How I Start My Day for PEAK Performance (6 Science-Based Habits) — Transcript

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1. 0:00so let's talk about how to apply quality
2. 0:01peer-reviewed science to your day and
3. 0:03how to optimize everything from sleep to
4. 0:06learning creativity meal timing Etc I'm
5. 0:09going to do this in the context of my
6. 0:11day and what I typically do so let's
7. 0:13start with getting up in the
8. 0:14[Music]
9. 0:16morning now for me I tend to wake up
10. 0:19sometime around 6:00 a.m. 6:30 sometimes
11. 0:21as late as 7:00 a.m. I don't typically
12. 0:23sleep much later than 700 a.m. the first
13. 0:26thing I do after I wake up is I take the
14. 0:28pen that's on my nightstand and the pad
15. 0:30of paper on my nightstand and I write
16. 0:32down the time in which I woke up now I
17. 0:34do sleep with my phone in my room I
18. 0:36realize this is considered a sin and has
19. 0:39certain hazards associated with it but I
20. 0:41put my phone on airplane mode about an
21. 0:43hour before I go to sleep and then I set
22. 0:45my alarm typically for 6:30 a.m. and
23. 0:48some days the alarm wakes me up other
24. 0:50days I wake up before the alarm and yes
25. 0:52some days the alarm goes off and I hit
26. 0:53snooze a few times and then usually by
27. 0:557:00 a.m. I am up and out of bed the
28. 0:58second thing I do after I wake up is to
29. 1:01get into forward ambulation which is
30. 1:03just nerd speake for taking a walk I
31. 1:06have a dog and as many of you know he's
32. 1:08a bulldog and he doesn't really like to
33. 1:10walk especially not in the morning but
34. 1:12for humans and for Animals there's a
35. 1:15phenomenon whereby when we generate our
36. 1:18own Forward Motion forward ambulation
37. 1:21visual images pass by us on our eyes
38. 1:24so-called optic flow and for those of
39. 1:26you that are low vision or no vision the
40. 1:28same phenomenon occurs in the auditor
41. 1:30system sounds pass by us in so-called
42. 1:33auditory flow getting into a mode of
43. 1:35forward ambulation and especially
44. 1:38experiencing visual flow has a powerful
45. 1:42effect on the nervous system the effect
46. 1:43it has is essentially to quiet or reduce
47. 1:47the amount of neural activity in this
48. 1:49brain structure called the amydala
49. 1:50amydala means almond and many of you
50. 1:53have probably heard about the amydala
51. 1:54for its role in anxiety and fear and
52. 1:57threat detection and indeed the amydala
53. 1:59is part of the network in the brain that
54. 2:02generates feelings of fear and threat
55. 2:04and anxiety it does a bunch of other
56. 2:06things too but that's one of its primary
57. 2:07functions there are now at least half a
58. 2:09dozen quality papers published in
59. 2:12quality peer rreview journals that show
60. 2:14that forward ambulation walking or
61. 2:16biking or running and generating optic
62. 2:19flow in particular has this incredible
63. 2:21property of lowering activity in the
64. 2:23amydala and thereby reducing levels of
65. 2:26anxiety so for me this process of taking
66. 2:28a walk each morning is n about exercise
67. 2:31it's not about burning calories it's not
68. 2:33about any of that it's really about
69. 2:35getting into optic flow and reducing the
70. 2:38levels of amydala activation now I don't
71. 2:40have anxiety at least I don't have
72. 2:42chronic anxiety or generalized anxiety I
73. 2:45tend to have a lot of energy but at
74. 2:46these points in the morning I'm not very
75. 2:48energetic sometimes I'm sort of
76. 2:50shuffling more than I'm walking in fact
77. 2:52and Costello is almost always shuffling
78. 2:54and I'm almost always trying to drag him
79. 2:55first thing in the morning but that walk
80. 2:58is a particularly important protocol
81. 3:00each day because it really serves to
82. 3:03push my Neurology in the direction that
83. 3:05I'd like it to go which is alert but not
84. 3:08anxious and it's kind of a fine line
85. 3:10sometimes especially as events surface
86. 3:12throughout the day emails come in text
87. 3:14messages come in get bombarded with a
88. 3:16number of things I want to be alert and
89. 3:18responsive I want to be able to focus
90. 3:21but I don't want to feel anxious or um
91. 3:23reactive to these things so the forward
92. 3:27ambulation and this optic flow is the
93. 3:29way that I ensure based on quality peer
94. 3:32review data that my amydala activation
95. 3:34is slightly suppressed now at the same
96. 3:37time I also want the alertness I want
97. 3:40alert and focused I don't just want to
98. 3:41be sleepy or super super relaxed I want
99. 3:45to have a high degree of focus and
100. 3:47alertness because I'm soon going to move
101. 3:49into about about of work I need to lean
102. 3:51into the day so in order to do that I
103. 3:53make sure that the walking is done
104. 3:56Outdoors that might be sort of a duh but
105. 3:58many people get up and start moving
106. 3:59around their house their apartment and
107. 4:01they don't go anywhere and just walking
108. 4:03around inside it will generate some
109. 4:05optic flow but nothing like the sort of
110. 4:07optic flow that you can generate in
111. 4:09larger environments like Outdoors
112. 4:11environments now in order to get the
113. 4:13alertness I Do It Outdoors because I
114. 4:15also want sunlight in my eyes I know
115. 4:17many of you have heard me talk about
116. 4:19this at nauseum on various podcasts and
