1. Product I love…
I owned this alarm clock for over a year, but never took it out of the box until two months ago. It is the Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light. I LOVE this thing! Their description is this… Colored Sunrise and Sunset Simulation, 5 Natural Sounds, FM Radio & Reading Lamp. Basically, it mimics a natural sunrise in the morning, with a deep orange glow that steadily gets brighter. The light begins to glow one half hour before the time you set to wake up. By the time your set time arrives, it is fully shining, and the chosen alarm then begins to sound. You have a choice between waves lightly crashing, birds chirping, light music with birds chirping, a rainforest sound, piano music, or the radio. I wasn’t sure what to expect, or if it would wake me, but it definitely wakes me… and does so in the most peaceful, pleasant way. I have chosen the chirping birds for my wake up sound. It is designed to mimic a much more natural way to wake, instead of some loud, hideous noise that triggers your fight or flight nervous system (NOT a great way to start your day!). Anyway, I can’t believe I waited so long to try it out, but can honestly say that I like it A LOT more than I thought I would. I wake much more peacefully and believe I feel a big difference in the mornings. Philips makes different versions of this alarm clock, but I feel this one is their best. Click here for more info. And below are two pics of the alarm clock… the first is about a half hour before the alarm goes off, where it is a deep red glow, and the second is when the alarm begins to sound, where the light is at full brightness.
2. Study that caught my attention this week…
While listening to a podcast that I had not listened to before, The Kevin Rose Show, I heard about a study that I thought was worth digging deeper into. The show was titled, Why track your glucose levels? And his guest was Josh Clemente, from a company called Levels Health, which is creating a full-on glucose tracking program. Josh referenced a study, titled Food Order Has Significant Impact on Glucose and Insulin Levels (which you can read more about here). According to that study, “The results showed that glucose levels were much lower at the 30, 60 and 120 minute checks — by about 29 percent, 37 percent and 17 percent, respectively — when vegetables and protein were eaten before the carbohydrates. Insulin was also significantly lower when protein and vegetables were eaten first.” Simply put… eating your vegetables or meat first helps reduce blood glucose spikes. This was good news for me because I usually eat all my veggies first (primarily because, to the surprise of many, I do not love veggies).
3. A wellness tool I revisited this past week…
I have always been interested in success… in ALL areas of life. Too many so-called successful people are super successful in business, athletics, fitness, etc., but terrible in other areas of their lives. There is a simple tool I came across decades ago, but more recently saw it again (thanks Hal Elrod!). This one is called the “Wheel of Life” Assessment. You simply grade the success/satisfaction in each area of your life with a score between 1 and 10. Then shade the area between “0” and that number. You can quickly and easily get a glimpse of where you are doing well, and where you need to do a little more work. For a balanced, optimal, fully well life, it is essential you periodically check in to see what areas are lagging behind so that you can do what you need to do to bump that number up. Remember… you want to be successful in ALL areas of life! See below for Hal Elrod’s “Wheel of Life” Assessment, as well as a finished example.
