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

by Aubrey Marcus

Pro Tip: Fry with Avocado Oil Avocado oil has the highest smoke point of all cooking oils.

consider adding a daily dose (about 1/4 cup) of cilantro to your diet. Packed with vitamins and minerals, cilantro (or coriander leaves, if you’re not from North America) in moderation has been shown in several studies to have the unique ability to help the body chelate (a fancy word for “eliminate”) heavy metal accumulation.

Sprouting or fermentation disable and degrade phytic acid in plant seeds so that the grain can burst through, increasing vitamins like folate, vitamin C, and vitamin E, and nutrients like lysine, a crucial amino acid for immune health, in the process. The tastiest version of this process is probably sourdough bread.

The best way to handle the oxalate in your leafy greens is simply to boil or cook them,

of all the biohacks in the world, if I had to personally choose to keep only one, it would be my binaural beats.

You can find binaural beats tracks for sale online or on YouTube, but to get you started I have hosted two of mine for free at aubreymarcus.com/beats.

At the base of the pyramid, where you will naturally consume most of your training, is mobility and flexibility, which, combined, we call durability.

CARDIO—10 MINUTES The second tier of the pyramid is the cardio system.

while high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an effective way to build your cardio base, and has been shown to improve VO2 max and peak anaerobic power output, there is still a strong argument for including traditional steady-state cardio like running, swimming, biking, rowing, and the elliptical machine into your workout. It’s good for variety, for laying the foundation for greater endurance, and for those beginning training or coming back after a long layoff.

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE—8 MINUTES The third tier is muscular endurance.

Middle-distance running (soccer), swimming, hiking up a mountain, mixed martial arts, power yoga. To train muscular endurance, unconventional tools work great.

Sprinting, plyometrics, and unconventional tools like battle ropes are all great easy, low-skill ways to train full-body power development.

Middle-aged and older adults have up to a 30 percent greater risk of dying from all causes when lonely and living alone.

The best timing for bread is dinner, after your glycogen stores have been depleted by exercise, and you’re about to head into the winter of your day . . . sleep. So if bread and butter is your thing, do it the right way, with grass-fed butter on sprouted or sourdough.

there are actually quite a few important minerals in popcorn, including much-needed magnesium along with iron and zinc.

the big reason to eat popcorn and dispense with the fiction that it’s a secret indulgence to be enjoyed in the dark of a movie theater is the whopping 15 grams of insoluble fiber that come with it,

If we tell our body something is poison, it becomes more poisonous. If we convince ourselves that it is healthy, it becomes more healthy.

One of the most common digestive mistakes people make is consuming cold beverages while they eat. Any beverage dilutes the HCL in your stomach, making the overall acid concentration acting on your food weaker, while the cold slows down your digestion

Ginger has the ability to speed up the time it takes your stomach to pass food to your digestive tract by up to 50 percent.

foods with high dietary nitrate levels that are easily converted into the biological signal of nitric oxide: beets, pumpkin seeds, Swiss chard, arugula, watermelon, red wine, dark chocolate. Eat as many of those as possible with dinner.

For overall health and optimal mood and physical performance, you need to pair any sugar you consume with something that slows its absorption into the body—and the two things that do that are fat and fiber.

getting the dessert after a high-carb meal is how you get fat.

there are natural alternatives that not only taste better but have virtually no negative impact on the body. Stevia and monk fruit are foremost among them.

adding soluble fiber, like what is found in chia and psyllium, dramatically reduced the impact on blood glucose of high-carbohydrate foods.

A couple of other things can lower blood sugar after a meal, as well, through sheer witchcraft and sorcery. Those things are Ceylon cinnamon and apple cider vinegar.

15 minutes of low-intensity walking is enough to significantly drop blood sugar levels.

THE ULTIMATE HANGOVER CURE Step 1: Rehydrate,

Drink a liter of natural spring water with the addition of a total of 5 grams of Himalayan salt within the first two hours of waking up. Keep drinking water heavily until you pee at least twice. Additional magnesium is also a really good idea before bed, as it further assists with step 2, the reduction of acetaldehyde. Step 2: Reduce the Toxic Burden of Acetaldehyde

supplement with some molybdenum (300 mcg) prior to bed, and again in the morning.

