This is a different article for me, in this one I'm not talking about the normal nutrition and exercise advice, but I wanted to talk about another crutial aspect of any weight loss or fitness program. This article is about...
Are you sleeping enough?
One of the main challenges I see for many of my clients is in getting a good amount of good quality sleep every night. The quality and the amount of sleep you get each night is critically important for maintaining the right hormonal balance in your system and to keep your metabolic rate up. This will mean you can become leaner if you are sleeping right on a normal basis.
On the other side, for someone who never gets enough sleep, or who doesn't sleep well enough for their system to get enough recovery, it is likely that these problems are leading to them having more body fat. Lack of good sleep creates a hormonal balance problem with your system, which causes fat storing. The stats on this shows that almost nobody gets enough good sleep, its no wonder why we are gaining more fat all the time.
With the exception of sleeping disorders, most people just don't get enough sleep as they have trouble slowing down at night, tossing and turning, thinking about what they have to do the next day or about what happened in the day past. If this is a issue for you too keep reading. This is something I have had to deal with myself, but after learning a few different techniques, now I never have trouble falling asleep. Here are some of the techniques I have used, some you may have heard but hopefully you will find some new ones that will work for you.
1. One of the biggest challenges I had to overcome to fall asleep easily at night was to learn to clear my head of what happened over the day and from what I have to do tomorrow. To deal with my tasks for the next day I have found that writing down everything I can think of that I need to do helps me relax as I know I won't forget what I have to do. To clear my head I use visualisation, which is done by thinking about a calming location that I like, usually for me its picturing a nice calm beach. If your mind wanders simply, bring it back to the place and with practice you will get better and you should no longer be haunted by your thoughts.
2. Avoid stimulants like too much sugar or caffeine any time after the sun goes down.
3. Try to avoid hard exercise about 2 hours before your normal bedtime. Any other time of the day it is helpful to get normal exercise using up any extra energy and promoting good quality sleep.
4. I like to use nutmeg capsules 1 to 2 hours before I go to bed. Nutmeg has a claming effect on the system and works well for many people. I use some whole nutmeg I grind into powder using a good coffee grinder and put it into capsules and I use a couple of these before I go to sleep. Nutmeg is a great source of antioxidants as well.
5. Chamomile tea has been known to be relaxing and help many people be calmer before sleep. Try drinking it about 1 to 2 hours before bedtime. I recently found a tea that combines chamomile and mint to which I add a little bit of honey, which seems to work well for me.
6. Try to make sure you don't go to sleep on an empty stomach. This goes against what many people say but if you eat a small meal at about 7pm, it will not necessarily turn into fat, your system does most of its recovery processes at night and it will use fuel for doing this properly. I know many fit looking people who eat a small meal about an hour before going to bed, this helps keep your hunger at bay and will help you get to sleep quicker.
There are loads of other techniques others use to get to sleep, but these are just some that have helped me overcome my challenges. Please keep it natural when you can, sleeping drugs usually have adverse side effects.
So to get your system in a good place give the late night talk shows a miss (Conan O'Brien does make me laugh though) and get to bed a little earlier from now. Relax, clear your head and enjoy getting great quality sleep, which will also help you get a leaner body and give you more energy over the day. Enjoy!
