Transforming 3 Energy Wasters into High Grade Fuel!

Wouldn’t you like to consider your body to be like a Ferrari?  If that’s the case, here are 3 high-grade fueling tips to keep your machine running in top-notch condition.

1) Caffeine:

If you suffer from sleepless nights, fatigue, pain, or dysfunction, caffeine may be a culprit. Could your morning fuel be revving your engines way too high only to leave you just short of the finish line? Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours. This means that if you consume the average 200mgs of your favorite caffeinated drink in the a.m, by bedtime that caffeine mostly likely is still circulating. This can sabotage our rest and repair hormonal cycles and in effect our health and wellness goals.

A step in the right direction would be to replace your coffee or energy drinks with a less simulating drink such as Yerba Mate or Green Tea. A better bet would be to eliminate caffeine entirely for a few weeks and see how you feel. In the meantime, Peppermint or a Chai Rooibos tea may satisfy your warm drink ritual. Chai Roobios is especially lovely with some coconut milk and a dab of honey. Take a cruise through David’s Tea or your local health food store to find a tea that works for you.

2) Alcohol:

I like a glass of wine every so often. If you do drink, try switching to an organic wine or spirit. This way you avoid the extra toxins that can be a major drain on our bodies. Not forgetting the negative effects of alcohol on our liver, wine also is a highly refined sugar that can cause havoc with our blood sugar levels and our hormones. This can leave us feeling majorly depleted. If you do drink, enjoy in moderation and with a meal of good quality fat and protein. This will keep your blood sugars, energy, and body shape goals in check.

3) Sugar:

Sugar is one of the most pleasurable substances out there. The downside is that it’s also highly addictive and a major energy drainer. Sugar can be a challenge especially when we are in need of some comfort during stress-filled days. A sure way to get to the finish line while enjoying the sweetness of life is to switch to some of these healthier versions:

• 85% Greens and Blacks Organic Chocolate – Lower on the sugar scale, however high on the chocolate lover’s satisfaction.

• Organic Mejool Dates or Figs – These lovely pieces of sweet heaven are high in fiber and loaded with a ton of beneficial nutrients.

• Carob – Its not chocolate and anyone who says it is, in my opinion isn’t a chocolate lover. Yet, carob is a close 2nd and again is loaded with fiber and nutrients.

• High Quality Cookies – Check out the Internet for Gluten-Free Almond, Coconut, or Quinoa cookie recipes. These treats are high in fiber and protein, yet low in sugar, and they do not contain gluten, which can for most of us can be detrimental to our waistlines.

Remember, though, the key is to consume in moderation. Too much of a good thing is still too much.

Hope these ideas keep your engines revving high and happily for years to come.

Sarah Harris
Holistic Health and Lifestyle Consultant

Maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle can be a difficult task for some people, while others just carry on with no worries or obstacles at all. By being an advocate such as myself, I have an image I must uphold because who would listen to someone who was a sloth or ne’er do well. Eating healthy, exercising, positive thinking, and sleep are all vital elements in one’s choice to live a healthy lifestyle.

An average fit adult exercises 30 to 90 minutes daily, and there is a point where one needs to rest and sleep if they want to continue to live their lives to its full potential. I found conflicting reports about how much daily sleep an adult should be receiving. After reading an article from the National Sleep Foundation, studies have shown that we should be gaining between 7-9 hours of daily shuteye. I never realized that by not sleeping enough (or too much sleep) would take a tremendous toll on your body. I suppose it never occurred to me because I never experienced either issue when it comes to rest and relaxation. I know several adults who have chronic sleep issues, and I certainly have compassion for them.

If you are unfortunate and suffer from sleep deprivation or obtain too much sleep, you may be at an increased risk for obesity, diabetes, heart problems, depression, or motor vehicle accidents, just to name a few. It was recommended in the article to chronicle your sleep habits and to discuss them with your physician at your next visit. Do you know if you snore? Sleep apnea is a common disorder, which should also be presented to your doctor. There are solutions; don’t be afraid or embarrassed to seek help.

Here are some suggestions to maintain a healthy sleep pattern as posted by the NSF (National Sleep Foundation):

Establish consistent sleep and wake schedules 7 days a week.

Begin a relaxing routine about an hour before bedtime, such as a hot bath or soothing music.

Make sure your mattress and pillows are comfortable.

Use your bedroom for sleep and not for watching TV or your using your computer.

Finish eating 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime.

Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco products close to bedtime.

I typically exercise in the early morning and in the early evening approximately 1 hour a day, which I know helps me feel sleepy at bedtime. Sleep tight and pleasant dreams to all!

Thus, recovery after strength training is important, but most of us, myself included, tend to neglect this aspect. In fact, post-strength training recovery is easy, but as with almost everything else in life, requires persistence to ensure success.

One of the first things you should do following a strength training session is to consume protein. My brother swears by his post-weights protein shake, but you can easily provide the protein your body needs with a scrambled egg or two. If you’re averse to animal protein or protein in powdered form, tempeh or other legume products are always an alternative. Similarly to how you should have breakfast within two hours of waking up, protein should be ingested soon after strength training.

Keeping hydrated is another key to recovering after strength training. Aside from being an obvious means of staving off dehydration, water is a “conductor” that enables electrolyte exchange to take place in the body, i.e., it facilitates nerve impulse conduction and muscle contraction. Additionally, adequate consumption of water ensures that any weight you lose is from the loss of fat, not water.

