Listen to my latest podcast episode:

TMHS 774: 5 Shocking Ways That Ultra-Processed Foods Impact Your Health

TMHS 210: 4 Reasons You’re Tired All The Time and What to Do About It

Working as a clinician for many years, one of the most common questions I would get is, “What can I take for more energy?”.

It was always a tough question because I knew I’d just be treating a symptom by giving them energizing natural supplements like maca, cordyceps, and ginseng. Sure, it’s better that they didn’t ask a drug dealer the same question. In the immortal words of Rick James, “Cocaine is a helluva drug…” But, I didn’t want them to see me like a natural pill-pusher, and get them hooked on something just to get them by, either. So, I dedicated myself to helping them get to the root of their energy problems. And today you’ll learn the very best of what I came up with.

In this episode you’ll discover:

  • How my struggle with chronic fatigue began.
  • A potent superherb that’s clinically proven to improve insulin sensitivity.
  • What going to the gym is compensating for.
  • How you’re able to literally charge up your cells like a battery.
  • The surprising amount of energy the human body can generate.
  • Simple strategies to get in more nutritious movement throughout the day.
  • Why you can still wake up exhausted after 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
  • What sleep architecture is.
  • How many total sleep cycles you need for optimal energy.
  • What happens in your brain during sleep.
  • The 2 major things that can disrupt your sleep cycles.
  • Key nutrient deficiencies that cause fatigue and sleep problems.
  • The #1 mineral that supports human energy production.
  • How dehydration impacts energy (and how much water you really need!).

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Ease2 - The Model Health Show

Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Model Health Show. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review of the show on Apple Podcast by clicking on the link below. It will help us to keep delivering life-changing information for you every week!

Transcript:

Shawn Stevenson:  Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, here with my co-host with the most, the producer, the amazing, talented Jade Harrell. What's up, Jade? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Hello. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh you're going to be proper today, huh? You're going to be proper today, I like that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I'm just having a great time here with you. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I see, I guess, like something happened with your shirt already. Looks like you ate some pudding. Got some pudding. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Well, right? There was a time that would have made my day. No, it was actually I was applying the foundation and dropped the container. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh you fumbled. Fumbled the foundation. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I did! I totally did. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's called the fumblaya. Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Fumbling in the hole. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's all good, it's all good. At least we know what it is. They'd be like, "Is Jade eating pudding? She got a pudding pop problem?"  
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right! The evidence though. You know I try to hide stuff from my family that I may be trying to reserve for myself. Like my Four Sigmatic, I'll put it on the side and they seem to find the stuff! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh man, yeah. I remember- 
 
Jade Harrell:  Because we were getting low and I'm like why is everybody drinking my cocoa? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  When I was a little kid, like you know random family members would stay at our house for awhile, I think it was maybe my Uncle Larry. But he had the audacity to like put his name on the orange juice carton.  
 
Like don't drink this, this is Larry's. Bro! Hey if it's in the house, it's free dibs. So yeah definitely know about those- oh my goodness, especially with my son Jordan, my older son.  
 
He's really, really remarkable, right? How healthy, fit, focused this kid is, he literally blows my mind. He has no idea, because you know I keep the cool around him, but I'm so impressed by him and his aspirations, and also just his progress.  
 
It's his football off-season, it's been about three months, I'm not kidding, he's gained twenty pounds. 
 
Jade Harrell:  What?!  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Of like man meat. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Right! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  This boy, he literally is built- he's maybe like an inch and a half shorter than me, he weighs- I'm not telling him this, but he almost weighs as much as I do, and just so fit and healthy. But he's utilizing- he's not just in the gym getting gains, right? It's a big mindset behind it.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Exactly. You can totally see it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  He's studying, he's studying the film of his lifts, he's studying other people, and he's studying football game films going back and looking at things from last year, and like what he's going to do.  
 
He starts track right now actually, and this is a good segue to what we're talking about today. Before we do that- 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  How are you today? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh thanks for asking. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  How are you? 
 
Jade Harrell:  I am uplifticated. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Ah, let it rain down on me. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes, because it has to do with you! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Shout-out to SWV, alright rain down on me. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  What is this? 
 
Jade Harrell:  I am uplifted by- and educated by what you're showing me and teaching me lately. It's just really taking things to another level. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I receive that. Thank you, thank you. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Educated and uplifted. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I like it, I like it. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So and on that note, this uplifted feeling, you know I was just talking about my son Jordan, and so track season just started and this is his first official season running track, right?  
 
And he's always been like the fast kid on the different teams or whatever, but he played baseball and it's the same time as track, and he really wanted to run track this year.  
 
And so track season started and he just got a job actually at our gym, our local gym, and it's that law of attraction because it was the first job he wanted, first job he got, he's like, "I want to work here," and he got the job.  
 
And so- but he just started that just a couple hours during the week, and mostly working on the weekends, but those couple hours during the week of course we talked about this. I'm like, "You know your education is first and foremost, so making sure that you're not going to-"  
 
He's like, "Dad. You know who I am. You know me." You know he's a scholar athlete, he's been handling his business with his books and on the field, and he understands what's at stake.  
 
And so having that focus and understanding, but seeing him go through the growing pains. Because today's show is really about how to have optimal energy. This is like the biggest deficiency in our world today.  
 
We're having this energy deficiency, this energy epidemic, and it's not- we're not talking about powerplants and the environment, we're talking about in our bodies.  
 
And so seeing his adjustment, because he's a really energetic person, but when you add on that new layer- so he went from school, to track practice, to the job for a couple of hours.  
 
When he got home to eat dinner, and he just sat there, and he's looking like a seasoned veteran and I'm like, "Yeah now you know. Now you know how I feel." 
 
Jade Harrell:  Exactly. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Instead of him like going in and like- he was supposed to going and heating his food up, he just sat there and watched us play Go Fish. Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Aww. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Watched me and my son play- 
 
Jade Harrell:  Shout-out to Braden playing Go Fish. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Man he's a shark, my youngest son. Five years old, please do not play cards with that boy, alright? He will hurt you feelings. Okay?  
 
So but Jordan just sat there just like- he became like a cheerleader for Go Fish. That's not his style, alright? But he was so tired that's all he could embark on. But he adjusted and he's been kind of going through the motions.  
 
So that's a far cry from my story, and we're all going to- we're talking about for him it's an acute situation where he's tired. We're all going to have times where we get tired despite the song, 'I Don't Get Tired.'  
 
Shout-out to that song, I like that song.  
 
But real talk, we're all going to get tired, and we're all going to have those moments where it's just time to shut things down. But we're talking about chronic fatigue.  
 
We're talking about a chronic deprivation of energy where you're not able to get up and to do the things you really want to do in your life, whether it's with your business, whether it's in your relationships. Relationships need energy. Your kids don't want you showing up as like a shell of yourself. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Is that Mom's shadow over there? Is that Shadow Mom? It's like the shadow of Mom comes along but it's not the full her, it's not the real one.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right that's her exoskeleton.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And the same thing with your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the case might be. When we're able to show up as our best self, and that energy is a big component, but that energy is an umbrella of a lot of things that we're going to break down many of those things today.  
 
But for me, starting off with this- I was a pretty energetic person I would think, and then getting hit with that condition, this degenerative spinal disease, degenerative bone disease, and this really devastating diagnosis, I saw my entire world turn upside down, and this fatigue became a chronic part of my life to the degree like every morning when I would- I knew I had to get up to go to school, to go to college, and it was such a struggle getting off of that mattress.  
 
It was so difficult. And even just going through the motions trying to get around campus, and at some point though the energy would eventually kick on just to- and it'd usually be once it's getting later in the day, and I know there are some people are going to feel that, they're going to understand that.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Totally.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  When I need to be shutting down, I'm kind of feeling more awake and it's just because my cortisol rhythm was upside down, different things that we could talk about maybe later.  
 
But the bottom line is I know what it's like to not have the energy to do the things you want, because I was not getting out and working on my craft, looking for right employment or whatever the case might be for myself.  
 
Because maybe somebody's struggling at a job that they can't stand, and their excuse is, 'I don't have time.' But really it's that you don't have energy.  
 
'I don't have the energy to go and find a better place for me to be.' Or 'I don't have the energy to start that business that I've been wanting to start, and to serve people, and share my gift.' Or 'I don't have the energy to get to the gym and to work out and to transform my body that way.' 'I don't have the energy to prepare my food, or to go and get healthy food, to seek out healthy food to really give my cells the energy and the nutrients that they need to be the best version of myself.'  
 
So these are all things that we use, and time is usually a factor, but it's really the energy factor. Alright so that's what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to break down some really important keys, and we're going to talk about the four reasons that you're tired all the time and some important things that you can do about it.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Great.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Before we do I want to give a quick shout-out to our show sponsor, Organifi.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Guys, this is the green superfood blend that I use and my family uses. Every single human being on planet earth needs to be on a green superfood blend today because of all the phytonutrients, the micro minerals, vitamins, the amino acids; all of these things that are in a concentrated form from real food. Alright?  
 
It's not a synthetic 'multivitamin' that you're going to be getting and basically be throwing your money out the window in some cases. And we don't even know the long-term effects of utilizing synthetic forms of these nutrients that we've evolved eating the real food form.  
 
