The Importance of Good Sleep For Optimal Health

/0 Comments/in Healthy Habits, Weight Loss /by Linda

The importance of good sleep for optimal health is far more than most people know. It’s about more than just feeling “rested”. Many functions critical to health happen while you sleep.

But not all sleep is the same. Sleep, under the influence of sleep aids, alcohol, marijuana, and even caffeine, is not the same as natural sleep. During natural sleep you go through different sleep cycles in which different processes are happening within your brain and body. Under the influence of the above, your sleep cycles are altered or eliminated and to the point that you are robbed of the full benefit of the opportunity.

Lack of adequate quality sleep predisposes you to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, insulin resistance, weight gain, inflammation, hormonal imbalances, accidents, and infection.

It also helps short term memories get stored as long term memories.

A normal person should, ideally sleep 7.5-9 hours per night. Some people brag about how little sleep they need–but this is folly! Two very famous people who used to brag about how little sleep they needed–Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher–both tragically died of complications related to Alzheimer’s.

Getting OPTIMAL sleep should be every bit as important to your health and wellness plans as diet and exercise. If not you are completely missing the point of health–which is to be healthy–not just look like you are healthy on the surface!

For those who have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, I’ll be doing a series of videos on the topic.

Watch the video to learn a little about how it harms your body beyond just being tired.

Poor quality sleep affects:

Blood sugar

Weight gain

Hormone regulation

Clearing amyloid proteins from your brain, a pre-cursor to Alzheimer’s

Memory – Converting short term memory into long term memory

 

It’s also critical to get enough water to stay hydrated.

(Just don’t drink it too close to bedtime or you’ll have to get up to pee.)

 

Want some support around sleep and health?

Sign up for a free Health Strategy Consultation with me.

My Favorite Cold Weather Lunch – An Idea For You?

/0 Comments/in Recipes, Weight Loss /by Linda

My favorite cold weather lunch is…

… soup! But not just any soup. This spicy soup is packed with vegetables. And lunch–(or breakfast as is often the case)–is as simple as putting one serving full of the delicious home made soup into a frying pan, heating until it is hot, cracking two eggs on top, seasoning with a bit more salt and pepper, and then covering with a tight fitting lid, turning the heat down to medium low, and letting the eggs poach for 2-3 minutes on top of the flavorful soup. And if I’m feeling decadent I add a sprinkling of cheese before I slide it all into my bowl.

This is comfort food at it’s best: Delicious, easy, satisfying, nutritious, and completely in alignment with my health and weight goals. Nothing begs for comfort food more than cold dark days! Mmm…soup is a great cold weather lunch!

The difference between keeping to a healthy diet and falling down the slippery slope of ‘whatever/whenever’ is just a matter of planning and liking what you are planning. If you like your own home-made food more than eating out, getting ready-to-go meals, or eating junk at home, you will do it! If not…then if you are like a lot of people you will feel bad/ashamed, lower your standards, and stop caring. Make your own version of your ideal cold weather lunch that will keep you on the right track!

See how you can have it for lunch or dinner with variations.

(Soup recipe here: https://lindaliving.com/gems/ideas-cooking-ahead-week/)

Want some support around healthy meals?

Sign up for a free Health Strategy Consultation with me.

Fitness And Weight Loss Tops List Of Broken New Year’s Resolutions

/0 Comments/in Inner Evolution, Weight Loss /by Linda

Happy New Years! Did you make any resolutions this year?

I find it interesting that fitness and weight loss rank second and third right behind spending more time with family. It tops the list however on broken resolutions (with eating healthier as the #5 most broken resolution)

So, what happens in the month of January that takes people from being all fired up about their goals and resolutions breaking them?

One possibility is that the foods themselves (“healthy” or not) are interfering with, and PREVENTING weight loss and motivation to exercise. This is a phenomenon called food intolerance. Food intolerance causes swelling, inflammation, fatigue, cravings as well as a variety of other symptoms one might not necessarily trace back to being food related, like skin disorders, headaches, aches and pains, foggy mindedness, depression, and general malaise. Removing the offending foods can created a quick and surprisingly effective method of reversing unpleasant associated symptoms–which often baffle doctors. (Why every doctor does not run this test as part of an annual physical, I do not know.

The information I gained from getting tested myself has been invaluable. I no longer eat onions, apples, eggs or turkey –and I feel 100 times better than I did before I knew that those specific food were NOT healthy choices for ME! My energy increased dramatically within just a few days, and the bonus was that I lost 8 lbs in the first 3 weeks without even trying.

