Make a change for 2015 with a big impact:
At this time of year I see many starting out with big goals for 2015, but equally many not being able to maintain their new habits only a few weeks into the New Year. This year consider doing it differently. Make a life-style change, it is much more sustainable!
To get healthy and lose weight – get your sleep. (7-8 hours)
Here are some reasons why:
1. Lack of sleep is a message to your body that you are under survival stress, which increases cortisol levels. High cortisol levels affect your overall health and your weight.
2. Raised cortisol creates imbalanced insulin and blood-sugar levels, which cause us to not only crave (and eat) more sugar, but also store more fat, especially around the mid-section.
3. Getting up in the morning is much harder when you are not rested. This will probably also cause you to get up too late to have a nourishing morning routine. A good morning routine includes drinking water upon waking, having a healthy breakfast, a mindfulness practice, and allowing you enough time to get out of the house without feeling stressed before the day even starts. A lot of people sprint out of the house without breakfast, choosing a sugary item on the go instead.
4. When tired, we reach for sugar and coffee in order to stimulate our energy to keep going. We end up feeling wired instead and then crash only to feel even more tired, -and then probably reach for more coffee and sugar. Of you can feel powerless when you see sugar and act like an addict. A lot of emotional eating actually comes triggers, and being tired can trigger you to act mindlessly.
5. We make poor food choices out of convenience and we reach for comfort food, which are rarely healthy choices. Making healthy food choices takes positive intention, mindfulness and some effort, especially if cooking is one of the ways to get better food on your plate.
6. Being tired we can feel more depressed, moody, irritable and impatient. For many that also means more snacking as a way to self-soothe.
7. Chronically high cortisol levels cause weight and health issues, such as heart disease, diabetes, high-blood pressure and lowers our immune-system, making us more prone to colds. But it also causes mental health issues such as loss of memory, lack of focus, and slowed down mental alertness.
8. When we are tired and exhausted we don’t feel motivated to do much and end up on the couch watching a film instead of being active and engaged. Many clients come to me with problems of night-eating thinking it is emotional eating, but it is often because of being tired and eating to stay awake instead of getting to bed.
9. Lack of sleep causes more inflammation in the body, which affects both weight and overall health but also causes us to visibly age faster. Raised cortisol levels break down skin collagen, which is what keeps your skin looking smooth and young. It also affects our muscle and bone-health, because the raised cortisol levels slow down cell-regeneration.
As you can see from this – one simple habit change can cause a whole day of bad habits to automatically change.
Most people make a schedule for their day and they know what time they need to get up to get to work on time. Make sure you schedule what time you need to get to bed, so you can live a nourished life, lose weight and be healthy without feeling like it is a daily struggle to survive, but rather becomes how you thrive in 2015.
The online program teaches you how to change your life-style and mindfulness habits one step at a time. Step 1 of the 9 steps is about the importance of the simple things that support us on a daily basis, such as sleep, water, and how stress affects us. You will learn more about what it means to become mindful and how to create a rhythm for your day.
Working with me in personal coaching sessions we will look at what it is that keeps you from living a life you love, that is nourishing and full-filling, both from your food and from your ways of taking care of your Self. It is all about Self-Nourishment, Self-Care, and Self-Love.
So consider taking the first step for a life-style change for 2015 now.