Step 3: Balance Your Neurotransmitters

L-theanine, which occurs naturally in green tea, is great at mimicking the effects of GABA. Matcha, as we described in chapter 6, is the best source.

Fortunately, there are numerous ways to naturally boost testosterone and hit the gas so your sex machine gets going again. Here are three: Eat fat. To synthesize hormones like testosterone, the body requires adequate production of saturated fat and cholesterol.

Get sleep. Sleep is the time when the testosterone factory is open for business.

Lift heavy. When training under anaerobic conditions such as lifting heavy weights or sprinting, you are signaling to the body that you are the type of animal that needs to produce testosterone to flourish.

I try to journal every night. My process has two parts, both of which should fit on a single page. I start by writing down my mission and three main objectives for the following day, before then carrying on to more cathartic or freestyle journaling.

I prefer books built on philosophical or spiritual topics, because that is the headspace I deliberately put myself in as I wind down my day.

There are four essential steps to the restorative, wind-down period prior to sleep: You gotta check out and turn off your phone and email so you can check in with yourself and the ones you love. You gotta open up your journal and get your mind off the hamster wheel that creates the mental static and anxiety that prevent so many of us from owning our days. You gotta enjoy the cuddle huddle: playing, watching, reading. You gotta brush your damn teeth and soak your damn bones.

I’ll brew up a tea (Ron Teeguarden Longevity Tea, Tulsi Sweet Rose Tea, or Republic of Tea Milk Thistle). Sometimes it’s a reishi mushroom latte with Four Sigmatic reishi and Onnit vanilla emulsified MCT oil (or another emulsified MCT oil).

The reality is, there are four phases to sleep: awake and resting; light sleep; deep sleep; and REM sleep. And while each of these phases is helpful, the two most important are deep sleep and REM sleep.

Studies have indicated a correlation between sleep disturbances and exposure to EMF frequencies, so do your best to keep any high-powered devices away from your sleeping area. This includes, most important, your smartphone.

nothing is quite like the fresh, oxygenating power of plants. They’re a simple, cheap, effective way to get better sleep.

Shawn Stevenson, likes English ivy, NASA’s top recommended air-filtering plant, and the perennial snake plant, which is nocturnal and releases oxygen during the night

I generally recommend that you stop intake of fluids a minimum of sixty minutes before bed. That is usually the least time it takes you to pass excess fluid.

Emergency Sleep Cocktail 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (dry spice) 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon turmeric Dash of black pepper Mix ingredients in 10–12 ounces filtered water. Drink.

In my coaching course “Go for Your Win,” I have everyone choose a single phrase they can tell themselves whenever times get tough. They need it (we all do, frankly) because in the absence of success or in the presence of obstacles, forgiveness will only take you halfway.

Psychologists agree that there are four keys to compelling positive action: (1) know what to do and how to do it; (2) believe it will work; (3) see the value; and (4) get support from your community/tribe/family.

The Hawaiian kahunas (shamans) have a practice for radical forgiveness they call Ho’oponopono, the purpose of which is to get you to a completely clean slate, a state of mind called the zero state (also the title of a book by Joe Vitale). It is a simple dialogue you have with yourself or a loved one, which requires you to say four things.

“I love you.” Love is the appropriate bond that can unify all aspects of yourself. To express this love sets the foundation for all the communication to follow. “I’m sorry.” This is to clear you of any guilt you may carry for the times you’ve done yourself wrong—from negative self-talk to forcing your body to cope with way too much cheap tequila. “Forgive me.” The humble act of asking for forgiveness, when sincere, is not often opposed. Grant yourself the forgiveness you seek. “Thank you.” This is an expression of gratitude to your body and your mind, not only for the forgiveness but for everything it has given you. It’s gotten you this far, after all, right?