And so with Organifi we're getting spirulina- organic spirulina, 70% protein by weight, loaded with antioxidants, fikosianin that boosts that stem cell production, and also it has chlorella, we've got chlorella, the chlorella growth factor great for eliminating heavy metals, detoxifying heavy metals from your system. Also moringa, alright? We did a show and moringa was one of those featured components of the show.  
 
Moringa? Let me tell you a little bit about moringa.  
 
Contains seven times more vitamin C than oranges. Seven times more potassium than bananas. Twice the amount of protein that's contained in milk. And also milk is considered to be one of the big sources of calcium, but moringa has four times more calcium than milk.  
 
And I could keep going on and on- 25 times the amount of iron in spinach. I could just keep going on and on, but moringa is a powerful superfood, and actually let me share a study with you guys really quickly. 
 
So moringa can be one of those tools that we utilize to help balance our blood sugar, and in fact one study- this was published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, it was found that thirty women taking moringa leaf powder every day for three months were able to reduce their fasting blood sugar levels by 13.5%.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Get me some moringa! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That is incredibly significant. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So it helps to improve your insulin sensitivity, and we know that the opposite, that insulin resistance is a pre-diabetic marker, diabetic marker, and also a classic sign of carrying around too much visceral fat. Alright? So we definitely want to do something about that.  
 
And all of these things are contained in Organifi, and side benefit, it actually tastes good. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Tastes great! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright so head over, check them out. It's 
www.Organifi.com/model and they're going to give you 20% off of your order. Alright 20% off. So head over there, check them out, and get on Organifi. Now let's get to the iTunes review of the week. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay this is a nice one. 'Love, love, and love' from Jess Duggan.  
 
'This is my favorite podcast by far. I am someone who has struggled with autoimmunity that I know of for the past ten years, and I've done a deep dive into educating myself to heal.  
 
Your podcast and book have been a game changer. Sleep is for sure underutilized and unsexy as you say as a health element, but since implementing your tips I've noticed a huge improvement in my fatigue which I have struggled with for years, and this is even after years of clean gut-healing diet, supplements, stress management, et cetera.  
 
I wish I had your podcast and book way sooner, I am that annoying friend now telling everyone about the importance of sleep. Hah! You inspire me so much. Thank you, Shawn and Jade. Much love.' 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That is so timely. I don't know if you knew this about today's show topic. 
 
Jade Harrell:  He must have known it was coming. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That's so powerful, thank you so much for sharing that, and I appreciate you. Let me tell you, you are not annoying, alright? We love you, we appreciate you, and so do your friends and family. So keep sharing.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah, that's it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Thank you everybody for leaving those reviews over in iTunes, we truly, truly do appreciate it. Please keep them coming. If you're like, "I keep meaning to leave a review, Shawn. It's coming." 
 
Jade Harrell:  Just do it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Just do it, do it today, do it for us. I appreciate it. 
 
Alright now on that note let's get to our topic of the day. Today we're talking about four reasons you're tired all the time, and what to do about it.  
 
And as mentioned before, many people today are feeling the effects of an energy crisis, and it's the one not within our environment but within our bodies. 
 
And today we're going to be covering some hallmark issues behind this great energy depression and some valuable tips to help to really turn it around for yourself. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I love that, not from our environment but from within our bodies. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yes. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Now number one, we're going to jump right in here. Number one on this list, these four different reasons why you're tired all the time, number one is you're not moving enough.  
 
You're not moving enough. Now let me be specific on what this means. This is probably going to be a little bit different than what you think. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Exercise is great for sure, but don't make the mistake of the occasional workout being the same thing as living an active lifestyle. Now if you work out an hour a day, which is recommended, and then you sit around the entire rest of the time, which most people do, you're only 4% more active than the entire sedentary population. I said 'population.' 
 
Jade Harrell:  Population. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Population, the entire sedentary population. So this is something that is this new category of human being created, it's called the Active Sedentary. Alright?  
 
So exercising an hour a day seven days a week, and you're only 4% more active than the sedentary population. That's crazy, right?  
 
And so I know I was definitely that person. I would go and work out for that 45 minute, an hour, and then I'd sit most of the rest of the day doing work. Right? 
 
Jade Harrell:  I feel like you did. You paid your dues, put in the work. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Exactly.  
 
Jade Harrell:  But not much difference, huh? Why is that? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  We're going to break this down. So not only that, the impact of such little activity does a huge number on dying from coronary heart disease.  
 
And there was a pioneering study published in 'The Lancet,' a very prestigious journal which compared the death rates of conventional business/office workers to manual labor workers, and found that the office workers were dying from coronary heart disease at twice the rate of the manual labor workers.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Crazy. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So let that sink in for a second.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Twice as much? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And what's happened today? The manual labor market has gone down and is continuing to go down. I just saw an article yesterday, it's basically like, 'Bro robots are taking your job. Are you ready?'  
 
Even skilled professions as well, and also these kind of knowledge jobs. Because today we're really moving from being physical manual labor workers to knowledge workers, right?  
 
And even some of those things, like some middle management things can be done by systems now. Some sales can be done by computers, right? And there's an intelligence where they can implement certain things in certain places.  
 
And so we have to understand there's a big change in the landscape of how our world operates, and we no longer live in a society where there's a lot of physical labor jobs available anyways, so what are we supposed to do as humans if we want to receive that benefit of being basically an insurance policy against dying early from a coronary heart problem?  
 
Well clearly getting some exercise in is better than getting no exercise at all, we understand this, and today because we're not doing manual labor work, we're not hunting and gathering even as we would throughout our evolution, our time at the gym and on the road jogging, or as I call it 'yogging.'  
 
That's how you say it in Sweden. No, I'm sure it's not how you say it in Sweden. Shout-out to everybody listening in Sweden. I just got a message yesterday from one of the listeners there, love you guys, appreciate you. 
 
But the time on the road 'yogging' is an attempt at compensating, it's trying to compensate for what we would have gotten through our natural living that we no longer have. Right?  
 
And it's only in the last few decades that everything has been turned upside down. We would see some people were living that kind of lavish life where they sit around all day, and generally they would be the overweight ruler, or the governess, or whatever it might be in the particular story, or the particular structure of that society.  
 
But today we kind of have to manufacture and create ways to keep us active and healthy.  
 
So again I'm going to say this another time, getting some exercise is clearly better than no exercise at all, but to bolster those results that we want for our energy levels and what we're talking about here today, we've got to get back to basics. Alright, we've got to get back to basics. 
 
And now here's the reality, and you might want to write this down or really tune in and hear this. The reality is this. We humans don't get energy, we create energy.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes, yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright? So we have this kind of common perception, and I would see this clinically. People would come in like, "What can I take for my energy? What can I take?" Right? 
 
We don't get energy, we create energy. And so by simply moving around, and this is why I started with exercise and you're not moving enough, by simply moving around your tissues generate a form of energy called piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity. That is equivalent to an AC current charging up your cells simply from moving your body.  
 
Crazypants, right?  
 
Jade Harrell:  I'll take it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Crazypants. And this is why some people who have gone too far, like in the kind of common idea of what adrenal fatigue is, they don't feel good unless they exercise and they kind of feel like they have energy all of a sudden. It's because of that is one of the big things. Your cells are getting charged up. 
 
We don't want to be in a state where we're beating ourselves down and then trying to move more just to feel good.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That's not what I'm talking about. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's too far. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's just an example of just movement and exercise can charge up your cells.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Which is great because if you're already tired, you would think, 'Oh well I want to go sit down, or I'm not going to move.' But what might get you back in the groove and kind of perk things up would be to get some movement. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Right. And that's even- again that's on the extreme end, but I just want you to understand that this piezoelectricity, this is built into the matrix of your body. This is built into the tissue matrix and your simple movement, even like right now as I'm rolling my hands around like doing some Qigong up here, we're generating energy. Alright? 
 
Now as far as muscular energy, because that's a big component of this, is your muscles actually create energy. This is where a lot of the mitochondria are, and we can actually create and make more mitochondria in our muscle cells, right?  
 
We can build more of these power plants, your mitochondria. We'll talk more about this in a moment. But as far as muscular energy creation, you have many muscles that move involuntarily like your heart, for example.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh sure. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Okay? Now the average human at rest- so at rest, not doing anything, sitting there, couch potato produces around 100 watts of power. Alright?  
 
So you're creating energy, you don't get energy, you make energy. So with the right extraction method, just sitting there you could easily power a 100 watt lightbulb, alright?  
 
Idea! Right? See a lightbulb pop up. You can power that! Or Uncle Fester, right? Shout-out to the Addams Family. How weird is that, man? I wonder if he could really do that.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Came from a brilliant mind. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I don't know.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes. Yes, yes, yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Anyways, what a creepy show.  
 
Jade Harrell:  We watched it, though. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So over periods of time- [Addams Family theme song]. Okay now over periods of a few minutes, or even a few hours in some cases of trained athletes, we can comfortably sustain 300 to 400 watts of energy that you're making.  
 
