Sleep is the best meditation for your mind and your body.
We now know from research that when you sleep waste is cleared from your brain, your body’s cells are reenergised, your learning and memories are supported and your libido, mood and appetite are all regulated.
When we sleep, the momentum of our thousands of daily thoughts subsides, Negative Nancy and all her negative comments shuts up for a while, allowing your mind rest…
We can’t underestimate the importance of a good nights sleep.
A night of peaceful, deep and quality sleep is a blessing that only the sleep deprived and insomniacs can truly appreciate. To have not just one, but plenty of your nights filled with rest and sleep, try adding following foods to your diet, especially if you find yourself tossing and turning in your bed at night instead of sleeping.
Let’s Take A Look At Foods to Help You Sleep…
- Chamomile:
Chamomile tea is a popular sleep-inducing tea that helps eliminate stress and anxiety. Before you go to bed, take a moment to sip a warm cup of chamomile herbal tea to relax, unwind and de-stress. Practice some deep breathing while you’re at it, to help bring you into a more rested state. A minimum of 6 breaths pulls you across for stress to rest!
- Pistachios:
Pistachios are not only tasty, but they are a jackpot for sleep. They are jam packed with magnesium, protein, and vitamin B6, which have a major role in inducing sleep. You can eat them raw, a small handful is perfect. However, if you over indulge pistachios will have a reverse effect on your body; eat in moderation to avoid exacerbating your sleep issues.
3. Tart cherry juice:
This juice contains high levels of melatonin, which is responsible for inducing sleep in your body. It can improve the quality of your sleep by regulating your body’s sleep cycles. A study conducted by Louisiana State University found that by insomniacs who drank tart cherry juice increased their sleep time by 90 minutes!
4. Bananas:
This fruit is a powerhouse of magnesium and potassium, which serve as natural sleep aids for your body. If you are feeling wide awake late into the night, try a banana to get yourself to sleep. You can even whip yourself up a thick sugar-free banana shake before you go to bed. If weight loss is on your agenda then I would rethink the banana!
5. Walnuts:
Walnuts contain an amino acid called tryptophan that helps induce and enhance sleep. This amino acid is responsible for the production of melatonin and serotonin, which improve the quality of our sleep by regulating the sleep cycles. The best part about walnuts is that they contain melatonin, so they are not only helping in the production of melatonin, but they add a little more to help you fall asleep even faster.
6. Pumpkin seeds:
A cup of pumpkin seeds contains around 420 mg of magnesium, which is around the daily recommendation . Magnesium is also a sleep-inducing agent for your body. If you cannot find any, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds or sunflower seeds are great substitutions.
The search for the elusive “good night’s sleep” can be frustrating and exhausting, particularly if your hormones are out of whack!
When your hormones are not ‘in flow’ then your sleep, your moods, your hunger turn into your own personal battle ground.
Sound familiar?
Before you reach for any man made synthetic over-the-counter sleep aid, try some of these natural remedies, yes REAL food, to get your body on the right path to sound sleep!
Sleep is a hugely important tool in your weight loss tool box. If you would like to learn more about dropping the kilos, don’t hesitate to connect with me!
Be Healthy, Happy & Amazing!
Caroline xx
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I had a follow up consult with one of my clients this week who has begun her 12 week Renew You Intensive Journey with me.
I am thrilled to report she is feeling so much better about herself and has a new found mental clarity and happily her weight is moving in the direction she wants it to go – which is south! We know this because despite my reassurance to trust how she feels in her clothes everyday as an indicator for what is happening with her body – she still jumped on the scales..often!
She explained she just had to do it and has been jumping on and off regularly for years!
I advise my clients not to be perpetual scale jumpers! What you may ask is a scale jumper?
Well scale jumpers come in all shapes and sizes. Let me describe a few of them – I suspect you just might know one of them – intimately!!
THE AM JUMPER!
