Happy Friday!
In this series of posts, I am presenting my top ten health tips.
Inspired by my Personal Trainer studies, my Out Of The Cloud series of books has a backdrop of fitness. So if you love fitness and you love to read contemporary romance books, check them out!
Last week we explored Health Tip #1, Keep Your Body Guessing!
This week we look at….
Health Tip #2 – Give it a Rest
Work hard, play hard, rest hardly at all.
This is the paradigm that is socially ingrained. It’s societally revered. All the while, it’s scientifically proven to be our downfall. Or one of them, anyway.
Bottom line?
We need rest. And the harder we work and play, the more rest we need.
What needs rest? And Why?
1. Your Gut – By now we are all familiar with (and probably tired of hearing about) gut health. Regardless of what picture is painted of this piece of anatomy, very few of us have actually seen inside our own. Thankfully. So, that leaves us to feel our way through this dark, convoluted network of tubes.
And that’s just what I mean. Feel it out.
There are so many ways to rest your gut. Intermittent fasting alone comes in more forms than you can count. But it doesn’t matter if you go with the 16 hour/8 hour or the 2day/5 day the fact is…you are giving your gut a rest.
How?
In short, digestion takes energy. Intermittent fasting not only lets all the organs of digestion have a holiday, it frees up the energy and blood they would use. So, the immune system now has more energy to scavenge for toxins, weird growths, and ugly invaders. The other systems of the body have energy to repair and regenerate. The more blood everyone gets, the more nutrients they get, too. And the brain? Well, the brain loves the whole experience. The brain is hungry, so the more energy it gets, the happier it is. It’s also a neat-freak. The clearer the blood, the clearer the mind.
For all of those benefits, isn’t it worth a try?
2. Your Body – Let’s look at your fitness/exercise routine. What you do during your periods of rest is just as important as what you do during your workout. You can be as technical and scientific as you want, taking into account individual muscle protein synthesis speed, circadian rhythms or even DNA predispositions. Or you can go with your gut…so to speak.
How?
You can relax in the sauna, take a mineral bath, or hit the pillow. Or you can be active without stressing your muscles. Take a yoga class (not for the faint of heart!), engage in mobility techniques (check out Kelly Starrett at TheReadyState…he is the mobility god), go for a walk on the beach or a swim in the pool.
3. Your Mind – We talked a bit about the brain itself. It is the most hungry, active part of your body. Everything you do affects this bit of your anatomy. Including how you rest your mind.
How?
Here, you can be as scientific as you want, too. You can study brainwaves with their rhythms and oscillations and Greek alphabet letters. Or you can play around with all sorts of relaxation techniques like meditation and sleep and getting in “the Zone”. Whatever you do to exit the excitable Beta brainwaves and explore the more relaxed Alpha Theta Delta.
As you begin to play with these things, you will notice that they overlap. It’s easy to rest your mind and body and gut at the same time. Something a simple as good sleep does this.
SO….Our HEALTH TIP #2 Is all about Rest! Be as deliberate and regimented or experimental and curious about your rest as you are about your work.
Give it a rest and see what happens.