Get Some More ZZZZZZZssss

Want to get fit for 2016? A lack of THIS could be making YOU overweight

LACK of sleep could be what stands between you and a flat stomach this year, according to new research.

By FELICITY THISTLETHWAITE

PUBLISHED: 09:35, Fri, Jan 1, 2016 | UPDATED: 09:55, Fri, Jan 1, 2016

 

A lack of sleep could be making you fat, according to a new study

One in three Brits suffer from poor sleep and that may be affecting you in more ways than you realise. 

New research identifying impacts on appetite, emotional processing, and even reducing hand eye co ordination, has been revealed. 

According to the NHS, research has found those sleeping for fewer than seven hours a day are 30 per cent more likely to be obese, which is potentially linked to disruptions to the hormones controlling hunger and fullness.

Another study discovered people with 'fragmented sleep' had higher after-dinner desires, shifted insulin concentrations and lowered fullness scores. 

It's believed the less you sleep, the less you exercise and the MORE you eat

 

And studies of adults at risk of type 2 diabetes found sleep restriction reduces the amount - and intensity - of any exercise completed. 

When the sleep of participants was reduced, it was found they did less exercise and were generally more 'sedentary' than usual. 

This suggests poor sleep could lead to increased food intake and snacking. 

Research also found disturbed sleep impacts on cognitive function - impairments to memory, attention and alertness were all affected. 

Top tips for sleep

If you’re struggling with poor sleep, why not try some lifestyle changes - you might find a good night’s sleep a lot less elusive.

• Having a consistent sleep routine is important for good ‘sleep hygiene’. Aim to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning- even at the weekend. It might seem like you need a lie in to make up for the sleep you have missed, but to break a cycle of sleeping problems you need to train your body into a good sleeping pattern. Introducing a relaxation or ‘wind down’ hour before bed should also be helpful.
  
• Valerian root extract has been used for centuries as a trusted sleep aid due to its natural sedative effect. This soothing ingredient can be found in Kalms Night tablets (www.kalmsrange.co.uk), to relieve sleeplessness. Drift off to sleep peacefully and wake up ready to face the day.

• Replace caffeine and alcohol with hot milky drinks. Alcohol won’t help you sleep properly and can reduce the quality of sleep. Caffeine is a stimulant and best avoided if you are struggling with poor sleep, as it can be present in the system for four to five hours before wearing off. If you are having trouble cutting out caffeine, try to gradually reduce your intake and avoid drinking it during the afternoon and evening.
  
• Time vigorous exercise for the morning. High intensity exercise at night can make you more awake and mean you find it harder to get to sleep, however a relaxing activity such as yoga in the evening may be helpful for sleep. Maintaining an active lifestyle and regular exercise earlier in the day should help sleep quality overall.
  
• Make your bedroom a shrine to sleep. Ensure you have a comfortable bed and pillows and aren’t disturbed by excess noise or light.  Also avoid using smart phones and tablets or watching TV before bedtime as the light they emit can be disruptive for sleep. If your bedroom is too hot or cold, this may also affect you drifting off or disturb your sleep during the night.

If you try to address your sleeping problems but your symptoms persist beyond 3-4 weeks, you should consult a doctor to check whether there may be an underlying cause for your sleep problems.

 

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/630648/Lack-of-sleep-eat-more-fat-how-to-get-thin-diet

 

 

 

From mindful metabolism to cutting calories: 10 ways to get your diet back on track

WITH carb-loaded comfort food tempting us to scupper healthy-eating intentions, here’s how to keep your waistline in check…

By MARINA GASK

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Oct 25, 2015

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Those who spend 45 minutes or more in the kitchen per day have lower body mass indexes

1. Match your DNA

Researchers at The University of Sheffield found that a one-size-fits-all approach to diet doesn’t work and weight-loss strategies need to be more tailored. A massive 60 per cent of variance in body weight is due to genetic factors, so make your diet work with your genetic make-up. 

SOLUTION: DNAFit is a programme that provides bespoke advice to improve your fitness, weight and health by analysing your genes. 

