Cognitive fitness

How fit is your brain?

 

I have been listening to a series about food and brain health this week and two of the speakers, neurologists, researchers and partners, Drs Ayeshi and Dean Sherzai, had some great news about brain health. Their research shows that your habits can have an effect on your brain health. In their book, The Alzheimer’s Solution, their message is that what you eat and what you do is critical to keeping your brain functioning and healthy.

Cognitive fitness.

Our diet, exercise habits and sleep patterns have an effect on our cognitive fitness. Our brain is a small organ, about 2% of our bodies weight, but takes up 25% of our energy requirements and uses 25% of our oxygen. It doesn’t store fuel but needs a constant supply of glucose to run effectively.

Yes, your brain runs on glucose, but contrary to popular opinion, whole grains and vegetables are the best sources for supplying energy to our brain.

There is more and more research about how to keep your brain healthy from strength training, eliminating saturated fats, drinking your coffee black and having some dark chocolate. Don’t you love that kind of good news?

There is more.

New research from the two neurologists proves that you can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s to the point that it doesn’t affect the quality of life. This is amazing news. 

Alzheimer’s affects 47 million people in the world, but 90% of these cases can be prevented. Your lifestyle habits can prevent the progression.

Keeping your cognitive fitness requires the same habits as maintaining your physical fitness. Like physical fitness, you also need to challenge your brain to keep it fit.

Do you like to read?

I do.

I love reading. Real books, not on a device. I read fiction and non-fiction and I have been trying read more this year. I got out of the habit of reading and wanted to get back to reading daily.

Books help keep your cognitive fitness and this is as important as physical fitness.

Evolution Book Club

Having my Evolution Book Club was one strategy to share my love of books and to keep me reading. It was a win/win. We are taking a break for the summer. The Book Club will be back in September, but that doesn’t mean I am not reading.

I have read a few great books lately, with a few that I wouldn’t recommend. Let’s start with the good.

Recommended Reading:

 Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn’t Stop, Bill Jones.

The story of the brutal upbringing and life of the man who becomes the Ghost Runner. John Tarrant is a man who only wants to run, but his battle with the authorities because of a temporary boxing career has ruined his amateur status.

His life is dedicated to running, not his family or his job. His fight to be recognized and to run as a legitimate runner consumes his entire life. A great example of the history of the story told in Spitting in The Soup (review below) and the disdain for athletes that accepted money for their efforts in the 1950s.

John Tarrant was the original bandit. Running races without registering or having a number, although that is what he wanted more than anything. To be regarded as a real runner. He was stubborn and relentless in the pursuit of his goals. A story that every runner should read. His determination, and his inability to listen to a coach make him, in many ways more endearing. He was the underdog and often unlikeable, but you root for him anyway.

My rating: 10/10 ?

So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport.

The title, a tribute to Steve Martin, leads you to think that this is another trivial self-help book. It is not. Cal Newport a young professor with no social media presence has dedicated himself to improving and learning new skills. A craftsmen mindset is the key to success. Cal suggests that the standard advice of “do what you love” is terrible advice, but to love what you do through mastery of your skills. Focus, deliberate practice and delivering quality work are the keys to personal or professional fulfilment.

Through the challenge of trying to achieve mastery, by making what you are doing hard enough to make you feel uncomfortable which forces you to focus your attention on learning. Only when this happens can you reach a state of flow, but it doesn’t come without deliberate practice and that is truly what we are all really chasing.

My rating: 9/10 ?

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown

My 2018 theme comes form Essentialism, “less, but better” I have talked about this book previously, but the piece of this book that really resonates with me, is to be whole. Not fragmented. Not busy. Not spinning. Living in the moment you have now, with purpose and with intention. Essentialism asks, can you get off the treadmill and live your life.

Along with So Good They Can’t Ignore You, these two books illustrate how chasing everything, but practising nothing, can be frustrating and leave us feeling unfulfilled. It is also exhausting. There is no finish line or rest. It is a constant state of more, more demands, more deadlines, more items on the to-do list. With no sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. This book has more of a business focus, but the lessons are applicable to every aspect of life.

My rating: 8/10 ?

When The Body Says No, Dr Gabor Mate

This is not a new book. I have been planning to read this since it was published in 2003, it was finally the right time and the story is a great illustration of what happens when you try to do everything. Gabor Mate, a medical doctor, explores how stress plays a role in chronic conditions. Dr Mate discusses what is often neglected in the medical system. We are a whole being. We can’t be separated into conditions. Our bodies react through our nervous, hormonal, immune systems to the world around us. Our health is the whole person and everything that happens to us. Filled with lots of personal stories which make this an interesting and compelling look at how our emotional and psychological stressors have been overlooked in the medical system.

