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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Sleep!

What could be more natural and important than sleep?


The answer is: almost nothing is!

Sleep is so important, that it is one of the most potent bio-markers of health itself.  If you sleep well, and long (at least 7 & 1/2 hours per night minimum), this shows that you are a basically healthy and happy animal!

If you have trouble sleeping... uh oh!  This is a strong indicator, in and of itself, that something is wrong:

Too much stress?  Bad diet?  Not enough, or too much exercise? (Probably too much cardio type)
Soft drinks and other crap in your diet?

All of the above can mess up your sleep, which messes up your attitude, which messes up your health and your life!


Really, in a Paleo concept, how important is sleep?

1. Good, nutrient dense nutrition.  The maximum nutrients in every morsel of food you eat.
2. Sleep!
3. Sun exposure, clean water, good family and extended family (i.e. "Tribe") relations and life.
4. Minimal toxins in environment and food and air.
5. Exercise  (brief, intense, invigorating, and throughout a complete range of motion, including stretching and all forms of exercise short of going to failure!)

So there you have it!  Sleep only comes after your nutrition.  Without good nutrition, good sleep is impossible.  And without good, quality sleep, your "tribal" or personal relations in life are hugely compromised, to the point where you are so stressed out that you don't even care about crucial things like good water, sun on your skin, or minimizing the toxins in your environment!

And if you don't have all of the above, exercise will only add more cortisol, the stress hormone to the mix, and spiral you further down the hole!

So sleep!  Make it a priority. Sleep is more important than exercise.


Much more important!  (and a heck of a lot easier too!)

Especially this Winter time of year, it is natural for us all in Northern climes to be more sedentary and reflective, to "hunker down" in the "cave" with our "tribe", and just chill out.


Not only natural, but beneficial!


So, just do it- go to bed early- really early!  Enjoy it!  Get up early too!  Enjoy the feeling of getting up early, and feeling fully rested, because you went to bed early enough.  Do your stretches, make your Paleo Quick Start Smoothie, do your Transformetrics exercises (No strain- no pain- just enjoy the feeling!)---


And then, start your day:

Invigorated, happy, loaded with nutrition, and, above all, completely rested!


I know it may sound trite, but this is truly the first day of the rest of your (Paleo) life!



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