1. Don't
"find time" for sleep. Make
time for sleep. You may have always said, "I'll sleep when
I'm dead." What you should have known was, "If I don't sleep, I'll be
dead." Sleep is incredibly important to reducing cortisol levels, disease
risk, promoting healthy weight and a host of other essential functions your
body performs.
a. You should be getting a minimum of 7 hours a night, and a
maximum of 9 (studies have shown that sleeping past nine hours a night is
actually harmful to your long term health, although scientists haven't
pinpointed exactly why, yet.)
b. Note: if you have trouble falling asleep and/or are sleeping
poorly, your cortisol levels are probably out of whack. This is very common
with busy, stressed people. Instead of the cortisol spike in the morning as
nature intends, their cortisol levels are low in the morning (cue the cranky,
"I don't want to go to work" feeling), and high at night (making it
hard to fall asleep). Sounds familiar?
2. Use an alarm like Sleep Cycle to wake up when
during your lightest phase of sleep.
Sleep Cycle (get it on your smartphone) measures your body's
movement during the night and detects when you enter different phases of sleep.
It's easiest (and lowest-stress) to wake up to an alarm when you're in the
lightest phase of sleep, so you set a "range" of time for the app (so
you still wake up with enough time to get ready for the day). It will then
detect your brain waves, figure out when you're in your lightest sleep phase,
and wakes you up then.
3. Exercise consistently, but no more than 60-75
minutes on any day (including warm-ups).
When you have a workout routine that incorporates strength
training and cardiovascuar exercise,
you build muscle, increase your brain's creation of new serotonin and dopamine
receptors (thereby reducing your anxiety and risk of depression) and help to
use up energy unleashed by your already-high cortisol levels. By releasing
extra tension through a workout, you also feel better and make your body less
apt to flood your bloodstream with stress hormones. You'll also sleep like a
baby the night of a hard workout.
4. Meditate (or pray). Taking time to
really focus on staying calm and relaxed, and to think about all of the
blessings and kindness in your life can have a wonderful impact on your overall
well-being. It's also one of the most effective methods out there for relieving
your high cortisol levels. If you don't have much experience with meditation,
it's okay - there are many helpful and secular guided meditation videos on
YouTube or around the Internet you can use to get started. The best times to
meditate are in the morning, just before bed or any time during the day you're
feeling particularly stressed out or anxious. Take some time, find your center,
rediscover how good it feels to be grounded in the present moment, and feel your
stress slip away from you.
a. A "companion" to meditation, or even replacement if
you're not ready yet to meditate, is a journal where you record 3
"wins" for the day and 3-5 things to get done the next day. This
is one of my "secrets" to massive productivity/GSD (getting STUFF
done).
5. Eat a protein-rich breakfast. When you wake
up, you're generally in a catabolic state, because your body is fasting. This
doesn't mean your body is breaking down all your muscle, but it does mean your
body may not function at 100%. When you're eating breakfast, though, you're
breaking the fast - hence the name of the meal - and doing so with a healthy,
protein-rich breakfast gets your energy levels higher, faster.
a. If you're doing intermittent fasting ("IF" for
short; we'll discuss this later), I would definitely have the morning cup of
coffee (with some MCT oil or butter/cream) so you're not a walking corpse all
morning.
i. Even most cultures or religions that fast have small, light
meals throughout fasts. So don't think you have to be a Spartan and starve
yourself just because it's called a "fast".
6. Grab a nap. If your schedule allows it, skip
the afternoon coffee/energy drink/soda and take a power nap instead - 15-20
minutes is all you need to start feeling the benefits.
7. Reduce your alcohol intake. You
shouldn't be drinking much if you're trying to lose weight and get healthy
anyway, but alcohol also causes major problems for your stress levels. Don't
exceed a single beer/glass of wine/1 oz. serving of liquor per day. This is one
of the major causes of slow, or no, weight loss even on a perfect plan. We just
don't realize that what we "think" is 1 glass of wine is actually 3
glasses of wine. So, have a max of 1 oz. shot of liquor, a 5 oz. glass of
wine, or 12 oz. can of beer, and make sure you count it in your daily calories.
(Or just get super serious and cut it out all together!)
8. Bonus point: Cut
out electronics within 1-2 hours before sleep. Instead, train your mind to
get into "sleep mode" by reading taking a bath, just relaxing, or
reading some fiction (non-fiction gets you thinking and making plans before
bed, which won't help you fall asleep). I'll admit, I'm not great at following
this rule, but when I do it successfully even for a few nights, I sleep like a
baby.
And on that note, we have nice segue
into the next chapter which is appropriately titled...
Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact
steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...
Read the previous article about "How To Deal With the
"Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You"
Read the next article about "How To Sleep Like A
Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)"
Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll
share so you can lose weight even faster, and
feel great doing it.
Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of
Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.
Topic 6: Two
Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than
Ever Before
Topic 19: How
Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food
Supply)
Topic 45: How To
Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out
Diets)
Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com
No comments:
Post a Comment