Recipe for Brain Fitness

Being a raw foods chef and a brain fitness junkie, I just came up with the idea of this "Recipe for Brain Fitness". It combines what I know about food, nutrition & cooking with what I know about mental health. The idea is to provide an outline for an "ideal" day in terms of keeping your brain working at the highest-possible level! Granted, no day is going to unfold exactly like this, so this recipe is meant to be more of a blueprint for what a perfect day might look like from your brain's perspective, rather than any sort of realistic schedule.

#1) Get a good night's sleep! #2) Start your day early with a short meditation and a large glass of water. No caffeine! #3) Breakfast: one pint of green juice (vegetable juice containing celery, cucumber, dark leafy greens & sprouts) #4) One hour of yogarn#5) Small serving of raw fruit, nuts or seeds. #6) 2-3 hours of mentally stimulating workrn#7) Lunch with a friend, consisting of a hearty salad (leafy greens, seaweed, nuts, sprouts, and variously-colored veggies) #8) Post-lunch walk of 30 minutesrn#9) A few more hours of challenging workrn#10) 30+ minutes of aerobic exercise (swimming, biking, running, dancing) #11) 20-30 online brain exercisesrn#12) Light, veggie-based dinner with few or no animal-based proteins. Eat early, at least 3 hours before you expect to go to bedrn#13) Social time with your friends/familyrn#14) End the day with some mediation or journal-writing.

The basis for this agenda is the fact that your brain needs 5 main things: proper nutrition, physical exercise, social engagement, diverse mental stimulation, & sleep. If you leave any of these things out of your recipe, it will probably not turn out so well. Conversely, if you find a way to regularly incorporate all 5 of these things into your life, you may find that everything else comes a lot easier.