Sleep is essential to your health

Do you think you get enough sleep? I'm pretty sure most people don't. Go to bed late, get up early, we get in the habit of not getting enough sleep easily. Then your body and your brain adjust to the new schedule and you're fine, right? Not so fast. Whether you're used to it or not, sleep-deprived individuals have a decreased ability to manage blood sugar levels and also may find themselves hungrier (particularly for high carbohydrate foods). So, sleep more for a healthier metabolism. 

Last week was a wake-up call for me in this regard. I was on-call at work, and for some reason had a couple nights where I woke up  and couldn't get back to sleep. Guess what? My ability to make good, healthy choices was impaired. I snacked more even though I knew I didn't really need any food at the time. Not a good week.

The good news is I still got my morning workouts in. The bad news is my workouts suffered. When you sleep your body spends that time recovering and repairing itself. More sleep equals better performance. Both my speed and endurance were affected last week. Now that I'm back on track my MaxOut times are increasing once again.

The MaxOut time I'm referring to is the length of time a person can do the Insanity Max:30 workouts before needing a break. Thirty minute workouts, go as long as you can. Even after you take a break, get back into it as soon as you can.

To finish this up, make sure you get more sleep. Among the many benefits you'll reap are better athletic performance, better management of you blood sugar levels, stronger immune system to help you fight off colds, and better decisions made throughout the day. See? Sleeping makes you smarter, faster and stronger.

New Year, New Me

So here we are in 2015, and what does that mean? Many people create their new Year's resolutions to lose weight, stop smoking, give up nagging, etc. Well maybe not giving up nagging. Guess what happens? Life happens, motivation wanes, and poof! Stop going to the gym, fall back on the junk food that tastes so good. It's easy to do. There are days when I end up gorging on something. There are some foods that once I get started I can't stop until the food is gone. That's when I know to stop. When that happens my brain kicks back in and I get refocused on my daily habits. Working out first thing, eating my usual healthy meals without snacking. Results and good things happen when you repeat the small things over and over.

That means every day that you make the small decisions to work out, to skip that soda, to add more veggies to your meal, to continue any of the small healthy habits - every day you do these things, the closer you are to making them a habit, which brings you closer to being healthier, which will make you a happier person.

Even when you aren't seeing any changes on the scale or with the tape measure, remember that BIG changes start with small changes. The time for change is now. Which brings me to the changes I want to make. I want to be more active with this blog, to help more people make the changes in their lives needed to become a healthier happier person. Hearing from you would help, but even if I never see a comment here, I'll keep posting my thoughts and relaying any knowledge that may be of help to you.

If you want to learn more about me and how I keep myself happy and healthy, click over to TeamFitForLife.

How's your relationship with snacking?

If you're like a lot of people, you might spend some time sitting in front of the television in the evenings. For many, this idle time leads to snacking. Head to the cupboard, find a bag or box of something, bring it to the couch with a drink and away we go, right? There you go, adding a few hundred calories to your day after you spent the whole day eating healthy foods. It happens to me as well, and once you get started, it's hard to stop. It's just a few small chips (crackers, cookies, whatever) what's the harm? In my case, that type of food is the addicting kind, where the more I eat, the more I eat. Which leads us all to wonder if we should snack at all.

I tend to avoid snacking, for just this reason. I have my diet planned out pretty well with my meals so I am getting the right number of calories from healthy foods. Once I open up a bag of anything, there goes all that planning, and I wonder why I can't lose any weight. Well, I used to wonder until I realized what I was doing. Whether it's some small pieces of chocolate after dinner, or cookies later on, I can keep eating "just because".

What to do if you like those snack foods and can't seem to do without them? Plan it as part of your nutrition for the day. Put a small amount of your dessert or snack in a baggie and then make sure you only eat that, and not go back for more. In the beginning it may take a lot of willpower, but after a week or two, it will become habit and you'll be able to fit your sweets into your diet without going overboard. If you're really hungry after that and not eating for something to do, make sure you have some fruits or Greek yogurt on hand to take care of those hunger pains.

Don't have time to work out?

Many people use the excuse that they don't have time in their day to work out. This is just another in a long line of excuses people use when they really mean they don't want to work out. If you really wanted to work out, you would find the time. How do you make the time? Good question.

People think they can just find a time as they go through their day and then say, okay, I'm going to work out now. If you wait for that time, it's never going to come. Everyone has too many chores, meetings, events to go to, whatever. You have to make working out one of those items you put on your calendar every day. It would be best if you made it the same time every day, then it becomes a habit at that time that you do your workout and you'll be less likely to miss it.

What time of day should you work out? This is totally up to you. It needs to be a time that's convenient and accessible every day. Lets face it, if you have to jump through hoops to get to your workout, again, it's not likely to happen. Even though I HATE getting up early to work out, that's when I do it. I know that by the time I get home in the evening, there's other things that await my attention. The evening is too inconsistent as to what might be happening. The morning is the perfect time, as I know that nobody else will be needing my attention or assistance and I can do what I please until I get to work.

Don't have an hour to devote to a workout? That's okay, Beachbody has come out with multiple workout programs that only take 25 - 30 minutes. I KNOW you can spare 1/2 hour. You don't have to spend hours every day exercising to be fit. Whatever you do, do it every day and you won't regret it. Combine your workouts with a proper nutrition plan and you'll feel better and look better. It can be a long process and progress may be slow at times. But if you keep doing what you should do every day, the results will come.