A saliva test provides the information to develop your personalised diet and exercise programme. The DNAFit test and consultation costs from £99 at dnafit.com.

2. Sleep well

A study by Weill Cornell Medical College in the US discovered just 30 minutes less sleep per night than normal can cause weight gain. The more sleep-deprived you are, the less regulated your hormones. You release too much cortisol, which increases your appetite and not enough leptin, which controls fat stores. 

SOLUTION: “Set an alarm for 9.30pm to remind you to switch all technology off to guarantee a good night’s sleep,” says nutritional adviser and personal fitness trainer Rachel McGuinness (zestlifestyle.com). “A tech amnesty is essential as the blue light emitted by computer screens increases serotonin secretion, fighting the body’s sleep hormone, melatonin.”

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Sleep well: 30 minutes less sleep per night than normal can cause weight gain

3. On the move

Never mind spin classes – just moving more will have a huge impact on your ability to lose weight. Long periods of gentle exercise – such as daily dog walks – are better at fat burning than high-intensity cardio gym sessions. Low-intensity exercise improves insulin sensitivity and blood lipid levels, which are both indicators of diabetes and obesity. 

SOLUTION: Keep on the go and the energy burnt will soon clock up: 150 minutes of brisk walking a week is a good rule of thumb. Or get a Fitbit and aim to do 10,000 steps a day. 

4. Cut calories

Most of us eat far too many calories, which is why nearly two thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese. Eating out is almost as bad as takeaways when it comes to calories, due to added cream and butter, plus alcohol that weakens our resolve while piling on more calories. 

SOLUTION: Use the NHS-approved app Cook & Count, which measures exactly how many calories there are in your cooking, and also gives you the nutritional content of fat, carbohydrate and protein. 

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Long periods of gentle exercise – such as daily dog walks – are great at fat burning

5. Mindful metabolism

Ever felt that those extra few inches won’t shift? This could be something to do with your metabolism. Understanding how it works could hold the key to transforming your shape for the long term. 

SOLUTION: Get your metabolism analysed. The results of a Hypoxi analysis (hypoxi.net) explain how high your consumption of calories is, how well your body uses its fat reserves, how many calories a day you really need and what type of foods are recommended for you. 

6. Know your sugar

With Jamie Oliver declaring sugar is almost as bad for you as alcohol and tobacco, the average Brit consumes 238 teaspoons of it each week. 

Yet glucose is the chemical in the bloodstream that carries energy to the brain, muscles and other organs and systems. Acts of self-control – like eating sensibly – reduce blood glucose levels. 

SOLUTION: Low levels of glucose predict poor performance on self-control tasks and tests. Replenishing glucose at low willpower points in the day (such as mid-afternoon) with a small glass of lemonade improves self-control performance – meaning you can resist treats.

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When you get the urge to snack, do something with your hands like trying an adult colouring book

7. Enjoy the kitchen

Research has found those who spend 45 minutes or more in the kitchen per day have lower body mass indexes (BMIs) than those who only spend less time preparing meals – 39 per cent of those who had a healthy BMI (of 18.5-24.9) on average spent 45 minutes or more preparing meals per day.

SOLUTION: Not having the right ingredients for rustling up a healthy meal is the key, so stock up the freezer and you’ll have no excuse. Have a ready supply of frozen veg, herbs, root ginger and chillis, plus cook-from-frozen fish and mince, as well as frozen fruit for healthysorbets.

8. Beat boredom

A recent Weight Watchers survey found the biggest reason for snacking is boredom and the average Brit spends 34 days a year thinking about food. 

SOLUTION: “When you get the urge to snack, do something with your hands like trying an adult colouring book or playing a brain-training game on your phone,” says Rachel McGuinness. “If you normally have a snack at a certain time, go for a walk or do an activityinstead, so you break the snacking-when-bored cycle.”

9. False friends

We’re meant to eat at least five servings of fruit and veg a day for optimum health. But a recent study by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston found starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will make you gain weight.

