PJ's Fitness Blog
A blog about a fitter you. Come find out what is on the cutting edge of fitness science and be a part of the ongoing conversation.
Did you know that getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night is a vital part of your fitness program? In fact, not getting enough sleep is downright fattening.
I know of someone who put his sleeping habits aside to get through finals and gained 5 pounds in about 9 days. He didn’t change any other lifestyle factors or habits either. He stuck with his schedule for exercise, his same eating routine, same foods and amounts. A drastic reduction in sleep was the only variable that was changed. Because of this, he was at the mercy of his hormones.
When we don’t get our sleep, our hormones get all out of whack and our metabolism changes drastically. This goes for your quality of sleep as well as getting enough of it. Here are some tips on how to get yours.
1.) Go to bed early. No matter when you have to get up in the morning, see if you can get to bed before 10 pm (or earlier if you get up before 6 am). Most people stay up late when they think they can count on sleeping in, but that doesn’t always happen and even if it does, morning hours are harder to get quality sleep anyway because your likelihood of being woken up increases and when the sun comes up, your body wants to wake up. If you follow a schedule and get to bed roughly the same time each night, your circadian rhythms will work with your hormones to optimize fat loss.
2.) Avoid caffeine after lunch. Obviously, it is harder to get to sleep when you have a stimulant in your system.
3.) Time your workout. Everyone has different bio rhythms, so some people sleep better with an evening workout and others with a morning workout. For me, it’s the afternoon that is the best time to train for a good night’s sleep. Try different times of day and see what works for you and what doesn’t. Then stick with that schedule.
4.) Stay away from food within 2 hours of pillow time. A full stomach keeps your digestion cranking while you are trying to sleep and if your tummy can’t go to sleep, it wants the other parts of you to stay awake and keep it company. Even if your head is able to fall asleep, your other systems will degrade the quality of your sleep while they are working on the food and partying with your stomach. You will also be more likely to store food as fat when you are sleeping and digesting at the same time.
5.) Turn off the TV. Glowing screens from electronics such as TV, computers, tablets and e-readers signal your mind to stay in the alert brain wave range. Power down at least an hour before hitting the hay.
6.) Keep your work out of the bed. This gets your mind amped up and makes it hard to turn it off. Bed time is your time. It’s for decompressing. Your brain goes through a process each night much like defragmenting a hard drive, so let it do its thing and you’ll be more refreshed, sharper and better able to get stuff done the next day.
7.) Light reading can help you doze off. If your parents read bedtime stories to you as a kid, you are already programmed to get sleepy with a book in bed. Make it something light and fun and you will find yourself ending your day in a good mood. The mood you are in when you go to sleep sets the tone for your subconscious to work on stuff in that mode while you are out. I think this is one of the reasons the Apostle Paul (arguably the most talented cognitive psychologist of all time) told us in Ephesians 4:26 not to let the sun go down on our anger.
I have written on sleep in previous posts, even suggesting ways to burn more fat while you sleep and it is a vital part of our fitness physiology. You spend 1/3 of your life in this state, so doesn’t it make sense to make every minute of it work for you and your fitness goals?
Folks are all up in TSA’s grill about the new Rapiscan machines that see through clothing. Here are a couple recent posts and tweets on the subject I found online:
Facebook Post: Just had my first TSA full body scan at Tampa International. Not a fan of of having my most personal privacy abrogated for the the “greater good” of our national security, insult was added to injury when the TSA officer declared, “Move along, nothing to see here.”
All this talk about being green and energy efficient is great for the environment, but we should be doing the opposite with bodies. What do I mean by this? It simple. Be an energy hog. Pretend your body is a hummer, not a hybrid, and waste as much energy as you can each day.
Each year we get lazier. We also invent more stuff that supports that lazy lifestyle. 150 years ago, we had to walk or ride a horse to get somewhere. We took stairs, not escalators. We farmed, made stuff with our own hands, and cooked our own food. This food was all “organic” too, but that’s another rant, er I mean, another post…
Humans have been around for thousands of years, but only in the last century have we been able to get away with doing so little physically. We have so many machines that do stuff for us and to cart our fat butts around, it’s pathetic. While the convenience is nice, these conveniences are killing us and contributing to the biggest obesity epidemic in the history of mankind.
To turn the tide, I propose that we all get as “inefficient” as possible each day. How you ask? It’s actually pretty easy. When it comes to activity, just do the opposite of what your natural inclination tells you to do.
Today for example, I stood the whole time in church instead of finding a seat. I parked further away from the front door at Costco. On the walk into Costco, I found a stray cart in the parking lot and pushed it to the front door. I didn’t need that cart however, because I sought out a box to carry around instead. I ended up getting more than I came for (of course), so that box got pretty heavy and my arms were really fatigued and burning while standing in the checkout line, but that was the point! I was burning energy and getting stronger at the same time – JUST LIKE PEOPLE HAD TO DO 150 YEARS AGO!
Get creative and make it a game. You’ll soon rewire your brain with this new habit too. You will start thinking active by default, and soon you will find that your other habits are changing as well. Your food choices will get better, you will find more active friends to hang around with and so on, until you finally find yourself thin and fit – JUST LIKE PEOPLE WERE 150 YEARS AGO!
Start being a waste today! This is something that is easy to implement because it requires no additional time or money, just a little more effort spaced out through the day. It’s good for your body, your mind, and your soul. All you have to lose is your waist, so why not?
High Intensity Training (HIT) is well documented by the scientific research to burn fat faster and more permanently than Low And Moderate Exercise (LAME) workouts. In fact, LAME workouts can even cause you to gain fat instead of burn it!
Traditional personal trainers, otherwise known as Mentally Outdated Recreational Organizers who Never Study (MORONS), don’t keep up on the current research (because they never study), and since this makes them mentally outdated, they continue to tell their clients that “The optimal fat burning zone is best achieved at about 60% of your maximal effort.”
We used to think that, but research has proven otherwise, so now we know better. While it is true that fat is used as a primary fuel source during LAME intensity levels, it’s not the best way to burn fat off your body and get leaner with time.
MORONS go on to tell their clients that more is better, and the longer they can stay in the LAME zone, the more fat they will burn. The result is innocent recreational exercisers training like a rat on a wheel, for hours each week, only to earn dismal rates of return (at best) for their time invested.
In fact, since LAME does burn more fat during (more…)
I had to tell you about this new site, MyUrbanWellness.com - is just too cool to NOT talk about. MyUrbanWellness offers wellness products and services to people in the greater Seattle area at discounts of 50% or more.
If you are a reader of this blog, you are probably already spending lots of money on wellness, but you are not even sure you are getting the best service because it’s too expensive and time-consuming to shop around!
Well, MyUrbanWellness.com does all that for you. They screen each product or service carefully to make sure it is top quality. Then they make sure the merchant is “green”, by verifying they are making conscious efforts toward sustainability and are ecologically conscious. And best of all, by going through MyUrbanWellness, you get big discounts on the wellness products and services you need.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. It’s just a really great deal. It’s free to sign up. Then you automatically get reminders each time a new deal comes out – about 3 times per week.
Check it out and sign up for MyUrbanWellness.com today.
