Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex

by Aubrey Marcus

We have to transcend the tendency to place all of our effort on one thing at a time, instead of one day at a time.

What is more likely is that everything else falls out of balance while you doggedly pursue your eight-pack abs.

We are going to focus on that single indivisible unit. That twenty-four hours. Just one day.

Focus on the micro, in other words, and the macro takes care of itself. That’s the approach we’re going to take: The way to own your life is to own your day. Today. Because that’s all you have.

You want to take control of your day from the word go. So hydrate immediately (not with coffee!), then seek light and get moving to reset your internal clock. That’s three simple things to do within twenty minutes of waking—and your day will be primed for perfection.

The components of my morning mineral cocktail are water, sea salt, and a splash of lemon.

Morning Mineral Cocktail 12 ounces filtered water 3 grams sea salt 1/4 lemon, squeezed

For those of us not quite that lucky and who also do not have a line item for water in our grocery budgets, the next best thing is filtered water—either through a Brita pitcher you fill and stick in the refrigerator, a Pur filter you attach straight to your kitchen faucet, or whatever high-quality filter is available near you.

you need to add mineral electrolytes, like those found in sea salt, to get you properly hydrated and mineralized. A small pinch of sea salt into distilled or filtered water should help reset the balance. Add a wedge of lemon juice for some additional refreshing nutrients (a lighter version of the morning mineral cocktail) and you’ve optimized your water.

As for which sea salt to choose, pink Himalayan salt comes from ancient oceanic deposits—long before oil tankers and Jet Skis were crisscrossing Earth’s waters—and also has the benefit of additional iron, which gives it its pink hue. For women who tend to be lower in iron, cooking, seasoning, and mineralizing with pink salt is a great option. But any regular old sea salt will do, as long as it comes from a good source.

The strongest synchronizing agent for the circadian system? You guessed it: light. Specifically, blue light. Even more specifically, environmental light, aka sunlight, which is the most natural and abundant source of blue light.

There is real science behind adding a few minutes of playful activity in the morning. Even light exercise boosts circulation and improves cognitive performance. It releases endorphins and, most important of all, helps entrain that fickle bastard, our circadian rhythm.

First, the water should be room temperature. When you’re looking to maximize mineral absorption and aid digestion, room temperature is always best for any beverage. And second, the salt needs to dissolve or stay off the bottom

The best way to avoid that problem is to simply mix the cocktail in a shaker or a water bottle.

Upon waking, either from sleep or a nap, blast yourself with five to ten minutes of direct blue-light exposure. Ideally, you’ll be able to do this by stepping outside and exposing as much of your skin as possible to that giant yellow orb in the sky,

what we’re talking about here is not a morning workout. This is morning movement. There are many ways to get this movement in. Even just light movement will increase core temperature, cortisol, circulation, and the release of endorphins that will make you more alert, and put that grogginess behind you. I want it to be fun for you, so pick what you like: light yoga, pushups, air squats, jumping jacks, a Richard Simmons clip on YouTube.

Here are some of my go-to morning movements. QUICK AND DIRTY: 1–3 MINUTES Twenty-three burpees.

SLOW AND SEXY: 5–10 MINUTES This is a little yoga flow I developed for the morning.

Pro Tip—Rebounder Buy a dorky little mini trampoline called a rebounder to get the juices flowing.

The point here is not to exercise, it is to elevate your heart rate and get the lead out—all without crossing the threshold for activity that requires some form of recovery.

collectively and individually, we are in a dysfunctional relationship with stress. We have too much of the bad, chronic kind, and not enough of the good, acute kind.

STEP 1: THIRTY TO FIFTY POWER BREATHS Inhale through the nose or mouth into the belly with deep, powerful breaths. Exhale without additional effort, just let the chest fall. Keep a steady pace and make sure to focus on drawing the breath deep into your belly. Do this until you feel a slight light-headedness and a tingling sensation in your extremities. That is the sign that a shift is happening and your blood is hyperoxygenated. For most people that effect starts to kick in around thirty breaths, but it can take up to fifty, depending on certain factors. Note: It’s important not to overbreathe to the point of serious light-headedness, strong tingles, or involuntary closing of the hands.

STEP 2: THE HOLD (RETENTION AFTER EXHALATION) After the thirty to fifty breaths, or once you start to feel the tingling, draw the breath in one more time and fill the lungs to maximum capacity. Then calmly let the air out and hold for as long as you can at the bottom of the breath. You don’t need to set a world record, just hold your breath until you feel that gasp reflex and you really want to breathe again.

The part that is particularly unique to Wim is the holding of the breath with empty lungs. Temporarily depriving yourself of breath releases some of the same hormones that coffee produces, namely adrenaline and norepinephrine. This is what makes Wim’s method not just relaxing, like much of the focus of conscious breathing, but energizing.

