Entrepreneurs might be the people with the most attention to detail in their business ventures, but that doesn’t mean that they are always on point in terms of their physical health.

Most entrepreneurs have unhealthy sleep patterns just because of how they respond to responsibilities. They also tend to eat improperly, and may often resort to unhealthy options like fast food or quick fix energy drinks. In worse cases, they even consider dangerous drugs to enhance their performance – just to get by their day.

For all these reasons, among other things, entrepreneurs may be extremely unhealthy with their lifestyle. Here’s why as an entrepreneur, you should consider the healthier route, and how you can slowly but surely take on the better road.

Conscious Living for Entrepreneurs

The common misstep that entrepreneurs make is that they aren’t necessarily applying the diligence that they put in their craft to how they manage their own body. This is something that you should always keep in mind: the focus you have on your business should also apply to the way you treat your body. Instead of being conscious of just one aspect of your life, simply expand the concentration to other things like your health.

Typically, an error that entrepreneurs make is separating what they eat from how they perform. In reality, focusing on what you actually eat help you build your businesses. Better food provides better fuel, which increases your productivity and concentration.

You’d be amazed to see how much the food you eat affects all other parts of your life. Concentration, energy, and attitude are just a few examples. Before you start trying to take care of yourself, you first have to acknowledge the importance of eating right.

If that’s not enough to convince you to eat healthy, consider this: Experts say that 75 percent of weight loss comes down to the food you eat, not the exercise. At the end of the day it’s all about balance. The bottom line is to incorporate healthy meals and exercise into your life every day.

Poor choices and how to slowly choose the better options

Entrepreneurs, or any other person in different fields of discipline, understand fully how to eat right but they don’t take the proper steps to actually choose to be healthy. They know what they need to do and how to do it, but they just can’t make the change. This is not surprising, as changing habits is hard to do. Some experts’ advice is to try and focus on making four better choices a day.

For example: for someone who wakes up every morning and skips breakfast, a great option would be to have a healthy breakfast every morning. Even small things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator add up. A big problem that causes people to give up on eating healthy is when they try to go to the extreme too fast. When you overload yourself, you burn out. Instead, start on four small adjustments every day, and you could make much better changes over time.

Studies show that you can improve the way you eat and drink by:

• Eating soon after waking up.
• Setting eating times (ex: 9, 12, 5 & 8).
• Chewing your food thoroughly (ex: 36 times, once for each tooth).
• Not drinking alcoholic beverages during and for up to an hour after a meal – it slows digestion.
• Eating food fresh and immediately after it’s prepared to optimize nutritional value.
• Hydrating yourself – Mental processes are affected by as little as 2% dehydration. Not to mention, the most common cause of afternoon fatigue is dehydration (drink plenty of water, herbal teas, stock, broths & fresh homemade juice).

If you’re already considering taking it to a whole new level of discipline, consider eating only foods that are/has:

• 100% organic
• Local grown and shipped
• Whole unprocessed
• No added sugar
• No soy.
• No dairy
• Balanced macro nutrients (carbs, protein & fat) and micro nutrients (vitamins & minerals)

Improper sleeping problems and trading precious time for sleep

Another common misconception is that the successful entrepreneurs don’t get a lot of sleep. That’s not true at all. Successful entrepreneurs actually found improvements in their trade by snoozing more and working less.

Sleep is not time wasted for entrepreneurs. In fact, those who are sleep deprived have been shown to be more irritable, forgetful and anxious, and to be more likely to suffer other mental disorders. Those not sleeping enough also lack concentration, coordination and energy throughout the workday. A combination of any of these effects is hardly optimal for achieving success, especially when running a business.

Entrepreneurs should realize that health is also an investment. Not following a good eating or drinking regimen or not having a good sleeping pattern affects not only reduces your life expectancy rating. It also lowers your chances of preparing yourself with your investments and securing life insurance policies for your own benefit. Unhealthy people often find themselves with extremely high premium rates or no medical life insurance at all because of how bad health affects the price of insurance policies.

Other health effects have been found when someone isn’t sleeping enough. The human body lacking sufficient sleep is more likely to gain weight, have higher blood pressure and be at a higher risk for diabetes and heart attacks. So, if you’re running a company, pay attention to your sleep cycle; that way, you don’t have to pay the price. Keeping your body in tip-top shape would ultimately mean less time out of the office due to poor health, and more time for the things you love.

Here’s another issue to consider: If you’re sleep deprived for more than a few nights, you begin to accrue a “sleep debt.” This debt can’t be fixed with just one “make-up” night of great sleep. In fact, the effects of sleep deprivation remain steadfast until you rectify your sleeping behavior long term. The common assumption that “If I don’t sleep, I can make it up later” is completely false.

Surely, lack of sleep may be a badge of honor for some businesspeople, but that badge has a huge pin pressed against their chest and could pierce through their heart at any time. Sleep deprivation is harmful to your overall health. Try out these simple tricks so that you can slowly but surely correct your sleep patterns:

• Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day (typically 11pm – 8am).
• Sleep in complete darkness; make sure to black out your windows.
• Sleep in complete silence.
• Reduce blue light in the evening (install f.lux app, dim your lights, burn beeswax candles, turn off electronics).
• Get an adequate amount of sleep each night. Sleeping less than 7 hours per night can double the chance of coming down with an infection (deep sleep increases your body’s production of natural killer cells).
• Wake up to sunlight.
• Eat two kiwi fruits before bed. Studies show that eating two kiwi fruits every day improves the quality of your sleep by 40% and help you fall asleep 35% quicker.
• Drink chamomile, passion-flower or peppermint tea before you sleep.
• Don’t eat dinner within 3 hours of going to bed.
• Sleep with socks on. A recent study has shown that cold feet are often a cause of interrupted sleep.