Good quality sleep is absolutely ESSENTIAL to fat loss
You can thank a triple threat of hormones that go haywire with too little sleep:
- Ghrelin which makes you crave fatty and sugary foods
- Leptin which regulates how much you eat
- Cortisol which tells your body to hold on to visceral fatty tissue around the abdominals.
Until doing our 12 Weeks to a New You programme, I never really focused on sleep. I was always too busy with work, kids, housework etc that I just HAD to stay up late to get it all done. BAD idea!! I would soldier on for as long as possible until I finally crashed and burned. This happened quite a lot!
I now focus on sleep and manage stress and feel FANTASTIC!
Top Tips to Sleep Well
- Create your own sleep cavern. Make your bedroom dark and calm and switch the TV off and remove electronics!
- Create a solid night time routine. Your body’s physiological and psychological repair and re-build happens between the hours of 10pm and 6am – so these are the best hours to be asleep.
- Write down 3 things that you were grateful for about that day, and then the 3 most important things you must do the following day. It helps you feel more positive and will rest your subconscious and allow you to fall asleep easier.
- Invest in some Magnesium. It is an antidote to stress, the most powerful relaxation mineral available, and it can help improve your sleep. Take 200 milligrams each day.
- Do something that you enjoy/makes you laugh/relaxes you before bed. Read a relaxing book.
- Start to manage your stress wisely, look at where your sources of stress are and assess what you can do to ease these from your life.
Within a few weeks, you should see noticeable positive changes to the quality of your sleep which, in turn, will aid your weight loss mission!
Good luck and sleep well!