My rating 9/10 ?

Spitting in The Soup, Mark Johnson

If you think that drugs in sports are a recent problem or that taking drugs is cheating I invite you to read this illuminating history of drugs in modern sports. A great companion to Ghost Runner, as the modern organizers of the Olympics, were more concerned with excluding working class athletes and maintaining the games as a “gentleman’s sport”. Only unpaid athletes were considered as acceptable competitors, but performance enhancing elixirs were completely acceptable. Mark Johnson explores how backroom deals keep drugs in sports and uncovers the complex relationship in the business of sport.

An honest, in-depth account of the how drugs in sports are not a modern phenomenon and how it is not as black and white as you might believe.

If you watch any type of sports, compete or believe that this is an ethical issue, this is a book you need to read.

My rating: 10/10 ?

Not Recommended:

The One Minute Workout, Dr Martin Gibala.

I really wanted to like this book. I have seen Dr Gibala speak at conferences, read his research papers, used his workouts with clients, but this book keeps promising that if you just do this one workout all your problems will be solved. Irresponsible and annoying. One workout is not the answer. It is one of the answers.

Rating: 4/10 Don’t bother with the book, but if you would like an intense workout to fit into your busy schedule there are a couple of good examples.

Big Potential, Shawn Achor.

Shawn is a happiness researcher who attended Harvard and writes about all things happiness. The reviews on this book were really good and I have read and enjoyed his other book, The Happiness Advantage. This one lost me with the part about how everyone needs to work collaboratively and in an office, because being surrounded by others is the only way to be your best.

Ugh.

Shawn’s privileged background makes him an unlikely candidate for an office job. If only he had watched an episode of “The Office” before writing this book… he encourages all corporations to make their employees come to an actual office, because telecommuting doesn’t foster creativity. This is from someone who doesn’t go to an office… This book declares over and over again, with limited evidence, that working together is the best way to get things done. I would argue that working together is one way to get things done.

Telecommuting is also more environmentally friendly Shawn…

Rating: 1/10 Don’t waste your time. I couldn’t finish this. It felt like a one-man cheering squad for a giant team building exercise.

Older, Faster, Stronger, Margaret Webb.

The third book that I really wanted to like. A story of one woman’s quest to see if she could be fitter than ever at 50. Too bad that Margaret could barely talk about anything but drinking wine and how much better women are than men. I felt like I needed to go to rehab by the end of the book. The good, she does get faster and stronger. The stories about older, women athletes are inspiring. The bad, it is so hard to read. I kept thinking “did she not have an editor?” “why did she get nutrition advice from her neighbour and not a professional?” “how much faster could she run if she didn’t drink so much?”

Rating: 3/10. The older athletes stories are fun, skip over the rest, don’t bother with the offered exercise advice.

Good and Bad

The common connection between the good and the bad? The recommended reading list has a focus that the others don’t, they don’t try to be all things to all people, just tell one story, well and in detail, with depth and understanding.

The other three all claim to have the one solution for everyone. They all come across as limited because they could not focus and explore their topic with any depth.

Do you do one thing well?

Maybe the question should be, can you do one thing well? It’s a dangerous place to be to be in the shallows all the time. It is easy to be busy but do nothing. Do you have the drive to be better? To do the hard things regularly Focus on improving? Be able to ignore the distractions?

In our hack everything, speed is what counts, be always available, always on, always with too many tabs on your browser open world, we are actually losing the ability to focus. Focus is hard. Focus can be boring. I know – how can anyone stand to be bored? – there is always a distraction for that.

These distractions come with a cost.

Here is a fitness example: You start training for a marathon. This requires a commitment and training. Being focused on your event and doing everything that counts will help, but only if you want to do well. No matter how hard you train if you still eat junk food you will not perform at your best. No matter how much you run.

Books can be the opposite of cognitive junk food. Focus can be the opposite of busyness.

Are you serious about your cognitive fitness?

You can have a superpower and that will make you better than ever. Like fitness and nutrition, which makes you healthier,  cognitive fitness is a skill that we need to practice. It is hard. It takes practice and like a muscle will get stronger over time.

Reading helps.

Exercise and eating a healthy diet are key components of keeping your brain fit and healthy. Just like your body, your brain responds to your good habits. Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Stay away from saturated fat. Exercise regularly. Get enough sleep. All the things that keep your body healthy can also work for your brain.

Focus on getting better. It all adds up.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla