30 Anti-Inflammatory Foods You Should Be Eating

Inflammation is linked with nearly every major disease, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

In fact, chronic inflammatory diseases are the most significant cause of death in the world.

We would therefore be smart to keep inflammation in check. But the Standard American Diet (SAD) — full of refined sugars and carbs, unhealthy oils, and processed food —promotes the excessive inflammation we’re trying to avoid.

It is hard to stay away from the toxic food that is all around us, but our health depends on it. This article is intended as a guide to the foods you should avoid — and more importantly to the great foods you can eat — to reduce inflammation in the body.

Although it can be very challenging, here are a few key principles for foods to avoid:

• Avoid foods with high fructose corn syrup and trans fats

• Avoid foods with added sugar and flour

• Minimize high heat cooking (above 375 degrees F) and avoid fried foods

• Stay away from unhealthy vegetable and seed oils, including corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, and sesame seed oil.

And now here is a list of 30 anti-inflammatory foods, herbs & spices, and supplements to enjoy:

Foods

1. Fatty fish (including salmon, sardines, herring, tuna, and mackeral)

2. Leafy greens (including spinach, kale, arugula, and collards)

3. Berries (including blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries)

4. Tea (including green tea, white tea, and herbal teas)

5. Shiitake mushrooms

6. Garlic

7. Cucumbers

8. Pineapple

9. Cherries

10. Dark chocolate

11. Extra-virgin olive oil

12. Flax seeds

13. Nuts (including walnuts and almonds)

14. Pumpkin seeds

15. Fermented foods (including sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and miso)

Herbs & Spices

1. Ginger

2. Turmeric

3. Cinnamon

4. Cloves

5. Rosemary

6. Oregano

7. Allspice

8. Thyme

9. Sage

10. Marjoram

Supplements

1. Omega-3 EPA/DHA (from fish, krill, or algae oil)

2. Vitamin D3

3. Green Tea Extract

4. Curcumin

5. Garlic

If you focus your diet around these foods and still experience pain and inflammation, consider removing gluten and/or dairy to see if that helps. Additionally, nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white potatoes) have been reported to cause inflammation in some people, and could be eliminated if all else fails (but otherwise should be eaten for their nutrition benefits).

I hope this list help you navigate your dietary choices to keep inflammation at bay.

Andrew Merle writes about healthy living. Read more and subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

4 Lifestyle Habits For A Longer Life

I am always looking for ways to maximize health and longevity.

There isn’t anything I can do about my genes, but research shows that only 20% of how long we live is dictated by genes, whereas the other 80% is dictated by lifestyle.

Therefore I am most interested in the lifestyle habits that lead to a long and healthy life.

Fortunately, one of the world’s leading longevity experts recently revealed his findings after 25 years of research on aging.

David Sinclair, PhD, is one of the world’s most renowned scientists, best known for discovering why we age and how to reverse it. Dr. Sinclair is a Professor of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, and he has been named by Time magazine as “One of the 100 most influential people in the world” and among the “Top 50 People in Healthcare.”

In Dr. Sinclair’s new book Lifespan: Why We Age — and Why We Don’t Have To, he distills a quarter-century’s worth of research into some simple things we can do to live longer.

These tools and tactics are available to nearly everyone, regardless of age, location, or socioeconomic status.

1. Fasting

Calorie restriction is incredibly powerful for longevity.

“After 25 years of researching aging and having read thousands of scientific papers, if there is one piece of advice I can offer, one surefire way to stay healthy longer, one thing you can do to maximize your lifespan right now, it’s this: eat less,” says Dr. Sinclair.

You don’t need to constantly deprive yourself — even once-in-a-while calorie restriction yields tremendous health benefits.

Specifically, a periodic 5-day calorie-restricted diet called a Fasting Mimicking Diet has been shown to rebuild the body at the cellular level. The diet (developed by another top longevity expert, Dr. Valter Longo) calls for about 1100 calories on day one and 800 calories per day on days 2–5, consisting primarily of vegetable soups, low-sugar energy bars, and supplements.

People who completed this program once a month for a period of three months lost weight, reduced body fat, lowered blood pressure, and had lower levels of a hormone called IGF-1 (low levels of IGF-1 have been closely linked with longevity). An average person could complete this protocol 3–4 times per year and expect measurable anti-aging benefits.

There are other popular fasting methods these days, including skipping breakfast and having a late lunch (the 16:8 diet), eating 75% fewer calories for two days a week (the 5:2 diet), skipping food altogether for a couple days per week (Eat Stop Eat), or — on the more extreme end — not eating at all for an entire week each quarter, as longevity guru Dr. Peter Attia does.

“Over time, some of these ways of limiting food will prove to be more effective than others,” says Dr. Sinclair. “However, almost any periodic fasting diet that does not result in malnutrition is likely to put your longevity genes to work in ways that will result in a longer, healthier life.”

The earlier you start a fasting protocol the better, says Dr. Sinclair — perhaps after age 40, when molecular decline really starts to take effect.

Dr. Sinclair (who is 50) personally skips a meal or two each day, but that is primarily due to his busy schedule as opposed to a conscious effort. Lunch is the meal he skips most often.

2. Eat A Low-Protein, Vegetable-Rich Diet

When you do eat, you want to focus on vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, and limit meat, dairy, and sugar. That is the dietary pattern of centenarians in all of the Blue Zones, the places around the world where people live the longest.

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

“There isn’t much debate on the downsides of consumption of animal protein,” says Dr. Sinclair. Study after study has demonstrated that heavily animal-based diets are associated with high cardiovascular mortality and cancer risk.”

He says processed meats such as hot dogs, sausage, ham, and bacon are especially problematic, with hundreds of studies showing a link between these foods and colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.

That doesn’t mean you need to stay away from red meat altogether. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate a plant-heavy diet, but they did consume some red meat and fish in moderation. But in general, you should opt for plant protein instead of animal protein if you want to live longer. Meat and dairy — and to a lesser degree chicken, fish, and eggs — all activate an enzyme in the body called mTOR, which is associated with shorter lifespan. Not surprisingly, it has been shown that vegetarians suffer lower rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer than meat eaters.

Dr. Sinclair recommends only eating animal protein when recovering from physical stress or injury. He personally eats mostly plants and avoids eating other mammals, but he will occasionally eat meat on days when he works out. He also minimizes consumption of sugar, bread, and pasta (he gave up desserts at age 40 but does steal tastes from time to time).

3. Exercise

Calorie restriction and eating a low-protein diet puts our bodies into a beneficial state of nutritional adversity, but Dr. Sinclair says physical adversity is also important to trigger our survival circuits and prolong longevity.

Exercise puts a productive level of stress on the body, shifting cells into survival mode and causing us to grow back stronger. People who exercise just 150 minutes per week — the equivalent of a half hour of jogging five days a week — have been shown to have aging markers that are 9 years younger than those who have a more sedentary lifestyle.

Another recent study showed that running just 4–5 miles per week — which can be achieved in less than 15 minutes per day for the average person — reduced the chance of death from a heart attack by 40% and all-cause mortality by 45%.

But not all exercise is created equal — intensity does matter. “It’s high-intensity interval training — the sort that significantly raises your heart and respiration rates — that engages the greatest number of health-promoting genes,” according to Dr. Sinclair.

He says you’ll know when you are doing this level of vigorous activity when it feels hard — your breathing will be deep and rapid at 75–80% of your maximum heart rate, you’ll be sweating, and you won’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing to catch your breath. This level of physical exertion activates the body’s defenses against aging but stops short of doing any permanent harm.

Dr. Sinclair’s personal exercise routine includes going to the gym most weekends for weight lifting and jogging. He also walks a lot throughout the day and takes the stairs whenever possible.

“Exercise turns on the genes to make us young again at a cellular level,” he says. “Would a combination of fasting and exercise lengthen your lifespan? Absolutely,” concludes Dr. Sinclair.

But there is still more we can do.

4. Cold/Heat Exposure

Exposure to uncomfortable temperatures is another proven way to activate your longevity genes.

When we are taken out of our temperature comfort zone, our survival response is engaged, causing changes in our breathing pattern, blood flow, and heart rate.

Specifically when we are uncomfortably cold, we activate protective brown fat in the body. In fact, it has become clear that calorie restriction has the effect of reducing core body temperature (it seems all our longevity mechanisms are linked).

Additional “cold therapy” can be achieved by simply going for a walk in a t-shirt on a cold winter day, leaving a window open overnight while you sleep, or taking a cold shower. In particular, exercising in the cold supercharges the production of beneficial brown fat.

But moderation is important. “Similar to fasting, the greatest benefits are likely to come for those who get close to, but not beyond, the edge,” says Dr. Sinclair. “Hypothermia is not good for our health. Neither is frostbite. But goose bumps, chattering teeth, and shivering arms aren’t dangerous conditions…and when we experience these conditions often enough, our longevity genes get the stress they need to order up some additional healthy fat.”

Heat exposure has benefits as well, but the way it works is less clear. We know that frequent sauna users have reduced rates of heart disease and premature death, but we don’t know exactly why.

“Either way, one thing is clear: it does us little good to spend our entire lives in the thermoneutral zone,” says Dr. Sinclair. “Our genes didn’t evolve for a life of pampered comfort.”

On days when he goes to the gym, Dr. Sinclair has a personal practice of hanging out in the sauna and then dunking in an ice-cold pool. He also tries to stay on the cool side during the day and when he sleeps at night.

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These 4 lifestyle habits — Fasting, eating a low-protein diet, exercise, and cold/heat exposure — all produce a mild kind of stress on the body that activates cellular defenses without causing too much damage.

It turns out that not all stress is bad — we just need to use it to our advantage.

These simple anti-aging practices are available to all of us today, regardless of where you live, how old you are, or how much money you make.

There are plenty of technological and pharmaceutical advancements on the horizon — and Dr. Sinclair details what’s coming in in his book — but we can get started with what’s in our control right now. There is only upside.

“Ten additional healthy years is not an unreasonable expectation for people who eat well and stay active,” says Dr. Sinclair.

I hope these tips help you achieve a life of prolonged health and vitality.

Andrew Merle writes about healthy living. Read more and subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

Eating, Fasting, and Exercising for Maximum Longevity

Dr. Valter Longo is arguably the world’s top longevity expert.

He has spent over 25 years conducting research on aging, nutrition, and disease all around the world. Dr. Longo is the Director of the Longevity Institute at USC in Los Angeles and the Director of the Longevity and Cancer Program at the IFOM Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy.

