5 Compelling Reasons Why You Need to Sleep More, and Sleep Better

Sleep is so important for good health, a great body and high energy levels. Yet so often we forgo sleep to stay up late ‘relaxing’ in front of the TV/computer or to put more time in to work.

Here are 5 reasons why a lack of quality sleep is costing you your health, your energy and your body.

 1.      Lose more fat: Lack of sleep interferes with natural hormonal cycles and leaves you with elevated ghrelin levels and depleted leptin levels. Ghrelin is a hormone that increases appetite and makes you crave food; leptin is it’s opposite, signalling satiety and that you do not need to eat. Just a single nights insufficient sleep causes significant change in these hormones – imagine what chronic lack of sleep does! Lack of sleep leaves you fighting a losing battle, trying to use willpower to overcome your bodies’ own hormonal signals.

2.    Hormonal rhythms and balance: Ghrelin and leptin are not the only hormones affected by sleep. Growth hormone is released during deep sleep cycles and is one of the most important hormones for muscle gain, fat loss, and anti-aging. It is declined growth hormone that is primarily responsible for greater difficulty gaining muscle and losing fat as you age. You do not want to accelerate this! Remember how good you felt and how easy you stayed in shape when you were a teenager?

3.    Recharge the batteries: Simple and obvious; lack of sleep makes you tired. This leads to decreased focus and clarity of thought, less energy, more desire to overeat sugary food and bad moods. Staying up forcing yourself to work - after productivity drops and mistakes increase - is a waste of time and detrimental to your health. You are better off recharging and coming back with a fresh head the next day. You will end up redoing the work anyway if it is not up to standard. We often feel like a hero, pushing ourselves to the limit – it really is better to manage your energy and work when you are most productive, i.e. when you are refreshed.

4.    Recover and grow: You don’t get bigger and stronger in the gym. Training is the stimulus that leads to an increase in muscle size and strength when you recover. Your body recovers at rest. You can train as hard as you like, if your body is not receiving sufficient food and rest to recover from it, you will not make progress and just end up wearing yourself down. Push, push, push may work for a little while, but long term it is a recipe for disaster.

5.    De-stress and refresh: Just like your body, your brain needs a rest too. If you push it too hard with insufficient recovery, you will be stressed, unhappy and unproductive. This is not going to serve you in any way in the long term.

The 5 compelling reasons why you need to sleep more, and sleep better inevitably leaves you wondering; how exactly to do that. Here are some brief tips to improve sleep quality.

- Keep to a routine of sleeping and waking approximately the same times each day.

- Aim to wake naturally in the morning, without an alarm. This indicates you have had sufficient sleep and leaves you energised and happier first thing.
 
- Watch caffeine intake later in the day and avoid alcohol. It may help you fall asleep, but restricts deep sleep and you wake up feeling like you barely slept.

- Make your room pitch black and slightly cool. 

- Turn electronics off and wind down for half an hour before sleeping. Trying reading, bathing or meditating.

- Start your day right with a high protein breakfast.  This sets up your neurotransmitters and hormones for the day; avoiding the mid-afternoon energy crash and need to use caffeine and sugar as a pick me up.

- Write a journal, tomorrows’ to do list and your thoughts/anxieties down on paper before sleeping. This allows your mind to relax and not keep you up all night thinking.

- Leave the smart phone outside the bedroom.  Don’t answer emails or do work stuff immediately before trying to sleep.

Stress & Weight Gain

A busy work life and successful career unfortunately comes with its downsides. Namely; stress.

Stress may well be making you fat and you probably don’t even know it. Often referred to as the ‘silent killer’ for its many negative effects on general health and well-being, stress also has a number of implications for your body composition.

Cortisol = Fat Storage

Cortisol is the primary stress hormone. It is released in response to a stressor and it has a number of effects, including raising blood pressure and setting off a hormonal cascade that raises blood sugar and encourages the body to store fat. This evolved as a response to ward off starvation; which was all well and good, thousands of years ago, when there wasn’t a fast food joint next door. Nowadays, what was once a life-saving benefit is making you store more fat and actually diminishing your health.

Cortisol = Cravings

When blood sugar drops, cortisol rises and it triggers your appetite; it’s telling you to eat something, and quickly.

