Performance Requirements
An Introduction to Nourishing The Mind and Body
“Our mind is first and foremost a physical system. Oftentimes, what we experience as mental fatigue or emotional distress is simply a signal from our body that we’re not getting enough of something we physically need: nutrients, exercise, or rest.”
Josh Kaufman (Personal MBA)
Our Brains Deserves Premium Fuel
Our brain is a high-performance vehicle—it works best when fueled with high-quality nutrients. Dr. Eva Selhub compares the brain to an expensive car that runs best on premium fuel. Eating foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants protects the brain from oxidative stress. This stress happens when our bodies produce waste (free radicals) that can damage brain cells.
Our brains need 45 different nutrients to work at their best. While our bodies make some of these nutrients, others must come from our diets. So what should we eat?
Top 10 Brain Foods
Here are ten foods that are especially good for our brains, helping us stay sharp and focused:
Avocados: Full of healthy fats that keep brain cells strong and promote healthy blood flow.
Blueberries: Loaded with antioxidants, these little berries help protect our brains from damage and improve memory.
Broccoli: High in vitamins and antioxidants, broccoli helps boost brain power and protects against cognitive decline.
Dark Chocolate: Rich in flavonoids, dark chocolate improves memory, attention, and focus.
Eggs: A good source of choline, which supports memory and helps brain cells communicate.
Leafy Greens: Spinach, kale, and other greens are full of brain-protecting nutrients that can slow brain aging.
Salmon, Sardines, and Caviar: These fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids essential for brain health and can reduce inflammation.
Turmeric: Contains curcumin, a powerful compound that can help slow cognitive decline and reduce brain inflammation.
Walnuts: Packed with omega-3s and antioxidants, walnuts improve brain function and memory.
Water: Staying hydrated helps maintain focus, memory, and cognitive functions.
Brain-Boosting Recipes
We can fuel our brains with these tasty, nutritious recipes:
Morning Brain Tonic
Start the day with this drink: ginger, turmeric, and green tea. These ingredients help reduce inflammation and give our brain a gentle boost.
Morning Magic Smoothie
This smoothie has blueberries, spinach, and hemp seeds, which give our brains a quick dose of nutrients and energy to start the day right.
Brain Boost Salad
Made with arugula, spinach, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and avocado, this salad provides healthy fats and antioxidants to keep our brains sharp throughout the day.
Roasted Salmon & Broccoli
Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and broccoli contains vitamins that benefit the brain. Together, they make a delicious meal that supports brain health.
Cocoa-Cinnamon-Ginger Hot Chocolate
This warm drink combines almond milk, ginger, cocoa, and cinnamon to create a brain-friendly treat. It’s a tasty way to reduce inflammation and boost brain function.
Fuel Your Brain Throughout the Day
Our brains can’t run on empty. Like our bodies, they need regular “fuel” to keep going strong. Eating small snacks or meals every 2.5 hours helps keep our blood sugar stable and prevents energy crashes. Simple snacks like almonds or fruit can help.
Remember, what we eat directly impacts our brains. Avoid processed foods and refined sugar, and stick to whole, nutritious foods that support brain health.
The Importance of Exercise for Brain Health
Exercise is great for our bodies and brains. A study from the University of British Columbia found that regular aerobic exercise helps expand the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls memory and learning.
When we exercise, more blood and oxygen reach our brains, helping them work better. Exercise also helps our brains make new cells. It can even help us feel less stressed, improve our mood, and lower the chance of our brains slowing down as we age.
According to Brain Rules by John Medina, even light physical activity can give us more energy, help us think better, and make it easier to focus.
Why Exercise Helps Us
When we exercise, our muscles get bigger and stronger. These muscles can then handle more weight and make it easier for us to move without using too much energy. Muscles need protein to grow, so athletes often drink protein shakes to help their bodies.
Exercise also helps our cells absorb nutrients better and eliminate waste faster. Our cells store energy called ATP, which comes from our food. When cells are bigger and stronger, we can store more energy and use it more efficiently, so we don’t need to eat as much to keep going. This happens in our hearts, too, which is why people who exercise regularly have stronger hearts that don’t need to beat as fast to pump blood.
Good exercise form is vital because it helps our brain and body work together. Our nervous system learns to control muscles better, making movements more precise and efficient. This saves energy and makes us stronger. Dancers, for example, have well-coordinated bodies.
Exercise also helps our bodies make important chemicals like hormones and neurotransmitters. These chemicals control things like our mood, sleep, and digestion. That’s why exercise can make us feel happier, sleep better, and manage stress more efficiently.
Hormones like testosterone (more common in men) help muscles grow. Exercise also improves skin, bone, and joint health. Bones become stronger and less likely to break, making skin healthier and firmer.
Exercise doesn’t burn many calories on its own, which is why athletes carefully control what they eat when trying to lose weight. For overweight people, it’s better to focus on eating healthy first and then add exercise later. Feeling tired after exercise happens because we’ve used up our ATP energy. But the more we exercise, the faster our bodies can make ATP, helping us exercise more with less effort.
All these benefits work together to make our bodies stronger, faster, healthier, and more efficient. This is what we mean when we say exercise makes us "healthy."
Mental Wellness: Clean Thoughts, Clean Space
Our brains work best when our environment and mindset are clean and clear.
