100 Tips To Live A Better Life
"A healthy mind in a healthy body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world."
—J.B.S. Haldane
This article marks the 100th one published on MindBodyDad!
To celebrate this milestone I compiled a list of 100 of my favorite takeaways from those first 100 articles. In the spirit of my goal, to enrich lives through science, experience, and input from the experts, this is essentially a cheat sheet of tips to live better through 8 key areas:
Movement
Health
Nutrition
Stress management
Mindset
Relationships
Sleep
Parenting
Enjoy.
How To Live A Better Life
Movement
Keep your posterior chain strong. The posterior chain consists of the low back, glutes, and hamstrings. We live in an anterior chain word which means we’re destined for pain, stiffness, muscle imbalances, and injury if we don’t keep these counterbalance muscles strong.
Walk a minimum of 8,000 steps a day.
Movement is directly linked to happiness. Those who take advantage of the movement they have are the ones who have the best outlook on life. Create joy through movement.
The body has 3 main energy pathways. Most people focus on one and avoid the other two. Instead, find ways to challenge them each on a weekly basis.
Sprint or weight lift for the phosphagen system
HIIT or run intervals for the glycolytic system
Zone 2 cardio for the oxidative system
Lift heavy things. The minimum effective dose (MED) for lifting is 40 minutes a week spread out over 2-3 sessions.
Do Zone 2 cardio. The minimum effective dose (MED) of Zone 2 training is 3 hours a week. To get the full benefit, each set of Zone 2 training should be a minimum of 45-60 minutes long.
Challenge your flexibility and mobility regularly throughout the day. The more sedentary and tight you are the more you should stretch. A good rule of thumb for the inflexible is to do dynamic stretching before workouts and 5 minutes per muscle group of static stretching per week.
Read Boundless by Ben Greenfield.
Stop icing your injuries. The old-school approach was the RICE method: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Through research, we now know that not only do ice, prolonged rest, and NSAIDs not help the injury but they can actually make it worse.
Health
Air and noise pollution are silent killers that are associated with stress and heart attacks. Use an air purifier if you live in a polluted area and insulate your home.
Get hot. Saunas improve endurance, maintain muscle mass, help to manage depression, detox the body, lower cholesterol, inflammation, and insulin resistance, and help you live longer. Aim for two sauna sessions a week for 15 minutes each.
Get cold. Cold exposure produces antioxidants, improves mood, helps to manage depression, lowers cardiometabolic disease risk, and improves the immune system. At the end of each of your showers, turn the water as cold as possible and get as much of your body under the water for 1-5 minutes. Up the ante with cold soaks in the tub or buy an ice barrel.
Throw out your “non-stick” everything. These contain chemicals like PFAS (specifically, PTFE) which increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, and elevated cholesterol.
Avoid plastic and styrofoam everything: bags, wraps, cups, plates, etc. The safest alternatives are stainless steel, silicone, glass, and untreated wood.
Use houseplants that are NASA approved to filter the air.
Never heat plastic. This includes microwaving, dishwashing, or using the stove to heat plates, “microwavable” meals, and cling wrap.).
Don’t touch receipts. These contain BPA which is linked to behavioral issues, memory impairments, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, early puberty, and fertility issues. If you really need a receipt, take a picture of it.
Avoid synthetic fragrances (such as candles, car fresheners, and laundry detergent) which oftentimes contain phthalates, which have been linked to cancer, headaches, asthma, and hormone disruptions. Use essential oils instead.
Have a “no-shoe” policy to avoid bringing lawn chemicals into the home.
Flip your mindset on inflammation, cortisol, and stress. Not only are these not bad things but they are necessary things. Manage them well.
Manage your lifestyle for better testosterone levels. Limit the cardio, get to a healthy weight, manage your blood sugar, restrict EMF exposure, and get enough Zinc.
Be aware of your mouthwash use. Mouthwash is linked to diabetes, head and neck cancer, and it can even kill your exercise gains. If you use it, choose an alcohol-free kind but use it less.
Avoid unnecessary antibiotics.
Nutrition
About 75% of adults are chronically dehydrated. Consume enough water and electrolytes.
Get adequate electrolytes from high-quality sources. Electrolytes play a significant role in your body so recognize the factors that influence, the symptoms of an imbalance, and avoid sources that contain sugar and food coloring (e.g. Gatorade and Pedialyte).
Fast. Fasting decreases inflammation, reduces diabetes risk, lowers LDL and triglycerides, and increases growth hormone and muscle protein synthesis. Not everyone should fast but for those who can, start small by just eliminating snacks (drinks too) between means then work up to consistently not eating for 12 hours/day (sleep included).
Avoid white carbs (except cauliflower).
Eat 0.8 grams of protein per pound of desired body weight per day.
Limit or avoid the big 3: grains, seed oils, and sugar.
