YOUR 2025 BRAIN BRAWN • MINI RESOLUTION SPECIAL EDITION • MIDYEAR RECAP

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We have covered several impactful brain brawn mini resolutions this year! If you are new to Motivated Mondays, you can review the 2025 content here. This week, we're taking a moment to recap our mini resolutions at the halfway mark to reflect on our progress, celebrate small wins, and realign our focus before diving into the next one.

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Remember, these mini resolutions build habits that, if maintained throughout the year, contribute to optimizing lifestyle actions that are beneficial for building brawny brains.
 
We urge you to stick with these resolutions, and we help you do just that with our comprehensive logging calendar each month!

FEBRUARY • SUGAR
 
In February we resolved to remove added sugar from our diets. A diet high in added sugar promotes neuroinflammation, damages blood vessels in the brain, reduces the integrity of the blood-brain barrier and promotes the development of amyloid, all of which lead to injury and even death of brain cells. We provided tips for recognizing added sugar on food labels and recipes and meal ideas for dining without added sugar.

MARCH • SLEEP
 
In March, we covered a lot of ground, discussing sleep, its architecture, and highlighted sleep performance measures including sleep debt, latency, pressure and efficiency. We provided sleep hygiene tips and the rationale behind them.

We discouraged the routine use of crutches such as naps and sleeping pills. Sleep is a “magical” time—during sleep our glymphatic system is activated which flushes metabolites from our CNS and our memories are consolidated (filed and stored). Sleep loss ravages one’s health. All body systems are affected by chronic sleep loss, and the brain is particularly vulnerable. Sleep is so critical that it is considered an important preventive strategy and therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer’s disease.
 
Sleep and sugar have a bidirectional relationship. A diet high in added sugar can impair sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) and lead to frequent nocturnal awakenings due to frequent urination or restlessness, resulting in low sleep quality due to incomplete sleep cycles within the architecture of sleep. Failure to achieve quality sleep or adequate sleep duration can affect hunger hormones, leading to increased consumption of sugary snacks during the day (an estimated 500—600 calories more per day!).

APRIL & MAY • EXERCISE
 
In April and May, those without an exercise habit resolved to start exercising, and those with an exercise habit resolved to optimize the intensity to include activities with a cumulative weekly MET of 1200. Exercise is unequivocally one of our most powerful tools in the toolbox to help fend off cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. We provided tips, tools and suggested gadgets to help members make that happen.

We also cautioned against sedentary behavior; one could be considered sedentary if they are “fit but sit”—meaning the value of an hour of exercise can be undermined by consecutive hours spent sitting.
 
You may recall that exercise boosts the production of myokines, chemical messengers secreted by muscles—the best known myokine is BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, also known as Miracle-Gro for the brain! Exercise also benefits the brain much in the same way it benefits the heart—with blood flow that delivers O₂ and nutrients.
 
In addition, exercise “uses up” excess blood sugar which is linked to Alzheimer’s (so much so that Alzheimer’s has been referred to as Type 3 Diabetes). People who exercise have bigger brains, in a good way!

Sleep and exercise are also bidirectional! This means those who exercise sleep better and those who sleep better have the energy to exercise. In addition, both sleep and exercise have a positive impact on how the mind responds to stressful situations and also the body’s resilience to stress. Chronic stress is a risk factor for cognitive decline. (We have a future resolution around stress!)

JUNE • FnVs
 
In June we resolved to eat 7 servings of fruit and vegetables (FnVs) a day to optimize our nutrition and build brains that are resilient to degeneration. Studies show that by reaching beyond government recommendations, greater consumption of FnVs in stepwise fashion staves off cognitive decline.

FnVs are chock-full of micronutrients, water and fiber which either outright prevent neurodegeneration or slow disease progression once it has initiated—by fighting inflammation and oxidation preserving neurons (brain cells), fortifying the blood-brain barrier, enhancing communication between neurons and, in some cases, even repairing DNA damage. Another benefit of eating more FnVs is it crowds off the plate less healthy foods, such as UPFs. We provided recipes and fresh ways to incorporate more FnVs into one’s diet

We’ll see you next week for our NEW resolution but, in the meantime, we ask you to email us with any feedback you have so far:

• What resolutions have you found the easiest to maintain?
• Which have been the most difficult?
• What new or interesting techniques helped you in achieving your goals?