And in the case of very short bursts of energy such as sprinting, like if we're doing high intensity interval training, some humans can output over 2,000 watts of energy. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Wow. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Can blow you away literally. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Right, that's you actually I'm sure. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I don't know. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I'm just saying. Oh you could send it across the room. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh shout-out to Street Fighter. Oh my goodness, that's so good. Ryu! Shout-out to Ryu and Ken. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That was my favorite. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And so the real goal to cultivate our body's energy potential is to get more movement in throughout the day, to cultivate that wattage, that muscular energy production, also this piezoelectricity. And so here's how to do this and how to kind of get the most out of this understanding. 
 
If you've been sitting for a while, because again the goal is to be more active throughout the day, if you've been sitting for a while, simply stand up and do 25 jumping jacks, or do 50 jumping jacks.  
 
Or you can do some bodyweight squats, alright? Just simply standing up after an hour of work and doing 30 bodyweight squats will generate enough electrical wattage to instantly make you feel more energized. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  But what's so crazy is when we're so tired, we don't want to do it.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And if you simply do it, you're going to manufacture more energy. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That you need. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Okay?  
 
Jade Harrell:  Or we're so involved, and then that's the thing. We say we can't get up or we can't move away from a task because we're so intently working on the task, but essentially if we take that moment, we'll get at that task with more vigor, and deliver greater results. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Because you're using energy to think and to create for sure. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah, right and we're going to need some more. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And I've definitely been there you know, where you're in the zone, but then you start to force the zone a little bit longer, and if I just take that refresher break, right? 
 
And do a little bit of some bodyweight exercises, go for a quick stroll, and come back and you're so much more refreshed and energized. You can kind of jump right back in there.  
 
Now so those are just a couple of things. Also I'd recommend for you to set a movement timer, okay? Set a movement timer. And everybody has a phone now, so you can just go to your little clock setting on your phone where you've got your little alarms at, and set yourself an alarm.  
 
You know you can set a few alarms. Maybe you can even give them titles like 'Water Break,' 'Exercise Break,' whatever the case might be. 
 
And but here's the thing. When the alarm goes off, do the thing. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Don't just ignore it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright? Do the thing, you can't hit snooze. You're going to train yourself, you're going to train- that myelin that's trying to get laid down to get you to do that, you're not going to allow that to be laid down.  
 
And so that nerve pathway to get you to get up and do the thing automatically, it's not going to happen. Alright it's going to continue to be a struggle.  
 
Jade Harrell:  It'll teach something else. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  At first the new moment, it's easy. Like when you first start doing it, it's like, "Oh this is no problem, Shawn. I've got this." Fall in line. But then after about a couple of days, maybe even a week, you start- it becomes- it's called the struggle period, right?  
 
Where you're going from this transition from a conscious competence where I'm aware of the thing I'm doing, and I have to put work and energy into doing it, and transitioning to an unconscious competence where you do it automatically. Right?  
 
You know the thing to do and you do it automatically, you don't have to think about it.  
 
There's a struggle period in there where your brain is changing so you have to do the thing when it goes off. 
 
Another thing that you can do is to play a game. This is actually what I like to do on my breaks now, I will go and play pool. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I saw you shark, I saw you.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's my little fun thing for myself, got to have something for myself. 
 
Jade Harrell:  It's only going to be for yourself for a minute because I'm going to come over there 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  We used to have a pool table- oh we'll see. I don't know if you want to do that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah I'm coming over and getting with you. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  We had a pool table, my grandmother had a pool table, and I was always like, "When I grow up, I'm going to get a pool table." Because that pool table eventually- when our family moved in, my mother and the rest of our family, when we moved into the house my grandmother moved to the 'country.'  
 
That pool table was super fun at first, then it became a ping pong table because things started to break away with the pockets. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Then it eventually just became a laundry table.  
 
Jade Harrell:  It's just a table.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And so I was like, "I'm going to get a pool table myself," and so that's what I'll do. I'll just go and play a game, it's refreshing, I'm moving around, I'm up moving about, and also just changing the way my brain is thinking. 
Jade Harrell:  I like that, too. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And come back to work and play some music, and just find a way to just get up and be a little bit more active. Alright so whatever that might be for you, you know you can go and maybe play hopscotch. Whatever it might be. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You know like, "Shawn I don't have a pool table." Well you got some chalk? Hopscotch. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's it, I love it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So play a game, also you can go for a power walk, right? So we understand like power nap, right you can go for a power walk.  
 
Quick five minute walk, brisk walk will definitely help to regenerate and rejuvenate your system. Active some of that piezoelectricity, that muscular energy we've been talking about.  
 
Another thing I like to do on my breaks is I've got the rebounder as well at my office, and that g-force that's produced, and just the benefits with the lymphatic system, your circulation, it's just such a great thing to have on hand too. So I'll do some rebounding on my mini trampoline.  
 
But the bottom line is this, is that the positive boost in your hormones and your neurotransmitters will also make you feel alive too.  
 
So you're getting those benefits as well. It's not even just the energy production from the things we've talked about, but those things make you feel good. 
 
So just try it out and see for yourself. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I'm with it. I'm with it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Also you want to find ways to structure more activity in during your day, a la 'Movement Matters' with Katy Bowman. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Love it! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright we'll put that in the show notes. And she really just again changed my paradigm and how these things today that we think are time savers are really movement savers. They're saving us time but they're taking away our movement. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Which takes away our energy.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Exactly. So simple things like where you would have to go and gather your food, you no longer have to do that. You might not even have to go to the grocery store, right?  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Or cleaning your clothes. Like my wife is from Kenya, they used to wash their clothes by hand, right? And she hated it for sure, but having a washing machine, huge benefit and blessing for many of us, but it's taking away movement again. You know?  
 
So it's like how can we find ways to incorporate more movement doing some of the things we're already doing?  
 
I'm not saying to go start washing your clothes by hand, I'm not saying that, like you can wash that shirt that you've got that pudding on.  
 
But I'm saying when you're going to the store, right? And it's in a reasonable distance, walk to the store or bike- hop on a bike and go to the store.  
 
That's what we used to do- if we were going to go get a movie, this was when we used to go get movies with my son, Jordan. I think he was maybe eight or nine before Netflix and Chill just dominated the world.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Changed the game. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  We would go to Family Video, right? It was like if we're going to do that, we're going to all be sitting around watching the movie, we're going to hop on these bicycles, bro and we're going to ride to the video store. And it really developed some character for him, and for me too. Some of the times were pretty difficult. 
 
But also if I had to take the movie back, that's what I would do. 
 
Jade Harrell:  And that was one of those triggers that will prompt you to do movement. So you automatically now when you go to the movies you say, "I'm going to ride the bike." Go get a movie you say, "I'll ride the bike." 
 
So that creates a trigger. Just like we've got the snooze alarm to not do something, well we're going to the movies so we'll ride the bike for that. Or like what I've been doing. Every time I need to go to the restroom I'll do these power lunges- 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh really? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Up and down the hall because that's an opportunity to- it's my trigger. 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh man. We've got to get some behind-the-scenes footage on that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah it's funny.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I like that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  You should see my co-workers. They're all- 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So creating the trigger, I like that. Now also for me, another thing, I walk to my mailbox. I could easily pick up the mail on my way in. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah your mailbox is down the street. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's down the road a little bit. So because we kind of live in the woods a little. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah you do. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And the mailbox, it's a nice little- and the hill itself, it's a nice steep hill, so walking to the mailbox. Because again, I could easily pick it up on the drive in or the drive out, I was like, "Nope I'm going to walk and get that. I'm going to just implement that into my day somewhere, it's a nice walk in nature, and fresh air."  
 
Even if it's cold outside, even if it's hot, just getting out and going for that quick walk to go grab that mail.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Well you've made that a ritual. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yes. Ritual, I love that. So taking it from a routine to a ritual. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Exactly. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And you said 'exaculing.' 
 
Jade Harrell:  'Exaculing.' You know how I do, I make up words. 'Exaculing,' I'm writing that one down. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's going in there, alright. Now also another thing, simple clean your house instead of not cleaning your house. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh sure. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  With your dirty self, with your dirty self! Clean your house, okay? 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah, yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Or of course like having our kids do it, like we can hop up and do some stuff as well, and/or cleaning service. Here's something crazy, right?  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  We've had Eric Thomas, number one motivational speaker in the world on this show, he's been on a couple of times, he's family, and we helped him create an epic podcast as well, so they've got a great podcast.  
 
But Eric Thomas, E.T., lovingly known as E.T.- real talk, he gets paid upwards of $100,000 to do a talk, to do a presentation, to come and speak, alright? That's some serious c-c-c-c-cash. Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So but guess who cleans his house? 
 
Jade Harrell:  He does. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  His wife makes him do it, alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Before she gets home. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright so he has to have that house clean, irons her clothes, you understand? Let me tell you how beautiful this is though.  
 
I don't know if he knows, I'm pretty sure he does because he's a very light human being, but it keeps him grounded as well. It's like "I don't care how big you are out there in the streets, people stopping you and you can't go anywhere without people recognizing you and showing you love, but you're going to clean this house. You're going to take care of our home. You're going to iron my clothes." 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right, that's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You know and he has a devotion, it's like a devotion to it, and it's been a struggle point for him at times for sure, but that's something that he does that we can all implement as well to take care of our home in that fashion. 
 