Last year he summarized his research in the international bestseller The Longevity Diet, which explores the science behind stem cell activation and regeneration to slow aging and optimize health.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Longo about what we can all do to maximize healthy longevity.

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Dr. Longo says it is possible to live to a healthy 100 (and beyond) and he recommends a three-pronged approach to achieve that objective. Dr. Longo’s protocol includes a daily longevity diet, a periodic five-day “Fasting Mimicking Diet,” and exercise. He says these are the three most important components for healthy longevity. Let’s break them down.

Daily Longevity Diet

The Daily Longevity Diet includes both what and how to eat on an everyday basis.

“The daily longevity diet is essentially a vegan plus fish diet,” Dr. Longo told me. He says that while it is possible to be vegan and healthy, many purely vegan diets end up in some type of malnourishment. Therefore small amounts of fish (no more than 2–3 times per week) are included for the Omega-3, vitamin B12, and protein content — all of which are hard to get in sufficient quantities in a 100% vegan diet.

The daily longevity diet is nutrient-rich, centering around vegetables and legumes (beans, chickpeas, etc.), plus nuts, olive oil, and whole grains. Protein intake is low but sufficient — about .35 grams of protein per pound of body weight (which comes to about 45 grams of protein per day if you weigh 130 pounds, 70 grams of protein per day if you weigh 200 pounds). Protein comes primarily from legumes and small amounts of fish, since other animal products (meat, poultry, eggs, cheese) are discouraged. Not surprisingly, sugar should also be minimized.

In terms of alcohol, Dr. Longo says small amounts (less than 5 drinks per week) have been shown to be neutral or perhaps even beneficial for health and longevity (although the potential benefits are minor). So alcohol in small quantities is allowed, but he says you should avoid alcohol altogether if cancer or another condition runs in your family for which alcohol is a high risk factor.

Overall, it is a sensible daily diet that closely resembles the Mediterranean Diet. But Dr. Longo’s recommendations also specify how much to eat and when.

Dr. Valter Longo

“I say it’s important to eat more,” says Dr. Longo. If you are eating the best stuff, he encourages you to load up during meal times. That’s because if you are eating a high-fiber diet filled with vegetables and legumes, then your stomach will become full without craving more food continuously throughout the day. “Lots of fiber is very important so you don’t get hungry,” he says. “You’re not going to be hungry two hours later because the stomach is still busy processing everything and so you don’t feel like eating right away.”

Dr. Longo says this is especially true if you are eating a pound of legumes per day, which is about the amount needed for a 150-pound person to get enough protein.

He also recommends eating within a 12-hour window each day (for example from 8am — 8pm) and fasting for the other 12 hours. “Eat for about 12 hours a day — not much shorter and not much longer,” he says. “There are negatives on both sides.”

If you fast much longer than 12 hours, Dr. Longo says that can lead to problems with gallstones and shorter lifespan. So if you are fasting for 16 or more hours each day (for example following the 16/8 Intermittent Fasting method), you should reconsider your approach. “If people fast too often they seem to live shorter, says Dr. Longo. “Fast too often meaning they do 16, 18 hours every day of fasting.”

This approach is especially problematic if you are skipping breakfast, which has become a popular trend among intermittent fasters. “People that skip breakfast live shorter,” Dr. Longo told me emphatically. He says this finding is surprising to many people in the longevity field, but study after study proves it out.

But eating all day and all night is also a problem. “The people that eat for 15, 16 hours a day, they also don’t do so well because they become overweight, obese, and they develop insulin resistance,” says Dr. Longo. So 12 hours on, 12 hours off seems to be the sweet spot.

For healthy people, Dr. Longo says 3 healthy meals per day plus a low-sugar snack is perfectly acceptable. People who are overweight or obese should consider replacing one of the meals with a snack. But the snack could still have lots of volume — for example, a big salad with olive oil would be an ideal snack (or smaller third meal) if somebody has weight problems.

That covers the fundamentals of the daily longevity diet, including what to eat, how much, and when.

The next pillar of longevity is a periodic 5-day dietary intervention called the “Fasting Mimicking Diet,” which resets and rebuilds the body at the cellular level.

Fasting Mimicking Diet

Dr. Longo first discovered the Fasting Mimicking Diet about 11 or 12 years ago when he was studying the effects of fasting in combination with chemotherapy for cancer patients. That combination proved to be very beneficial, but adherence was low. The patients did not want to do a water-only fast, and the oncologists didn’t want their patients to fast.

But through this process Dr. Longo learned what the fasting was doing at a cellular level, and he set out to develop a system to fool the cells into entering a fasting-response mode while still allowing the patient to eat. That’s how the Fasting Mimicking Diet was born. It has all of the benefits of fasting, without the suffering.

From a practical standpoint, the Fasting Mimicking Diet is a periodic 5-day calorie-restricted diet. It is 100% vegan, low in protein, low in sugar, and high in good fats. You consume about 1100 calories on day 1, and then about 800 calories per day on days 2–5.

The specific foods you eat include vegetable and grain-based soups, kale crackers, olives, nut-based bars, Algal Oil (rich in Omega-3), vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as drinks and teas (Hibiscus, Spearmint, etc.) that mimic what the body produces naturally during fasting. You can order ready-made kits from Dr. Longo’s company ProLon (Dr. Longo donates 100% of his profits to charity and research).

The specific ingredients included in the Fasting Mimicking Diet have been shown to promote beneficial bacterial growth. “The microbiota — the positive, protective bacteria that we have in the gut — is greatly altered by these cycles of the Fasting Mimicking Diet,” says Dr. Longo. This is not the case with water-only fasting, so Dr. Longo suspects it is the prebiotic content of the diet that feeds the good bacteria and allows that good bacteria to clear out the bad bacteria.

The Fasting Mimicking Diet appears to cause what Dr. Longo calls multi-system generation.

“What happens if you shrink an organism and then you re-expand it?,” Dr. Longo questioned. “What seems to happen — and we’ve shown it over and over and over — is that when you shrink it, you get rid of lots of junk. Bad cells, damaged cells, damaged cellular components. And then when you re-expand, you utilize stem cells and other templates to rebuild. And when you rebuild, you rebuild younger or brand new.”

It is a powerful dietary intervention that works in combination with the healthy daily longevity diet.

In terms of how often to do the 5-day Fasting Mimicking Diet, that depends on your baseline level of health. If you are young, eat a perfect diet, and exercise regularly, you might only need to do the Fasting Mimicking Diet once a year. But that’s if you are doing everything exactly by the book. If you eat pretty well and are generally healthy, then maybe twice a year is appropriate. But for most people — especially those with slightly elevated cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting glucose — 3 or 4 times per year is recommended.

Dr. Longo says a healthy person can do the Fasting Mimicking Diet without medical supervision, but if you have an existing disease or medical condition, it is best to consult with your doctor before beginning the protocol.

Exercise

Let’s get this out there right away — Nutrition is the most important factor for longevity. Exercise is a distant 2nd.

“I would say exercise is very far away from nutrition in terms of longevity,” says Dr. Longo. “This is very clear from animal studies that diet is really superior.”

The important thing regarding movement seems not to be exercise, but routine physical activity. Dr. Longo points out that centenarians and people with record longevity (for example, in the Blue Zones) do not consciously exercise. But they are very physically active — growing gardens, walking, dancing, going up and down stairs, and moving naturally all throughout the day. “Lots of physical activity — I think that’s essential,” says Dr. Longo.

He urges people to walk everywhere possible and always take the stairs — a simple and practical recommendation that can make a tremendous difference in your life. “If you live 30 minutes away from your work and every day you just do that, you’re already 80% of the way there,” says Dr. Longo. “And if you just go up the stairs 300 or 400 steps a day, that’s already very good.”

The data shows that dedicated exercise does provide some additional benefit as well. “If you look at the meta-analysis, the epidemiological studies, it seems that exercise can make things a little bit better and reduce mortality further, in addition to physical activity,” says Dr. Longo. “So absolutely it is good.”

Dr. Longo recommends 150 minutes of exercise per week. And he says some of that (10–15%) should be vigorous, really pushing yourself. Bursts of intense exercise seem to be very beneficial to the body, perhaps because the body gets stressed and slightly damaged, and then re-builds stronger (similar to the process that takes place during fasting).

At the end of the day — between routine physical activity and dedicated exercise — Dr. Longo says a good goal is 10,000 steps and 20 flights of stairs. Your cell phone keeps a record of these totals, so it is a good practice to check and track how you are doing.

Dr. Longo’s Personal Routine

“My personal routine is pretty much what’s in the book,” Dr. Longo told me.

He eats a small breakfast, starting his day with tea and bread with low-sugar jelly. He then doesn’t eat anything until lunch.

For lunch, he often eats two courses — for example, a big salad with anchovies, followed by roasted or steamed calamari. He eats all of that along with bread or pasta.

Dr. Longo spends close to half the year in Milan and confessed that when he’s in Italy, he tends to gain a little bit of weight. When he starts to put on unwanted weight, he adjusts his lunch accordingly. “If I’m in weight gain mode, then I remove for sure the bread or the pasta for lunch,” he told me. “But I also oftentimes remove the second course.”

For dinner, he eats just about the same thing every day. He has a big dish that is filled with legumes, vegetables, and small amounts of starches. For example, the dish might have 10 ounces of chickpeas, 4 ounces of mixed vegetables, and only 2 ounces of pasta.

And then he has multiple variations of that meal. For example, the chickpeas and mixed vegetables might be swapped out for beans and broccoli. So there is a little bit of variety, but these rotations always follow the same nutritional profile.

This high-fiber diet keeps him full between meals and he typically only has one snack during the day. “Usually I have dark chocolate — like 85% dark chocolate — as a snack,” he said.

As for exercise, he does 40 minutes every other day on his home exercise bike. He puts it on the steepest uphill setting, making it hard to pedal, and then he turns up the intensity for about 4–6 minutes of the workout. On the weekend, he might go outside for a run or bike ride, but his home exercise bike is most convenient during the busy work week.

When in Milan, he also walks 45 minutes each way to work, and he never takes an elevator anywhere.

My Personal Takeaways

Dr. Longo is undoubtedly one of the leading experts in the field of health and longevity. He lays out a very sound plan grounded in 25 years of science and data. I am confident that following his protocol would result in a longer and healthier life.

As for me, I have been a habitual exerciser for much of my life. So I already more or less follow his exercise recommendations. And I eat pretty well — although I am certainly not perfect, and there have been periods in my life when my diet was not so great. Going forward, I will do my best to follow Dr. Longo’s Vegan/Pescatarian daily diet — but I am sure I will cheat and have the occasional burger and fries. Not to mention some potato chips and dessert.