SOLUTION: Vegetables that contain lots of fibre and are low in carbohydrates such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts lead to greater weight loss, probably because they make you feel full. If you want to lose weight, eat more berries, pears, apples, tofu, soy, cauliflower and green, leafy vegetables.

10. Don’t give up

We’re only human and even the most disciplined of us falls off the diet wagon now and again with the odd comfort-eating binge.

SOLUTION: Don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day – we all deserve the odd treat. Just resolve to get back on track for the rest of the week. Think of it as “calories in, calories out” and plan a way to exercise it off. 

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/613627/10-ways-to-get-your-diet-back-on-track

Emotional Eating

How to Recognize and Stop Emotional Eating

We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort, stress relief, or as a reward. Unfortunately, emotional eating doesn’t fix emotional problems. It usually makes you feel worse. Afterward, not only does the original emotional issue remain, but you also feel guilty for overeating. Learning to recognize your emotional eating triggers is the first step to breaking free from food cravings and compulsive overeating, and changing the habits that have sabotaged your diets in the past.

Understanding emotional eating

If you’ve ever made room for dessert even though you’re already full or dove into a pint of ice cream when you’re feeling down, you’ve experienced emotional eating. Emotional eating is using food to make yourself feel better—eating to fill emotional needs, rather than to fill your stomach.
Using food from time to time as a pick me up, a reward, or to celebrate isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But when eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism—when your first impulse is to open the refrigerator whenever you’re upset, angry, lonely, stressed, exhausted, or bored—you get stuck in an unhealthy cycle where the real feeling or problem is never addressed.
Emotional hunger can’t be filled with food. Eating may feel good in the moment, but the feelings that triggered the eating are still there. And you often feel worse than you did before because of the unnecessary calories you consumed. You beat yourself for messing up and not having more willpower. Compounding the problem, you stop learning healthier ways to deal with your emotions, you have a harder and harder time controlling your weight, and you feel increasingly powerless over both food and your feelings.

Are you an emotional eater?

• Do you eat more when you’re feeling stressed?
• Do you eat when you’re not hungry or when you’re full?
• Do you eat to feel better (to calm and soothe yourself when you’re sad, mad, bored, anxious, etc.)?
• Do you reward yourself with food?
• Do you regularly eat until you’ve stuffed yourself?
• Does food make you feel safe? Do you feel like food is a friend?
• Do you feel powerless or out of control around food?

The difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger

Before you can break free from the cycle of emotional eating, you first need to learn how to distinguish between emotional and physical hunger. This can be trickier than it sounds, especially if you regularly use food to deal with your feelings.
Emotional hunger can be powerful. As a result, it’s easy to mistake it for physical hunger. But there are clues you can look for that can help you tell physical and emotional hunger apart.

• Emotional hunger comes on suddenly. It hits you in an instant and feels overwhelming and urgent. Physical hunger, on the other hand, comes on more gradually. The urge to eat doesn’t feel as dire or demand instant satisfaction (unless you haven’t eaten for a very long time).
• Emotional hunger craves specific comfort foods. When you’re physically hungry, almost anything sounds good—including healthy stuff like vegetables. But emotional hunger craves fatty foods or sugary snacks that provide an instant rush. You feel like youneed cheesecake or pizza, and nothing else will do.
• Emotional hunger often leads to mindless eating. Before you know it, you’ve eaten a whole bag of chips or an entire pint of ice cream without really paying attention or fully enjoying it. When you’re eating in response to physical hunger, you’re typically more aware of what you’re doing.
• Emotional hunger isn’t satisfied once you’re full. You keep wanting more and more, often eating until you’re uncomfortably stuffed. Physical hunger, on the other hand, doesn't need to be stuffed. You feel satisfied when your stomach is full.
• Emotional hunger isn’t located in the stomach. Rather than a growling belly or a pang in your stomach, you feel your hunger as a craving you can’t get out of your head. You’re focused on specific textures, tastes, and smells.
• Emotional hunger often leads to regret, guilt, or shame. When you eat to satisfy physical hunger, you’re unlikely to feel guilty or ashamed because you’re simply giving your body what it needs. If you feel guilty after you eat, it's likely because you know deep down that you’re not eating for nutritional reasons.