117. 4:21this podcast but getting sunlight in
118. 4:23your eyes first thing in the morning is
119. 4:26absolutely vital to mental and physical
120. 4:28health it is perhaps perhaps the most
121. 4:30important thing that any and all of us
122. 4:32can and should do in order to promote
123. 4:34metabolic well-being promote the
124. 4:36positive functioning of your hormone
125. 4:38system get your mental health steering
126. 4:40in the right direction there are a
127. 4:42number of reasons for this but before I
128. 4:43get into those reasons let me just
129. 4:45emphasize what the protocol is the
130. 4:47protocol is get Outdoors ideally with no
131. 4:50Sunglasses if you can do that safely
132. 4:52even if there's cloud cover more photons
133. 4:54light information are coming through
134. 4:56that cloud cover than would be coming
135. 4:57from a very bright indoor bulb so
136. 5:00getting Outdoors is absolutely key how
137. 5:02long should you do this it's going to
138. 5:03depend on the brightness of the
139. 5:04environment it's going to depend on a
140. 5:06number of different factors 2 minutes
141. 5:08would be a minimum 10 minutes would be
142. 5:10even better and if you can 30 minutes
143. 5:13would be fantastic so getting outside
144. 5:15for a 10-minute walk or a 15-minute walk
145. 5:18will basically ensure that you're
146. 5:20getting adequate stimulation of these
147. 5:21neurons in the eye that are called the
148. 5:23melanopsin intrinsically photosensitive
149. 5:25gangling cells I know that's a mouthful
150. 5:26these are neurons that don't care about
151. 5:28shapes of objects or the motion of
152. 5:29objects these are neurons that convey to
153. 5:32the brain that it's daytime and it's
154. 5:34time to be alert and it sets in motion a
155. 5:37huge number of biological Cascades
156. 5:39within every cell and organ of your body
157. 5:42from your liver to your gut to your
158. 5:43heart to your brain it really sets
159. 5:45things down the right
160. 5:47path so then Costello and I get back
161. 5:49from our walk sometimes that walk was 10
162. 5:51minutes sometimes it was 60 Minutes
163. 5:53depending on how slowly costell is
164. 5:55walking that day indeed we get back I
165. 5:58give him his food I give him is water
166. 6:00and I give me my water I'm a big
167. 6:02believer based on quality peerreview
168. 6:04data that hydration is essential for
169. 6:08mental performance now I confess I don't
170. 6:10really like drinking big glasses or big
171. 6:12jugs of water first thing in the morning
172. 6:14I don't know why but my thirst doesn't
173. 6:15tend to kick in first thing either way I
174. 6:17force myself essentially to drink at
175. 6:19least 16 and most days 32 ounces of
176. 6:23water I also put a little bit of sea
177. 6:25salt in the water as many of you know
178. 6:27neurons require ionic flow what that
179. 6:30means is neurons need sodium they need
180. 6:32magnesium and they need potassium in
181. 6:34order to function we do tend to get
182. 6:36dehydrated at night even if the day is
183. 6:38not very hot I try and top off or I try
184. 6:41and make sure that I'm hydrated early in
185. 6:43the day before I begin any work so I
186. 6:47make myself drink this water with a
187. 6:48little bit of sea salt how much sea salt
188. 6:50if you really want to get detailed it's
189. 6:52I suppose it's about half a teaspoon
190. 6:53it's not much at that point I start
191. 6:55thinking about and fantasizing about and
192. 6:58craving caffeine but I don't drink that
193. 7:00caffeine
194. 7:02yet I purposely delay my caffeine intake
195. 7:05to 90 minutes to 120 minutes after I
196. 7:08wake up of course I know when I wake up
197. 7:10because I wrote it down although it's
198. 7:12pretty easy to commit to memory the
199. 7:13reason I delay caffeine is because one
200. 7:16of the factors that induces a sense of
201. 7:19sleepiness is the buildup of adenosine
202. 7:21the buildup of adenosine accumulates the
203. 7:25longer we are awake so when I wake up in
204. 7:28the morning when you wake up in the
205. 7:29morning your Denine levels are likely to
206. 7:31be very low the reason for delaying
207. 7:34caffeine intake 90 minutes to 2 hours
208. 7:36after waking is I want to make sure that
209. 7:39I don't have a late afternoon or even
210. 7:41early afternoon Crash from caffeine
211. 7:44delaying caffeine at 90 minutes to 2
212. 7:46hours optimizes this relationship
213. 7:48between adenosine and wakefulness and
214. 7:50sleepiness in a way that really provides
215. 7:52a nice consistent Arc of energy
216. 7:55throughout the day and brings energy
217. 7:57down as I'm headed toward sleep and
218. 7:59falling
219. 8:01asleep my primary objective early in the
220. 8:03day is to get into a mode of being
221. 8:05focused yet alert so that I can get work
222. 8:07done I found that the best way for me to
223. 8:09achieve that state is through fasting so
224. 8:12I don't eat anything until about 11:00
225. 8:15a.m. or 12: noon fasting increases
226. 8:17levels of adrenaline also called
227. 8:20epinephrine in the brain and body and
228. 8:22when our levels of epinephrine and
229. 8:24adrenaline are increased we learn better
230. 8:26we can focus better there's terrific
231. 8:28data supporting that adrenaline really
232. 8:31provides a heightened sense of focus and
233. 8:33the ability to encode meaning bring in
234. 8:36and retain remember information
235. 8:42[Music]