Of course, the quickest energy foods are generally the worse foods for your physique. You crave sugar and other processed foods that deliver a quick boost of energy. Unfortunately, they do not offer much actual nutrition, so you are often still hungry for nutrients afterwards and your blood sugar has spiked sharply. It will drop just as sharply after it peaks and throw you back in to cortisol release and more cravings. Once you’re on the sugar rollercoaster, it can be hard to get off.

Cortisol = Low Testosterone

Chronically high cortisol lowers your testosterone. Low testosterone is associated with:

·         Low libido

·         Fatigue

·         Infertility

·         Loss of focus & drive

·         Fat gain

·         Difficulty gaining muscle

·         Decreased strength

·         Depression

Cortisol and testosterone oppose each other. Both are necessary for good health and cortisol is not the enemy; chronically high cortisol is the enemy. To maintain a high testosterone level and give yourself the best possible circumstances to build a great body, you must manage your stress levels.

Stress is Stress, is Stress

Your body cannot tell the difference between mental, emotional or physical stress. The deadline at work, argument with your spouse and bad diet will all have the same outcome. Again, stress is not bad itself, it is essential for life. It is dose dependant.

Working out is a stressor, but it is a good stress. It is short lived and leads to an overall decline in stress levels, as well as all of the other benefits for health and body. Without a stress input, you would never adapt to anything. In moderate doses, stress maintains homeostasis by leading your body to adapt to a stimulus. You need to avoid chronic stress.

Bad Food, Lack of Food or Lack of Exercise = Stress

Your body is an extremely complex piece of machinery that runs off a variety of fuels, but it has its specific needs. Namely, it needs enough calories to maintain energy and keep the metabolism high, it needs essential fats and proteins to build itself and it needs vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to thrive. It needs to move; the muscles and joints need to remain active in their natural function to maintain good health and ward off age related decline.

Insufficiency in any of these areas is stressful for the body. That means if you are not exercising, eating a poor diet, or not eating enough food, you are piling physical stress on top of the existing mental and emotional stress that we all go through in life.

How to Manage Stress Levels

That leads to the obvious answer of eating a healthy diet and maintaining an exercise regime, to minimise physical stress, coupled with things like meditation and relaxation techniques to manage mental stress.

This is an essential part of looking after your health and achieving a great physique. Sometimes it is not about the latest and greatest training plan or supplements, but about the holistic approach to your health and life.

Keep stress in check and you will have a better body, lose weight and gain muscle easier, be more productive and successful at work and flat out just be happier!

How to Fall in Love with Exercise & A Healthy Lifestyle

We all know that to have a great body, we need to consistently put in the work, both at the gym and outside. For some, this comes naturally; they love working out, eating healthy and have a lifestyle that supports their physique goals. Others struggle to find the time, do not enjoy it when they do get to the gym and dislike healthy eating; even in spite of wanting to transform their physique and have a great body. 

So what’s the difference? 

Mindset 

It is all in the mindset and how you approach your body. Two people, in seemingly similar circumstances can achieve completely different outcomes with only a difference in their mindset. If you’re reading this, you are probably successful in many areas of your life; your career, family, etc. – but you wonder, why have you not seen the same success in your physique; even when it is something you desperately want to improve. When we are inspired by something we are focused and disciplined, meanwhile when we lack inspiration we hesitate and procrastinate. This begs the question, how do we become inspired by our physique and fitness goals? 

Values 

We all live our lives based on our highest values. The things that are most important to us. Everyone has a different value system and no value is better or worse than any other; it is just one of the unique aspects of being an individual. The people who are highly successful in their fitness and physique will hold it as a high value in their lives. Whatever you put most time, effort, energy and passion in to, will be your highest values. That may be any number of things, including; work, family, socialising, wealth or health. For the people who already hold health and fitness as a high value, it is easy for them. Don’t get me wrong, they still have to work hard for a great physique, but the difference is, they enjoy the hard work. They get in to a state of flow and there isn’t anything else that they would rather do. Please note, you can care about your health and fitness, you can desire to get in better shape and change your body, without it currently being a high value. Many people want to achieve the outcomes of a transformation, but because they do not currently hold it as a high value they hesitate and procrastinate. If that is you, if you know that you do not currently hold fitness as a high value, but you want to transform your body, luckily, you can make some changes and become inspired by your own fitness journey.