Adequate rest is also a component of recovery after a strength training session. It doesn’t mean zoning out on the couch in front of the TV or surfing the Internet mindlessly (although many of us have certainly been guilty of that). Rather, rest means not throwing yourself headlong into more exertion, such as another set of strength training exercises, or a jog around the block.

Theoretically, strength training would have worked your muscles to their limit, and any exertion that comes after that is likely to be injurious instead of beneficial. Thus, giving yourself time to do nothing is how you recover from strength training. Sleep is an important facet of the rest and recovery period, so don’t skimp on the recommended eight hours!

-Cut out sugar and starches! Insulin, which is secreted into the bloodstream in response to ingesting sugar and starches (in the form of white flour products, white rice, and white potatoes), has a big effect on aging the body. Although we need insulin to live, we ideally shouldn’t be secreting much of it. By controlling our insulin levels through reducing the amount of sugar and starch we eat, we can help our bodies stay young and healthy in MANY different ways.

-Eat plenty of foods high in antioxidants. This includes various types of berries such as blueberries and goji berries, dark chocolate (85% and higher), cherries, spinach, and apples.

-Get in moderate amounts of exercise. While not exercising enough can definitely accelerate your aging, exercising too much can do the same. Most people are far from danger of doing this though, so just think about doing your best to move around a bit each day, and try to get in some vigorous exercise 2-3 days a week.

-GET YOUR SLEEP! This may be the most under-rated way of staying young. I’m not talking about getting in beauty naps either. It really does make a difference if you get in your sleep at night instead of getting naps during the day. Believe it or not, the time that you fall asleep makes a big difference too. Try to fall asleep by at least 10:00-10:30 pm, and see if you can wake up on your own without an alarm clock. Then you’ll know you got in enough sleep for your needs that night.

The problem with this approach is that you might reach your target weight through dieting and light exercise, but also retain a higher percentage of body fat compared to a person who exercises more while watching their food intake, and who loses weight more slowly.

The upshot is that while weight loss through dieting is faster, it can also slow down the metabolism. In the end, a person who loses weight mainly due to dieting (general loss of overall mass) will burn fewer calories than someone who exercises and practices moderate eating habits (which builds muscle and burns fat). In addition, the former will actually find it harder to maintain the lower weight.

People can also wind up sabotaging their fitness routine by not getting enough sleep. On the other hand, when a person does sleep an adequate length of time, sleep quality is poor. What this means is that it saps what could have been a full tank of energy each morning. Over time, this can lead to a disinclination to carry out anything but the most routine of tasks, i.e., wake up, go to work, come home, and go to bed.

Poor or truncated sleep for more than two days a week means you won’t burn as much fat or build muscle as well as you could after having a good night’s sleep. A few ways to ensure that you’re well-rested is by keeping to a regular sleep time, and ensuring that your bedroom is completely dark at bedtime. Avoid watching TV in bed or using the computer before you sleep too, as this can cause mental restlessness.

Aside from this, it’s also important to treat injuries immediately, as untreated injuries can lead the body to compensate for decreased function elsewhere. Not only that, not sticking to proper eating habits, e.g., avoiding fats altogether, binge eating on weekends, assuming all drinks have 0 calories, is another way a person hampers their own fitness progress.

First, you need to be falling asleep before 10:30pm (at the latest!) and ideally sleeping until you wake up, without an alarm. Otherwise, try to get at least 8 hours before your alarm wakes you up. If that means going to bed earlier, then do that. Sleeping during these hours helps to keep your stress hormones under control, which play a big factor in gaining and losing weight.

Also, you need to be in a pitch dark room. Not even the glow of the alarm clock is allowed. Any light at all (even an LED), will trigger the release of cortisol (one of those stress hormones) and disturb your sleep.

Finally, you should consume no caffeine after 4:00pm. Ideally, I’d say no caffeine at all, but that’s for another article. Caffeine has a half life in the body of 6 hours, so if your last dose of caffeine is at 4:00 pm, you’ll still have half of it in your system by10:00 pm, depending on how fast you metabolize it. So that’s where having your last one even earlier would be an even better idea.

There are other factors to take into consideration as well to improve your sleep, but these are some simple methods that when accompanied with a proper exercise plan and healthy diet are highly effective too.

No, I’m not talking about a miracle vitamin, a new energy drink, or a speedy new-fangled workout regimen; I’m talking about something you can do before bed that ensures you get a solid night’s sleep, which is an essential key to staying healthy. Not getting enough sleep can run you down and lower your immune system, allowing you to get sick more easily.

What can you do every night to ensure you have a restful whole night’s sleep? If you are feeling stressed, worried, or anxious, take a few minutes before you lie down and write down all your issues. By just taking a minute to get these concerns off your chest, you won’t lie in bed thinking about them, which can keep sleep at bay.

I can’t begin to tell you how helpful this habit is to get into. I’ve implemented it in my life, and I never lose a night’s sleep over worrying. I sit down before bed if my mind is racing with the million and one things I have to get done or other common problems that used to keep me up at night. After I get the last one down on paper, no matter how mundane or silly, I fall onto my bed and into a deep slumber because I have told myself I’m committed to worrying about them or solving them tomorrow and I don’t need to bother with them anymore tonight.