The results I see in clients is often just as impressive if not more so. I have seen people lose 10lbs in a week, horrible skin conditions (that they had had for years) disappear in three. It is the norm, not the exception,  for weight to drop and energy to go up as a result of making some “this not that” tweaks to diet using the information obtained with the Food Intolerance test. It is my TOP recommended test, especially those struggling with low/inconsistent energy and inflammatory conditions.

It is an easy way to to stay on track…making specific, easy, doable, changes that give good, and sometimes even miraculous results.

Sometimes it is the little changes we make that has the biggest impact on overall health. It doesn’t have to be hard.

 

7 Hot Tips To Get You Through The Holidays Without Gaining A Pound

/2 Comments/in Weight Loss /by Linda

It starts with Halloween. A Hershey’s Kiss here, a Milky Way there, and before you know it you’re falling headlong into a sugar-crazed orgy that lasts through Thanksgiving and Christmas. White-knuckle restraint is no fun, but neither are tight clothes and feelings of remorse. The question is: How can you get through the holidays without missing out on the fun or the yummy goodness?

Here are my 7 hottest tips to get you through the holiday season without gaining a pound or missing out on the best life has to offer.

  1. candy01-238x300Skip the Halloween candy. You will save yourself a lot of grief by simply saying NO to this pitfall. If you’re constantly trying to decide if, when, and how much, it will be a struggle. Once your blood sugar takes that roller coaster ride it will be next to impossible to get off. So make your life a whole lot easier by staying firm on this one. Tip: When feeling tempted ask yourself “Does this serve my highest good?”
  1. Drink LOTS of water. Sugar cravings are often confused for thirst. Curb these cravings by making sure you are well hydrated and drink WATER before deciding whether sugar is calling.
  1. images-1Get enough sleep. There is nothing that fuels bad food choices and sugar cravings like lack of sleep. Your body is hard wired to find sources of energy (calories) and it knows from experience what the easiest and fastest sources are (sugar and caffeine). Using them creates a vicious cycle that will only make the problem worse.
  1. Eat well-balanced meals with adequate fiber and protein. This will keep your blood sugar more level throughout the day make saying no to temptations easy.
  1. thanksgiving-plate-2-1102-dePlan healthier holiday meals. Would it break your heart to skip the ambrosia salad? Switching out a couple of recipes will go a long way in improving the quality of the meal. Instead of a sweet potato dish that includes butter, brown sugar and/or marshmallow, try jewel-studded sweet potatoes. Instead of making brussels sprouts with bacon, simply roast and drizzle them with a balsamic reduction. High glycemic foods like mashed potatoes and desserts can be savored in self-loving moderation. And P.S.–Skip the bread.
  1. Stop eating before you’re full. Thoroughly enjoy your food, just resist eating too much. Chew. Savor. You can do this AND be able to experience the body, the life, and the health you want. It’s not either or. If being uncomfortably full is part of the ‘holiday experience’, it’s never too late to start a new tradition of eating good food in reasonable quantity—feeling good—and feeling good about yourself too.
  1. image2Keep what you REALLY want in LIFE top of mind. The struggle around food has a lot to do with the fact that It’s easier to imagine what a food tastes like and how it will make you feel when you eat it than it is to imagine what it would feel like to manifest your life’s deepest desires. The trick is to get more ’associated’ to your desires than to anything else. Let’s say your ideal includes losing 20 lbs. You have to be able to imagine what that would be like as if it were as real and close as the candy bowl. This requires actively imagining your ideal future self in a way that makes it so real you can recall it with ease, to the point that it influences your decisions as much as the tempting treat in front of you.

I know a lot of folks don’t want to so much as think about healthy eating until after the holidays, but a little effort in the right places will make the holidays so much sweeter.

 

Doing vs. Not Doing

/3 Comments/in Inner Evolution, Weight Loss /by Linda

….I was more nervous and incompetent than he thought (Carlos says to himself). “I’ve always been that way, and yet I want to change, but I don’t know how. I am so inadequate.”

“I already know that you think you are rotten,” he [Don Juan] said. “That’s your DOING. Now, in order to affect that DOING, I am going to recommend that you learn another DOING. From now on, and for a period of 8 days, I want you to lie to yourself. Instead of telling yourself the truth, that you are ugly, rotten, and inadequate, you will tell yourself that you are the complete opposite, knowing that you are lying and beyond hope.”

“But what would be the point of lying like that?” Carlos asked.

“It may hook you to another DOING and then you may realize that both DOINGS are lies, and unreal, and that to hinge yourself to either one is a waste of time, because the only thing that is real is the being in you….”

“The trick is in which one to emphasize,” he said. “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”

(an excerpt from ‘Journey To Ixtlan’ by Carlos Castenada)