The Ideal Day…? Putting It All Together.

So, how to put all these elements together to fool our bodies that we don’t live in the Neolithic EMF hellholes that so many of us do? Here’s my take on it and how I try to mitigate many of our disconnects from our ancestral lifestyle and hopefully allow my body to heal and/or stay healthy…

I hasten to add that this is an ideal day. I mess up often, and life can get in the way, but I’d say most days, I do most of these, and many days I do all of them.

The first thing that I do when I wake up is to express gratitude. Nothing fancy – I just think of my amazing partner, my gorgeous and hilarious kids and my easy, privileged life compared to most of the planet and really appreciate them… and of course my gratitude for healing from a horrible disease and the knowledge that process brought me.

It’s very easy to allow feelings of overwhelm to catch us when we wake up and think of all our stresses, but a little gratitude before the dread sets in can set a very different tone for the whole day. I used to be a serious yogi for many years and meditate for hours a day, but now that has faded for me. Life is meditation enough… But, if you do meditate or similar, then this is also a good time… as long as you understand the limitations of meditation… but I digress. For more entrances to that rabbit hole, check out my post…

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Or my interviews on more esoteric matters…

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and

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As soon as I’m out of bed, the first thing is to get outside. My favourite morning of the week is always Monday. Whenever I can, I go fishing overnight on Sundays, so when the rest of the world is struggling to work, I wake up on my comfy bedchair in my bivvy, overlooking a gorgeous lake. I set up a chair outside, and after a night of no artificial light, I get to see the sun rise with my bare feet on the ground and watch nature go about its business… I really don’t give a shit if I catch anything or not (well, almost…) because it’s so magical to be outside. I always feel my best on Mondays, but I digress…

So, on normal days, I’ll go outside and get my feet on the ground too – wet grass is great. I don’t care if it’s raining or snowing – this has to be done – minimal clothing too. I look towards the sunrise, which, in the UK, is very often just a dull glow behind grey clouds, but we do the best we can. Morning sun in the eyes is so important…

I will also do some exercise while outside too, as long as the weather isn’t too horrendous – some sun salutes, burpees, pushups etc – just to get the lymphatic system moving. I used to train heavy at this time, but I just don’t have the size and strength goals I used to. I do take every muscle to total failure once a week or so though, with bodyweight-only super slow exercises. This only takes about ten minutes. In the spring/summer/autumn, if it’s light enough, I might also go out on the mountain bike for a few sprints. If not, I might do some sprints on a small rebounder in my garage.

Next up is a shower. I’ll start with warm and then cold at the end. Just a couple of minutes does me now, running most of it over my back where the most brown adipose tissue (good fat) is located. I used to do a lot more – long cold baths – and would recommend this very strongly to anyone who has any metabolic or inflammatory issue. More info on CT can be found at Jack Kruse’s excellent website and his cold thermogenesis series…

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and…

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Usually I’m not hungry for quite some time, so I might just start to work on the computer, or maybe practise some drums or learn songs for an upcoming gig. I work from home (so I appreciate I have it easier than most), and spend a lot of time at the computer, writing, proofing, attending to social media etc, so I need to be wary of being too inactive. Every half an hour, I’ll get up, walk around, run up and down the stairs, do some yoga or somatics or even go outside for a bit more grounding – minimal clothes again. Feeling the seasons is so important. Get out of that air-conditioned or centrally heated environment as much as you can and get the weather, whatever it is, on your skin and and retinas. Here’s a more detailed post I wrote a while back on feeling the seasons…

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Or if you’re interested in somatics, a good friend of mine sells a great instructional video on my site…

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If I’m on the computer for any length of time I will also wear blueblocking glsses too, even in the daytime. We also have our computers hardwired to the router via Ethernet cables – no WiFi. My mobile phone is also on airplane mode unless I’m actually using it… Yes, I’m a nightmare to get hold of by phone! We have no cordless phones in the house either. More thoughts on all these factors in a post I did about the main causes of disease and what to do about them…

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Eating and drinking? Easy. According to thirst and hunger – meat and water. It might be at 10am and 4pm or so, or maybe just once a day between about midday to 2pm. I don’t like eating too late. I like to feel totally empty at bedtime – I sleep much better.

If it’s summer, or if you live somewhere where you are lucky enough that the weather is good all year round, go outside at midday and get as much sun as you’re comfortable with on as much of your body as you can – naked is best! No sunscreen, no sunglasses, and stop short of burning (but if you do, don’t panic – a mild burn is actually far less harmful than we have been led to believe). Depending on your skin type, you will get all you need out of the sun at different exposure times. I am pasty white English, so I can’t take much (although far more now I eat no carbs and get sunlight on my retinas), but my partner, being from Tanzania, and my kids being mixed race, they can stay out all day. You can imagine how little I see of them on holiday – I’m inside already toasted when they are just warming up.

Very often when I talk to Jack Kruse he asks me if I still have my black missus in the north of England, and berates me for not moving nearer the equator… and he’s right. He describes her as “a cactus in the tundra”, and it is a real issue. So many dark skinned people are very vitamin D deficient in northern countries. Perhaps the fucking 4G mast (Vodafone so we don’t even get better O2 reception while they fry us) that they have put up near our house will force us to get our act together and move – every cloud…

In the evening, the lights go off at about 7pm and candles go on. If we watch a screen, we use blueblocking glasses. Unless I have a gig, in which case I’ll have a nap at about 5pm because I’ll be out late, I get to bed by about 10 or 11pm… but sometimes with the blueblocking glasses on, I’ll be dozing long before that. Actually, I lie… I often crash right out and wake up about 2am on the sofa with a blanket over me that my partner has left before she goes to bed (she’s more of an evening person than me and has more staying power at that end of the day – I like mornings!).

I also tend to sleep biphasically (which is actually rather natural), getting three cycles of about 80 minutes and then getting up for an hour or two and chilling out, writing or even watching a film… with the glasses on of course. I like this peaceful time. Then I go back to bed and get another two cycles of 80… kids permitting. More on that on a blog post I did about sleep…

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And that’s about it. This way I feel my circadian cycles are in harmony with nature’s. It’s not a big mystery, and it’s really not hard to do at all. We don’t have to live in a cave or on a perfect beach… Well, if you want really optimal health, actually perhaps you do… but we can certainly hack our environment to make it far less harmful while we plan our escape.

 

So, to recap…

Wake up – gratitude or meditation.

Get outside, get grounded and get light in your eyes and on your skin.

Exercise.

Eat low carb and only when you’re hungry – preferably when the sun is up.

Get as much midday sun as your skin type can handle, preferably naked.

Protect from EMFs and artificial light.

Break up inactivity with regular movement.

No blue light in the evenings.

Originally posted 2017-12-30 13:47:05.