What’s keeping you awake at night? The lousy economy or money issues? Maybe you’re concerned about losing your job or just lost your job.
Sleep is the time that your body restores and maintains itself. Think of it like rebooting your computer.Here are five tips that may help you get a better night’s sleep:
Just like you may have a workout routine, have a bedtime routine and keep regular sleep times. Your body craves a sleep routine and gets into a rhythm. Remember, there’re TIVO and DVRs so you don’t have to stay up all night to catch your favorite shows! Once in a rhythm, your body will begin to let you know it’s tired and ready for sleep at about the same time each night.
Exercise, yes this includes sex, improves sleep. Try to get in some exercise during the day but make sure to finish a couple of hours before you turn in so you’re not wired and unable to sleep.
You’ll love this one. Don’t go to bed hungry. Try a light carb snack like a piece of fruit.
Nix the caffeine by mid afternoon so it doesn’t keep you awake.
Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool, quiet and comfortable. Make your bedroom inviting for a great night’s rest. Remember this is the place where you escape whatever it is that stresses you out. Create your own personal bedtime ritual. Try using aromatherapy or a warm bubble bath. Listen to your favorite relaxing music or read a book. But give your laptop, work materials and other such distractions the boot. Your bedroom is your place to chill, not get worked up again and be too stressed to sleep.
Did you know that one-third of Americans are losing sleep over the state of the U.S. economy and other personal financial concerns? This is according to a poll released in March 2009 by the National Sleep Foundation. What’s keeping you up at night? Tell me.
It’s time to announce the winner of the $60 gift basket of award-winning Cabot cheese. Congratulations Luanne from Elizabethton TN! Watch the mail for your gift is on the way.
If food calls your name when you’re emotionally upset and you turn to food for comfort, it’s time to put on the brakes and stop stress-eating.
Try these three stress-less strategies.
Recognize emotional eating for what it is. Pay attention to your emotions this week. Every time you eat something, ask yourself if you are hungry or eating because of stress.Even better, keep a journal or notes on your blackberry or iphone for a few days. Why? When you write down what you eat, how much you eat and why you eat, stress-eating patterns become clear very quickly.
Decide what actions you can take to help deal with your stress besides turning to food. Find a substitute to replace food … walk around the block, read one chapter in a good book, or chew sugarless gum.Seek professional counseling if you feel it’s needed or confide in friends or family members and come up with some strategies to deal with the stressful situation.
Start one new healthy eating strategy. Here are two to choose from:
If you don’t eat breakfast, start. Research shows that people who eat breakfast eat less during the day so it’s easier to control your food intake when you’re stressed and your emotions feel out of control.
Eat more frequently. If you are an emotional eater and go more than four hours without food, you already know that it’s easy to eat and eat a lot. When you eat more frequently, you have less low blood sugar moments and feel less compelled to eat in response to your stress.
Good Morning Americaninterviewed Andrew Shue, co-founder of CafeMom.com. You may remember him as an actor on the Melrose Place series. CafeMom.com connects mothers and mothers-to-be on all aspects of life for conversation and support.
CafeMom polled 2,000 of their moms in the MomIndex and found that a whopping 61% indicate they do not have enough time for themselves. Guess what the biggest source of anxiety is for moms? Money! One in five moms said that their family income has been affected by job loss.
Did the results of this poll sound like you? Do you eat because you are stressed, depressed, sad, lonely, or angry? Are you eating because you’ve lost your job or someone in the family has and you’re concerned about paying bills?
Has food become your new BFF, your best friend? You’re comforter? Really think about your relationship to food. Try these strategies and email me or post comments on the blog.Let me know how you are doing.
How’s your stress level this week? We’re into the first week of December. Is your to-do list growing and is your calendar jam-packed? Do the holiday foods and festivities have you feeling a little bloated? Whether that bloated feeling comes from swallowing too much air as you stand, talk and eat at your friend’s party, or from not getting enough fiber in your diet due to party food overload or from consuming too much salt and sodium at a food fest, there are foods to counteract the big bloat. In this month’s Family Circle magazine, check out The No-Bloat Diet including these no-bloat foods and more.
Dried plums and 100% plum juice (not to be confused with prune juice): provide the body with fiber, potassium, magnesium and sorbitol…all found naturally in the fresh plum and which also help keep the digestive track humming along. You might have seen PlumSmart juice in your grocery, which is new from SunSweet, and is plum juice enhanced with dextrin, a prebiotic fiber which works as a teammate along with probiotics such as found in yogurt to increase the beneficial cultures in the digestive tract.
Whole-wheat tortillas: contain insoluble fiber which acts like Roto-Rooter to keep everything running smoothly. This same insoluble fiber is found in whole grains including whole wheat pasta and bread, brown rice and fruits and vegetables.
Melon: a diuretic fruit due to its high water content.
Cucumbers and lettuces: also have a high water content and act as diuretics to release some of the retained fluids.
Avocado: when you consume too much sodium, fluid retention can be an issue. The mineral potassium has the opposite effect helping to shed the fluid. An added bonus is the positive effect of potassium-rich foods on helping to lower blood pressure.
Margit Ragland, Senior Editor from Family Circle magazine joins me on the podcast this week. In addition to no-bloat foods, we dish on how to make Fruit and Cheese Bites, sweet yet spicy tiny cheese balls that include a touch of hot sauce to give a slight kick to the cheese along with the sweetness of dried pineapple and apricots. These Fruit and Cheese Bites are speedy to make when friends are dropping by unexpectedly. You can find this recipe and many others at the Nutrition & Health Center on WDBO.com.
What’s keeping you awake at night? The lousy economy or money issues? Maybe you’re concerned about losing your job or just lost your job.
Did you know that one-third of Americans are losing sleep over the state of the U.S. economy and other personal financial concerns? This is according to a new poll released in March of this year by the National Sleep Foundation.
Two out of every ten Americans sleep less than six hours a night. Your body needs seven to eight hours. Those of you sleeping too few hours report being too tired to work efficiently, to exercise or to eat healthy. The poll suggests that inadequate sleep is associated with unhealthy lifestyles and negatively impacts health and safety. You might be thinking….how does lack of sleep affect safety? How about drowsy driving? The 2009 poll finds that 54% of adults (that’s potentially 110 million licensed drivers) have driven when drowsy at least once in the past year. Nearly 28% of drivers polled say that they have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving a vehicle. Now that’s scary!
Speaking of driving while you’re asleep, I have to share this report from the Food and Drug Administration or FDA where a woman in Virginia allowed herself two pieces of chocolate per day. Here’s the problem: after taking her prescription sleep medication at night she began waking up to an empty box of chocolates. After consulting with her doctor and waking up to an empty chocolate box a number of times, it was decided that she had been “sleep eating”. This occurrence is known as a complex sleep-related behavior. Sleep eating, sleep driving, making phone calls or having sex are all behaviors that may occur. Most people do not remember these events later and they can occur with some prescription sleep aids. So, if you consider a prescription sleep aid or are taking one now, be sure and read the patient insert and discuss this potential side effect with your doctor.
So just how many people around the nation are losing sleep? Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 70 million people in the US are affected by a chronic sleep disorder. And ladies, it turns out that we are suffering from lack of sleep more often than men and with increasing frequency as we age. Does this sound familiar?
Sleep is the time that your body restores and maintains itself. Think of it like rebooting your computer. Here are five tips that may help you get a better night’s sleep:
Just like you may have a workout routine, have a bedtime routine and keep regular sleep times. Your body craves a sleep routine and gets into a rhythm. Remember, there’re TIVO and DVRs so you don’t have to stay up all night to catch your favorite shows! Once in a rhythm, your body will begin to let you know it’s tired and ready for sleep at about the same time each night.
Exercise, yes this includes sex, improves sleep. Try to get in some exercise during the day but make sure to finish a couple of hours before you turn in so you’re not wired and unable to sleep.
You’ll love this one. Don’t go to bed hungry. Try a light carb snack like a piece of fruit.
Nix the caffeine by mid afternoon so it doesn’t keep you awake.
Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool, quiet and comfortable. Make your bedroom inviting for a great night’s rest. Remember this is the place where you escape whatever it is that stresses you out. Create your own personal bedtime ritual. Try using aromatherapy or a warm bubble bath. Listen to your favorite relaxing music or read a book. But give your laptop, work materials and other such distractions the boot. Your bedroom is your place to chill, not get worked up again and be too stressed to sleep.
Now more than ever a good night’s sleep is important to your overall health and wellness. Along with a great diet and exercise, plenty of sleep will help you better cope with the stresses of today’s world. Take care of you…you’re worth it.
Medical Disclaimer: The content provided on this web site is for information
purposes only. It is intended to provide reference material
and is not designed to provide medical advice. Please consult
your healthcare provider regarding any medical issues you
have relating to symptoms, conditions, diseases, diagnosis,
treatments, and side effects.
What’s keeping you awake at night? The lousy economy or money issues? Maybe you’re concerned about losing your job or just lost your job.
Subscribe Now!
©2011 Practicalories,
Inc. All rights reserved.