Exercise is medicine.  Combine food with physical exercise and then active rest, and you set a rhythm to the day that can control weight, help prevent serious illness, improve productivity and mood, and give you new kinds of peak experiences.

Even just parts of that program can work – like exercise for insomnia.

Dr. Phyllis  Zee, who has also done many sleeping pill studies, took a small group of post age 55 women and had them exercise.  Many changed from poor sleepers to good sleepers.  Many showed improved mood. http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/09/16/aerobic-exercise-boosts-mood-improves-sleep-for-insomniacs/

So just think what you can do when you put it together and go FAR – eat, move, and rest as a seamless rhythm during the day.  You can improve sleep, but by moving – strolling, walking, pacing with a cellphone – after a meal, you can change glucose and insulin dynamics in a way that can decrease your waistline and make you far more aware the rest of the day (you’ll also cut down on gastroesophageal reflux.)

Active rest is simple, but it’s active, helping set in motion all those regenerative activities that keep us alive and well.  Rest is not immobility – it’s the regeneration of tissue and mind that keeps you live and aware.  Physical activity in this way becomes an active form of rest – with new brain cells grown at night as proof. Just like food, you need activity and rest, like two sides of the same coin.

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