If you drink coffee, make sure it’s free of toxins by using medium to dark roast in a coffee maker that isn’t made of plastic. Use organic coffee beans that are kept in airtight containers that light can’t pentrate. Drink it from a (non-ceramic) mug or a reusable coffee cup void of plastic.
Vitamin D helps you to get stronger, sleep better, avoid cancer, manage depression, and live longer. Get a minimum of an hour of sun a day on as much skin as possible, spread throughout the day.
Eat a variety of foods that stimulate xenohormesis, a reaction in our body that improves our health and resilience when we eat food, such as plants and vegetables.
Don’t eat foods and supplements that are high in antioxidants until at least 4 hours after your workout.
Supplements will not save you. They are the tip of the pyramid. Focus on the six dimensions of health (get the full list emailed to you) above all.
Don’t eat crappy protein bars. Avoid ingredients like soy, sugar alcohols, seed oils, and high fructose corn syrup. Look for a bar with low sugar, high protein, and both recognizable and limited ingredients (like these).
Deepen your palate vocab. Recognize a new taste, texture, or smell in every sip or bite.
The best types of food:
The question of whether red meat is good or bad comes down to whether it’s processed. Avoid processed red meat. If you eat red meat, eat non-processed red meat.
Drink filtered water. Your water is probably gross (type in your zip code here to check). The best way to filter it is to use a reverse osmosis (RO) water filter.
Avoid food dyes. These artificial coloring additives lack any nutritional value and have been linked to ADHD, allergies, and even cancer.
The most important factor for weight loss is adherence. Prioritize this above all else.
Managing Stress
Pause for 5 seconds before reacting.
Down-regulate your sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight, freeze) after a workout or stressful situation by activating your parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, repair) which signals your brain and body that they can relax and begin the recovery process. The best way to do this is through 3 minutes of resonance breathing while laying on the ground.
Limit the news and, instead, continue to learn about things that you care about on your time (such as with newsletters).
Aim for 70% productivity for your work day. Being 100% productive is a robot and anything less than 50% is poor time management. Use the art of productivity to your advantage but don’t be a slave to it.
Trial multiple breathwork techniques. Pick your favorite. Practice it when you’re not stressed. Use it when you are. (My favorite: extended exhales.)
Learn to detach from your emotions for periods of time.
Practice gratitude by keeping an ongoing list on your phone of the 100 simple things in life that bring you the most pleasure.
Have an answer to the question: how do you actively manage your stress? (TV and reading are passive approaches that don't address the stress.)
Don't ignore triggers. Whether big or small, recognize your triggers and reverse engineer their mechanism.
To be human is to live with purpose. A lack of purpose is a predictor of decline and having purpose improves wealth, sleep, longevity, mental health, heart health, happiness, and it even decrease Alzheimer's risk. Find yours.
Do the 5 senses challenge. Channel your mind to identify your favorite environmental sensation about each of your senses right now. What is the most beautiful thing you see right now? Hear? Feel? Smell? Taste? Set a calendar notification on your phone to do this on a daily basis.
For a more productive day, prioritize minimizing interruptions above all else. It takes 23 minutes to recover from an interruption and 44% of the time we are the ones interrupting ourselves.
Mindset
Ditch the fixed mindset and cultivate a growth mindset.
Everything comes down to perspective. You can try to keep up with the Joneses or you can live a life that aligns with your personal values. Stop moving the goalposts and choose the right metric.
Recognize that you can’t become happy; you can only be happy.
Understand the hedonic treadmill and enjoy the now. If you can’t enjoy that cup of coffee you’ll never enjoy the yacht.
Regret and depression live in the past. Anxiety and fear live in the future. Peace and joy live in this moment. Our minds wander from the present about 46.9% of the time. Get your number higher.
Awe is around us often but it takes mindfulness to become aware of it. If you’re constantly living in the past or the future then you’re facing a serene sunset with your eyes closed. Once you’re aware of it, the next critical step is to stay with it.
Reframe your relationship with hardship. Pain, fear, and suffering can break us down or build us up into someone who is strong, courageous, and wise. Perspective is key.
Whether you’re an animal, a plant, or a human, problems will happen. Not only do they happen but they never stop happening. A better life just means problems that get upgraded and exchanged, not eliminated.
Accept your shortcomings instead of fighting the backward law. That is, the more you seek to feel better, the more you achieve the opposite of that and the more disappointed you are. The desire for a more positive experience is then a negative experience and accepting one’s negative experiences is a positive experience.
Read Man’s Search For Meaning, by Victor Frankl.
When you have moments of acute anxiety, ask yourself, “How does this serve me?”
Sit down and write a list of 5 daily non-negotiables.
Live frugally. In an interview with Bill Danko, co-author of The Millionaire Next Door, he said, “Dollar cost averaging at fixed intervals creates a disciplined approach to investing. You will “win the game” by saving and investing 20% of whatever you earn. So, live below your means and practice self-imposed economic scarcity; be frugal.”
Relationships
Set clear expectations of your plans with your significant other.
