Sara Gottfried, MD, shares a typical day on the Younger protocol.
My day begins at 6 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m. The main elements of my day include: nutritious food, quality exercise, positivity from my friends and family, drinking enough filtered water, and commitment to my meditative rituals.
These guideposts keep me on track toward physical and mental health, as well as ensuring my life is rich and meaningful.
Here is what a daily routine that includes the basic rituals from weeks 1 and 2 of my seven-week Younger protocol might look like. This is a typical day for me — a normal day with better choices. Modify as you see fit.
6:00 a.m.
Wake up, floss, and brush teeth with electric toothbrush.
Take supplements on an empty stomach.
6:05 a.m.
Drink a green tea collagen latte or a steamy mug of matcha. I encourage my patients to replace their coffee with tea to decrease their intake of caffeine, which can make you feel stressed and disrupt your sleep if you’re like me and have the slow CYP1A2 gene variant, meaning you metabolize caffeine slowly.
6:10 a.m.
Meditate for 10–30 minutes.
6:45 a.m.
After meditation, I eat breakfast with my husband and daughters. I take three deep breaths before I eat because my old habit was to shovel in breakfast while speed-reading the newspaper. I have to actively and consciously slow down before my meals in order to create new neural pathways. Breakfast is often two eggs and one serving of fruit, or some organic quinoa with fruit.
7:30 a.m.
Take my daughters to school.
8:00 a.m.
Exercise (barre interval class, yoga, or brisk walk around my neighborhood).
Sip a drink containing branched-chain amino acids.
Drink 1 liter filtered water afterward.
10:00 a.m.
Work.
Noon
Assemble lunch. It’s the same basic framework each day — 4 ounces of protein, 6 ounces of cooked vegetables, and 6 ounces of a salad, including fermented vegetables — usually all leftovers from the day before. I occasionally enjoy a fresh green shake loaded with protein powder and fiber.
Brush and floss.
Work while walking between 2 and 7 miles on my treadmill desk.
Drink 1 liter filtered water.
3:00 p.m.
Pick up kids, drink more water.
3:30 p.m.
Drag kids to sauna at the gym, if they’re game. The sauna is a great way to detoxify and turn on the longevity gene, FOXO3. One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that saunas for 20 minutes, four times per week, reduce mortality by 40 percent.
4:30 p.m.
Meditate for 10 minutes or call a friend.
5:00 p.m.
Prepare dinner (make double recipe so there’s leftovers for lunch). Dinner follows a similar formula as lunch. Last night, I enjoyed 4 ounces of wild-caught Steelhead trout; 4 ounces of Spigariello raab; 2 ounces of homemade fermented turnips, red beets, red onion, and juniper; and a 6-ounce salad with 2 ounces of avocado.
6:00 p.m.
Eat dinner.
7:00 p.m.
Me time or family time — when you metabolize food and the day.
9:00 p.m.
Shut down backlit screens and artificial light at night — one of the most important parts of my day. At least an hour before bed. I step away from the smartphone, tablet, computer, and television in order to protect my body’s natural release of melatonin, the hormone that encourages sleepiness. Artificial lights at night (ALAN) throw off our bodies’ natural rhythms and make it harder for us to fall asleep and get a good night’s rest. So I reduce ALAN and enjoy quality time with my husband and daughters before bed.
Brush and floss.
10:00 p.m.
Go to bed, lights out.
I’m sorry but your day is just so unrealistic for 99% of the population. This post just comes off to miost of us as privileged and ridiculous. I’ve worked my butt off my entire life and am relatively well off but still can’t afford to even remotely live the lifestyle you describe. I’m sure you don’t mean any harm, but this is just a really tone deaf post as it’s unattainable for most normal people. Many of us are commuting several hours a day to an office resulting in workdays of 11 hours or more. And sure, many of us can still do incremental things like meditate on the train or use a standing desk at work, but very few people have the luxury of time or flexibility that you are describing in your typical day. I love your work and much of your writing, but this post just simply made me (and I’m sure many other women) feel bad.
Seriously?? What is the point of publishing this? This is not attainable for the everyday working person (especially who have children!). This dr only appears to work 4 hours/day, and appears to have several hours of free time for meditation, bar class, mediation, oh and wait more me time!! Not helpful. Just lost 2 minutes of my life reading this and writing angry comments.
Where do you fit in your Reset360 shakes?
First, I have to say I love Sara….I’m a big fan. The thing that I’m finding with most of the functional, integrative, holistic type practitioners (like Sara) is that the recommendations, while super fantastic, are not realistic for the average person’s day. I would absolutely love to structure my day like Sara’s day, as most are recommending for us to do (read the Power of When), but that is not possible for me. Based on the above post, she is working approximately 4.5 hours during the day. I work an 8a – 5p job. I wish that all the practitioners out there that are working so hard to help us all would provide us with realistic application of their recommendations, for the average person who works 8 to 9 hour days without much flexibility.
I like Dr. Gottfried and a lot of her advice. For nutrition I prefer to follow Dr. Michael Gregor at nutritionfacts.org. All the studies he sites really help me understand what different foods are helping by body and what foods are hurting my body. I also like that it is all free information and they don’t try to sell anything.
Peace