My food plan and digital meal planner
MY MAIN FOCUS AREA:
Optimizing sleep hormones (to get better nightly rest)
Good food is the cornerstone to feeling well.
For you, this means optimizing sleep hormones through the use of therapeutic foods that improve both sleep quality and quantity.
Your unique plan focuses on foods that are low-glycemic, low-grain, high fiber, balanced in quality fats, and high in sleep-specific phytonutrients. Put that all together, and you have an anti-inflammatory, immune-enhancing approach to nutrition (and feeling better).
My food plan
Dig into a comprehensive guide that details what to eat and how to eat it.
My foods at a glance
See all of your recommended foods in an easy-to-read, printable table.
My digital meal planner
Get weekly meals suggestions, build grocery lists, and more. This planner is personalized for you based on your unique focus area and food plan.
Your main focus area is getting better nightly sleep.
And when it comes to nutrition, that means optimizing sleep hormones through the use of therapeutic foods.
Why focus so much on sleep?
Your nightly sleep period is your body’s designated—and well-deserved— chance to reset, heal, and detox. While you sleep, all body systems are regenerated. There is simply no substitute for a consistent good night’s sleep!
How does that play out in your body?
Truly impressive things happen when you sleep soundly at night: the immune system regenerates, blood sugar levels balance, the brain activates, and the hormones ghrelin and leptin regulate (helping with appetite control when you’re awake). It’s easy to connect the dots on what lack of sleep can mean: like a weakened immune system, cognitive troubles, a greater risk of obesity, and insulin resistance.
What are some symptoms you might already notice?
When sleep is compromised, so is the production of cancer-killing T-cells. More immediately, you may see the effects on your immunity, metabolism, memory, mental focus—even your aging process.
What’s the bigger, long-term picture?
It’s quite simply rapid aging and/or chronic illness—and no one wants either one of those.
My supplements
MY MAIN FOCUS AREA:
Optimizing sleep hormones (to get better nightly rest)
Your supplements are specifically crafted to further support the nutrition in your food plan. Here’s an easy guide of what to take and when. Click on any supplement for more information.
HOW TO TAKE
Take 3 capsules
Anytime
With Food
HOW TO TAKE
Take 2 capsules
Anytime
Food or no food
HOW TO TAKE
Take 2 capsules
PM
Food and no food
HOW TO TAKE
Take 1 capsule
Anytime
With food
My lifestyle guide
MY MAIN FOCUS AREA:
Optimizing sleep hormones (to get better nightly rest)
It’s simple, really. The key to achieving your health goals is introducing (and then maintaining) small changes to your daily lifestyle. As you achieve success with one change, build upon it with a bigger change. Before you know it, you’ll have used positive momentum to transform your health—and life overall.
Good Food.
Your Mechanism Wellness Food Plan walks you through the right nutrition, and your Digital Recipe Planner helps you make it happen through meal plans and grocery lists. Meanwhile, this Lifestyle Guide (what you’re reading right now!) will give you other tips and tricks to stay disciplined in introducing change to your diet (along with tons of details and resources on all the ideas below).
Learn more
Consistent exercise and movement.
This really counts! Exercise might be the single most effective component in managing fatigue and pain syndromes. Staying physically active prevents muscle wasting, boosts your mood and ability to cope, and can reduce both fatigue and pain.
Learn more
Practicing mindfulness
Start a daily practice of quiet, focused concentration so that you experience less anxiety and worry throughout the day and are able to sleep better at night.
Learn more
Setting up your schedule—and home environment—for sleep success.
This includes being thoughtful about what you eat and drink (and when), activities you do (or avoid) in the hours before bed, and even simply just having a designated bedtime.
Learn more
Good food.
The what, the why, and the how
With your Mechanism Wellness Food Plan you know what foods to eat, how often, and the scientific reason why they address your symptoms. Your Digital Recipe Planner equips you with personalized meal ideas and shopping lists, so you can stock your kitchen in the right way, with zero guesswork or research.
But there’s more to eating good food than just knowing what you should do. Sticking to your new food plan will likely require some important mental and emotional shifts, and they likely won’t happen overnight. After all, food is personal and habitual. Making changes is tough.
Luckily, you can pick up some behavioral tips and tricks by getting to know the idea of mindful eating. And clean eating (which goes along with it), can help give you a purpose behind what you’re doing: one bigger than you.
Mindful eating
Mindful eating is about putting your body first—not your emotions. You can do this by taking the time to discover the reasons behind your hunger (versus just addressing it through quick fixes). Many times you’ll find that those reasons have very little to do with what your body physically needs (or even really wants).
By learning to slow down, you can regularly make that realization—and make better choices as a result. The more often you let yourself make that realization, the more likely you will be to make it in the future. (Yes, that’s right: with practice, you’ll become a true mindful eater!)
Approach your food with all of your senses
Don’t just dig in! What does your food smell like? How does the first taste feel on your tongue? Do you like the way it looks on your plate? Did you even appreciate the noises it made as it cooked (think sizzles on the stovetop)?
Make mealtime a real event.
Eat all meals (especially dinner!) at a table and sync up with anyone in your household. Meals should be totally device-free (including any interaction of a mobile phone or even just having the TV on in the background).
Slow down.
The previous tips should help with this, but it’s worth noting: mealtime should be a ceremonious, ultimately relaxing event where you give yourself enough time to truly enjoy your food—and where your body can tell you when it’s had enough and is full. Think back to the last time when you’ve taken the time to feel that during the meal (versus feeling regretful later).
Clean eating
This one can be difficult to do, but can be described really simply: you want to eat foods in their closest-to-natural state as possible (with minimal processing).
Read labels.
To stay as close as possible to natural, you want to avoid preservatives, added sugars, or unhealthy fats. Here are some common offenders:
- Prepackaged nuts (roasted in oils)
- Prepackaged salads (especially those pre-washed, or with dressings included)
- Prepackaged meats
- Prepackaged anything, really!
Cut way down on added sugar and alcohol consumption.
They both play key roles in disease (though very moderate wine consumption can be quite healthy).
Go fruit- and veggie-heavy.
This will help you avoid other sugary or otherwise unhealthy substitutes. When eating your fruits and veggies, think about:
- Buying organic, to avoid pesticides
- Eating the rainbow (in other words, eating a vast variety of fruits and veggies, versus the same things over and over again)
Consistent exercise and movement
The hardest part about exercise is getting started.
That’s true both in the sense of starting any single exercise session (whether that’s a simple walk around the block or something more intense) and in the bigger sense building a habit over time.
The good news? So many of our barriers around exercise are mental, not physical. Once you achieve some positive momentum, it will become easier and easier to get started and keep going.
Set yourself up for success:
Take care of yourself.
Make sure you’re consistently taking care of yourself: getting up, bathing or showering, and getting fully dressed each and every day. This puts you in a positive frame of mind to do more for yourself.
Keep your movement goal simple: think “daily.”
Frequency is the most important part of any exercise regimen. Once you have that down, you can increase both duration and intensity. Be careful not to start off too aggressively and exceed your daily energy limit. You want to use exercise to enhance how you feel: including your immune system and your mood.
Pick activities that are fun and achievable:
Walking
If you haven’t exercised much lately, you might want to start with a simple walking program.
Bicycling & Swimming
Bicycling and swimming are low-impact intermediate options that can be layered on.
Resistance Exercises
You can improve your muscle tone and endurance with resistance exercises using light weights. (Don’t have weights? You can even use leftover canned goods from your pantry—since you’re trying to eat fresh now!)
Yoga
Yoga increases flexibility and helps with relaxation—and learning how to get started is more accessible than ever now, with helpful instructional videos and free classes.
Practicing mindfulness
Mindfulness is a strong practice any time of the day—and it can be especially effective right before bedtime.
If you’ve never formally practiced mindfulness or meditation, it might be intimidating to get started! Luckily, all you need is yourself, a quiet space, some discipline (in practicing every night at the same time before bed), and a little well-deserved patience with yourself.
Here’s how can do just that:
Find a time.
Practicing mindfulness directly before bed aids in sleep. So that means first setting a bedtime for yourself (and sticking with it) so you can also schedule your 5-10 minutes of mindfulness directly prior. Couple it with an existing cue (like right before or after brushing your teeth) to make it more natural, especially when getting started.
Find a place.
Practice in a quiet room with the door closed, not a hectic common area in the house. This room should have a comfortable spot for you to stand, sit, or lie (depending on your preference).
Zone in.
Mindfulness can be intimidating, especially when you’re just getting started—you may have the tendency to overthink it or believe you’re doing it wrong! Your practice will get more effective over time. Keep it simple. Focus on your senses. What do you see, smell, and hear in your current environment? Don’t try to change anything; let the feelings and sensations pass through you as you observe and accept them. Feel what it’s like to live in your body, which you may picture becoming heavier, anchored to the earth.
Setting up your schedule—and home environment—for sleeping success.
Winding down can be so hard-won.
In our increasingly connected age—between smartphones and streamed TV binging—it can be pretty difficult to set ourselves up for success on this front. Just keep in mind that sleep success starts hours before you actually hit the hay. You want to equip both your home and bedroom environment to support your goals here.
Pre-sleep:
What you drink matters.
It can be tempting to indulge in a wine, beer, or cocktail to wind down—or continue drinking coffee to stay alert well into the afternoon or early evening. But instead you want to minimize caffeine intake—and avoid alcohol intake—4-5 hour before bedtime.
Try to incorporate a nap into your daily routine.
While a nap is no substitute for a good night’s sleep, it can help boost your immunity and make you feel more alert during the day. Try for a 20-30 minute nap early to mid-afternoon (not so late in the day that it will interfere with your nightly sleep).
Exercise can key you up.
You also want to avoid this 4-5 hours before bedtime. So think of a morning or mid-day routine versus a post-work one.
Avoid any excess in general,
including large meals and large quantities of (any) liquid before bedtime. You want your body in a calm, moderate place.
In the bedroom:
Light, sound, and temperature:
Minimize the first two (by avoiding electronic devices and using a white noise machine if necessary) and make the third hospitable (through a moderate thermostat reading and great ventilation). Set yourself up with the key atmospheric conditions for relaxation.
Make sure your set-up is consistently comfortable.
Is your mattress the right firmness for you, or has it been bothering you? Are the walls in your bedroom painted a soothing tone (like a blue)? These details matter, too—and they’re relatively easy to fix or experiment with.
If your mind won’t turn off:
- Switch rooms for a while, then come back to the bedroom.
- Try a calming Epsom salt bath. Reset your body and try again.