That’s why I think the Fasting Mimicking Diet intervention could really be a game-changer. Very few people eat a perfect diet every single day, and some of the joy in life is eating indulgent foods. But if you can eat a good overall diet and then essentially reset and renew your body with the Fasting Mimicking Diet, that is a very enticing proposition.

I plan to try my first Fasting Mimicking Diet next month. I will report back with my experiences.

Until then, I hope you have found Dr. Longo’s recommendations helpful and applicable to your own life.

Andrew Merle writes about healthy living. Read more and subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

The Real Secret of Brain Health

Dr. John Ratey has studied the brain for more than 40 years.

As a psychiatrist, he has always been interested in how we can make our brains function better. And while he appreciates the magic of modern medicine, he has found that lifestyle factors have the most profound effects on the brain.

In particular, he has found that exercise is the No. 1 thing we can do for brain health.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Ratey last week at his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to learn more about the effects of exercise on the brain, and what we can all do in our own lives to reap the benefits.

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Dr. Ratey grew up as a competitive junior tennis player in Pennsylvania and competed in the US Nationals, so he was exposed to the power of sports and exercise from an early age.

And he was always fascinated by the brain, earning his first job out of college at Harvard’s Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC).

But it wasn’t until attending the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in the ’70s that he really began to understand the causal link between exercise and brain health.

During that time, he learned about a hospital in Norway that was offering depressed patients to take either antidepressants or participate in an exercise program three times a day. Remarkably, both groups got better at the same rate.

That really piqued Dr. Ratey’s interest and he started to more closely follow exercise in the medical literature. His focus turned to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) when he learned about a Boston Marathon runner who developed symptoms of ADD after a knee injury forced him to stop running. The runner went to see Dr. Ratey and was put on ADD medication. However, after his knee was rehabbed and he was back training again, it was determined the medication was no longer necessary. That was back in 1982.

Dr. John Ratey

Since that time, Dr. Ratey has established himself as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the brain-fitness connection. He has written numerous bestselling books, including the groundbreaking ADD-ADHD Driven to Distraction series, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, and Go Wild. He is currently a clinical associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

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Today, people have become much more aware of the effects of exercise on the brain.

Dr. Ratey said public interest in this topic really took off in the mid ’90s and it’s never stopped.

“Today we just know so much more about what exercise does,” Dr. Ratey told me. “It is simply incredible how powerful it is for the brain. Forget about its effect on blood pressure, sugar loads, weight, buffing you up, all that. That’s a given. But the effect on your brain is amazing.”

The health and wellness boom over the last decade, and related media coverage, has exploded our awareness of what exercise can do to improve mood, anxiety, stress, learning, creativity, and motivation. Dr. Ratey said exercise is also the No. 1 weapon to prevent against brain erosion (including dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease), cancer, and inflammatory disorders.

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Most people already know about the benefits of exercise by now, so I wanted to ask Dr. Ratey to prescribe the perfect type of exercise for the brain.

“The best exercise is something that you enjoy, with someone, done outside, in nature, and something that you’ll come back to,” he told me.

He said the ideal exercise is something that will get your heart rate up and force you to use your brain. You have to pay attention when you’re outside, which is why a trail run is much better than running on the treadmill, for example (Dr. Ratey has the trail running injuries to prove the concentration required).

But I was a bit surprised when he went on to discuss the ultimate exercise for the brain.

“I always tell people, the best exercise probably that you can do is dance,” said Dr. Ratey.

He did qualify that he meant vigorous dance that gets your heart rate up, not just flailing around. The reason dance is so powerful for the brain is because you have to practice and mentally focus on the right movements. Additionally, you have to follow music, and often stay in rhythm with a partner or group. All of that puts an incredible demand on your brain.

“The more demand on the brain — it’s just like the more demand on your muscles — the more you’re going to build,” said Dr. Ratey.

In terms of cardiovascular exercise, Dr. Ratey is a huge fan of high-intensity interval training. “The more demand on your cardiovascular system, the better it’s going to be,” he said.

He also highly recommends squash. “That’s an incredible game,” he said. “High-intensity, probably the best aerobic workout I can think of.”

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So does Dr. Ratey follow his own advice?

Best practices are fine, but I wanted to know what he actually does in his own life.

“My routine has always been to stay very active,” he said.

Dr. Ratey has always had a habit of exercising in the morning. He has found the cognitive and emotional benefits of morning exercise stick with him long after the workout has finished.

He was an avid squash player for 30 years until a shoulder injury caused him to stop most racket sports. But even when he was a serious squash player, variety was always paramount.

In those early days, he would supplement his squash by going to the gym in the morning for weight training and a treadmill or elliptical workout. He was even one of the earliest adopters of the StairMaster, keeping one in his house (“We were animals on it!” he told me).

These days he does a lot of walking and running. On the day of our conversation, Dr. Ratey had gone for a morning run around the Charles River in Cambridge, and he was signed up to run a 5K over the weekend.

He also has a personal trainer come to his house twice a week for weight training. Although Dr. Ratey still does most of the exercises on his own, the trainer helps prevent injuries.

Dr. Ratey also spends a lot of time in Los Angeles with his wife, and they routinely start their west coast days with a morning 1.5 hour hike.

He and his wife have always been serious exercisers. Even their vacations are chock full of physical activity.

“Our ideal vacation is a place we go to called Rancho La Puerta, where you get up at 6am with a group of people,” he said, telling me the full group can be as large as 150 people. “And we climb a mountain for 2 or 3 hours in the desert in Mexico. And come down. And then every hour on the hour during the day there is another exercise activity you can participate in — yoga, tai chi, dance, spinning, the gym, circuit training.”

That’s Dr. Ratey’s perfect vacation. So you get the idea about the role exercise plays in his life.

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Putting it all together, I wanted to see what recommendations Dr. Ratey has for all of us to preserve our brains as we age.

“The secret of brain health in general is knocking down inflammation,” he said.

There are a number of ways to decrease inflammation, but he says exercise tops the list. “It’s the No. 1 recommendation for cancer treatment,” he said. “No. 1 is exercise. After obviously treating the cancer. But why? Because it boosts the immune system so greatly.”

After that, you have diet. Dr. Ratey says diet is probably as important as exercise, especially as we learn more about the microbiome and what food does to our body and our brains.

“I recommend to my patients and to everyone, limit your carb intake,” he said. “Especially processed food, which has mainly carbs in it.” He also advises to keep sugar levels in check, and to get sufficient protein and vitamins from your food (not from a pill).

One diet trend Dr. Ratey believes could have a beneficial impact is a daily fast — not eating from dinner the night before until lunch the next day. Most people say you can’t miss breakfast, but “Yes, you can,” says Dr. Ratey. “Because fasting is a way of stressing the body and stressing the brain in a very non-toxic way. And when you stress the body and the brain, you build it.”

Finally, Dr. Ratey stresses the importance of social connection for brain health. He said our addiction to electronic devices is stealing from our face-to-face human interaction with other people (not to mention, causing sleep deprivation which has negative health effects — Dr. Ratey doesn’t allow any screens in his bedroom). The addictive nature of screens is arguably the biggest problem in today’s world, according to Dr. Ratey. But exercise can be a very powerful antidote — especially exercise that fosters social bonding.

That’s why he is a huge proponent of joining a club or group exercise classes. He cited the amazing social networks (real, human social networks) that are built at fitness groups like Orangetheory and CrossFit. He said clubs like that bring together a wide mix of people who form genuine friendships around the common goal of improving their exercise. “A big part of the magic there is how the connection makes everything better,” said Dr. Ratey.

…

Exercise. Diet. Social Connection.

With the major boxes checked, I asked Dr. Ratey if he had any final tips for brain health and longevity.

That’s when he was reminded of how a spry 92-year-old once answered that question:

“Sex!”

Of course, it probably helps to have a good sense of humor in the long run as well.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for health, happiness, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

My Philosophy on Diet and Exercise

There is a lot of complicated and confusing information out there about diet and exercise.

But that is primarily because “experts” want to sell books or patent their own method.

In reality, the true experts agree on the fundamentals that are most important for a healthy life. And that shared understanding is what is most important to know and incorporate into our own routines.

I have read countless books and articles about diet and exercise, and experimented for many years with what works best in my own life. After all of my learning and testing, here are my key takeaways on diet and exercise:

Diet

There is no doubt that diet plays a central role in health and vitality.

The one thing that all experts agree on is the bulk of your diet should be fruits and vegetables. If you follow just that one piece of advice and make fruits and vegetables at least 50% of what you eat, you will be light years ahead of most other people.

Eat a variety of whatever fruits and vegetables you like (the only things that don’t count are white potatoes or any type of fried vegetables like French Fries). There are valuable nutrients in all fruits and vegetables, so fill your plate with them. If you do that, you will also be crowding out most of the bad stuff.

The rest of your plate can be filled with healthy protein and whole grains. If you are vegan or vegetarian, you can get protein from all kinds of beans, nuts, and seeds. If you eat meat, it is fine to add in some fish, chicken, or beef. But meat should be considered a side dish or condiment, not the main course. Avoid processed meats, such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and cold cuts.

Whole grains provide a great source of fiber. You can round out your plate with unprocessed whole grains such as oats, quinoa, or wild rice. Minimize processed grains such as bread and pasta, unless you are an especially savvy shopper and know how to avoid the junk (which is hidden in nearly all packaged bread these days).

Applying this philosophy, a great meal would be a large salad with lots of veggies, quinoa, and some salmon. Or a veggie stir fry over wild rice. Or oatmeal with a heavy dose of mixed berries and walnuts.

If you build your plate around fruits and vegetables, and round it out with healthy protein and whole grains, there just won’t be room for the real problem foods (such as white bread and pasta, and packaged sweet and salty foods). And even when you do indulge from time to time, it won’t be that big of a deal if you normally eat according to this philosophy.

As for beverages, drink water, tea, and coffee (without milk/cream or sweeteners ). A little bit of alcohol is okay, but limit it to a drink or two at night. Avoid sugary drinks such as fruit juice and soda.

This all probably sounds like common sense eating principles, and that is exactly the point. Stick with these basics and forget all of the other complicated stuff. You will be much healthier as a result.

Exercise

Movement should be an essential part of daily life.

The current exercise guidelines call for 150–300 minutes of exercise per week, which equates to about 30–40 minutes of exercise per day, assuming you exercise most days. I think that gets it about right.

I recommend dedicated cardio exercise for at least 30 minutes per day, with 1–2 off days per week (which would give you at least 150 minutes of exercise for the week right there). I personally go for a 30-minute run in the morning at least 5 days per week, but your form of exercise can be whatever you enjoy most (walking, swimming, cycling, etc.). And feel free to mix it up from one day to the next. I run at a moderate pace, just enough to make me breathe heavy and get a sweat going.

I also recommend some of your exercise be a bit more vigorous (in addition to, or in place of, some of your moderate exercise days). I turn up the intensity by playing squash 1-2 times per week, which taxes my body and my mind with the complex movements and strategy involved. You can dial it up a bit with a sport you enjoy (e.g. soccer, basketball) or any other type of workout that you like (Peloton, group fitness classes, etc.).

You should also build in some strength training and flexibility exercises at least two days per week. You could make this a part of your weekly routine by doing yoga and/or light weights on your cardio off-days (or lighter workout days). While the bulk of your workout routine should be cardio, incorporating some strength training will keep your muscles and bones strong, and flexibility training will keep your body loose and pliable (counteracting the cardio which tends to tighten you up).

To summarize, get at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise nearly every day. Dial up the intensity for 1–2 of the workouts. And round out your routine with strength training and yoga 1–2 days per week.

Beyond your dedicated workouts, use your body as your mode of transportation as much as possible. Walk or ride your bike to work or to the store if that is a possibility. Make it a habit of always taking the stairs. If your default mode is to use your body to get places, you will rack up even more meaningful physical (and mental) benefits.

If you do track your activity, a good goal is at least 10,000 steps per day (factoring in your dedicated workouts and all other activity throughout the day).

…

There you have it — my philosophy on diet and exercise. This approach takes into account all of my learning and personal experiences, and is built around basic and highly-effective guidelines.

I truly believe if you eat and move in this manner, you will add energy to your days and healthy years to your life.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for health, happiness, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

What You Should Really Be Eating, In Plain and Simple Terms

There is so much conflicting information out there about what you should be eating.

Dietary guidelines and best practices have changed drastically over the years, and it has become very hard to know who to trust.

Therefore I have studied this topic at length over the last several years, poring over books, scientific studies, and learning from the true experts in the field.

This is a very worthy endeavor — according to some reports, nutritional excellence has the power to virtually eliminate your risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as significantly reduce your risk of a variety of cancers.

After extensive research into the ultimate human diet, the science has become very clear on one point:

A whole-food, plant-based diet is best. Every great diet revolves around fruits and vegetables.

The most fundamental and understandable guidelines are set forth in the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate (the official dietary advice from Harvard doctors and medical professors), specifically:

Ensure at least 1/2 of your plate is vegetables and fruit

At least 50% of your food intake should be fruits and vegetables. However, less than 14 percent of Americans eat enough fruits and vegetables every day.

Eating mostly fruits and vegetables is arguably the most important thing you can do for your health and longevity.

According to research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day has been shown to add an extra 3 years of life expectancy.

But more is even better. Eating at least 7 portions of fruit and veggies a day can lower your risk of premature death by 42%. Going up to 10 servings a day is associated with double-digit percentage decreases in the risks for heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature deaths.

Choose organic, seasonal, and local vegetables whenever possible (reference the Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 list when deciding to buy organic or not). Include both cooked and uncooked vegetables, and aim for a variety of colors, from dark green to bright yellow and orange.

Fill your shopping cart with these detoxifying plants: Cilantro, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, radishes, brussels sprouts, turnips, watercress, kohlrabi, rutabaga, arugula, horseradish, maca, rapini, daikon, wasabi, bok choy, artichoke hearts, beets, dandelions, mushrooms, onions, garlic, ginger, and seaweed.

Dark leafy greens are the king of the vegetable kingdom in terms of nutrient-density. White potatoes should be minimized because of their high glycemic index.

Berries top the nutrition chart among fruits, but all kinds of fruit are great. Just make sure to choose whole fruits over fruit juices (which have been stripped of nutrition content).

Make whole grains 1/4 of your plate

Whole grains — including whole wheat, barley, wheat berries, quinoa, oats, brown rice, and whole wheat bread and pasta — are more nutrient-dense and have a milder effect on blood sugar than white bread, white rice, and other refined grains.

When selecting bread, look for 100% whole wheat, sprouted grain, whole grain rye, pumpernickel, and true sourdough bread. Look at the label and make sure the serving size ratio of carbs to fiber is equal to or less than 5-to-1 (for example, if you divided 15 grams of carbs by 3 grams of fiber, that would equal 5 and would be acceptable). I am a fan of the sprouted Ezekiel bread from the Food for Life brand.

Oatmeal is a great breakfast choice to get your day started with whole grains (top it off with ground flax seed, nuts, and mixed berries for even more nutrition).

Make protein 1/4 of your plate

Beans and nuts are great plant-based sources of protein, so it is best to start there. Small amounts of carefully-selected fish, chicken, and meat are also acceptable. Animal protein can play a role in your diet, but as a condiment (2–3 ounces, a few nights per week), not the main course.

When selecting fish, go for wild caught (not farmed) SMASH fish (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring) over large-mouthed, long-lived fish (shark, swordfish, tuna). And if you eat poultry or meat, make sure to get pastured chicken or grass-fed beef. Eggs should also be from chickens that are pastured, not factory raised.

Stay away from processed meats such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and cold cuts.

Eat healthy plant oils in moderation

Choose healthier oils such as olive, MCT, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, and peanut, and stay away from partially hydrogenated oils which contain unhealthy trans fat.

Include other good fats such as avocados, nuts, and seeds.

Drink water, coffee, green tea, and red wine

Avoid sugary drinks (soda, boxed juices) and limit milk/dairy (1–2 servings per day). Limit wine consumption to no more than 1–2 glasses (5 oz.) per day (max of one glass per day for women, two for men).

…

If you are following the above guidelines, there will be very little room for unhealthy foods such as salty snacks (chips, crackers) and packaged sweets (cookies, candy bars, cakes).

If you are looking for a cheat sheet grocery list, the best longevity foods are (according to The Blue Zones research of centenarians around the world):

• Beans (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, lentils)

• Greens (spinach, kale, chards, beet tops, fennel tops, collards)

• Sweet Potatoes

• Nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, cashews)

• Olive Oil (green, extra-virgin is best)

• Oats (slow-cook or Irish steel-cut are best)

• Barley

• Fruits (all kinds)

• Green or Herbal teas

• Turmeric (spice or tea)

Blue Zones area centenarians eat a 95% plant-based diet rich in beans, greens, grains and nuts.

If you base your diet around these foods, you just might make it to 100 as well!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

3 Easy (And Fun) Daily Habits to Extend Your Life

What if your vices could actually help you live longer?

A recent study followed 1700 nonagenarians to determine what makes people live to age 90 and beyond.

And the results are almost too good to be true.

The study revealed these 3 daily habits that increase longevity:

Drink Beer and Wine

That’s right — drinking alcohol was shown to have a statistically-significant impact on living longer, even when controlling for other factors.

Specifically, people who drank about two glasses of beer or wine a day (a glass is about 5 oz.) were 18% less likely to experience a premature death than those who abstained from alcohol.

“I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity,” said University of California neurologist and lead researcher Claudia Kawas.

This is consistent with studies of centenarians from the world’s Blue Zones regions — the places around the world with the highest life expectancy — where they often drink up to two glasses of wine every day as a way to downshift from the stressors of daily life.

So it’s possible that a daily happy hour extends your life by shedding stress. We know that stress leads to chronic inflammation, which is associated with every major age-related disease.

Or perhaps it is because drinking alcohol often brings us together with friends and family. Social relationships are vital for our health (not to mention the best predictor of our overall happiness).

Or maybe the benefits come from what’s in the alcohol itself. For example, red wine contains powerful antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory benefits. People in the Blue Zones region of Sardinia, Italy drink Cannonau wine (from the Grenache grape), which is renowned for its high levels of polyphenols — antioxidants linked to heart health and protection from cardiovascular disease.

Whatever the reason, you can feel good about drinking a glass or two of beer or wine every day.

The research is clear — Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers.

Drink Coffee

While we’re on the topic of drinking, coffee is another beverage that extends your life.

Drinking two cups of coffee per day was shown to reduce the risk of dying prematurely by 10%.

Previous studies revealed that drinking 3–4 cups of coffee every day could significantly reduce your chances of early death, and even drinking as many as 8 cups of coffee per day can help you live longer.

And the benefits hold true for all types of coffee — caffeinated, decaf, ground, instant, etc.

Daily coffee consumption is another common habit among Blue Zones populations. Centenarians in all five original Blue Zones areas drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day.

How can the longevity benefits of coffee be explained?

• Coffee is loaded with essential antioxidants. Similar to red wine, coffee contains polyphenols that neutralize free radicals and help prevent disease.
• Coffee reduces age-related inflammation.
• Coffee reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes. This is specifically true for fully caffeinated coffee.
• Coffee lowers the risk of prostate cancer in men. This again could be because coffee contains many beneficial compounds that act as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and regulate insulin, all of which may influence prostate cancer.

Coffee has also been linked with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease and liver cancer.

All of this doesn’t necessarily mean you should start drinking coffee if you’re not already, but if you are a coffee drinker you should feel very good about your daily fix.

Moderate Exercise

OK, so maybe this habit isn’t as fun as the previous two, but it is still pretty easy to achieve.

The nonagenarian study showed that those who engaged in moderate exercise every day (between 15 and 45 minutes) had an 11% lower risk of dying early.

So you can’t just sit on your couch all day long, but we’re talking about a very small amount of physical activity reducing your risk of death by double-digit percentage points.

I won’t belabor this point, since by now we all know that exercise is good for us.

The health benefits of physical activity have been well-documented — including helping to control weight, strengthen the cardiovascular system, fortify bones, and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Exercise is also the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function.

The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons, or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it.

Even if you are only active for 15–45 minutes per day, clearly the health benefits are profound.

That is a very small time commitment to significantly increase your life span.

...

This might just be the best news you hear all day:

Drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, and doing just a small amount of exercise each day will help you live longer.

Cheers to that!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

The Healthiest People In The World Don't Go To The Gym

Maybe it's time to cancel your gym membership. 

If you want to be as healthy as possible, there are no treadmills or weight machines required.

Don’t just take my word for it — look to the longest-lived people in the world for proof.

People in the world’s Blue Zones — the places around the world with the highest life expectancy — don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms.

Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without even thinking about it. This means that they grow gardens, walk throughout the day, and minimize mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.

