Method Three of Three:
Changing Your Lifestyle
Eat brain food. The food you consume can have a profound affect on your brain power. Strive for a healthy diet, rich in brain food. A Mediterranean diet can increase your brainpower. This is a diet comprised of mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, healthy fats, and fish. Healthy fats include monounsaturated fats and are found in foods like fish, avocados, olive oil, and canola oil. Transitioning into a more Mediterranean-based dietary plan can help you increase your overall brain power.[16]
- Spinach is a powerful brain food. Eating three or more servings of spinach or other leafy greens like kale each day slows mental decline and increases overall brain function.[17]
- Simple sugars, like table sugars and brown sugars, as well as syrupy sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, can have a detrimental effect on the brain. Saturated and trans fats, the kinds of found in red meat and dairy, have a negative effect on your mental level as well as overall health. Enriched, bleached, or refined flour, the flour found in white breads, white rices, and white pastas, also has a poor affect on the brain.[18]
Exercise frequently. Physical exercise has a profound effect on cognitive abilities. In addition to being great for the body, a regular exercise routine can boost your mind's capacity for logic.
- Make exercise a priority. Many people push exercise to the peripheral of their lives, not making the time necessary to go to the gym or go for a run. If you make a schedule for yourself, and stick to it, exercise will eventually feel as vital a part of your routine as brushing your teeth in the morning or showering.[21]
- Aerobics seem to have a particularly strong effect on cognitive abilities. Running, jogging, biking, and engaging in workout routines that get the heart pumping 4 or 5 times a week can increase your brainpower.[22]