Sleep (Or the lack thereof)

Lately I'd rather stay in bed than go to the gym. Maybe not the smartest weight loss move, but if you're lacking on sleep you could be hurting yourself in more ways than being irritable.

You should sleep 7 to 9 hours a night. Here are the benefits if you do:

Fewer colds - rest improves immunity, too little impairs it.

Lower number on the scale - People who slept 7-9 hours had an average BMI of 24.8, almost 2 points lower than those who slept less.

Lower risk of heart disease and diabetes - those who slept less than 5 hours per night had a 500 times greater risk of high blood pressure and were 3 times likelier to have diabetes.

So don't skip your workout to sleep, but do go to bed at a decent time (easy to do with small children, haha), dim the lights before bedtime, avoid the TV and computer before bedtime, and try some yoga or meditation to help you sleep more deeply.

Now if I could just figure out how to keep my boys from interrupting my night's sleep, maybe I could make it to the gym!

"Sleep! It's Non-Negotiable," Prevention Magazine, February 2010, www.prevention.com

Rest and Recovery

Rest? Who has time for that? It turns out that all of us need to make time, if we want to improve our fitness level.

This past week I had two very sweet women tell me they wanted arms like mine, then they proceeded to ask if I lifted weights every day. I said thank you first, then lectured on the importance of letting your body and muscles rest. 

If you lift heavy enough weights and lift correctly, your muscles are going to break down and rebuild after your strength training session. Notice I said, after. You need to allow your body time to complete this process before you lift on that part of the body again. As the muscle rebuilds it becomes stronger. If someone is doing biceps curls every day that muscle is not being allowed to rebuild and the person is hurting themselves and essentially wasting their exercise time. 

Every body is different but usually one to two days between strength training sessions is enough, unless you are really trying to build mass. 

Another important component of recovery is sleep. I usually have between one and four boys sharing my bed with me each night. It doesn't make for fabulous sleep! I know, I should make them stay in their own beds but they're so dang cute in the middle of the night! I am definitely lacking in quality sleep (I'm sure many of you can relate) and that isn't a good thing. 

The stress hormones your body releases when you’re sleep-deprived leads to a loss of lean tissue, a gain in fat mass, a sluggish metabolism, and slow recovery. (i)

So, if you can, try to get to bed on time each night and don't share that feather pillow with a cute, little head.