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.