and you (and your behaviors) are the conductor. As we know the different sequences, crescendos, and resolutions, we are able to lead our bodies in a way that produces one harmonious symphony — a 24 hour-day where you feel good and have energy.
Your Body's Natural Rythmns: (Circadian Rythmn):
+At 2 am, you enter your deepest sleep cycle.
+At 4 am, your body temperature is at it's lowest.
+Around 6:45 am, your blood pressure has it's sharpest rise.
+Around 8:30 am, you are most likely to have a bowel movement.
+Between 10 am-12 pm, your mental alertness peaks.
+Between 12-2 pm, your digestive system is operating most efficiently.
+Between 3-5 pm, your coordination, reaction time, and cardiovascular strength peaks.
+Around 9 pm, your brain starts releasing melatonin and your digestion slows significantly.
+By 10:30 pm, your bowel movements are suppressed and your digestion is at a crawl.
In many ways, our modern life has thrown our bodies out of sync with our circadian rythmn. As we understand our body's inate rhythms, we can align our behaviors (eating, sleeping, exercising) in a way that works for us.
The key then becomes creating lifestyle shifts that align more with our circadian rhythm.
CIRCADIAN HEALTH: Living in cooperation with your body's natural rythmns.
Trying to make healthy changes can be really hard and frustrating. What I love about starting with circadian alignment is that changing the "when" is much easier than changing the "what". For example, change the timing of your meals before you try to change your diet, meal prep, etc. Once you get into better alignment with your internal clocks, everything becomes easier.
Some Practicals:
+ Don't skip lunch. In fact, try to make that meal as big as possible because your digestive system is most active and therefore, best able to process the food efficiently. If you skip lunch, you tend to be starved for dinner and are likely to overeat or eat into the night.
+ Try to have your last meal 2-3 hours before sleep, 1) because the digestive system gets slower the later it gets and 2) at night, your body needs to focus on melatonin (hormone that makes you sleepy) production before bed, not digesting food!
The next few emails will zoom in on different areas of health through the lens of circadian rythmn. If this feels like a lot, just remember that you don't need to change everything at once. The first step is bringing a level of awareness and education to gets your wheels turning. Right now, we are laying the foundation of the house... don't feel like you need to have the kitchen completely remodeled.
Extra Credit: the two best books I have read on this subject: The Circadian Code and Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life.
A 2020 Health & Wellness Report predicts that circadian health will be the next big health trend. So you'll be ahead of the game :).
See you next week.
TOMMY
// if you need help in any specific way, hit reply and let's talk.
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