Jade Harrell:  He's got the best attitude about it too. When we had him on the show he said, "Alright guys, I've got about thirty more minutes-' 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  "And I've got to go clean the house, I've got to get this together before she gets home." 
Jade Harrell:  Oh that was priceless. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And also but then his business partner, and kind of his twoman, the Scottie Pippen on his team- 
 
Jade Harrell:  CJ.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  His CJ, when E.T. was sharing the story, CJ was like, "No bro, we have a cleaning service for sure, and my wife is super pumped about that." 
 
And so whatever it is, even if you do have a cleaning service, find some ways to kind of just get up, maybe straighten up your house. Like I even did an Instastory on it.  
 
I was doing the dishes the other day listening to my R&B jams. Because you know the New Edition thing came, I just went down the rabbit hole. Troop, and Tony, Toni, Tone, and what was that- After 7, all these cool groups from when I was growing up when I was a kid. 
 
So just incorporate that. Also you can listen to music while doing it as mentioned, or an audio book, or a podcast, but just finding ways to be active doing that stuff. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Anne hooked me up with that- is that when we're doing food prep, and we're in the kitchen purgatory. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Kitchen purgatory. 
 
Jade Harrell:  But you know, even that activity is getting the food ready for the week and all that. You put your jams on, we got some of those little speakers that you just put your phone to, and you can route your music through it, and it is a party in the kitchen in food prep.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That's beautiful. 
 
Jade Harrell:  You've got your rhythm going- it is, it feels good, we're getting movement in, and it serves a great purpose for our family. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That's another one, cook some more of your meals instead of grabbing some food or prepared food and/or literally getting pick-up. Of course there are spots when we can do all of that stuff, but just make it one of the parts of your life that you are preparing more of your food.  
 
Also Katy mentioned this in that episode is use fresh spices, things you've got to cut up, that's adding more movement and more energy. Grate yourself, things you've got to grate yourself. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Cinnamon was the example she used. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Cinnamon, right. 
 
Jade Harrell:  So I was inspired and I went to try it, that's no joke. Cinnamon is hard. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh man, like don't do that. Don't get me fresh cinnamon sticks. That's not my cup of tea. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I'm saying and then that's like I got maybe a couple of granules out. I said, "Man what does it take to get cinnamon out?" 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I'll use it as one of those stirrers, you know? You can stir it up, but I'm not trying to do that. All crumbled- never mind.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Exactly. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah. And also same thing, making your fresh juices yourself. A 
lot of people there's a big booming business, there are a lot of great juicing companies out there like Juice Me.  
 
Shout-out to Juice Me. There's a lot of great juice companies out there that are doing a great job, but making it yourself- for me the big thing that would deter me from doing it was the clean-up afterwards. Like I don't want to clean the juicer. Can I just have somebody just be my juice cleaner? That's all I would want. 
 
But no, if you do that act, think about it in terms of not just the great benefit you're getting with the nutrients, but the movement you're involving with. 
 
Jade Harrell:  And it is truly a great benefit with the nutrients. Now I went and did an experiment comparison of the equivalent cost of buying my juice, which we've got some great- like you said some great places where you can buy juice, and I figured out how much did I spend for how many ounces of juice.  
 
I went and I bought all the ingredients, I shopped for them, and took them back home to make the juice. So I spent actually for the same amount of produce, I got way more quantity of ounces, and of course greater nutrition because there were more varieties that I could put in there. But through that entire effort, I didn't even think about the movement, but it worked out dollar for dollar. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I got greater value by doing it myself. So in a pinch, yeah I get that, go buy. But you can really do great if you give it a shot. So I put a video together for that. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  A time saver, but instead of shifting that- shifting over to a money saver as well. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Money saver, exactly. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's another thing to consider, so thank you for adding that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And the bottom line, guys is you want to stay ahead of the curve with this, alright? You want to keep yourself more energized rather than hitting your low battery and making it harder for yourself to get up and to do these things, and trying to force yourself to get up and get plugged in. 
 
Alright so stay ahead of the game, set that timer, keep yourself mobile and active throughout the day, and add in different things that you could utilize more movement and things that are these 'time savers' that are really taking away movement from us. So that's number one. 
 
We're going to move onto number two on our list of the four reasons why you're tired all the time, and what you can do about it. Alright so number two is your sleep cycles aren't strong. Okay your sleep cycles aren't strong.  
 
Now even if you get the recommended seven, eight hours of sleep, you can still wake up feeling like a piñata after the party if you don't optimize your sleep cycles. Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's a visual. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  There's a show called 'Impractical Jokers,' do you know about this show? 
 
Jade Harrell:  I don't. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  My son- my older son puts me onto these different things. So it's these four friends and they're always basically putting each other up to these crazy different tasks, and really embarrassing each other. The goal is to really humiliate each other. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Of course. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And it's so funny, it's light-hearted, and it's a pretty good show. But there was one episode where they put one of their partners up and he was in a piñata, he was a human piñata.  
 
Oh my goodness, it was so hilarious, right? And he's like on a string, and he can't move, right? And there's this little kid, he's like- this little kid was like Scarface.  
 
He was kind of like- just the look on his face was like, "Hey you, Piñata. I'm going to get some candy out of you, okay?" And he's just like whacking him and whacking him, it was so crazy. 
 
But you don't want to feel like that guy, bottom line. You don't want to wake up feeling like that. And so many people, like I said, they're getting seven, eight hours of sleep but they still wake up feeling exhausted.  
 
So please understand this. It doesn't matter how much time you spend in bed if your sleep cycles are not healthy. Okay? It doesn't matter how much time you spend in bed if your sleep cycles are not healthy.  
 
So your sleep cycles can range anywhere from 75 to 120 minutes each. Okay? 75 to 120 minutes each. So I generally say 90 minutes just kind of like an average. 
 
But you're cycling through these phases of REM and non-REM sleep, plus all of the stages in between. Now each phase is correlated with specific regeneration and/or detoxification of cells and organs throughout your body.  
 
So each of these sleep phases is incredibly important and valuable, and there's something that's called sleep architecture, alright? You have this sleep architecture and the particular sleep architecture of an individual over the course of an average night, now that's going to be the overall sleep time, this doesn't just include some of these things, but there's other pieces as well.  
 
Overall sleep time, the structure and pattern of sleep stages and phases, the time spent in non-REM sleep and REM sleep; okay the non-REM sleep, there's multiple stages there.  
 
The timing and organization of the sleep cycles, so when they're all taking place. So the sleep architecture is kind of complicated, but of course you know we're going to make it simple here. 
 
Alright now on average, the average person is going to have about four to five sleep cycles per night, total sleep cycles of those big chunks of non-REM and REM sleep throughout their sleep experience.  
 
Now each cycle follows the stages of non-REM sleep- so I'm going to take you through these cycles and show you what they look like. 
 
So each cycle flows from stages of non-REM sleep. Now this is stage one, stage two, and stage three of non-REM sleep, and we'll get to what those are.  
 
And then after a period in deep sleep, which is stage three in non-REM sleep, then you cycle back through the stages. 
 
So it goes from stage one, two, three, then back from three, two, one.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh, okay. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Okay? Now let's start with stage one. So stage one, this is the very first short period of very light non-REM sleep, and this is characterized by alpha and theta brain waves, okay? So when you're awake, a normal waking state is basically beta, okay?  
 
You've got these beta brain waves going on, and also there's recently discovered gamma waves, but we don't want to get into that too much, alright? So but you're basically in a beta state.  
 
And from there you transition to alpha, that's the slowing down of those brain waves, and that activates different processes in your body.  
 
Different neurotransmitters are doing things, reparative enzymes are doing things, there's different things going on with your hormones; so there's a lot of change happening. 
 
So that's stage one. Stage two of non-REM sleep, and when I'm saying non-REM sleep, let's clear up what that is. So REM, that's Rapid Eye Movement sleep. Okay? So this is non-REM sleep.  
 
Stage two of non-REM sleep, this is generally where most of your sleep time is spent. Throughout the night this is where most of your sleep time is actually spent, and this is characterized by theta waves, okay? Theta waves. This is an even deeper kind of slowing down of the brain wave pattern. 
 
Plus it's punctuated by something called sleep spindles. Alright? Sleep spindles. 
 
Jade Harrell:  They sound cute. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So I'm going to tell you a little bit about actually sleep spindles because it sounds cool.  
 
Jade Harrell:  It does. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And it's like, "What is a sleep spindle, Shawn?"  
 
So these are often referred to as sigma waves, okay? Sigma waves. These are bursts of repetitive brain activity, and sleep spindles involve the activation in the brain in the areas of the thalamus, the anterior cingulate, the insular cortices, and the superior temporal gyrus.  
 
Alright so all these different parts of your-  
 
Gyrus. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Gyrus now. All these different parts of your brain are going to be activated during this phase of sleep.  
 
Jade Harrell:  All this is happening in two? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  This is happening in two. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Got it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So there's a recent research, and this was by a team at the University of California Berkeley, found that sleep spindles are associated with refreshment of our ability to learn. Okay? 
 
So the brain areas that were found when they were studying this significantly heightened after sleep, and the occurrence of sleep spindles were the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.  
 
So the hippocampus is related a lot to your memory, and also the prefrontal cortex is all of your kind of evolved executive functioning, alright? So all of those were heightened after hitting those sleep spindles. Alright? 
 
