Sleeping off the Fat!

This article is for me. I am just letting you read what I need to be telling myself in hopes that you need to hear it too.

In a very loud, you better listen to me voice, I say to myself: “Get some sleep. Seriously”.

OK, so the “seriously” is always the voice of Jillian Michaels. When you watch BL and listen to her pod-cast, you realize how much she says it. But I love it. Seriously. Especially when she says it with the big question mark. Like, are you joking? Seriously? My husband and I use this on each other all the time. But anyway….

I have not been doing a very good job of getting my sleep as of late. I am sliding into my late night habits again. My alarm goes off at 5:30 AM so it’s important not to pull an all-nighter. Going to bed at 11:30 or midnight is not working for me. It’s only been about a week or two but I can tell it’s starting to catch up with me.

So why is sleep so important? It balances your hormones, (which makes up your metabolism), you burn fat, and your muscles repair while you sleep. Your Human Growth Hormone (HGH) levels are very high when resting which is important to your recovery. If you aren’t sleeping, your recovery time is less and your muscles will not be ready for the gym the next day.

Another reason? You tend to snack to stay awake. How does a bag of Doritos sound from a when you’re feeling sleepy? Probably better than when you’re well rested and have your energy to hit the gym later. You also want to snack more after a good handful or two because it’s loaded with chemicals to make you crave another. (Doritos are the worst by the way!) See why you need your sleep?

I work a 7:30 – 5:00 job and it’s very sedentary as I sit all day. Which drives me crazy but that’s another post. So by 3 o’clock I feel like I need a nap. I used to think it was because of my pour food choices, which I am sure played some role. As I feel I now have that under control, I am convinced it’s the five hours of sleep I am getting instead of the 8-9 that my body needs.

A study was conducted at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep deprived subjects. Were tested over a matter of 11 days and they all gained an average of 3 pounds. While the well rested subjects gained no weight. That’s enough right there to make me put my head on a pillow right now and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz