Peak Health Wellness Insights Issue 6
Mental Resilience
This study demonstrates that 'stressing about stress' in fact contributes to the negative impact that it has on our bodies. Viewing stress as enhancing rather than debilitating, can improve one's health and performance under stress.
Sleep
Emerging research (here, here, and here to name a few) is beginning to uncover a very strong two-way connection between sleep and the gut. Recent studies have shown the ability of the microbiome to impact our circadian rhythms, our sleep-wake cycle, and the hormones that regulate our sleep. Conversely, disrupted sleep has been shown to negatively impact our gut microbiota. This suggests that the 'gut-brain axis' is even more dynamic than we once thought.
Nutrition
This recent meta-analysis reveals that eating red meat can increase breast cancer risk by 6% and eating processed meats can increase it by 9%. These foods, classified as 'probable carcinogens' have consistently been linked with harmful health effects, making this yet another reason to avoid including them in your diet.
Fitness
This new study suggests that there may not be a 'best' time to workout, but instead, that exercise at different times of the day just has different effects on the body. The research shows that morning exercise results in an increased ability for skeletal muscle to metabolise sugar and fat. On the other hand, evening exercise increases whole body energy expenditure for a more prolonged period of time. While this area of research needs further investigation, it suggests that timing exercise appropriately could be helpful in treating type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases.
Productivity Tip
Use checklists to train your brain to be more goal-oriented and make sure those checklists have small achievable goals that build up to the completion of a larger project.
Experiencing even a small amount of success (the simple action of checking something off of your checklist, for example) causes our brain to release dopamine. Once we feel the effects of this, we are likely to repeat similar actions again to achieve this feeling again. This is why accomplishing small tasks is an effective for staying motivated while working to complete a long-term project.
Habit Hack of the week
Make unhealthy temptations hard to reach. When something is harder to do, you'll do it less.
For example, keep unhealthy snacks on harder to reach shelves, or store sodas further from water.