And so what they kind of just consolidated with this study is that these areas are critical for learning and they're heavily influenced by these sleep spindles, and hitting that stage two of that non-REM sleep. 
 
Now furthermore, I'll share one more thing really quickly. According to research- this was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, sleep spindle activity has been found to be associated with the integration of new information and existing knowledge.  
 
So that's what learning really is. That's all it is, is taking something that you don't know, and combining it with something you do know. That's how you learn. 
 
So then after the second stage, so now we go to stage three, and the third is the deepest stage of non-REM sleep, and this is referred to as deep sleep, also as slow wave sleep, and this is characterized by delta waves. So delta waves. And also there are the occasional sleep spindles jumping off in this area as well. 
 
So this is kind of the deepest, most anabolic stage of sleep. 
 
So after you complete your time in the stage three of this non-REM sleep, then you cycle back, and instead of waking up the sleeper then enters a short period of REM sleep, the Rapid Eye Movement sleep which is where your eyes are moving rapidly and randomly which is super creepy and weird if you saw it.  
It is. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  But this is when a lot of the dreaming takes place. So REM sleep, and this is Rapid Eye Movement sleep as I mentioned, this employs higher frequency theta, alpha, and even beta waves, similar to those during wakefulness, and this can include frequent and vivid dreams.  
 
So as the night progresses, the last point I want to make here is as the night progresses, the time spent in deep stage three sleep decreases- so the first sleep cycle, it's longer, and then as each successive sleep cycle happens, that deep sleep gets shorter and shorter, and combine that with REM sleep increases; it gets longer and longer. 
 
This is why when you are getting up towards the morning you tend to remember your dreams, right? They tend to be- like the recollection that there are some dreams happening. It's because you're spending more time there. 
 
Jade Harrell:  So let me ask then for clarity. Non-REM goes one, two, three up, and then you're in the deep sleep for a short period of time, and then you cycle back. Then you get into REM? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yes. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay and then when you're in REM, do you go one, two, and three into REM? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yes, that's right. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Ah and then another even deeper sleep but for a shorter period of time? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yes. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Got it! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And then you go back up to one, then to REM sleep, then you go back down one, two, three. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Now what constitutes a cycle? One, two, three in?  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Right. Going there and back. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Thank you. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Okay that's a sleep cycle.  
And four to five cycles of that. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright so with that said, each sleep stage in any particular sleep cycle fulfills a very distinct psychological, physiological, neurological, powerful function.  
 
Every single phase matters, and each of these appears to be necessary for the health of the human mind and body, and to the extent that if sleep is interrupted or if certain stages are missing for any reason, then their psychological function and also those processes being able to be fully executed like anabolic hormone production and things like that, the person is going to feel more tired and groggy after waking up if their sleep is broken. 
 
So after- and again, after apparently sufficient sleep where you maybe slept eight hours but you still don't feel recovered, and this is a phenomenon called 'sleep inertia.' Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  see that as little gaps, there are little voids. So say something happened in one of those stages, then you left like a little pocket, a little air pocket. So then you don't have a good, solid night's sleep because they say, "Did you get a good, solid night's sleep?" "No I've got some spaces in here." 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I like that. Solid night's sleep, I like that. So for example if REM sleep is disrupted, it's been found clinically to trigger mild psychological struggles like increases anxiety, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. This is where we’ve seen an increase in cyberloafing, alright? This is all signs of the chronically tired. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And again, it doesn't matter how much time you spend in bed if your sleep cycles are not healthy, and some of the things that can throw off your sleep cycles are elevated cortisol, and also unstable blood sugar levels. These are just a couple of things that can mess up your sleep cycles. 
 
So with that said, let me share a couple of tips that we can utilize- and we've talked about many of these things on the show before diving into understanding what's going on with our sleep, but let me share some tips that are well-known and welldocumented to cause issues with elevated cortisol at the wrong time, and also screwing up your blood sugar levels that can in essence screw up your sleep cycles.  
 
So let's talk about cortisol first. So there's a study that was published in Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience that found that getting more sunlight exposure during the morning significantly decreases cortisol levels later in the evening. Okay?  
 
This is really important, I hope you heard that. So getting more sunlight during the day helps to keep your cortisol lower in the evening because again, cortisol is like the master disrupter of sleep. Cortisol is like, "Nah bro. No, no mama." 
 
Jade Harrell:  "We're not sleeping. We don't sleep." 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So cortisol is like the antithesis of melatonin. If melatonin is elevated, cortisol is low. If cortisol is elevated, melatonin is low.  
 
So we want to make sure that we're keeping that cortisol low in the evening, and clinically we would call people tired and wired because they were having their cortisol too high in the evening, or they were wired and they were just like, "I know I should be sleeping." And in the morning their cortisol is too low and they have a hard time getting out of bed.  
 
Hello? That was me. McFly? Hello? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Hello? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah, that was me. That was definitely me. And so getting sun exposure, how powerful is that? How simple? And it's just this is- we're human. This is how all of this- 
 
Jade Harrell:  We're wired to this thing. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That big old star enabled us to have life on this planet. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You know, you've got to get in touch with it a little bit.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Well they say some others now. Not just our planet. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh right. Oh man. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Those guys are benefiting too.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You're going to get us to a whole other show topic now. They just found another solar system and some planets that look similar to what's going on with Earth, and it's pretty crazy. Three of them in this particular solar system. 
 
Jade Harrell:  And they're thinking, "There might be humans or something up there." 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Humans or something. Right? I saw that movie, I want no parts of it.   
Okay so that's a big thing, and also there are- funny enough there are technological advances that can help with that aspect of the light exposure.  
 
Now definitely you want to get the natural real thing if at all possible. I know that there are extreme conditions where that might not be viable.  
 
So light therapy, there's light therapy boxes, there's light therapy visors that you can wear, ear buds, and I'll talk more about this on an upcoming episode. But basically there are even photoreceptors in your ear canal that sends information to your brain, and they've got studies that back this stuff up too, that helps to basically optimize your sleep and wake cycle.  
 
This kind of sleep architecture is going to be improved by you getting that exposure at the right time.  
 
So that's just another thing, is if we want to make sure that we're not breaking up our sleep cycles, making sure that we're keeping cortisol lower in the evening.  
 
Another thing is eating a well-balanced diet that focuses on real food, and avoiding processed foods as foundational to keeping your blood sugar stable at night.  
 
So if you're eating like Krispy Kremes before bed, yeah your sleep cycle is going to be screwed up. Your sleep cycles- that sleep architecture is going to be broken apart because your blood sugar is going to cause disruption with that process and what your brain is doing. I hope that makes sense. 
 
Jade Harrell:  It does. Well when you talk about architecture you think of design, and building. If you have a disruption in that, then it's going to throw off your design, and you won't have what you need to build. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah. And also even on the other side though, we want to make sure that we're having the right nutrients that help to keep our blood sugar not so that it's too low as well, alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  How often does that happen? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I'm not talking about a Snickers- like here's a bite-sized Snickers to keep your blood sugar right.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  No, I'm talking about eating real food. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright? Healthy ratio of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, the whole shebang, but from real food sources obviously.  
 
Now last thing I want to cover here is- this is the biggest culprit today for sure with keeping our nighttime cortisol too high, and melatonin too low, and this is our tech devices. You know?  
 
And I really hope to push this into culture, many people have heard this already. It's kind of one of those things where, "Yeah I know about that," but do you really? Do you really? If you're not doing it then you don't really know it.  
 
And also it's like guess who told you? Guess who's been putting the information out there? Please understand this is not something to just glance over because this amazing iPhone right here? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Man. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Love it.  
 
Jade Harrell:  I do. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  iPhone look at you, so cute. 
 
Jade Harrell:  It's so good to me. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Now listen though, we have a relationship, we have an understanding though, okay? So Apple has actually added to all of their new devices this tool called Night Shift. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Love it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That automatically pulls the most troublesome spectrum of light out of your screen in the evening, and it does this automatically. You can set it and forget it. Why would Apple build that into their phones now and to their iPads? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Because you went there and you talked to them and you told them.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Well maybe. But the real reason, the strongest reason is the health implications that people in the company are now aware of, and potential legal ramifications because literally these devices are destroying people's health.  
 
When we look at the nurse's study and we find that nurses who are working the overnight shift doing the shift work have 30% greater incidents of breast cancer.  
 
And the World Health Organization coming out and saying that night shift work, or working overnight, being around light exposure in the evening is a class 2A carcinogen, cancer causing agent, being exposed to light at night. That's very- it should be very sobering to hear that. 
 
So bottom line is this. Melatonin helps to control your sleep cycle and your wake cycle. That's very important to understand. Now melatonin is a hormone that's produced naturally in response to darkness, okay? 
 
So if you're not getting a natural exposure to darkness in the evening, then you're not going to be producing optimal amounts of melatonin that help to modulate your sleep cycles. Alright? 
 
Jade Harrell:  At the right time. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Exactly. And Harvard researchers confirmed that blue light exposure specifically from our devices increases cortisol, and suppresses melatonin.  
 
And what they cited was- and I'm just kind of summarizing this, is that every hour you're on your device at night without protection- so you've got to have that basically eye protection for that eye sex that's happening with your phone. I didn't know where this was going to go, let's stop right there. 
 