Emotional hunger vs. Physical hunger
Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.	Physical hunger comes on gradually.
Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly.	Physical hunger can wait.
Emotional hunger craves specific comfort foods.	Physical hunger is open to options–lots of things sound good.
Emotional hunger isn't satisfied with a full stomach.	Physical hunger stops when you're full.
Emotional eating triggers feelings of guilt, powerlessness, and shame.	Eating to satisfy physical hunger doesn't make you feel bad about yourself.

Stop emotional eating tip 1: Identify your triggers

People eat for many different reasons. The first step in putting a stop to emotional eating is identifying your personal triggers. What situations, places, or feelings make you reach for the comfort of food?
Keep in mind that while most emotional eating is linked to unpleasant feelings, it can also be triggered by positive emotions, such as rewarding yourself for achieving a goal or celebrating a holiday or happy event.

Common causes of emotional eating

• Stress – Ever notice how stress makes you hungry? It’s not just in your mind. When stress is chronic, as it so often is in our chaotic, fast-paced world, it leads to high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol triggers cravings for salty, sweet, and high-fat foods—foods that give you a burst of energy and pleasure. The more uncontrolled stress in your life, the more likely you are to turn to food for emotional relief.
• Stuffing emotions – Eating can be a way to temporarily silence or “stuff down” uncomfortable emotions, including anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, resentment, and shame. While you’re numbing yourself with food, you can avoid the emotions you’d rather not feel.
• Boredom or feelings of emptiness – Do you ever eat simply to give yourself something to do, to relieve boredom, or as a way to fill a void in your life? You feel unfulfilled and empty, and food is a way to occupy your mouth and your time. In the moment, it fills you up and distracts you from underlying feelings of purposelessness and dissatisfaction with your life.
• Childhood habits – Think back to your childhood memories of food. Did your parents reward good behavior with ice cream, take you out for pizza when you got a good report card, or serve you sweets when you were feeling sad? These emotionally-based childhood eating habits often carry over into adulthood. Or perhaps some of your eating is driven by nostalgia—for cherishes memories of grilling burgers in the backyard with your dad, baking and eating cookies with your mom, or gathering around the table with your extended family for a home-cooked pasta dinner.
• Social influences – Getting together with other people for a meal is a great way to relieve stress, but it can also lead to overeating. It’s easy to overindulge simply because the food is there or because everyone else is eating. You may also overeat in social situations out of nervousness. Or perhaps your family or circle of friends encourages you to overeat, and it’s easier to go along with the group.

Keep an emotional eating diary

You probably recognized yourself in at least a few of the previous descriptions. But even so, you’ll want to get even more specific. One of the best ways to identify the patterns behind your emotional eating is to keep track with a food and mood diary.
Every time you overeat or feel compelled to reach for your version of comfort food Kryptonite, take a moment to figure out what triggered the urge. If you backtrack, you’ll usually find an upsetting event that kicked of the emotional eating cycle. Write it all down in your food and mood diary: what you ate (or wanted to eat), what happened to upset you, how you felt before you ate, what you felt as you were eating, and how you felt afterward.
Over time, you’ll see a pattern emerge. Maybe you always end up gorging yourself after spending time with a critical friend. Or perhaps you stress eat whenever you’re on a deadline or when you attend family functions. Once you identify your emotional eating triggers, the next step is identifying healthier ways to feed your feelings.

Stop emotional eating tip 2: Find other ways to feed your feelings

If you don’t know how to manage your emotions in a way that doesn’t involve food, you won’t be able to control your eating habits for very long. Diets so often fail because they offer logical nutritional advice, as if the only thing keeping you from eating right is knowledge. But that kind of advice only works if you have conscious control over your eating habits. It doesn’t work when emotions hijack the process, demanding an immediate payoff with food.
In order to stop emotional eating, you have to find other ways to fulfill yourself emotionally. It’s not enough to understand the cycle of emotional eating or even to understand your triggers, although that’s a huge first step. You need alternatives to food that you can turn to for emotional fulfillment.

