Friday, January 21, 2011

Tip 16: get some sleep!

I apologize in advance for the shortness of this post, but i'm sick. :(

So, I've been doing a lot of sleeping.... and today's tip is therefore:

Tip 16: Get some Sleep!

Sleep is very important for many reasons. Our bodies NEED sleep in order to ward off stress, avoid premature aging, along with many weight-related reasons...


Some weight-related benefits of sleep:
-can ward off weight gain
-boost metabolism
-when youre sleeping you're not eating-- its a fast! (thats why they call your first meal in the morning BREAK-FAST. haha)
-gives your body time to recover from exercise and heal

You should aim to have between 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Anything more than 9 hours can make you sluggish and tired. Anything less (on an everyday basis) can lead to weight gain, and other problems. If you have a nigh of short sleeping, don't try to "make it up" the next night by sleeping 10 hours. It won't help out. If you feel a need to catch up, don't catch up more than 1 hour or so at a time. You don't feel any benefit.

Other sleeping tips:
- don't eat 2 hours or less before you hit the sack (you need to burn off what you eat BEFORE bed)
- eat first thing (within 30 minutes) of waking up to receive metabolism (and energy) boosting benefits
- it is a MYTH that if you sleep without blankets you will burn more calories in your sleep. you will not sleep as deeply or comfortably and will therefore lose some of the natural benefits of sleep.

Enjoy your well-deserved sleep! I know I will!

Just Another Whale,
MyzzLyzz

2 comments:

  1. I heard recently that drinking a big glass of water will help you wake up alert and fresh in the morning. It actually works! Another benefit to a good night's sleep is that it can actually help control food cravings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. True! But you also need to make sure you have a good breakfast! Without breakfast you can end up sluggish and your metabolism slowed!

    ReplyDelete