Random Review Wednesday: Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life

Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life: How to Harness the Power of Clock Genes to Lose Weight, Optimize Your Workout, and Finally Get a Good Night’s Sleep

I tend to read a lot of “get healthy” books in the summer. Searching for some answers as to why I was feeling my age, I picked up Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life, by Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar. The results actually lived up to the title. I got rid of some weight I didn’t feel like carrying around, and I now feel much better in general.

And it wasn’t hard. Honestly.

Here are some changes I made, after reading the book:

I aim for a 10:30 p.m. bedtime with some wind-down time (no screens!). I am a workaholic by nature and if I don’t check myself, I’ll work until midnight, and then get back up again and start it all again the next day. Wow, is this unhealthy! My “more is more” work mentality caused me to need a good amount of coffee and I always felt exhausted. I feel so much better now that I get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, at a consistent time.
I practice TRE, “time restricted eating.” This means I aim to give my body at least 12 continuous hours with no food, ideally 10. So if I eat breakfast at 8:30 a.m., I try to finish dinner by 6:30 p.m. This gives my digestive system a rest and helps my body to repair itself – and bonus – gobble up a little extra fat.
I stopped eating all the time. Yeah, I know, Captain Obvious. I have always eaten very healthy, but I was eating several small meals, all day long. I learned from this book that our bodies like a break from constant snacking. I started restricting my eating to three meals a day, with sometimes one extra snack if absolutely needed.
My biggest meal is lunch. Not snacking constantly, I starting eating a little more per meal, and I try to eat the most at lunch instead of a large dinner. Our digestive “fire” is highest at lunch, allowing us to eat a bit more without negative effects. Our digestion slows down in late afternoon and continues to slow to a crawl when we are getting ready to go to sleep. This is why late night snacking is a no-no. It literally restarts your entire digestion/healing process and gives you less of a rest.
I try to exercise in the morning. According to “Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life,” our optimal workout time is in the morning, so I aim to work out before noon. I love walking, so this might be a simple brisk walk around town, listening to a favorite podcast.

I dropped about eight pounds, pretty much effortlessly, within a few months after making these changes. There are many other suggestions beyond these five in the book, which for me, definitely lived up to its title.

Check out Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life today!

More about the book:

“An eye-opening handbook from a leading Ayurvedic physician that blends cutting-edge science on “clock genes” with ancient eastern wisdom to help us understand how to harness the power of chronobiology to effortlessly lose weight, sleep better, exercise stronger, reduce stress, and boost our wellbeing.

“It’s not you, it’s your schedule.” Does it sound like magic? It’s not. We’ve all heard of circadian rhythms—those biological processes that give us jet lag and make us night owls or early birds. But few of us know just how profoundly these diurnal patterns affect our overall health.

Bad habits like skipping meals, squeezing in workouts when it’s convenient, working late into the night to maximize productivity and then trying to “catch up” on sleep during the weekend disrupt our natural cycles. A growing body of research on chronobiology reveals just how sensitive the human body is to these rhythms all the way down to the genetic level. Our “clock genes” control more than we realize, and small changes can make the difference between battling our bodies, and effortlessly managing weight, sleep, stress, inflammation, and more.

Marrying ancient Ayurvedic wisdom with the latest scientific research, Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar’s holistic step-by-step 30-day plan gives you the tools—and the schedule—you need to transform your life. With diagnostic quizzes to determine your specific mind-body type, you will learn to adapt you schedule for effortless wellness for life.”