…jumps on their scales every morning, usually around the same time. First they have their obligatory loo stop, and then standing naked (because my god you don’t want to have your PJ’s on – they could add an extra 346 gms!) they look expectantly, with eyes half closed down at the numbers…
THE Tentative AM JUMPER!
…does exactly the same as the AM Jumper but once they step off their scales, the Tentative AM Jumper is not quite sure if what they saw was absolutely correct, so they wait till the dial resets again at zero, then they hop on again……….mmmmmm…………note their weight, hop off again and just to be really sure what they saw is what they saw ……they hop on one last time.
THE AM/PM JUMPER
… will not only jump on the scales in the morning as per their friends above, but they are more than likely to jump on the scales one more time, either later in the day or before bed. The loo stop is again obligatory, and the purpose of this particular behaviour is to witness how their body weight has fluctuated throughout the day!
NOTE THIS IS MY WARNING:
SCALE JUMPING OF ANY OF THE ABOVE KIND CAN BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!!!
So what to do instead…?
I’ll tell you next week why measurement is important to your weight loss success…
However it is all about making sure you do it the right way. So you dont look like Angry Annie above!
Be Healthy, Happy & Amazing!
Caroline x
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You may consider me a little rude asking that question? Or feel affronted?
My intention is not to do that at all. Let me explain…
I see it all the time with my new clients. They tell me they know what they should be eating, they know they should get off their toosh/backside and move their bodies but they just can’t get their heads in the right place to make it happen.
They know what to do, so why are they not doing it?
These women are smart, intelligent women. They have successful careers, they’re on committees, they parent children fabulously, they’re a partner, a wife, a mother, a sister a friend…
BUT, they’re also looking after everyone and everything else but themselves. They put their desire to change in the too hard basket.
Sound familiar?
Change does not have to be hard, it can be easy.
If however, you continue to wait for it to happen, if you continue to wait for all your ducks to be lined up in a little row, if you continue to wait for it to be the perfect time….
If you continue to wait….
It won’t happen!
You are smart enough to change but I need to let you know that burst of motivation you might be waiting for is not coming, or if it does come, it may only be fleeting.
What I’ve discovered time and time again with my clients every time they went on yet another diet, it follows the same pattern.
They’re is a beginning where they commit to a new diet, then a period of success (though marred by feelings of restriction and deprivation), then there is the end where it all gets too hard, the results just aren’ t happening and they decide what’s the use or if they do have success which is wonderful, and they drop their unwanted kilos, it is fleeting because slowly and surely the weight creeps back on and sometimes just to add insult to injury, more kilos than what they lost!
Not fair! But guess what’?
It’s not they’re fault…
And if this story rings true with you, it’s not your fault either.
Unless you know how to change successfully, unless you have the tools you need to support you, your mind is going to keep you stuck. It’s number one job is to keep you safe, to keep you doing exactly what you always do.
So what do you to change?
Next time you feel the impulse to make a positive change in your life, like dropping those unwanted kilos/pounds, do not hesitate, take one action towards achieving it. It doesn’t matter how small that step is, you may google something, you may ring a friend, you may call a coach, you may visit your doctor, you might clean all that crappy food out of your pantry and fridge…
Then take the next step again… with out hesitation.
The moment you hesitate you lose. You’ve heard the saying you snooze you lose? When you hesitate your mind will jump in and say ‘whoa…hold on there honey, let’s not be too crazy about this…’
- It’s all to hard
- You’ve done it before and look where that got you
- You’re stuck with this body
- You’re destined to have this menopausal muffin top
- Why is this time going to be different?
And then your moment for change is gone….
You, amazing one, reading my blog right here right now, are smart enought to make the changes in your life that you want. If dropping those unwanted kilos is on your agenda, then click here to discover the simplest way how but do me and more importantly yourself a big favour…
Just don’t hesitate!
Be Healthy, Happy & Amazing
Caroline xx
p.s Discover how to drop those unwanted kilos and pounds here… we start September 3 🙂
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