THE FIVE-STEP JET LAG SOLUTION

It’s summer, which means summer vacation, which means for some of you buzzing off to a distant time zone and getting wigged out on jet lag. For business travelers, jet lag can translate loss of mental acuity into loss of an important deal. For government folk, it can translate into failed negotiations or embarrassing misstatements to a foreign press.

I’ve used a five-step jet lag avoidance method for some years now. I’ve given it to a number of corporate CEOs, diplomats, Capitol Hill staffers, Congressmen and Senators. They tell me it works. It works for me. Here it is and I trust it will work for you.

The first step is water. Drink lots of it. Keep bugging the stewardess (oh, right – flight attendant person) for another bottle of water, another can of club soda. Airplane air is very dehydrating, thus exhausting. Keep drinking lots of water the day of your arrival.

The second step is daylight. The worst thing you can do is spend the day of your arrival (and subsequent days) indoors in some convention hall or meeting room. Get outside and into actual daylight as much as possible. This also means: stay up, stay active. No afternoon naps. Stay up until it’s good and dark and bedtime.

The third step is exercise. What you need to do is get your cardio-vascular system’s attention for about 10 minutes the day of your arrival and subsequent days, preferably first thing in the morning. Do what you want – body weight squats, push-ups, sit-ups, jog, whatever it takes to elevate your pulse rate to 180 minus your age for at least10 minutes or more. If you start to get wiggy in the late afternoon, do the same for 5 minutes at least.

The fourth step is nutrition to reset your body clock. To jumpstart your brain, take two capsules of Blast caps from Life Enhancement, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach with fruit juice. This will provide your brain with the specific nutrients it needs to make the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, the brain’s go-juice.

To reset your sleep cycle, take between 1 and 3 mg. of sublingual melatonin, available at your local GNC. It’s the natural hormone that creates the physiological condition of “biological night” in the brain’s biological clock, the SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus). The sublingual version gets it into your brain faster and more effectively.

The fifth step is attitude. Always remember the immortal words of Buckaroo Bonzai: “Wherever you go, there you are.” Forget about what time it is back home. As soon as you board the plane, set your watch to your destination’s time zone. From now on, that’s what time it is. Never say something like, “Well, the time here is such-and-such, but the real time for me is…” No, the really real time for you is Buckaroo Time: where you are right then and there.

Put all of these together and you’ll be pleasantly amazed at how quickly and easily you’ll adapt to your new time zone. Have a great summer wherever you go!