If you’re just joining the Bare Minimum Mondays posts, here’s the premise…
Action always gets more results than ideas. (Related to this: the thing you do is better than the thing you don’t do, progress is better than perfection, consistency, even with something small, is more effective than occasional bursts of excellence).
Every Monday, we send out things to try in four areas: movement (exercise), nutrition, sleep, and stress management. These are, without question, the four most powerful tools available for tackling a massive number of maladies. The goal isn’t for you to do all of them forever. It’s not even for you to do all of them this week. The goal is to give you enough things to try that you can find a couple that stick, and then for you to have some intentionality in each of those areas that you can stick with for the rest of your life.
Take what you need, discard the rest.
Let’s get into it.
Move
Walk briskly for 5 minutes around your block after dinner. Walking, especially after a meal, helps improve blood sugar control and can be a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.
Eat
Have a rainbow‑colored salad once this week. What does that mean? Try to include something red (tomatoes, for example), something orange (carrots), something yellow (bell peppers), etc. Varying your produce consumption gives you exposure to a whole host of micronutrients and keeps things interesting.
Sleep
Stick to a consistent wake‑up time this week, even on weekends. Consistent wake times are consistently linked to better sleep efficiency. The caveat is that it takes a few days of this for times to become consistent.
Manage
Spend 5 minutes in quiet mindfulness—noticing sights and sounds. This is not about “clearing” or “emptying” your mind. Simply noticing the sights and sounds is enough to reduce stress and improve focus.