In fact, Blue Zones researchers determined that routine natural movement is one of the most impactful ways to increase your life span, and a common habit among the world’s longest-lived populations.

Of course this might not seem realistic in our current knowledge economy, where we’re often tied to a desk and in front of a computer screen all day.

Moving naturally throughout the day might sound pleasant and romantic, but the reality is that 90% of us have sedentary jobs (whereas 100 years ago it was only 10%).

However, there are still easy ways to add more movement into your daily life.

One of the best ways to do this is to use an active mode of transportation. This could mean walking your kids to school, walking or biking to the grocery store, to a friend’s house, or out to dinner.

Ideally you could walk or bike to work as well (or walk/bike to the bus or train station, if that’s more feasible).

Research shows that the best work commute you can have is a 15-minute walk each way, but any physical activity built in along your commute is a plus. On the flip side, the daily car commute is the number two thing Americans hate the most on a daily basis, behind only housework (but maybe housework would be more enjoyable if you reminded yourself of the life-extending natural movement involved!).

If active transportation isn’t possible in your community, you can still find time to go out for a walk.

A recent study from the American Cancer Society revealed that walking for six hours per week resulted in a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer than not being active at all. But the research also showed that walking even as little as two hours per week could reduce the risk of disease and help you live longer.

Walking is also great medicine for your mind. A daily walk could reduce the risk of dementia by 40%, according to Anders Hansen, a physician and psychiatry specialist from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

If long walks aren’t your thing, break it up by taking several smaller walks per day instead (5 minutes per hour).

Make it a point to stand at your desk, or at least get up and move around regularly throughout the day. Get outside at lunch for some fresh air.

The bottom line is that our bodies were made to move.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean going to the gym.

You don’t need to lift heavy weights or grind through high intensity interval workouts to live a long and healthy life.

Simple, natural movement can be even more impactful.

Do as the world’s centenarians do — move naturally.

The Greatest Country in the World?

Is there a way to measure the greatest country in the world?

I suppose it depends on your definition, but I believe the best country is the one that produces the ultimate combination of happiness, health, and productivity/success.

Fortunately there are studies that rank countries across each of those areas, and the goal of this article is look across the individual rankings to arrive at the overall best of the best.

Happiness

The World Happiness Report is the ultimate authority on global happiness, ranking 156 countries by their happiness levels. Here are the Top 10 happiest countries in 2018, as determined by the latest study:

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Denmark
4. Iceland
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. Canada
8. New Zealand
9. Sweden
10. Australia

In case you are wondering, the US came in at #18 in the latest Happiness rankings (one spot ahead of the UK).

Health

The Bloomberg Health Index ranks the healthiest countries in the world based on several factors including life expectancy, health risks, availability of clean water, malnutrition, and causes of death.

Here are the Top 10 healthiest countries in the world:

1. Italy
2. Iceland
3. Switzerland
4. Singapore
5. Australia
6. Spain
7. Japan
8. Sweden
9. Israel
10. Luxembourg

The US ranks as the #34 healthiest country, in large part due to its high levels of overweight and obese residents.

If you prefer to look at just life expectancy as the primary metric for health, here are the countries that come out on top:

1. Hong Kong (84.3 years)
2. Japan (83.8 years)
3. Italy (83.5 years)
4. Spain (83.4 years)
5. Switzerland (83.2 years)
6. Iceland (82.9 years)
7. France (82.7 years)
8. Singapore (82.6 years)
9. Sweden (82.6 years)
10. Australia (82.5 years)

The US ranks #37 in life expectancy with an average of 78.7 years.

Productivity/Success

On the productivity side, the World Competitiveness Ranking measures the world’s most competitive economies.

Here are the top countries from a business perspective in 2018:

1. United States
2. Hong Kong
3. Singapore
4. Netherlands
5. Switzerland
6. Denmark
7. UAE
8. Norway
9. Sweden
10. Canada

The World Economic Forum produces a similar report measuring each country’s competitiveness, productivity, and prosperity.

Here are the Top 10 from the latest report (2017):

1. Switzerland
2. United States
3. Singapore
4. Netherlands
5. Germany
6. Hong Kong
7. Sweden
8. UK
9. Japan
10. Finland

If you prefer to look at productivity and success from an innovation standpoint, here are the Top 10 countries, according to the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index (which scores countries using seven criteria, including research and development spending and concentration of high-tech public companies):

1. South Korea
2. Sweden
3. Singapore
4. Germany
5. Switzerland
6. Japan
7. Finland
8. Denmark
9. France
10. Israel

The US currently ranks #11 on the innovation index.

Any way you slice it, there are only two countries that rank among the Top 10 in each of the three categories (Happiness, Health, Productivity).

In fact, those two countries placed in the Top 10 in each of the six individual reports listed above.

Those two countries are Switzerland and Sweden.

In order to determine the ultimate winner, you need to look at where Switzerland and Sweden placed in each of the six individual rankings. Whichever country totaled the lowest overall score should be crowned the winner, as a result of ranking near the top of every list.

So which country is the best of the best — Switzerland or Sweden?

Here are the totals:

Switzerland: 24 (average rank of #4 on each individual list)

Sweden: 44 (average rank of #7 on each individual list)

So it really isn’t even close.

Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

Switzerland ranked in the top 5 in every individual ranking listed above — the only country in the world to have that distinction.

Switzerland quite simply delivers the ultimate blend of happiness, health, productivity, and success.

Switzerland is the 2018 Greatest Country in the World.

How Does Switzerland Do It?

Switzerland has it all — wealth, beauty, culture, and stability.

One of the world’s wealthiest countries, Switzerland enjoys low unemployment and one of the highest gross domestic products per capita in the world.

The beautiful small country in Central Europe is made up of glacier-sculpted Alps, lakes, and valleys, and has enjoyed relative peace and tranquility since the mid 1800’s.

Well-known for its neutrality, Switzerland also prides itself on culture and diversity — German, French, Italian, and Romansh language all enjoy national status.

Additionally, Swiss citizens have won more Nobel Prizes and registered more patents per capita than most other nations.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

I suggest you add Switzerland to your travel list in order to truly find out what makes it the greatest country in the world.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

What Is Success, Anyway?

We are often told that if we aren’t hustling and grinding, then we won’t make it.

That if we aren’t outworking others, we’ll be left behind.

But what is the end goal? What does success really mean?

My definition of success is doing work that I love and living a long, happy, and healthy life.

And here are the facts to achieve that type of success:

Money can buy happiness, but only to a point

One often-cited study revealed that money stops producing happiness after you make $75,000 per year. More recent research clarifies those findings to show that the happiness gains from income starts to fall off around $70,000, becomes very low by $160,000, and then hits zero around $200,000. You undoubtedly want a comfortable standard of living to minimize financial stress, but chasing huge income as a means to happiness is not a proven strategy.

Working very long hours is not a recipe for productivity or happiness

Research shows that productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week, and drops off a cliff after 55 hours. In the world’s happiest countries (primarily Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Sweden), people work hard but rarely put in more than 37 hours per week. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating — Sweden alone has produced world-shaping companies such as IKEA, Skype, and Spotify.

You also need to take real time off. Six weeks of vacation time per year has been shown to be optimal for happiness (unfortunately Americans take an average of only 11 days).

Social relationships are the best predictor of overall health and happiness

A Harvard study, conducted over 80 years, has revealed that close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. And those findings hold true even when factoring in genes, social class, and IQ. In fact, of the thousands of people included in the study, those who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. The study’s lead researcher concluded that “the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.” Social relationships are quite simply the most powerful tool you have to live a long and happy life.

Social interaction also boosts your mood on a day-to-day basis. The data shows that to have a great day, you should aim for six hours of social time. That might seem like a lot, but every hour of social time helps to reduce your chance of having a bad day. A little is good, a lot is better. Unfortunately, Americans socialize for an average of only 41 minutes per day. Maybe we should spend less time hustling, and more time socializing.

Happiness causes success, not the other way around

We often grind away in hopes of making it big, as a means to eventually become happy. But Shawn Achor, one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success, says that we have the formula backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. If you want to achieve success, you need to look after your own happiness first.

Here are five easy everyday habits to boost your happiness:

1. Write down three new things each day that you are grateful for
2. Journal about a recent positive experience you’ve had for 2 minutes per day
3. Engage in 15–30 minutes of cardio exercise such as brisk walking or jogging
4. Meditate — Simply focus on your breath going in and out for 2 minutes per day
5. Start your day by writing a 2-minute positive email thanking a friend or colleague, or complimenting someone you admire

Achor says that doing those five things every day for 21 days straight will produce profound (and lasting) happiness benefits.

The number 2 most common regret of the dying is, “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

A palliative nurse recorded the most common regrets of the dying and put her findings into a book called The Top Five Regrets of The Dying. The reality is that at the end of their life, nobody wishes they had worked more.

Don’t wait until you are on your deathbed to make that realization.

Use the time that you have now — while you are still in good health — to focus on the things that really matter (like quality relationships with friends and family).

We need to slow down and savor life

Our busy, always-on-the-go lifestyle is stressful. And stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. While some stress is inevitable (and even beneficial), you must effectively manage it if you want to live well. Instead of always staying in overdrive, we need to consciously downshift, a common practice among the world’s longest-lived people.

Take a nap, enjoy a happy hour with friends, unplug after work hours, spend time outside, listen to live music, watch the sunset. Your time here is limited — make sure to slow down and enjoy it.

The happiest people discover their own nature and match their life to it

That is a direct quote from Ray Dalio, who is worth over $17 billion and one of the 100 wealthiest people in the world. But for him, the goal was never about making money. “Meaningful work and meaningful relationships were and still are my primary goals and everything I did was for them,” he says. “Making money was an incidental consequence of that.”

Ultimately, life and happiness boils down to finding the right fit for you. It is essential to know your own nature and operate consistently with it.

After all, the number one regret of the dying is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Money won’t mean much if you aren’t living a life that is in line with what you want. And making money in a way that conflicts with your personality or values will just make you feel trapped. To live a truly fulfilling and happy life, Dalio says what you really need is “the courage to be true to your truest self, no matter what other people want you to be.”

It is these lessons that are most important to truly live well. Don’t feel the pressure to always hustle, grind it out, and get ahead. It is far more important to savor life, spend quality time with others, and pursue your own unique path.

If you do that, you will achieve the right kind of success.

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

This Is How Many Hours You Should Really Be Working

Have you ever wondered about the optimal number of hours to work per week?

Perhaps you are one of those people who brags about your 70-hour workweek, or maybe you are on the other end of the spectrum chasing the 4-hour workweek dream.

