Years go by and we find ourself working hard, being busy with family, doing our hobbies after what ever time we have from kids hobbies, taking care of our elderly and just counting days for the next holiday, which is still months away.

Everywhere reads we should be active and do sports to live healthy life. What’s often left to the background is the importance of recovery. However busy and active we are we should really make the time to wind down. And with that I don’t mean taking the time of from work. I mean being more aware of three important things; 1) Deep sleep, 2) Resting heart rate, and 3) Healthy eating. Let’s see them in more detailed.

Deep sleep

Sleep is not the boring part between memorable moments. It’s what makes those moments possible. When you sleep, your body and mind regenerate from the stress of the day. And the need for sleep never goes away — especially if you’re pushing yourself creatively, professionally or athletically. Getting enough restorative sleep helps you manage your weight, stay healthier longer, perform at your best, to be more productive and to avoid hangry mistakes.

We humans operate according to a circadian rhythm. It’s a roughly 24-hour rhythm that sets the pace for our bodies and minds – in quite a steady manner. In principle, we should try to follow these so called internal clocks, and let our bodies function according to their pace. Disruptions in the rhythm (evident in shift-workers, for example) can cause different types of health problems such as sleep disorders, heartburn or ulcers.

Aligning your sleep schedule with your own unique circadian rhythm is very important for getting adequate amounts of deep and REM sleep, both of which play a significant role in your recovery. Deep sleep, or the final stage of NREM (or non-REM) sleep, is the time when your brain waves are at their lowest frequency and you are your hardest to wake up. (Compared to those of being awake and active at the other end of the spectrum). Think about any time you’ve been awoke in the middle of the night and you have a hard time waking up as you’re in an extremely groggy state — that’s deep sleep.

Deep sleep, is the time when our bodies are working hardest to recover — strengthening our minds and repairing our bodies from the previous day’s physical exertion. It’s no surprise that the people who often say they’re well rested have shown that they’ve had quality deep sleep.

Improving sleep should start by following the basics of what it takes for getting a better night’s rest: Exercise regularly. Eat healthy. Remove sources of noise or distraction from your bedroom and consider using ear plugs, a night mask or even a blackout shade.

Resting heart rate

Speed it up to slow it down! While during workouts, our goal is often to pick the heart rate up and keep it fast, the opposite is true for when we are done: we want the heart to settle at a comfortable, slow pace. Resting heart rate matters.

The resting heart rate for an adult typically varies between 60 and 100 beats per minute. With an average life expectancy of 75 and 85 years in most of the Western world countries, quick math reveals that the ticker should expect to be contracting anywhere between 2,365,200,000 and 4,467,600,000 times. Even without counting the zeros, it’s plain to see that’s a lot of work for one muscle. An athlete’s heart, on the other hand, is bigger and stronger than the average Joe’s and, therefore, needs far fewer beats to do its job.

The most significant health benefit of a low RHR is a substantially decreased risk of heart disease and cardiac events, like heart attacks. The potential immediate downsides of a fast-beating heart are low energy levels, chest pain or discomfort, reduced blood circulation, and chest pain or discomfort.

The good news is that there are some easy steps anyone can take to calm the heart down. One of the most effective ways is to practice relaxation, deep breathing techniques and meditation. Many find it helpful to go for a walk in the nature. A warm shower, bath or sauna can also provide prompt assistance.

Coffee-lovers should take note that stimulants like caffeine can cause dehydration, which in turn makes the heart work harder to stabilize the blood flow. And sorry, wine-lovers and beer-drinkers, but not only does alcohol have the same dehydrating effect on the body, it also delivers toxins into the body, making the heart work harder to process and remove them.

If you’re looking for a way to lower your RHR in an effective and more permanent way, the experts’ advice is unanimous: do more cardio. While strength training, too, makes the heart stronger, it is precisely cardiovascular exercise which, over time, increases the heart’s efficiency to regulate blood flow and distribute the oxygen which our bodies need for their systems. Studies have found that if an aerobic exercise is performed for a long time, it will affect the parasympathetic nerve, thus increasing stroke volume and lowering the resting heart rate.

Healthy eating

Imagine this scenario: it’s lunchtime and you’re sat in front of your computer, facing a never-ending solid wall of e-mails. You’ve been hunched over your screen without moving for five hours. Drafting a quick response, you press “send” and reach for the cheese and salad sandwich bought hurriedly on your commute to work. After a large bite, quick chew and swallow, you set the sandwich down, sip from your cup of coffee, and open the next email to repeat the process. Before you realise, lunch has disappeared without even noticing…

Our relationship with food is tangled up with thoughts and emotions; from a range of influences where food is used to sooth, distract, procrastinate, numb, entertain, seduce, reward, punish with the added factor of limited time. These factors can lead to us developing unhealthy eating habits with wider health and wellbeing implications.

The idea of eating consciously draws our attention to the different sensations experienced whilst eating. The whole approach encourages our natural curiosity to explore our inner cues to hunger and satiation and our relationship with food. This can include noticing the colours, scents, tastes, textures and sounds whilst eating. It means chewing slowly, getting rid of distractions like screens or books, and learning to cope with any associated guilt and anxiety around food.

Based on the advice of Harvard Medical School, here are 4 concrete ideas on how you can make your eating more conscious and healthy.

1. Try taking a deep breath before opening the fridge or cupboard and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?”. If not, do something else, like reading or heading outside for a short walk. Or try exploring the seven types of bodily hunger (eye, nose, mouth, stomach, cellular, mind and heart).
2. Savour your every bite and eat slowly with long pauses. Take small bites and chew well. Try eating silently for five minutes and reflecting on the origins of each food item. Think about the journey from farmer to shop to preparation to plate.
3. Try setting your kitchen timer to 20 minutes. This is the recommended time to eat a normal-sized meal. Or try eating with your non-dominant hand; if you’re a right handed, hold your fork in your left hand whilst eating. You can even try eating with chopsticks if you don’t normally use them. Stop eating when you feel full and feel able to leave food on the plate.
4. And finally, be flexible. If you overeat, simply “let it go” and move forward.

Make conscious eating into a habit. When should you consciously focus on eating? Every day and during every meal. We all have to eat regularly. It’s a basic biological requirement of being alive that fuels our bodies for physical movement and as knowledge workers; cognitive power.

Recovery is the single most important part of our life. Recovery allows for improved performance, permits time for our body to heal itself in preparation for the next day, and decreases the risk of potential injuries and deseases.

So take care of your Sleep, Heart rate and Eating habits!