Avoid Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs): Don’t let negative thinking limit what we can achieve. As the saying goes, “If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
Clean Environment: A cluttered space can clutter our minds. Keeping our surroundings clean and free of distractions will help us focus better. Air quality also matters—research shows air pollution is linked to strokes and dementia.
Positive Peer Group: The people around us impact our brains. Social connections and support from friends and family can positively influence our decision-making and overall brain health.
Protecting Our Brains: Prevention is Key
Taking care of our brains is crucial for long-term health. Here’s how we can protect it:
Avoid Hard Contact Sports: Sports that involve extreme contact or risk of accidents can harm our brains. We must protect our heads and avoid activities that could lead to serious injury.
Keep Learning: Our brain thrives when we keep challenging it. Learning new things, trying new activities, and pushing ourselves to grow create new pathways in our brains, strengthening them.
Manage Stress: Chronic stress can physically change our brains. Long-term stress strengthens the parts of our brain that handle survival but weakens the parts responsible for complex thinking. Managing stress through mindfulness, meditation, or relaxation techniques is essential for brain health.
Why Sleep is Essential for Brain Function
Sleep is like a washing cycle for our brain. During sleep, our brain clears toxins that build up throughout the day, like amyloid-beta, which is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Getting enough sleep (7-8 hours a night) gives our brain the time to repair itself and stay healthy.
Lack of sleep can lead to mood swings, memory problems, and even long-term health issues like heart disease and depression. Don’t skip sleep—our brain needs it to function well.
Give Our Minds a Break
Our brains need downtime just as much as they need activity. Taking short naps—between 10 and 20 minutes—can help refresh our minds. A 90-minute nap allows our brain to go through a complete sleep cycle, which can help with memory consolidation.
Other Health Considerations
We should all pay attention to what we eat. If we consume meat, eggs, or dairy, it's a good idea to choose options that don’t contain antibiotics or hormones. We should also try to avoid refined sugars and processed foods as much as possible—if our great-grandparents wouldn’t recognize them as food, it’s probably best to skip them.
It’s essential to be mindful of how much caffeine we drink. If we’re among the 60% of people who enjoy coffee, we should remember that caffeine has a half-life of about 5 hours—its "half-life" means it takes 5 hours for our body to clear out half of it. I’ve switched from coffee to tea as a healthier option, although I enjoy coffee occasionally.
Getting enough sun is essential, but we need to find balance. Our bodies need vitamin D for many vital processes, and the best way to get it is through direct sunlight on our skin (light through windows doesn’t count). We need to be careful not to overdo it—sunburns and the risk of skin cancer aren’t worth it.
Learning more about biology and biochemistry can help us better understand our bodies. If that seems overwhelming, we can at least learn the basics about macromolecules—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. These are our bodies' main building blocks, and knowing how they work helps us make better choices. Learning to read labels and recognize processed ingredients is also an invaluable skill.
We may notice that eating too many carbs or unhealthy foods can leave us feeling down and unmotivated. Staying productive is harder when we aren’t fueling our bodies properly.
Regarding lifestyle change, I keep in mind that anyone can try something new for two weeks. I experimented with different diets to see how they made me feel, including:
Slow-carb
Keto
Vegan
“See” food (eating whatever I saw!)
Paleo
We could also try shopping with a small amount of money and meal-prepping for a week. Cooking our meals can change how we think about food.
According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in his book Keep Sharp, only 12% of doctor visits include a discussion about diet. So, if our doctor has talked to us about our eating habits (and we were honest in our responses), we should consider ourselves lucky.
Purpose
“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.
Stephen Hawking
We can optimize all the diet, rest, and exercise we want without purpose - it will all fade away.
Having a sense of purpose can significantly impact our ability to perform and excel in whatever we do—understanding the “why” behind our actions fuels motivation, focus, and perseverance. Purpose guides us, giving meaning to our efforts and making even difficult tasks feel more worthwhile.
When we feel a strong sense of purpose, we’re more likely to stay committed, even facing challenges. It helps us push through obstacles, stay disciplined, and remain dedicated to long-term goals. Purpose transforms tasks from mere obligations into meaningful pursuits, elevating our mental and physical performance.
Research has shown that having a clear sense of purpose can enhance cognitive function and decision-making abilities. When we know what we’re working toward, our brain engages more fully, helping us to stay focused, solve problems, and stay productive for more extended periods of time. Purpose also helps reduce stress and anxiety, giving us a sense of control and direction. Instead of feeling lost or overwhelmed, we feel driven by something bigger than ourselves.
Additionally, having a purpose can improve resilience. When we face setbacks or failures, those with a clear sense of purpose are more likely to bounce back quickly because they’re grounded in their bigger mission. Purpose can make challenges seem like temporary hurdles rather than insurmountable problems.
Purpose fuels our performance by giving us a reason to push harder, stay focused, and persevere when things get tough. It connects us to a bigger picture, making our work feel valuable, meaningful, and ultimately more rewarding.
Taking care of our brain and body requires a holistic approach that balances proper nutrition, regular exercise, restful sleep, and a positive environment. By fueling our minds with the proper nutrients, staying physically active, and managing stress, we can improve our overall well-being and cognitive health. However, none of these efforts will reach their full potential without a clear sense of purpose. Purpose is the key that drives us forward, helps us overcome challenges, and gives meaning to our actions. When we align our physical health with a strong sense of purpose, we set ourselves up not just for better performance but for a more fulfilling and enriched life.