Who really has it right, anyway?

It turns out that the number of hours you work affects not only your productivity, but also your happiness and perception of how much time you have.

And we currently have some room for improvement.

A recent Gallup poll in the US revealed that one in five full-time employees work more than 60 hours a week and nearly half of US workers regularly clock at least 50 hours.

But those people are doing themselves (and their employers) a disservice.

Research shows that productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week, and drops off a cliff after 55 hours. Additionally, not taking at least one full day off per week (e.g. Sunday) leads to lower hourly output overall.

From a productivity standpoint you shouldn’t go above 50 hours, but to cut down on stress you’d be wise to work even less.

It is no secret that we are busier and more connected than ever, often bouncing from one obligation to the next. This non-stop lifestyle has resulted in 48 percent of working adults feeling rushed for time, and 52 percent feeling significant stress as a result.

Time management expert Laura Vanderkam conducted a study to determine how the number of hours you work affects how much time you think you have.

Of the 900 people included in the study, the average person worked 8.3 hours per day. And the results showed that there was only a one hour difference between the people who felt like they had a lot of time and those who felt time-pressured. Those who felt like they had the least time overall worked 8.6 hours, whereas those who felt like they had the most time worked just one hour less (7.6 hours).

So to not feel starved for time, aim for a 7.6 hour work day. That would equate to a 38-hour workweek.

A 38-hour workweek is remarkably similar to the number of hours worked in Denmark, consistently one of the world’s happiest countries (Denmark has earned the top spot on the World Happiness Report in three of the past five years, and finished number two and three in the other years). People in Denmark work hard but rarely put in more than 37 hours a week, often leaving the office by 4 or 5pm. Other Scandinavian countries enjoy a similar work-life balance, and similar happiness rankings.

Happiness expert Dan Buettner takes it even a step further. Buettner has reviewed the research on more than 20 million people worldwide through the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, and has conducted extensive on-the-ground research in the world’s happiest countries. “When it comes to your work, try to work part-time, 30–35 hours a week,” he concludes.

Buettner also recommends taking six weeks of vacation per year, which is the optimal amount for happiness. If that isn’t possible, he says at the very least you should use all of your allotted vacation time and keep negotiating for more until you’re getting 6 weeks.

Unfortunately Americans are not taking half of their vacation days, and two-thirds of Americans report working even when they are on vacation. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the US is down at #18 in the World Happiness Report.

Maybe 30 work hours per week and six weeks of vacation is not practical for you. But that’s okay.

If you want to achieve the perfect blend of productivity, happiness, and time affluence, a more realistic goal is to work slightly below 40 hours per week.

The research shows that even shaving an hour or two off of the standard 40-hour workweek can have huge benefits, both at work and at home.

Less than 10% of workers are able to achieve that schedule. A good goal is to be one of those people.

Here’s to the 38-hour workweek!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his email list at andrewmerle.com.

Why Racket Sports Are So Healthy

Exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function.

That is according to John Ratey, MD, an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in Neuropsychiatry.

In Ratey’s bestselling book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, he details the scientifically-proven health benefits of exercise, including:

• Improves learning ability and grows brain cells
• Reduces stress, anger, anxiety, and depression
• Increases focus, attention, and alertness
• Reduces risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other forms of Dementia
• Lowers blood pressure

And that’s just to name a few.

Any exercise is better than none, but to see these results, you should aim for at least some type of moderate-intensity aerobic activity for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week. That is in line with the Public Health guidelines for physical activity. Examples of moderate-intensity aerobic activity include brisk walking, jogging, cycling, and swimming.

Adding strength or resistance training will help you build muscles, strengthen bones, and protect joints.

And including more complex activities — such as yoga, rock climbing, gymnastics, and martial arts — will help to build skills and stay agile.

But what if there was one type of activity that could achieve all of these benefits at once?

It turns out that all sports are not created equal.  Racket sports stand above the rest in terms of health benefits.

Racket sports are especially great because they simultaneously tax the cardiovascular system and the brain.

According to Ratey, “The combination of challenging the brain and body has a greater positive impact than aerobic exercise alone.”

Sports such as tennis, squash, badminton, and racketball build up your fitness levels, while also requiring complex movements (front to back, and side to side) and quick strategic thinking.

That combination of aerobic activity, strength building, flexibility, and mental fortitude is incredibly rare among other sports.

Additionally, racket sports can be played at any age, and they bring you together with other people for social connection (which we know is fantastic for health).

It should therefore come as no surprise that Forbes has ranked squash as the world’s healthiest sport.

And a large study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that racket sports help you live longer as well.

The study looked at the link between six different types of exercise (racket sports, swimming, aerobics, cycling, running, soccer) and the risk of early death. Over 80,000 people were included, ranging in age from 30 to 98. The study — which spanned nine years — showed that people who regularly played racket sports were 47% less likely to die (nearly 20 percentage points better than swimming, which came in 2nd with a 28% lower risk of dying).

Racket sports are simply the ultimate mind and body activity.

Racket sports produce the perfect blend of high-intensity interval workouts, balance drills, resistance training, and mental exercises.

So if you are short on time and want to maximize your health, pick up a racket and hit the court.

Why You Should Have Friends

Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness.

That is what happiness expert Shawn Achor has found after more than a dozen years studying the topic.

Social relationships are also vital to physical health. Human-behavior researcher and #1 New York Times best-selling author Tom Rath has found that social relationships help reduce stress and the risk of age-related memory loss. On the other hand, people with limited social interactions have almost twice the risk of dying from heart disease and are twice as likely to catch a cold.

Close relationships at work also lead to spikes in productivity. According to Rath, employees who have a best friend at work “are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have higher wellbeing, and are less likely to get injured on the job.”

Therefore, focusing on your relationships proves to be good for your career as well. Achor’s research has revealed that happiness causes success, not the other way around.

Happiness. Health. Productivity. Success. All of this can be achieved through social relationships.

But how much social interaction we should aim for in order to see these benefits?

Credit: Arthur Poulin

According to Rath, the ideal amount is six hours of daily social interaction in order to have a great day. That might seem like a lot, but he also says that every hour of social time helps to reduce your chance of having a bad day. A little is good, a lot is better.

Perhaps this level of social connection is already a core part of your life if you are naturally outgoing and extroverted.

But what about if you are more of an introvert?

Achor recommends the simple act of sending a quick email every morning to thank or praise someone you know as a powerful way to boost your social connection and happiness. He says the effects of practicing this habit for 21 days in a row are profound.

Here are some more strategies to keep in mind as you get going, from Psychology Today’s 7 habits of socially connected people:

• Focus on quality relationships over quantity
• Prioritize face-to-face interactions over digital or phone
• Be willing to share personal information with others and make yourself a little vulnerable
• Ask questions and focus on listening to others
• Don’t let minor personal differences get in the way of building relationships
• March bravely into relationships without worrying about rejection

Relationships with other people are arguably the most important thing in our lives. And in addition to all of the benefits mentioned above, relationships are fun.

So give yourself permission to get out there and have some fun with someone else.

It just might be the best use of your time.

This is How to Exercise to Sharpen Your Mind

I am a huge believer in the power of exercise — for the body, and even more importantly for the mind.

As I have written about before, I never go into a big day without running first thing in the morning. I have found that morning exercise makes me mentally sharper throughout the day, and I am convinced that my morning running routine has changed my life and career more than any other habit.

After reading The Real Happy Pill: Power Up Your Brain by Moving Your Body, I know that science has undoubtedly proven the dramatic benefits of exercise on the brain.

In the book, author Anders Hansen, a physician and psychiatry specialist from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, cites the latest neuroscientific research to clearly show that exercise:

• Increases focus and concentration

• Boosts creativity

• Alleviates stress and anxiety

• Improves mood and happiness

• Strengthens memory

• Slows the brain’s aging process

The amazing thing is that the cognitive benefits of exercise can be felt with as little as a 30-minute walk per day. In fact, Hansen notes that walking is the best medicine for dementia and a daily walk could reduce the risk of dementia by 40%.

A daily walk is the minimum amount of physical activity needed to see good results, but in the book Hansen also lays out the most beneficial activity level for the brain overall (to experience the full range of benefits listed above).

He says the very best you can do for your brain is to run for 45 minutes, at least three times per week. It is essential to raise your heart rate during exercise sessions, and he advises to focus on aerobic training over weightlifting to achieve maximum results for the brain. He says it is very important to stick with your training routine — people who exercise regularly a few times a week for six months will experience the most positive changes.

While that gives a great general framework to build your exercise routine around, Hansen also provides some concrete exercise tips to produce each type of cognitive benefit, including:

Best Exercise Routine for Improved Mood and Happiness

• Go for a 30–40 minute run, three times per week

• Hit at least 70% of your max intensity — you can keep a consistent pace throughout, but make sure you break a sweat and feel winded at the end of the workout

• Biking, swimming, or any other type of cardio can substitute for running as long as the intensity level and workout duration stay the same

• It is essential to keep this up for at least three weeks to experience the full benefits

• If you suffer from depression, you must run (or similar exercise) three times per week, 45 minutes each time. It usually takes about six weeks to notice the changes

Best Exercise Routine for Stress and Anxiety Relief

• Choose cardio over weight training

• Exercise for 30–45 minutes, at least 2–3 times per week

• You must elevate your heart rate during training sessions

• Reach the point of fatigue/exhaustion once a week (e.g. via interval training)

Best Exercise Routine for Increased Concentration

• Go for a run instead of a walk, ideally for 30 minutes

• Your heart rate should hit 70–75% of its max capacity (130–140 beats per minute if you’re 40 years old, at least 125 bpm if you are 50)

• Exercise in the morning to experience the peak concentration benefits during your work day (the effect will drop off after a few hours, and most of us need to focus during the day vs. at night)

Best Exercise Routine for Enhanced Creativity

• Run for at least 20–30 minutes (or similar vigorous exercise). A walk is good as well, but will not be as effective as running

• The creativity boost will be felt for about two hours after exercise

• Do not go all out — creativity will actually go down in the hours after a very intense/strenuous workout

Best Exercise Routine for Improved Memory

• Alternate between cardio exercise and weight training (weight training does seem to improve associative memory, e.g. matching a name with a face)

• If you need to choose between cardio and weights, cardio should take the priority since it is more beneficial for memory

• Don’t exercise to exhaustion — a walk or a light jog is sufficient

• Memory improvement takes place over several months, so it is important to keep at it

Best Exercise Routine to Halt the Brain’s Aging Process

• Walk for 30 minutes every day, at least five days a week (or run/bike/swim for 20 minutes, three times a week, which produces similar results)

• A daily walk is far more important than a daily crossword puzzle

Best Exercise Routine for Children and Teenagers

• It is best for children to be active for at least 30 minutes, at least a few times per week. Keeping this up for 2–3 months leads to permanent benefits including better arithmetic ability, increased creativity, and improved executive functioning (planning, concentration, impulse control, etc.)

• Kids should do whatever they enjoy (running, playing, tennis, soccer, etc.), but it is essential that they elevate the heart rate during exercise, ideally getting up to around 150 bpm

All of this shows that you don’t need to be an ultra-marathoner or jump on to the latest fitness craze — in fact, it is best to stick with the exercise basics to reap the maximum mental benefits.

Ultimately, you should do what you enjoy since that will make it easier to stick with it over the long haul. That’s why taking up an activity like golf, where you can wear fun golf polos and enjoy the good weather, is great, even if it means you’re not always breaking a sweat. And doing something is far better than nothing. Hansen points out that the brain registers every step — so while 30 minutes of physical activity is better than five minutes, five minutes of moving still counts for the brain.

So do your brain a favor by moving your body.

As Hansen says, “Modern neuroscience has shown that maybe the most important thing we can do for our brain — and therefore ourselves — is to be physically active.”

And it takes less than an hour per day.

The #1 Healthiest Food for Adding Years to Your Life

The single healthiest food out there might surprise you.

Chances are this food is not a part of your regular diet, but it is the cornerstone food of the longest-lived people in the world. In fact, in the locations around the world with the highest concentrations of 100-year-olds, people are eating at least four times as much of this food as we are.

That is according to Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author, who has spent over a decade studying the places around the globe where people live the longest.

This superfood is beans — and eating just a cup per day is the single-best longevity supplement available.

That’s right, eating a cup of beans per day can add an extra four years to your life, says Buettner.

He argues that beans of every type are the world’s greatest longevity foods — including black beans, pinto beans, white beans, garbanzo beans, fava beans, black eyed peas, and lentils.

Credit: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Beans are the ultimate superfood because they have the ideal mix of protein (21 percent), complex carbohydrates (77 percent — the type of carbs that provide slow and steady energy), and fat (only a few percent). They are also an excellent source of fiber and deliver more nutrients per gram than any other food on the planet.

If that isn’t enough, beans have also been shown to support digestion, regulate blood sugar, lower cholesterol, boost heart health, and possibly even reduce cancer risk.

Pound for pound, beans are simply the healthiest food in the world.

If you’re ready to add beans to your daily regimen, here are some of Buettner’s tips to get started:

• Eat beans that you like and cook recipes that will taste good. This is easier said than done, so reference this great list of bean dish recipes.
• Make sure the only ingredients in the beans you buy are: beans, water, spices, and maybe a bit of salt (avoid any beans with added sugar or fat).
• It is best to buy dry beans, but low-sodium beans in cans are fine as well.
• Use pureed beans as a thickener in soups to add protein and a creamy texture.
• Add cooked beans to salads to make them more filling.
• Keep your kitchen stocked with other ingredients that are popular in bean recipes, including carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme, and pepper.
• Instead of meat and potatoes for your meals, think beans and vegetables. After beans, vegetables are the next most important item to add to your diet.
• When going out for dinner, Mexican is a good option. Mexican restaurants always serve pinto or black beans, which can be dressed up with rice, vegetables, guacamole, and hot sauce (just make sure to avoid the white flour tortillas — opt for corn tortillas instead).

It sounds too good to be true, but the simple addition of beans to your daily diet can add years to your life.

If you are looking for other food and lifestyle suggestions to increase longevity, check out one of my similar articles here.

Here’s to a long, happy, and healthy life!

Why I Go Offline for 12 Straight Hours Each Day

I go offline from 8pm - 8am every day.

This means that I disconnect from email, social media, and internet for 12 consecutive hours each day.

This habit initially started with avoiding email first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, based on advice from from Tim Ferriss in the The 4-Hour Workweek. He said that one simple change would be a life-changer, and it has been for me.

I then extended to a full digital detox for 12 straight hours — including about eight hours of sleep and two hours immediately after waking and two hours just before going to sleep — after reading the book The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.

I have been able to stick with this “12-on, 12-off” approach for the last several years and find that it greatly increases my overall productivity and peace of mind.

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Disconnecting for 12 straight hours isn’t as hard or extreme as it might sound.

Roughly eight of these hours are spent sleeping, which I now prioritize based on sleep’s proven health benefits. I keep my phone on airplane mode during this time to prevent unwanted disturbances (I can be reached on my land line in case of emergency). I have personally found the ideal sleep hours to be 10pm - 6am (or 5:30am depending on the morning), in order to maximize my mornings and evenings while still getting enough rest.

Upon waking, I like to start the day with 10 minutes of meditation, 30 minutes of exercise (usually running outside), and then enjoy a cup of coffee while getting ready for work, followed by breakfast with my family.

This morning routine puts me in the right frame of mind to tackle the rest of the day and be “all in” at work. I also find that many of my work breakthroughs or ‘aha’ moments come during these pre-online morning hours. All of this would be derailed if I checked email or went down the rabbit hole of social media first thing in the morning.

I try to keep my work day to 9 hours (10 at most) because productivity has been shown to go down dramatically after that point, and I can feel this dropoff. I also find that setting hard office hours forces me to get my work done in that amount of time, much like a work deadline does. Getting home by 6 or 6:30pm (most of the time) enables me to spend time with my family, eat dinner, and then do a last check of email if necessary.

I then like to spend the last 1–2 hours before bed offline, taking care of personal items, hanging with family, and relaxing after the long day (which for me includes reading, writing, enjoying a glass of wine, or watching TV).

Checking email too close to bed makes my mind race with all of the things I need to do, making it very challenging to fall asleep. I am better prepared to read and respond to those emails the following day when I have the time and am well-rested.

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All of this means that I am offline for 12 hours per day — from about 8pm - 8am (this window can shift up or back by 30 minutes on any given day). I also try to avoid email and social media for one day each weekend.

Keeping this schedule enables me to prioritize the things that are most important in my life — my family, my health, and my work. If I was always connected and attached to my phone or computer, I am sure that each of those three buckets would suffer.

Your schedule likely looks a bit different than mine, and that is to be expected. This is not a prescription for exactly how you should structure your time, or intended to be a one-size-fits-all approach. You should find the routine that works best for you. But I do believe that we all need enough time offline to gain perspective and make time for the things that truly matter.

I have found that balancing my online and offline time helps me to achieve balance in my life overall.

Here's a Recipe for a Great Weekend

During the busy workweek, I tend to be pretty good at maximizing my time and productivity.  I enjoy the challenge of finding pockets of time amidst a packed schedule, and tuning out distractions in order to do my best work. 

But I have struggled in the past to create a great weekend routine.  The unstructured nature of weekends, and ample free time, has sometimes left me feeling overwhelmed or not knowing where to start.  I have always looked forward to weekends as the optimal time to have fun and relieve stress, but haven’t consistently spent my time in a way that produced these results.  Therefore, I wanted to take a more strategic approach to weekends in order to increase my enjoyment, relaxation, and regeneration. 

After much experimentation and research, here are the best habits I have found to maximize happiness and rejuvenation during those precious weekends. 

Consider this a recipe for a great weekend:

Avoid Work Email and Social Media

You will never gain perspective or fully experience life if you are constantly buried in email or scrolling through social media.  The weekend is the perfect time to disconnect – avoiding all work email and social media.  If this seems like a major step, consider implementing this for just one of your weekend days to start (Saturday has been the easiest day for me to apply this tactic).  In general, I believe in minimizing technology on weekends, but not eliminating it altogether – for example, you might want to call or text people to make plans, email an old friend, or relax by watching a movie on Saturday night.  All of these are perfectly acceptable and rely on some use of technology. 

Spend Time with Friends and Family

Celebrate the end of the week in the company of friends and family.  Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness, and also vital to our health.  Our close relationships can get crowded out of the busy workweek, so it is critical that we make time for them on the weekends.  Make it a point to get at least one social activity on the calendar each weekend.  I have found it helpful to keep a list of people I’d like to see, and then reference this list as I schedule social outings for upcoming weekends.  Last-minute get-togethers can be great too, but they might not happen if you don’t plan ahead. 

Exercise

I am a huge believer in the mental and physical benefits of exercise, and the weekend is an excellent time to bring some variety to your workouts.  If you do the same gym routine or morning jog every weekday, try mixing it up on Saturday and Sunday.  Use the extra time to go for a long hike, bike ride, or even just a nice walk outside (or whatever other sport or activity you like to do, whether that’s spin class, skiing, tennis, or tai chi). 

Get Outside

It is all too common to spend most of our weekdays inside and in front of a computer screen.  So use the weekends to get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air – if the weather is great or not.  I have found that my happiness is often proportional to the amount of time I spend outside.  Track how many hours you spend outside on Saturday and Sunday, and see if you can increase this number each weekend.  It will likely do wonders for your mood and outlook on life. 

Enjoy Good Food and Drink

I love a great meal and glass of wine.  Meals can sometimes be rushed on weekdays, so I like to slow it down and savor a great dinner on Friday or Saturday night (either cooking at home or going out).  I think of weekend meals as a special treat, and am always happier when I take the time to really appreciate them. 

Do What You Love to Do

This might seem obvious, but the extra time on weekends gives us the opportunity to do more of what we love to do.  I actually recommend the practice of writing out what you love to do (for me, this includes spending time with my wife and kids, traveling, watching sporting events, listening to music, reading, and writing).  Whenever I need some inspiration, I just reference the list of things I love to do and start doing them.  This list will be unique to every person, but spending more time doing what you love on the weekends will make for a very happy couple of days.  And I find that this good feeling often lasts well into the workweek.     

So there you have it – a recipe for a great weekend! 

If this list seems daunting, just think about how many of these elements can be combined together.  For example, you can enjoy a great meal in the company of friends, or make it a point to always exercise outside on the weekend. 

Incorporate these weekend ingredients into your life and make the most of your precious "off" days!  

What to Eat to Live to 100

I aspire to live an incredibly long, happy, and healthy life.

That is why I recently read the The Blue Zones Solution, in which New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner reveals the eating and living habits of the world’s longest-lived people.

For over a decade, Buettner (along with the National Geographic Society and a team of researchers) studied the 5 locations around the globe that have the highest concentrations of 100-year-olds, as well as exceptionally low rates of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart problems.