Changing Values 

One of the easiest ways to move something higher in your values and become inspired to achieve the results that you desire, is to link it with the things that are already important to you. For example let’s say you highly value your work. You are successful, at the top of your company or perhaps an entrepreneur and you love your work – you feel that it gives you purpose. It tends to take priority over everything else and you spend most of your time there; or at least thinking about it. Here is one exercise I use with my clients to move fitness up in their values and achieve stunning transformations: 

Write 100-200 ways that transforming your body will help you achieve more at work. 

Here are a few examples:

• By working out and eating healthy I will have more energy to put in to my work


• By going to the gym and living healthier I will raise my testosterone, increasing drive and focus that will help me achieve more in my work


• Exercising will improve my posture, and get rid of the aches and pains I suffer after a long day in the office


• Exercising will make me stronger and more confident in my posture and movements, giving off a better first impression when meeting potential clients

You can do this exercise for whatever your top 3-4 highest values are and find that your inspiration for transforming your body shoots through the roof; leading to your falling in love with exercise and a healthy lifestyle. 

Reducing lower body fat around hips and thighs in females

·       Females have large amounts of alpha receptors in their lower body and that’s why they store large amounts of fat around these areas. Alpha-receptors are distinctly bad, inhibiting lipolysis (break down of fats to release fatty acids) and adipose tissue (fat) blood flow.

·       We want a higher level of beta receptors. Beta-receptors can be thought of as the ‘good’ receptors, increasing lipolysis and adipose tissue blood flow

·       Circulation is usually a problem here as it is quite hard to mobilise the fatty acids from those areas (bum, legs)

·         Stop storing fat first before you focus on burning it!

·       To stop storing fat we have to optimize the level of androgens and support the production of those hormones by supplementing with Zinc and Magnesium and keep your diet high in foods that are rich in those minerals (nuts, seeds, green vegetables, shellfish, beef, dark chocolate)

·       Improve your gastrointestinal health for better estrogen detoxification.

·       Strength training for women is also very important as it optimizes androgens and minimizes estrogens.

·       Supplements that are good for lowering and detoxing from estrogens are flaxeeds, DIM-(diindolylmethane) (a food-based compound found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussel’s sprouts), Calcium D-glucerate.

·       By keeping estrogens low and androgens high we are stopping fat storage and it is easier to burn fat from those areas.

·       Another huge issue with most females is cutting calories or dropping them too low, by doing so your cortisol levels go up and your body goes in a fat storage mode because it needs to protect the reproductive system and stores fat around those areas.

·       Excessive and obsessive exercise with females is also a massive issue, women usually tend to do a lot of cardio which in turn elevates the cortisol levels too high which will increase estrogen levels too high.

·       Minimize stress, keep training short and intense, use high intensity weight training to mobilise the fatty acids and then use low intensity cardio at the end of a workout to burn the fat (eg. cross trainer rather than bike)

First Step To A Great Body

When it comes to successful body transformation there are a couple of very important steps that you should consider before you hit the gym and start dieting. 

Start with your gut

Second brain

Your gut is your second brain. It is the place where all the action happens; neurotransmitters are produced, food gets digested, nutrients get absorbed and the acid-alkaline base gets established.

In order for your gut to work well we have to make sure all the processes mentioned above are happening without any disruptions. Let’s have a closer look at neurotransmitters, the brain’s chemical messengers. The main four produced in the gut are Dopamine and Acetylcholine these are the energising ones  and GABA and Seratonin which are the relaxing ones. 

These neurotransmitters are responsible for the way we feel and function. We want to have the right level of the energizing neurotransmitters during the day and right level of the relaxing ones in the evening to help us sleep.

Choose wisely 

The food choices we make on daily basis will hugely impact our mental, physical and emotional state. Consumption of foods that irritate our gut or foods that might cause sensitivities for example: (wheat, gluten, diary and soy products, etc.) will compromise our digestion and disrupt the level of neurotransmitters production which as a result can lead to problems like depression, insomnia, mood swings, bloating and ‘leaky gut syndrome’ to name just a few.

Detox

In order to achieve a healthy gut and bring everything to balance a good place to start is to do a gentle detox.

Now, I am not talking here about starvation for days on end, liquid diets, juicing etc.

I am talking about bringing your gut to optimal health through elimination of certain foods from your diet, foods that cause discomfort, bloating, and irritation etc.

Rotation of foods on daily basis in order to avoid eating the same foods over and over again which may cause deficiency in production of certain enzymes responsible for breaking these foods down and ultimately inefficiency in digestion and nutrient absorption which as a result leads to all the problems we talked about in the above paragraph.

