The Daily Routine I Use To Supercharge My Body, Mind & Spirit

This blog post accompanies a video summary I’ve posted on YouTube. Because I am currently injured, I encourage you to watch the post in order to make the most of this post.

In my video, I talk about how I used Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod as inspiration in order to create my own “Savers” that help me ensure that I can perform at the highest level regardless of what is happening around me (mental health, injury, relationship issues, work etc.)

Sleep

I aim to get 8 hours of sleep per night. This was difficult for me in the past but what I found works the best is keeping a consistent routine.

1. Find a consistent sleep schedule you can maintain 7 days a week and do not deviate from that more than 30 minutes per day. I do not sleep in on the weekend.
2. I’ve tried and continued some of the supplements recommended by Andrew Huberman in his “sleep cocktail” stack. You should see what works best for your body. My body chemistry is very different — for example, Ambien, a very powerful sleep medication makes me extremely hyper.
3. I also use a mattress topper that cools my bed down. This has been a game changer for me as I tend to sleep hot and wake up because of it. I use Ooler by Sleep.me. I looked into 8 Sleep (a competitor) but their mattress is a foam mattress (my spondi back cannot do foam) and you can wash the Ooler topper vs 8 Sleep you cannot wash (gross!), as much as I admire 8 Sleep as a company.
4. Ideally, if you can, reduce bright lights (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom) about 3 hours before bed. Don’t eat food 3 hours before bed. Avoid social media or anything that might increase your heart rate before bed. Best to read a book, journal, do arts & crafts, meditate, sit outside.
5. I also find that respecting your circadian rhythm matters. I won’t rehash what Huberman has done so please listen to this post for more details.

Silence

1. You can meditate, color, journal, pray, sit outside with your coffee and take in the sounds of nature. Ideally you want to be silent and listen to yourself. Try to do this every day.
2. I recently started doing mandala coloring meditation that I find helps my mind wander and discover new ideas. This is the one I bought and love.
3. Meditation doesn’t mean you have to sit under a tree and be silent. You can walk and have it be a meditation.

Breathwork

This has been the biggest game changer for me. It is the most effective stress management tool there is. It will directly impact your brain, your heart and your life. I cannot say enough about breathing and the importance of doing it right.

1. I wrote a post about a new device I am using to train my respiratory system.
2. Other apps you might want to check out that I enjoy using as well: Breathwrk, Breathing and Othership.
3. One cool hack I learned is the importance of doing 3–5 minutes of breathing post exercise to begin your recovery process.
4. One way to track if breathing is effective is you measure your HRV (nervous system resilience metric) before and after. I use a device that is no longer available called “Elite HRV” but they now have apps where you can do biofeedback of HRV in realtime to know how effective your meditation or breathing exercises are.
5. For HRV check out this blog post that lists some biofeedback companies you can try.

Exercise

This will depend on the individual. For some, hitting 8K steps per day is sufficient. For some it’s 10K or 12K. Remember the 10K steps you hear quoted often is just an arbitrary number someone made up. If you normally walk 4K steps, try to double it. Slowly increase your activity level over time.

There is a lot of talk abut Zone 2 Cardio these days. Zone 2 Cardio is a prescribed amount of cardio at a very specific heart rate zone in order to create and maintain a baseline cardio level.

1. I use MyZone Heartrate app as I prefer a chest strap monitor as it will be more accurate than a wrist watch (Apple, FitBit, etc.) during exercise.
2. You can also use apps online or buy your own exercise equipment. I have a Bosu ball, a mini-trampoline, a bike, a vibration plate, a slide board (for skating), and several bands/weights/resistance equipment. It doesn’t take much to create a home gym.
3. You can also watch videos on YouTube. Back in the day, I loved to take kickboxing classes. That is an easy way to get cardio at home while working on strength, speed and flexiblity.

The goal is to MOVE! Every day! This will help your brain and body.

Mobility

While mobility and flexibility are related, they are not the same thing. Mobility is the joint’s ability to move, while flexibility is the muscle’s ability to stretch. Mobility and flexibility are not interchangeable, and it is possible to have good mobility without being flexible, and vice versa. For example, someone may have good mobility in their hips but poor flexibility in their hamstrings, while another person may have good flexibility in their hamstrings but poor mobility in their hips.

There are stretch gyms now like Stretch Zone that are popping up in various places but you should really aim to create a stretching routine you can do daily.

Once again, YouTube can be your friend here and it is free. Here are some of my favorite

1. Animal Flow
2. Train Like A Ballerina
3. Glo
4. The Ready State

Nutrition

This one is tricky and I advise that you get professional help. I’ve been on every single diet on earth. A few things to consider here is your schedule, personality and previous experience with food.

I use MyFitnessPal to track my food intake. I also use a food scale like this one to measure my food intake.

What is most important is that you stay accountable to yourself. A lot of times people struggle with nutrition because they fail to be honest with themselves about how much they are eating or the types of food they are eating. I don’t believe in dieting but rather eating in moderation.

If you are more advanced in your nutrition journey, you can use a CGM like Levels to learn more in real time how food is affecting your body. You don’t need to use a CGM all the time but I learned a lot when I was able to see in real time the impact of glucose on my body and pair that with how I was feeling (emotionally, energy wise etc.) There are other CGMs in the market like Nutrisense and Veri.

Tracking takes time but in my case, when I’m injured I’m not working out as much so it is important that I stay within the boundaries so I don’t get out of shape quickly and struggle to regain my fitness.

Visualization

I made a quick video on YouTube about Mind Videos and you can also read the blog I wrote about this topic here. This will work with a high degree of certainty and currently used by several of my skater friends to overcome their own fears or roadblocks on the ice.

Mindset

It is tough to stay mentally strong when things are not going well but if you continuously feed your mind positive affirmations, you will stay in a more positive state.

Ways to stay positive:

1. Watch Ted Talks on YouTube. Or popular speeches. I love some good trash talking by Muhammad Ali.
2. I’ve been using an app called PepTalk that has thousands of motivational speeches and will listen while I’m working out.
3. Download books on Audible from inspiring authors like Kobe Bryant (RIP), David Goggins, Jocko Willink.
4. Listen to Podcasts. I love to listen when I’m driving or walking so that my mind stays occupied on positive things. My favorite podcasts are Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, The Tim Ferris Show, The Neuro Experience with Louisa Nicola, Everybody Pulls the Tarp with Andrew Moses, The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes and Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais.
5. I watched every single Rocky movie when I broke my leg. Watch inspirational movies. I love Rudy, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Rocky films, etc. I am not a big TV / movie watcher anymore as my attention span doesn’t allow me to stay focused on one task for long. I prefer audiobooks and podcasts where I could walk or do house work while still learning.

Joyspotting

I wrote about this one too in more depth but part of the reason why I do joyspotting and not gratitude journaling is that I feel that I have a lot to be grateful for. Yet…I still experienced depression, anxiety, hopelessness etc. I found that joyspotting makes me feel more connected to the experience of being alive because every day I have to actively be looking for something that brings me joy. You’d be surprised how difficult it can be to feel joy.

Please drop me a note below on what it is that you do that you feel has totally changed the game for you in terms of your daily routine? Let’s build on this list together and share your ideas, tools and apps that you use that make you the person you are today!