Jade Harrell:  You had to go there. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Let's not go any further. Alright. 
 
Jade Harrell:  The J, the I, the M, the M- 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Let's get back in here. Now they found that every hour you're on your device in the evening results in a thirty minute suppression of melatonin.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Not in my cycles you don't.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So one hour exposure- and they found this doesn't happen during the day. Daytime exposure doesn't matter. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  It's literally your body's circadian timing is aware that like, 'I should be around darkness at this time.' And so it will literally suppress your melatonin for thirty minutes for every hour you're on your device.  
 
So very simple principles here is to give yourself a screen curfew if you can, I recommend at least thirty minutes- give yourself thirty minutes before you plan on turning in.  
An hour is optimal but you have to fill that with something of greater or equal value. You can't just sit there and twiddle your thumbs like, 'You know, I know this is good for me.' Fill that space with something, right?  
 
Play some- we were just talking about games. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Go Fish, baby. Go Shark.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Right? Play some games with your family. Maybe this is the time to kind of sit around and chat, read a book, listen to a podcast. There's a lot of different things that you can do.  
 
Audio book, you can get with your significant other, alright? Hook it up! Hook it up, have some intimate time. Hopefully that's more entertaining than Instagram, but I don't know! 
 
Jade Harrell:  Well looking at some of the scenarios that may come up. Busy schedules, and get home, and your children, your students- or you are a student and you've got work that has to be turned in for your classes. You know?  
 
There still needs to be a curfew. I think this is something that you could miss, you're going to work, and work until you go to bed, you know just trying to make your classwork or your homework get done.  
 
And then also with talking about getting busy with- getting busy. You said getting with, spending quality time. I went to busy. But then if your children are still up if you have children in the home then that's not happening right away.  
 
So it may make sense, or maybe here's a hack, do something that will help the children relax and get to sleep sooner, and then you can still have that time instead of putting it off because we've gotten so busy.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Parent version, right there. You know?  
 
Jade Harrell:  That's PG. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah and that's the same thing, that's a part of our evening ritual. You know I'll put my son Braden to bed, read him his story, get him tuck- tuckied in, do our little thing and then I'll- generally after that I'll either hang out with my wife, we'll hang out, or talk, or that's when I'll read a book.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Right? And so generally it's hopefully all of those things. But so that's- it's just really again adding something that's of greater or equal value to your time on your phone. So that is number two on these four reasons that you're tired all the time, and what you can do about it is- looking at that number two is very important, your sleep cycles aren't strong.  
 
So those are just a couple of methods to improve those sleep cycles, and you know that it's all consolidated in my bestselling book, 'Sleep Smarter.' Alright? So if you don't have it, make sure that you have it, there's 21 strategies in there. 
 
And this today is really important because again, this is the real driver of us having the lives that we really want, is having the energy to do so. And so I'm really excited to get this information into your hands because I know these are going to be things that can help you for a lifetime, but we really need to tune in and pay full attention.  
 
So just a little caveat, I'm going to preface this, we actually have an entire course on helping people to optimize their energy. What are all the underlying mechanisms with human energy?  
 
What are the things that we need to do to- kind of these things that suck away- these kind of energy vampires, and create these energy blockages in your system, and what are some things that we can do to fortify and recover and also thrive?  
 
And so we've got an entire course- and I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a little bit. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh my gosh, yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I hooked up with- the team at Mind, Body, Green reached out and they wanted to do a huge program, and we did a multi-day shoot, and we put this together and I think it's going to change a lot of lives. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Of course. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  But let's dive back in here. So we're going to get to number three here. Number three on our list of the four reasons you're tired all the time and what you can do about it. Number three is you might be deficient.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Oh. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You might be deficient. Now nutrient deficiencies can actually wreak havoc on your sleep quality, which we already talked about how important that is, and your overall daily energy as well. 
 
So your lack of energy could be due to a lack of key nutrients. Alright? Now first up, vitamin C. Let's talk a little bit about vitamin C. When you hear vitamin C, I mean I used to think about this, just kind of what I used to see in textbooks and when I was in school, is they would talk about it for scurvy. It's not just for scurvy, alright? We don't have a lot of pirates. Shout-out to the pirates that are left though. If you're listening to this podcast on your pirate ship- 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Holla at your parrot for me. So it's not for 'Argh, scurvy.' But doctors and dietitians have long known that scurvy is a deficiency in vitamin C, by the way. But this also is a condition that involves extreme fatigue, alright? It involves extreme fatigue.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Get some sleep. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Oh God. Alright now there was a study that was published in the Public Library of Science that revealed that people with low blood levels of vitamin C had more sleep issues and were more prone to waking up during the night.  
 
Alright so those sleep cycles are a little bit extra broken. Maybe when they hit the REM they're getting too far out of the REM, or maybe it's getting interrupted somewhere along those other stages as well. 
 
Who knows what it is specifically in the study, but the bottom line is they have trouble staying asleep. Alright? Simply because of this vitamin C deficiency, and after getting those levels elevated, sleep problems, gone. Alright? Something as simple as that.  
 
So also let's talk about what scientists think in terms of conventional energy production. So not sleep, because that's really the biggest underlying thing, or one of the biggest things is your sleep quality is why you're tired. But conventional energy production and what scientists think today.  
 
So your body actually needs vitamin C in order to make L-Carnitine, which helps you burn fat for energy. So vitamin C helps-  
 
Jade Harrell:  I can get energy out of the fat? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Vitamin C helps your body to use fat for you to have more energy.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Let's take it. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Powerful. Now researchers at the National Institutes of Health reported that fatigue was one of the first symptoms of vitamin C depletion. And in one study, 44 workers received therapeutic vitamin C daily, and after two weeks their fatigue had decreased by about a third. Alright? 
 
So right there in black and white for that one, and it's just another thing to pay attention to. We think about vitamin C like somebody goes and gets it if they're feeling a cold coming on, or trying to get well. It's not just about your immune system, it's really- again, being proactive is a much better idea than trying to be reactive. 
 
So here's a quick tip on how to take advantage of this. You don't want to mega-dose on vitamin C, and you can actually- it's called a vitamin C flush clinically. You take a certain amount of vitamin C, it will flush out your digestive tract.  
 
So you don't want to have so much that you're hitting that point, we don't even need to get that much period, but just ensure you're getting a little more than the RDA amount. Especially if you've been under acute stress, that would look like somewhere around 60 to 100 milligrams a day is what I would recommend.  
 
Where to get it? Excellent sources of vitamin C are superfoods like camu camu berry, amla berry, acerola cherry, and then everyday foods like bell peppers, green leafy vegetables, kiwi, strawberry, citrus fruits, papaya, things of that nature.  
 
Alright so lots of great sources to get vitamin C. I really love the botanical vitamin C, not the synthetic, in the form of these superfoods. I love camu camu berry, it's one of my faves.  
 
Alright so that's one, and I could give you- like we could just do a whole show on just these nutrients, but another one- 
 
Jade Harrell:  And you have. We've got the superfoods where we talked about some that provide- and it was at the top of the show you were talking about moringa. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Yeah, exactly. Another one of these key nutrients is omega-3's. Alright? Omega-3's. There was a study conducted by the University of Oxford that found that Omega-3's can help you to get deeper, more restful sleep. So there's that relationship back to there.  
 
Plus the connection with cellular energy, so it's more the conventional thinking because generally people are not going to be thinking about improving my sleep to have more energy. Alright so I'm talking about the other method as well. I hope that makes sense. 
 
Which is there's a connection with cellular energy when it comes to omega-3 fatty acids because they're a large component of your brain cell membranes, and they're important for cell-to-cell communication in your brain.  
 
Really most of the cells in your body period, it's really helping with the cell membranes and the cellular communication. If that communication is skewed, guess what? Your energy is going to be skewed.  
 
Alright so this is really important for that as well.  
 
So some sources of omega-3's are chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, halibut, salmon, flax seeds.  
 
And an important note about omega-3's, I want to make sure everybody knows this. I've said this many times but please hear this, it's heat sensitive. Alright this is more of a heat sensitive nutrient.  
 
Now in real whole foods, still the jury is out on whether or not it's going to really destroy the molecule and make it not usable- as usable. So this is why you don't want to like have well-done salmon. You know? 
 
But this is why the booming market for fish oil, things like that, there's also krill oil, there's the marine phytoplankton, algae oils, things like that. So those are other sources that you can go to as well. 
 
So you'll also notice that cold pressed oils, they're going to be in the cold section like the refrigerated section at these health food stores, like flax seed oil, that's where you're going to find it.  
 
So make sure you're just getting a reputable brand, and we'll go ahead and move onto the next one.  
 
So now let's talk about what potentially the biggest nutrient deficiency of all when it comes to energy production. The main source of energy in our cells is something called adenosine triphosphate.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Say that one more time. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Adenosine triphosphate.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Or affectionately known as ATP. So ATP, this is essentially the currency that runs your body's economy, okay? Okay? This is the currency that runs your body's economy, but it can't make any real transactions without the banker, and that banker is magnesium. Okay?  
 
So though ATP is the main source of energy in the cells, it must be bound to a magnesium ion in order to be biologically active. Okay?  
 