Nourish

I am talking here about nourishing your body through consumption of good quality, nutrient dense foods and organic produce that contains all the vitamins, minerals and enzymes necessary to ensure healthy digestion and nutrient absorption. A combination of best quality meats, fish and poultry to satisfy your body's needs for protein, ideally organically sourced fruit and vegetables for best content of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber and good quality fats from sources like oily fish for Omega 3's, also cocnut oil, butter from grass fed cows, nuts etc.

Supplement

Supplementation with digestive enzymes and probiotics is also very important and a great way to ensure healthy gut flora. The process of cooking may negatively impact our digestion and strip the foods of of its enzymes. 

Probiotics are good live bacteria that naturally occur in the gastrointestinal tract. Supplementing with them will not only help us keep our gut healthy but will also help us with fat loss. 

Healthy gut equals no additional stress from food and no problems with digestion which means right levels of neurotransmitters produced in the gut that leads us to better brain function, better mental, physical and emotional state which as a result lowers the level of cortisol (stress hormone) production and in the end no fat storage.

If you experience any of the symptoms mentioned above it is probably time to ‘listen to your gut’ and take care of it as healthy gut is the foundation of good health and first step to an amazing physique.

Don't fear butter!

People commonly associate butter with obesity, high cholesterol and all sorts of other problems and diseases but they couldn’t be further from the truth.

Good quality, organic raw butter from grass fed cows has a lot of health benefits including:

• Improved gut health and function – butyric acid contained in butter feeds good bacteria in the gut, helps maintain a healthy intestinal lining, lowers the risk of colon cancer and is known to relieve symptoms of inflammatory bowel syndrome.

• Strong anti-fungal properties due to its content of palmitoleic acid that also protects us from infections.

• Improves adrenal and thyroid health and function due to high bioavailable form of vitamin A content that is easily absorbing by the body.

• It is a precursor for all sex hormones and has strong antioxidant effects due to cholesterol content. Cholesterol present in butter protects us from heart disease and repairs our sex hormones.

• Contains Vitamins and minerals: is rich in vitamin A, vitamin E, iodine, selenium and beta-carotenes.

• Contains CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) that has anti-inflammatory properties and anti cancer properties.

High Protein, High Fat Breakfast

High Protein, High Fat Breakfast

The best way to start your day is to eat breakfast first thing in the morning. A lot of people tend to skip breakfast which elevates cortisol the stress hormone and slows down metabolism which results in fat storing process.  Others tend to eat something quick and easy and at the same time in most cases something they shouldn'tbe eating in the morning – carbs. Most people start their day with sandwiches, cereals and other processed grains.

Eat high protein, high fat and low carb breakfast for optimal body composition and better brain function. Good animal source of protein like organic meat, fish and eggs, are also fantastic sources of good fats that are very important for brain function. Good fat will also keep the level of appetite hormones very low and will give you sustained energy.

If fat loss is the aim, we need to preserve as much muscle as we can, as it is crucial for the metabolism. The less muscle mass we carry, the fewer calories we burn. Most weight loss programs aren’t concerned with how the weight is lost, so calories are often cut too low, which results in loss of lean muscle tissue. The metabolism slows down, and then when an individual returns to normal eating, the lost weight quickly returns – and usually the person will end up heavier than they started.

I recommend that all my clients aim to consume some form of solid animal protein at each meal, to help keep blood-sugar levels stable and avoiding those energy crashes. The body has to work harder (burn more calories) to digest and utilize protein than it does carbs or fat. Protein also keeps us feeling fuller for longer, and studies have shown that those people who increase their protein intake tend to eat fewer calories throughout the day.

Protein is also a primary source of amino acids, the building blocks for healthy hair, muscle, nails, etc. – so don’t skimp.

Low glycaemic fruit and vegetables are great source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. They keep your blood sugar levels steady throughout the day and prevent insulin spikes, energy crashes and sugar cravings. Mix them up with your proteins and you are on the 'highway to health’.

*Remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day; it’s the foundation. The better the breakfast the more productive your day will be.

*Nuts are great for stabilizing your blood sugar levels for a long time and fantastic source of magnesium, an essential mineral required for maintaining normal muscle and nerve function, keeping a healthy immune system, maintaining heart rhythm, and building strong bones.