At its most basic, hormesis is a biological phenomenon in which low-dose exposure to an environmental agent (called a “hormetic stressor”) produces a beneficial effect, while a higher-dose exposure produces a toxic effect. The layman’s explanation for this odd duality is often summarized by the famous Friedrich Nietzsche quote: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” In theory, it can apply to nearly any activity, but for our purposes we are focused on the good kind of stressors, which are natural and acute. The ones that happen quickly and then pass, which create a hormetic response that triggers the body to repair itself and adapt to handling the same or greater stress in the future—aka grow.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a top investigative researcher into the benefits of various hormetic stressors like the cold, put together a brilliant 22-page document highlighting the many research-based advantages of cold exposure, including benefits for brain health, pain management, longevity, fat loss, athletic performance, immune health, and mood.

When it comes to heat, sitting in a sauna, steam room, sauna suit, or traditional sweat lodge and sweating buckets may not seem like the greatest way to spend the morning, but it might actually save your life. In addition to reducing all-cause mortality, hyperthermic conditioning, as it is called, helps blood flow to skeletal muscle and surrounding tissue, supporting circulation and muscle growth. It can help train your cardiovascular system and lower your resting heart rate; it can even assist with detoxification, since sweat transports minerals, both good and bad, out of the body.

sweat can transport things like lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury out of your system, but it’s gonna take the good stuff with them too. So when it comes to detoxification, make sure you put back all those good minerals after you’re done sucking out all the bad ones. In terms of sheer effectiveness, build up to forty minutes, being mindful to stay hydrated and take as many rounds as you need to reach the forty-minute threshold.

Unlike the power shower, which likely needs longer exposure to produce benefit, submersion for even twenty seconds in 40-degree water can provide the norepinephrine release we are looking for. But we’re still going to shoot for two minutes, because it’s the amount of time often studied for cryotherapy, and also because it is unlikely you are going to get your bath to 40 degrees.

Hard-core enthusiasts aiming for the 40-degree mark will want more. Kyle Kingsbury, former UFC veteran and director of human optimization for Onnit, explained that it cost him $40 in ice every time he wanted to plunge. That adds up. One solution is to freeze buckets of water in your freezer

you can do the polar plunge every day that you feel healthy (you don’t want to do cold immersion when you’re sick or already under a simultaneous acute stress load). Contrast is not necessary, but for me it seems to produce the best effect. Listen to your body, not to your mind.

The Polar Plunge Do the Wim Hof cycle of thirty breaths while still on dry land. Rest for a moment. Prepare an ice bath, or jump in water as cold as you can find. Set a timer for two minutes, or start playing a song that is two minutes long. Continue slow, deep breaths until you can breathe calmly and normally (remember, the cold will make you want to gasp for air). If you have extensive experience (or have a buddy with you in case you pass out), submerge completely. Get out of the water at the end of two minutes. Optional: Go into a warm shower or sauna to create contrast. If you feel up to it, complete a full additional round of cold shock. Be mindful not to push too hard, as the key to hormesis is not overdoing it.

Tony Robbins has a boatload more responsibility than me, but he takes ten minutes every morning to Wim Hof–breathe and pencil-dive into a sub-50-degree plunge pool in his backyard.

As the great swordsman Miyamoto Musashi said, “Today is victory over yourself of yesterday, tomorrow is victory over a lesser foe.” If you can conquer the acute natural stress of something like freezing water, something that makes you stronger—even grow to love it—you can conquer anything.

one of the best ways to deal with chronic stress is to seek certain forms of acute stress. Through a process called hormesis, acute stress will help you adapt and become stronger.

there is a time and place for carbohydrates, but it isn’t breakfast.

The good fats—saturated fats, cholesterol, triglycerides, and omegas of all sorts—are the ones found in unprocessed meats, dairy, fish, butter, egg yolks, olives, avocados, coconuts, and raw nuts, and should be sought out for breakfast. Here is a closer look at five of my all-time favorites that I regularly reach for at my first meal of the day: WHOLE-FAT YOGURT

Pro Tip: Coconut Yogurt for Millionaires

AVOCADO

I like to eat half an avocado with lime, sea salt, and cayenne when I want a lush, nutrient-dense snack or a quick breakfast and I don’t have time to sit down to a proper meal.

BONE BROTH Soup for breakfast? You’re damn right. It’s the perfect way to start your day. Bone broth may not be the miracle cure that everyone claims it to be, but it is damn good for you.

BACON

As long as your bacon has not been pumped full of hormones or antibiotics or cured with artificial preservatives, those delicious slices of hog tummy are a fun way to get some fat and some protein on the plate. Just be sure not to burn the bacon (sorry, crispy bacon lovers), as the charring will add in some nasty antinutrients

BUTTER

Grass-fed butter, like Kerrygold, contains CLA, a potent nutrient with its own class of benefits, along with a great serving of saturated fat to fuel you into the day. Cook your scrambled eggs in it, blend it into tea or coffee, add it to your vegetables with a little sea salt.

There is a time and place for sugar—it’s just never going to be at breakfast.

Contrary to the shitty advice that became popular over the last decade, you don’t want to be eating small snacks throughout the day. That is only good for athletes training at extremely high intensity.

It is also generally going to be better to reserve the more complex and hard-to-digest foods for later in the day, since the morning correlates to the lowest levels of digestive enzymes and gastric acid. Eggs are easier to digest than red meat, for example. This is also why I like smoothies for breakfast, as everything is already premasticated by the teeth of the blender.

Essential Supplements

GREENS BLEND