So ATP, your body's energy currency- we're talking about energy here, it has to be bound to a magnesium ion in order to be biologically active. The periodic table's symbol for magnesium is Mg, big M, little G.  
 
So ATP in the sense that we experience it as energy for us as humans, it's really MgATP. MgATP when it comes to making the magic happen in your body. 
 
Now magnesium is responsible for over 330 enzymatic processes that help to keep you energized and healthy, and if you're deficient in magnesium, I've said this over and over again, that's 330 things- there are thirty new things that were recently discovered, it was 300, 330 processes that your body cannot effectively do. And one of those things is to ensure you have ample energy, okay? 
 
So it's really, really important and why I'm talking about this, is that this is likely the number one mineral deficiency in our modern world with 80 plus percent of our population being chronically deficient in magnesium.  
 
And a big part of that is because it's an anti-stress kind of mineral and we're dealing with a lot of environmental stress, a lot of psychological stress. There's just a lot going on that our ancestors were not exposed to as far as just the environmental pressure. 
 
They had a different kind of pressure, but it would generally be acute, and then it would go away. Today we have more chronic stress. So this is why making sure we're getting our magnesium levels optimized is important.  
 
Now here are just a few things magnesium is responsible for, I'm just going to kind of list some things off. 
 
It's responsible for regulating your blood pressure, and this mineral actually relaxes the smooth muscle tissues that dilate the arteries and reduce your blood pressure if need be.  
 
It helps to neutralize catecholamines, and these are basically your stress hormones, also stress-induced hormones. I'll put it like that.  
 
It helps to maintain normal contraction- by the way the catecholamines, cortisol for example.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Is a catecholamine? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Right you need magnesium to help to neutralize that. Alright.  
 
Helps maintain normal contraction and relaxation of your muscles and relives tension and pain. That was like the story we had when we did the live show in D.C. from the amazing grandma who was there, and she told her story about how the magnesium really helped to alleviate her pain in a way that just blew her away. To the degree that she's running around spraying the magnesium. 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's what she said, yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Now also it helps to boost and support the production of serotonin which is one of your 'feel good' neurotransmitters. When serotonin is flowing you're more likely to want to get up and to take action in your life. 
 
Also it helps prevent calcification, or it's really this calcium build-up in your arterial walls.  
 
It helps to convert food into energy, helps support and repair your DNA and RNA. 
There was a study that was conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture and found that magnesium supplementation can reduce your C-reactive protein which is one of the major markers for inflammation.  
 
Okay and I can go on and on. Another one, vital for production and function and transportation of insulin in your body to manage your blood sugar. Very, very important and powerful, and again it gets zapped from your system pretty quickly because it's involved in so much. 
 
So for starters, to ensure your magnesium levels are up to par, food first. Four to five servings of magnesium-rich foods. Anything that has the green hue to it, it's probably going to have a nice source of magnesium; spinach, chard, also there's pumpkin seeds, almonds, superfoods like spirulina is a great source as well.  
 
And also you can add in a magnesium supplement. I actually recommend people to do this for most people, but you've got to be careful with oral supplementation because too much can- again it pulls water to your bowels, so it can cause- we call it clinically, the scientific name is disaster-pants. Alright so it can cause diarrhea, alright so you have to be careful about that because that's counter-productive. We're not trying to have so much magnesium it causes that.  
 
But the crazy thing is that amount that you can put into your digestive tract is probably still far from the amount your body actually needs. You just can't get it in in that form. This is why I recommend a topical magnesium, something you put on transdermally through your skin.  
 
And the only product that I use for that- and I've literally been using this for years, alright almost- literally when I said 'for years,' literally almost four years of my life, so almost half a decade. And we'll just say 365 days in a year, 360 of those days I use this. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay, how are you using it? 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So how I like to use it is generally for me I'm spraying it on and rubbing it into my skin before bed, maybe ten minutes before I get into bed. And I'll put it on sore muscle spots, like I was telling you before, just kind of rubbing my lower back a little bit, shoulders, neck area,  
 
But really we just had a crazy leg workout, squats, we were getting our squats on. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I saw. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And we were like legitimately like, "Uh we need an elevator in the house." So we were rubbing it onto our legs as well, so my wife was doing this too. And it's just one of my favorite things, it's one of my absolute favorite things. It's one of the things I get the most messages about when people find out about it, and it's called EASE Magnesium.  
 
So this is a purified water in a pharmaceutical grade magnesium chloride hexahydrate, and you can pick this up at www.EASEMagnesium.com/model and they're going to give you an exclusive- you will not find this anywhere else, exclusive 15% off, and this is one of my favorite things in the world.  
 
I'm about to hop on a plane to head to the Philippines for a speaking event, I'm really looking forward to it and excited about, but you'd better believe that this is going with me. Alright? I'm taking my- this is my teddy bear. I am taking this with me.  
 
And everything that I do has a purpose, and so for you it might be a relief from pain, it might end up being more energy that you're experiencing throughout the day. It might be a reduction of symptoms from some kind of chronic thing that you have been dealing with, because your body now has the ample amount of magnesium that it's been needing for so long to do the job that it's been wanting to do.  
 
And so magnesium is literally that powerful. But it's going to impact you differently depending on what your needs are. And some people- even if you're like at an A game right now, and you just want something that's an insurance policy to make sure that you're keeping your levels topped off. Because what's so great about this transdermal application is that your body can only- it absorbs as much as it can use and that's it. 
 
Jade Harrell:  So then how much spraying do you need?  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Generally you're going to use- it depends on you.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Okay. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You know, maybe twenty sprays.  
 
Jade Harrell:  So not like the Jheri curl spray. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  'Let your soul go!' Not that, no. So it just depends on you, and sometimes you'll just know how much you need. Like I'm pretty sore today, or it's been a long day, I've been pretty stressed, and I'll use a little bit more. But basically I'll spray some into my hand, kind of rub it in, or just spray it directly on and massage it in.  
 
Jade Harrell:  It works pretty quickly though. I mean you feel something. Like I did anyways, I'm not going to speak for everybody, but I found it very comforting very quickly.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So this is not just for ensuring optimal energy as I said, but also for maintaining just overall maintenance and self-care, right? And this is really something everyone who's serious about their health and fitness should definitely have on your bathroom counter or on your nightstand like I have mine.  
 
So that is it, for that's number three on the four reasons why you're tired all the time and what to do about it. And number four- and that was the deficiencies, you might be deficient. 
 
Number four, number four on this list in no particular order, number four is your fluids need to be changed. Your fluids need to be changed.  
 
Cell dehydration can literally damage your DNA, and because of this your brain and your nervous system take dehydration very, very, very seriously, and just a 5% drop in your normal fluid balance in your body is enough to cause headache, damage your cells, and also cause extreme fatigue.  
 
Now most people hear about the importance of drinking plenty of water, but time and time again it's overlooked as a part of their health challenges. And I've had this happen, people will come up to me like, "I listen to the show," and they'll tell me about something maybe that's going on in their life- and not all conversations go like this, by the way, but they'll tell me something's going on.  
 
I'll ask them some basic things, I'm like, "So how about your water intake?" They're like, "Oh you know, I know that I need to be doing that, better at that."  
 
We can't get to the other things, the other twenty possible issues, if we're not covering the basics and making sure you're getting optimally hydrated because that one thing could be a game changer, but we take it for granted in the world that we live in.   
Other people, water is a very serious thing, where they have a lack of access, that's life and death. Today we take it for granted because we're surrounded by it. Right? 
 
Jade Harrell:  We think we are. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  So with that said, your cell tissues and organs are all operating in a water medium. That's where all of these processes we're talking about- we're talking about energy and you make energy, you create energy, it's all happening in a water medium, alright? So the more murky that water starts to get, the more you start feeling symptoms of fatigue.  
 
So when you drink a glass of water, within mere minutes that water becomes your blood and your extra cellular fluid, and it pushes out the used fluid that's now littered with metabolic waste.  
 
And if you don't drink enough water, that stuff stays gummed up in your system, alright? It's not getting literally flushed out and you start to feel like an overcooked, shriveled up old prune. Alright? You don't want to feel like that. 
 
Jade Harrell:  I don't. I really don't. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Shout-out to prunes and prune juice. I remember when I was- prior to my diagnosis, even through that diagnosis with the whole spinal degeneration, I would go to 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven. I would go to 7-Eleven and I would get the nachos with chili and cheese, right?  
 
And basically it's like you've got the pump, right? And I'd get the nachos, and I would literally- I'd take chips out, I would put cheese and chili on the bottom, put some chips in, put cheese and chili on the bottom, put chips in.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Because then it covered it up.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Boy, do you know? 
 
Jade Harrell:  I do know. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright and what's so crazy is I loved it, and I would get this terrifying indigestion afterwards. It's just like you would think you would stop eating it, right? But no I would push through, I just got me a 'white soda,' you know drink a little Sprite with it. Grant Hill drinks Sprite, right?  
 
And so try to abade those symptoms, but sometimes it's just too much, right? Just too many symptoms, and then I would turn to the prune juice to help a brother out.  
 
It's an ugly situation, man when you've got to go prune juice. It's not pretty. It's not pretty.  
 