In the book, Buettner lays out the specifics for each of these “Blue Zones” locations, analyzes the trends, and then prescribes a plan for people looking achieve the same level of health and longevity.

The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to live a longer, happier life. In case you are short on time, I have tried to summarize my main takeaways below.

Note: Most of the book focuses on food because, as Buettner says, “food may be the best starting point for anyone seeking to emulate the health, longevity, and well-being found in the world’s Blue Zones.” But a significant portion of the book is also devoted to other healthy lifestyle habits commonly found in Blue Zones locations, and I have included some of those key behaviors at the end of this post.

According to The Blue Zones Solution:

The best-of-the-best longevity foods are (Include at least 3 of these daily):

• Beans (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, lentils)
• Greens (spinach, kale, chards, beet tops, fennel tops, collards)
• Sweet Potatoes
• Nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, cashews)
• Olive Oil (green, extra-virgin is best)
• Oats (slow-cook or Irish steel-cut are best)
• Barley
• Fruits (all kinds)
• Green or Herbal teas
• Turmeric (spice or tea)

The 4 best beverages are:

• Water
• Coffee
• Green Tea
• Red Wine (no more than 2 glasses daily)

Foods to Minimize include:

• Meat (eat meat only 2 times per week or less; meat servings should be 2 oz. cooked or less; fine to eat up to 3 oz. of fish daily)
• Dairy such as cheese, cream, and butter (limit as much as possible; Goat’s and Sheep’s milk products are ok)
• Eggs (eat no more than 3 eggs per week)
• Sugar (limit as much as possible — opt for honey and fruit instead)
• Bread (OK to eat 100% whole wheat and true sourdough bread; look for sprouted grain bread, whole grain rye, or pumpernickel bread)

Foods to Avoid (other than a special treat):

• Sugary beverages (sodas, boxed juices)
• Salty snacks (chips, crackers)
• Processed Meats (sausages, salami, bacon, lunch meats)
• Packaged sweets (cookies, candy bars)

Food Guidelines to Live By:

• 95% of your food should be plant-based
• Eat your largest meal at breakfast, a mid-sized lunch, and small dinner
• Stop eating when you’re 80% full
• If you need to snack, make it a piece of fruit or handful of nuts
• Cook most of your meals at home and eat with friends and family as much as possible

The top longevity foods eaten in each Blue Zone:

Ikaria, Greece:

• Olive oil
• Wild Greens
• Potatoes
• Legumes (garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, lentils)
• Feta and Goat Cheese
• Sourdough bread
• Lemons
• Honey
• Herbal Tea
• Coffee
• Wine

Okinawa, Japan:

• Tofu
• Sweet Potatoes
• Brown Rice
• Shiitake Mushrooms
• Seaweeds
• Garlic
• Turmeric
• Green Tea

Sardinia, Italy:

• Olive oil
• Beans
• Goat’s Milk and Sheep’s Milk (including sharp pecorino cheese)
• Flat Bread
• Barley
• Sourdough Bread
• Fennel
• Fava Beans and Chickpeas
• Potatoes
• Greens
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Zucchini
• Cabbage
• Lemons
• Almonds
• Wine

Loma Linda, California:

• Avocados
• Salmon
• Nuts
• Fruits
• Beans
• Water (7 glasses per day)
• Oatmeal
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Soy Milk

Peninsula, Costa Rica:

• Corn Tortillas
• Black Beans
• Squash
• Papayas
• Yams
• Bananas

Blue Zones lifestyle lessons to maximize happiness, health, and longevity:

• Move daily (e.g. walking or other moderate-intensity activity).
• Socialize more. Research shows that the happiest people socialize at least 8 hours per day, especially with parents and family.
• Know what gets you up in the morning. Knowing your sense of purpose, or reason for living, has been shown to add up to 7 years of life expectancy.
• Have faith. Attending faith-based services (it doesn’t matter what faith) 4 times per month has been shown to add 4–14 years to your life.
• Committing to a life partner can add up to 3 years of life expectancy.
• Aim to sleep 8 hours per night for maximum health and longevity.
• Have sex. 80% of people in Ikaria ages 65–100 are still having sex, and sex has been shown to enhance longevity.

In summary, as noted in the book, “Eat well, stress less, move more, and love more.”

Here’s to a long, happy, healthy, and fulfilling life!

How to Get By on 4-5 Hours of Sleep

We all know that it is optimal to get 8 hours of sleep per night. 

The benefits of sleep for our health, happiness, and productivity have been well-documented. 

There is simply no doubt that we need sleep to be at our best.    

But sometimes 8 hours just isn’t in the cards. 

Whether because of work stress, a crying baby, or some other late-night disturbance, we are sometimes forced to function on 4-5 hours of sleep (or less). 

When that is the case, should we just resign ourselves to a day filled with moodiness and limited output?  Or are there some strategies to counteract the effects of little sleep? 

Fortunately, there are some effective ways to survive (and even thrive) after a night of tossing and turning. 

Try this routine the next time you’re short on sleep:

• Force yourself to get up and exercise.  I personally find that a 30-minute run in the morning is worth an extra 2 hours of sleep, and makes me feel close to how I typically would during a well-rested workday.  It may not be your finest workout after limited shut-eye, but working up a sweat will make you feel sharper and more alert afterwards.
• Follow exercise with a cold shower, which has been shown to increase mood, alertness, and energy.
• Have a cup (or two) of coffee.  Caffeine in moderation can help boost your concentration and mental alertness.  Feel free to go back for another round - coffee or green tea - in the early afternoon if you’re not overly sensitive to caffeine.
• Get your most important work done in the morning.  It is critical to prioritize your day.  Expect an energy dip in the afternoon, so tackle your must-do items first-thing.
• Eat light, healthy meals and snacks.  The food we eat has a big effect on our energy levels, so treat food as fuel when operating on little sleep.  In general, opt for complex carbs and protein to increase energy levels.  Some revitalizing options include berries and other fruits, steel-cut oatmeal, eggs, nuts, vegetables, lean meats (such as grilled chicken), and fresh fish (such as salmon).  Be sure to also drink lots of water throughout the day.  Heavy meals, sugar, and processed carbs will only worsen the situation and make you want to hit the pillow.
• Take a walk outside to break up the day.  When sleepiness hits at your desk, get up and go outside for a 10-15 minute walk.  The break and sunlight will help to restore your energy levels.
• Allow yourself a quick afternoon nap.  A short 30-minute nap has been shown to boost alertness and limit the effects of sleep deprivation.
• Leave work on time.  This isn’t the day to put in overtime, if you can avoid it.  You accomplished your most important tasks early and made it all the way through, so pat yourself on the back and call it a day.  Go home and enjoy a relaxing evening and hopefully better sleep than the night before. 

Of course it is never ideal to operate on little sleep, but the reality is that we all find ourselves in this situation from time to time.  And fortunately there are some proven strategies to make the most of it. 

Your day will certainly be more manageable by following this plan, whether you adhere to every step or just select a few of the items.  

Perhaps it also jumped out at you that this routine could maximize your day even when you are well-rested.

Here’s to a great day (sleep or not)!    

 

The Benefits and Simplicity of Meditation

I recently wrote a piece ranking the Top 20 Habits for Happiness, Health, Productivity, and Success. The list is subjective, based on my research, reading, learning from experts, and personal experimentation over the years.

Although the list has generally been well-received, readers pointed out one noticeable omission:

Meditation.

While there are habits on the list that relate to mindfulness (e.g. Singletasking — Doing one thing at a time and paying attention while doing it), meditation as a specific habit doesn’t show up.

And that’s because I had never tried it.

There is an abundance of information out there about meditation, but until now I hadn’t really paid much attention to it.

But now that I’ve had a chance to take a closer examination, the benefits are undeniably profound.

Meditation improves our physical health, including lowering blood pressure, boosting the immune system, and increasing our ability to cope with stress.

And meditation has been shown to bolster our minds — actually changing the brain in ways that lead to reduced levels of anxiety and depression, improved attention and concentration, better self-control, and greater overall psychological well-being.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that meditation is a favorite practice among celebrities and business leaders alike. Steve Jobs was famous for his devotion to mindfulness and meditation as a pathway to stress reduction, mental clarity, and creativity. And here are just a few more examples of high-profile people who de-stress with meditation:

• Jack Dorsey, CEO and Co-Founder of Twitter and Square, wakes up at 5am every day to meditate
• Oprah Winfrey has a meditation ritual that she practices every morning
• Anderson Cooper attended a week-long mindfulness retreat for a story we was working on, and the experience was so impactful that he now integrates meditation and mindfulness into his everyday life
• Jennifer Aniston says her daily meditation practice kick-starts her day, reduces her stress levels, and makes her happier
• LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner blocks out time on his calendar every day to think and meditate, and has talked about the importance of meditation in the business world

All of these benefits and examples had me ready to get started, but I was still under the impression that meditation was a mysterious, long and complicated process reserved primarily for Buddhist monks.

But it turns out that meditation is actually incredibly simple, as I learned while reading Chris Bailey’s best-selling book, The Productivity Project. In fact, only a few minutes of meditation can produce amazing results.

Meditation is this easy (adapted from Bailey’s book):

1. Find someplace quiet where you won’t be interrupted, and sit upright in a relaxed but alert position (a chair works well for most everyone)
2. You can keep your eyes open or closed, whatever helps you feel more alert and focused
3. Set a timer for how long you want to meditate (it is recommended to start with 5–10 minutes. Bailey, for example, now meditates for 30 minutes per day)
4. Focus on your breath. Don’t try to control or analyze your breath; just observe it and the physical sensations that take place in your body as you breathe in and out
5. When your mind wanders — and it will wander — just bring your attention back to focus on your breath and the physical sensations. You’ll have to do this repeatedly while you meditate

That’s it. And this simple practice, as Bailey says, “helps you regain control over your attention — and by extension, your brain — and prevents it from wandering when you don’t want it to.”

This simplicity had me ready to take the plunge.

While this all seemed easy enough to do myself, as a total newbie I decided to get started with guided, 10-minute meditations via the Headspace app upon the recommendation of a friend.

I just completed the first 10 consecutive days and it has been a simple and welcoming way to get going. I just press play and am guided through the process each day, and have settled into a nice routine. I have been meditating for 10 minutes first thing in the morning, followed by exercise (on most days I go for a 30-minute run in the morning).

I’m only at the very beginning of integrating meditation into my daily life, but I already appreciate the way it clears my mind, slows me down, and centers me for the day ahead.

I’ll share more experiences as I make meditation an ongoing daily habit, but I am now convinced of its remarkable benefits and surprising simplicity.