First of all, like emphasized in other articles on Powers From Nature about nutrition and school results: Supplements don’t allow you to be lazy. You still have to study hard! However sound nutrition can help you last longer, learn faster and memorize better. Second: recall the Pareto Law. This principle can also be applicated to learning exams. Most teachers always ask the same things. At my university, the professors always use the powerpoint slides of the lectures for like 80% of the questions. Learning the slides would take not more than a few hours, whereas memorizing the book will take a week or longer depending on size. Also textbooks are full of nonsense and useless examples. Learn to recognize this and skip it. This is especially true for American textbooks. Dutch and British books are more to the point in my experience.
Routine
I usually consume the following things the most during exam weeks:
- Coffee. Proven to increase memory. Caffeine boosts activity.
- Creatine. Improves creativity, also helpful for bodybuilding.
- Nuts. Increase the capabilities of your brain. Helped me the most.
- Spinache. Not only good for the muscles as Popeye tells you, also good for the brain!
- Nootropics (Piracetam and Phenibut)
These five ingredients have helped me the most. In general a more healthy lifestyle really makes a difference. When I was living with junkfood and Coca Cola, I felt bad and tired very fast. Now I can learn much longer and it seems like I pick things much faster up. It takes less time for me to grasp concepts and calculations. I would really recommend the creatine just before writing a report or creative assignment. However I disrecommend drinking coffee after exam periods, because in general coffee is not very health enhancing, although it is not bad to consume. You can become addicted easily. All in all I can guarantee that your results will sky rocket if you consume these supplements during your test weeks and combine it with hard work.
The Four Hour Body Review
Tim Ferriss
One of my favorite authors of all time is without doubt Tim Ferriss. His first the book, named the Four Hour Workweek, ha been a big influence in starting Powers From Nature. This book is about how to be more productive and build successful businesses. I highly recommend it, if you are interested in such topics. His latest book The Four Hour Body contains the latest findings regarding diets and excercise, all supported with solid scientific research. I have read the book thoroughly over the last few months and tried to apply the things I found most useful about the book in my daily life (Philosophy of Jeet Kune Do). I will share with you the most interesting topics.
Paleo Diet
Tim is a great supporter of the Paleo Diet, just like me. The book contains no shocking new information about this particular diet, but is good to read and it is interesting to read Tim’s perspective on how you can implement this diet in your habits. Furthermore Tim advises to refrain from dairy products and fruit juice, products that are considered healthy by the mainstream media, but in fact are not that heathy, especially not when processed. Read more about the Paleo Diet here.
Excercise
The title, The Four Hour Body, isn’t to be taken very seriously. It is just a marketing expression, and sounds good. However Tim does describe the most effective excercises there are to get that ripped abs and big chest, depending on what your goal is. The book advocates shorter, but more intense training. This instead of the long boring cardio sessions people generally do. You do not need to train your ass off 24/7 to become slim and fit, and Tim enforces this with workout programs that last for approximately 45 minutes.
Sex Life
The book also has a part about improving the sex life of your partner and yourself. The book describes techniques that will satisfy your partner better. Maybe even more interesting is the part about increasing your sperm count and testosterone. Tim recommends to eat three Brazilian nuts in the morning and in the evening to enhance sex drive. Very shocking was the research that carrying a mobile phone in the pocket of your jeans can be very damaging for your sperm production. Research shows that men who carried a mobile phone in their jeans, had 50% less sperm production than men who didn’t.
Conclusion
The book is invaluable for everyone who wants to become slimmer, more energetic or wants to improve his or her sexlife. However Tim does overpromote and has some exaggerated claims in his book and in advertisements which must be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless the book contains solid advice that alternates from the misleading mainstream information in magazines. Everything is scientifically researched and is proven to be working. The book is especially handy for people who are totally new into the health world and summarized the most important findings of the last years. For more experienced people however, the book is not very shocking.