Jade Harrell:  You'd come close to the edge.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  I remember my grandfather eating the prunes, I'm just like, "What is that? What is that about?" Even when I was a little kid, especially if I was on my cereals, my Mr. T cereal, my Smurfs cereal, and eating some prunes just tasted horrible to me. Like why would he do this?  
Because it's this whole concept of being regular, right? I didn't even know what that was when I was eating my nachos with chili and cheese. I'm like, 'Let me see how-' basically subconsciously I'm like, 'Let me see how gummed up I can get.' 
 
Jade Harrell:  Can I get?  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Let's create a clog. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Give me a couple more pumps to stop it up. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Give me a wine cork. Let's get a wine cork in here. Alright so anyways, here are some of the things that water is responsible for in your body, just a couple of the things. 
 
So maintenance of your DNA, facilitating the processes of your mitochondria which we've already talked about with energy power plants. Building your blood- your blood is over 90% water and that's the system used to transfer oxygen and nutrients throughout your body that gives you energy, building your lymphatic fluid for detoxification, regulating your body temperature, and on, and on, and on.  
 
All of your neurotransmitters move throughout your body in a water super highway, so that's how important this is. One of the biggest energy mistakes is due to people starting their day dangerously dehydrated.  
 
This is one of the biggest mistakes because you wake up in the morning you're definitely dehydrated because your body has done an incredible amount of processes to repair you, to heal you with assimilation, detoxification, and it's ready for elimination. 
 
Alright so the water is there to replace those fluids that have already been processed and flush that stuff out of your system. So while you're asleep at night, there's a lot of magic happening, and let's take your brain for example. 
 
Just one of the reasons to get super hydrated to start your day is that your brain during sleep, we've talked about this before, there's this glympathic system that was recently discovered, and it's the detoxification in your brain.  
 
And your brain is doing a million processes every second, there's a lot of metabolic waste, you have to make room for new development, new brain cells, new connections.  
 
That build-up is there, that is one of the reasons now recently discovered is behind Alzheimer's; an inability of the brain to detoxify itself. And that system is ten times more active when you're asleep than when you're awake. Alright so it's a lot of this process happening. 
So when you get up in the morning, you need to get super hydrated. 
 
So to assist your body in flushing out these metabolic waste, simply drink twenty to thirty ounces of high quality water to kick off your morning. And if don't know what the high quality water is, we've got a master class on water we'll put in the show notes, one of the most popular episodes of The Model Health Show if you haven't happened to hear that one. 
 
Jade Harrell:  One of the best! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  But another little known secret of drinking twenty to thirty ounces of water, that twenty to thirty ounces of water first thing in the morning, that's what we call our inner bath. Alright we take the external bath for the outside, but isn't the inside more important?  
 
So to get that inner bath to really also jumpstart your metabolism, which we talked about in those seven little tips to help you burn more fat this year, we'll put that in the show notes. You can literally burn more calories and literally burn fat by drinking water. Crazy stuff. 
 
Jade Harrell:  And that inner bath helps you smell a lot better on your outer self. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  You think? You think? 
 
Jade Harrell:  Take care of the inside first.  
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Somebody gives you a hug and they're like, "He must be dehydrated, huh? Your breath smells like you're dehydrated." 
 
Okay so general baseline, so that's the morning water, your inner bath. But a general baseline is to drink half of your bodyweight in ounces of water each day. So 150pound person, you would drink 75 ounces as a baseline. That's the minimum, right? 
 
You make sure you hit your baseline, but if you're active, you're doing exercise, you're maybe out in the sun, you're sweating, those kinds of things, you need to up it from there. But that's the general baseline.  
 
So getting optimally hydrated, this is one of the most commonly overlooked things that is draining people's energy, and it's a quick and easy fix. But these are all really primary, these are primary things that we covered today, these four reasons why you're tired all the time and what you can do about it.  
 
But as I mentioned before, I gave a little preview, we've got an in-depth course. We've got a brand new course that is going to be powerful, and I know it's going to change a lot of lives. Let me tell you a little bit about it.  
So in this course we cover in-depth the role of gut health in energy production. How light therapy can be used to radically improve your energy levels. How to make over your exercise program to ensure that you have incredible energy each day, and you don't go OD on cortisol. 
 
Also we cover the jaw-dropping role that stress plays on your energy production. That in and of itself is worth the price of admission. It's going to like just blow your mind when you find this out.  
 
Also we talk about specific food and nutrition protocols to help to cultivate your daily energy. And we dive even deeper into the topics that we covered today as well, plus a whole lot more. 
 
So this course is for people who want to optimize their energy, also for the health coaches, the physicians, the trainers out there; you need to get this information, this is cutting edge information that you will not pick up in your conventional university, no matter if you have a Doctorate degree or a Master's degree.  
 
This information could be game changing for your clients, and you need to have this kind of knowledge base. This is something that's going to be incredible value to you and to the people that you're impacting.  
 
So we really worked hard to put this course together to make it beautiful, to make it easy, to extract information from and to implement, and it's beautifully laid out, and it's all these different incredible videos that we put together. 
 
And again, it was a multi-day shoot, they flew out a crew to my home, and we put this together, and we really, really worked hard to make the master class on energy. The course that's really going to construct and teach people about how their body creates energy, how to optimize it, and how to avoid the things that are clogging up their energy every day. 
 
So make sure you head over now, right now, and get your hands on the brand new course. I know you're going to get a lot of value out of it.  
 
Go to www.TheModelHealthShow.com/energy. Alright? 
www.TheModelHealthShow.com/energy and you're going to get access to this course. We created this- they're a powerhouse on the Internet themselves, Mind Body Green is one of the biggest websites in the game, and they're an incredible channel for information that's really helping to heal a lot of people, and really helping people to not just recover from issues and challenges in their life, but how do we live like a life of true vitality? 
 
Jade Harrell:  That's right. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  That's what it's really about. I want to get us past survival and getting into thriving. You know? And this is really a part of that. We have to learn how our energy is created within our bodies, and how to manage that energy, how to cultivate that energy, and how to avoid things that are taking us down every day, and they're just kind of hiding in plain sight.  
 
So I'm very, very excited to share that with you guys. I'm very excited to have you to be a part of that community with me, and to be one of the people who has access to this course.  
 
So make sure to head over there, check that out. It's www.TheModelHealthShow.com/energy.  
 
Jade Harrell:  I love it! 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  Alright www.TheModelHealthShow.com/energy and you get access. And everybody thank you so much for tuning into the show today. This is such an important topic because our energy is really the driver of our action.  
 
And so the more that we can cultivate and support that energy, the more that we can accomplish the things that we really want in our lives, because I know that you have gifts, and talents, and capacities, and some people right now may be thinking that, 'I don't know what those are. I don't think that I have any talents.' I promise you, you do.  
 
You can't come here, you can't be born without being imbued with gifts to give. And whether that's just being of service in a small way in your family, in your community, or a grander scale, you are valuable. And you stepping into that greatness, you're going to need the energy to do so.  
 
So I hope you got a lot of value out of this episode today. I appreciate you so much. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. 
 
And make sure for more after the show, you head over to 
www.TheModelHealthShow.com, that's where you can find the show notes, and if you've got any questions or comments, make sure to let me know. And please head over to iTunes and give us a five star rating, and let everybody know that our show is awesome.  
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And you're loving it. 
 
Jade Harrell:  Yeah. 
 
Shawn Stevenson:  And I read all the comments, so please leave me a comment there, and take care everybody. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.  
 

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  1. Hi! Love all of your info…loved your book and I’m hooked on your show! Quick question for you – You mention magnesium a lot. I know there are many kinds of magnesium. I have been curious about the spray magnesium you mention. I have tried a gel with no effects. I currently take an oral magnesium glycinate and do not experience the effects of having to go the bathroom a lot like people mention with other types. Which type should we be taking and what is the difference between them?
    Thank you!

  2. Pingback: How To Be Fit In College – Vitamin Amy
  3. Has Shawn Stevenson ever addressed HYPERSOMNIA. I’ve struggled with this neurological disorder for over 15 years. Doctors have no cure for it or understand why it happens, specially Idiopathic Hypersomnia. Please let me know. Thanks.

  4. Been listening to some of your shows. One episode told me jogging is a waste of time the next tells me that all movement is important and even chopping herbs is worthwhile! Bit confused.

  5. I am a brand new listener to your show and cannot stop listening! I love the content and I am putting everything in play right away. Most of the time I listen on the road, and cannot take notes/answers about the topics. For me, I would love to go back and see a brief answer to the topic in the description of the podcast. Then I remember the conversation, write down, and start utilizing that information. Whether you are talking about a workout, nutrition, a product or supplement, life lesson, sleep lesson, etc.. I see the you’ll discover section about the topics, but that last bit of information will help me a lot. I also know time is an issue and I am not expecting a novel. Thank you again for the great information!

  6. Today your download link does not seem to work for me…
    Only when I can download your presentation can I listen to it on this old computer…
    I’ll check back another day…
    Thanks for the info you provide

    1. Hi Erika,

      Thanks so much for tuning in. We are able to download on our end (though it took a few mins to do so since its a much bigger file). Can you try again and see if it works. Thanks for letting us know. TMHS Team

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