Use the negotiation tactic of labeling to connect with others.
Harboring grudges, jealousy, or resentment ends up having a strong grip on you (and your health). In fact, contempt in a marriage is the “single most corrosive behavior in a relationship” and the greatest predictor of divorce. Drop the negative emotions.
Schedule trips with friends, monthly dinners with family, weekly bike rides with your friends, or backyard happy hours with the neighbors. Whatever activity you put around it, just make sure you’re in the physical proximity of friends and family more often.
Consider a prenup (for more reasons than just avoiding an expensive, messy divorce).
Disassociate the issue. When you talk to another person about an issue that they tie a lot of emotion to, disassociate the issue. With patients I blame the stroke on the brain, in discussions with my wife I label the issue as “the issue,” and in teachable moments with my kids, I separate the behavior from their character. This lowers defenses and provides more opportunities for acceptance, reflection, and growth.
Sleep
Optimize your sleep by experimenting with some sleep tools (sleep mask, white noise, mouth tape, etc.) and sticking with what works.
Stop caffeine intake before noon. The average coffee drinker has about 24 ounces of coffee a day which equals about 270mg of caffeine. That means that if you finished this cup of coffee at noon then half of that caffeine amount (135mg) would still be in your system at 5:30 pm. At 11 pm there would still be 67mg of caffeine in your body. This is like drinking two-thirds of a cup of coffee an hour before midnight and then trying to fall asleep.
Simply having the illumination from street lights enter your windows at night can significantly increase your risk of cancer. Use blackout curtains and a sleep mask.
Respect the 3-hour window. Avoid food, alcohol, blue light, and stress in the 3 hours before bed.
Wear sunglasses less (especially in the morning). Sun is a zeitgeber, a cue to stimulate our circadian rhythm. When you get indirect sun to your skin and eyes (read: without sunglasses) each morning, you establish your circadian rhythm and sleep better at night. The minimum effective dose is 10,000 lux (a couple of minutes on a sunny day, more on a cloudy one).
Practice grounding (a.k.a. earthing) daily. Grounding is when your body is physically connected to the earth’s surface electrons which can decrease inflammation and improve sleep (among other things) significantly. It’s simple, effective, and overlooked.
The top 3 tools for recovery are sleep, sleep, and sleep.
Getting enough sleep makes everything better. Not getting enough sleep makes everything worse.
An easy way to guarantee a good night of sleep: double your average daily step count.
Parenting
Use the technique of scaffolding. Scaffolding is when a child engages in a task beyond their level of ability with an appropriate level of help. whether you use instruction, demonstration, or encouragement, use this early and often to build resilience and foster development.
Read to your kids often.
Learn how to take better pictures. Nowadays everyone can take them but few can take them well. (Free courses at Udemy or Coursera.)
Kids grow up fast but they grow up faster when you have a screen in front of you.
Move the Wifi router far away from the kids. Through research we are slowly learning that more exposure to EMF is not good, especially for kids who have thinner skulls and less ability to block the radiation.
Make it a routine to sit at a table and have a family dinner.
Rotate toys every 1-2 months.
Kids do some really annoying things (tantrums, picky eating, lying, pushing the limits, misbehaving, etc.). Surprisingly, these annoying things are all signs of development, and higher-level skills like lying are signs of intelligence. Learn the reasons behind them before the reprimands come out.
Encourage the use of the word “yet.” If your child expresses frustration over not being able to do something or enjoy something then add the word “yet” at the end of the sentence. This shifts their mindset towards a growth-oriented perspective.
Avoid post-game analysis on the car ride home. Instead, ask for things your kid remembers about the games.
Develop an authoritative parenting style.
“But” ruins good intentions and tells a child that how they feel or what they did was wrong. Instead, use phrases like “The problem is….” and “Even though you know….”
Praise kids less. And when you do praise them, do it the right way by focusing on the effort and not the outcome.
Make a will.
Don’t start too late to teach kids things that they won’t learn in school: communication, money management, emotional management, sex and sexuality, nutrition, and movement.
Be aware of your parental cognitive distortions that can limit the ability of your children to foster a sense of resilience.
Do as you say. If you're constantly inconsistent with commands you give your child, then you blur the lines for what they should follow which leads to inconsistent command following. Inconsistency means confusion for the child and subsequently weakens the effectiveness of these promises or threats. On the contrary, consistency provides a sense of stability and security.
Let kids struggle. Letting children fail is tough in the short term but it's a necessary ingredient for resilience. Recognize that you can't praise your kid to resilience. Step back (when appropriate), take a breath, and let them learn through experience.
Give them proprioceptive input. Proprioception, or the ability to sense the position of the body without vision, is something the nervous system seeks Lack of it can lead to kids "crashing" into things, jumping, spinning, rocking, throwing things, and talking with an "outside voice." To manage it, give them input through power hugs, wrestling, running, doing “heavy work,” and having jumping contests.
What tips do you have to live a better life?
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