Alternatives to emotional eating

• If you’re depressed or lonely, call someone who always makes you feel better, play with your dog or cat, or look at a favorite photo or cherished memento.
• If you’re anxious, expend your nervous energy by dancing to your favorite song, squeezing a stress ball, or taking a brisk walk.
• If you’re exhausted, treat yourself with a hot cup of tea, take a bath, light some scented candles, or wrap yourself in a warm blanket.
• If you’re bored, read a good book, watch a comedy show, explore the outdoors, or turn to an activity you enjoy (woodworking, playing the guitar, shooting hoops, scrapbooking, etc.).

Stop emotional eating tip 3: Pause when cravings hit

Most emotional eaters feel powerless over their food cravings. When the urge to eat hits, it’s all you can think about. You feel an almost unbearable tension that demands to be fed, right now! Because you’ve tried to resist in the past and failed, you believe that your willpower just isn’t up to snuff. But the truth is that you have more power over your cravings than you think.

Take 5 before you give in to a craving

As mentioned earlier, emotional eating tends to be automatic and virtually mindless. Before you even realize what you’re doing, you’ve reached for a tub of ice cream and polished off half of it. But if you can take a moment to pause and reflect when you’re hit with a craving, you give yourself the opportunity to make a different decision.
All you have to do is put off eating for five minutes, or if five minutes seems unmanageable, start with one minute. Don’t tell yourself you can’t give in to the craving; remember, the forbidden is extremely tempting. Just tell yourself to wait. While you’re waiting, check in with yourself. How are you feeling? What’s going on emotionally? Even if you end up eating, you’ll have a better understanding of why you did it. This can help you set yourself up for a different response next time.

Learn to accept your feelings—even the bad ones

While it may seem that the core problem is that you’re powerless over food, emotional eating actually stems from feeling powerless over your emotions. You don’t feel capable of dealing with your feelings head on, so you avoid them with food.
Allowing yourself to feel uncomfortable emotions can be scary. You may fear that, like Pandora’s box, once you open the door you won’t be able to shut it. But the truth is that when we don’t obsess over or suppress our emotions, even the most painful and difficult feelings subside relatively quickly and lose their power to control our attention. To do this you need to become mindful and learn how to stay connected to your moment-to-moment emotional experience. This can enable you to rein in stress and repair emotional problems that often trigger emotional eating.
What’s more, your life will be richer when you open yourself up emotionally. Our feelings are a window into our interior world. They help us understand and discover our deepest desires and fears, our current frustrations, and the things that will make us happy.

Stop emotional eating tip 4: Support yourself with healthy lifestyle habits

When you’re physically strong, relaxed, and well rested, you’re better able to handle the curveballs that life inevitably throws your way. But when you’re already exhausted and overwhelmed, any little hiccup has the potential to send you off the rails and straight toward the refrigerator. Exercise, sleep, and other healthy lifestyle habits will help you get through difficult times without emotional eating.

• Make daily exercise a priority. Physical activity does wonders for your mood and your energy levels, and it’s also a powerful stress reducer.
• Make time for relaxation. Give yourself permission to take at least 30 minutes every day to relax, decompress, and unwind. This is your time to take a break from your responsibilities and recharge your batteries.
• Connect with others. Don’t underestimate the importance of close relationships and social activities. Spending time with positive people who enhance your life will help protect you from the negative effects of stress.

How sleep affects cravings and weight gain

Ever noticed how when you're short on sleep you crave foods that give you a quick energy boost? There's a good reason for that. Lack of sleep has a direct link to stress, overeating, and weight gain.
There are two hormones in your body that regulate normal feelings of hunger and fullness. Ghrelin stimulates appetite, while leptin sends signals to the brain when you are full. However, when don't get the sleep you need, your ghrelin levels go up, stimulating your appetite so you want more food than normal, and your leptin levels go down, meaning you don't feel satisfied and want to keep eating. So, the more sleep you skip, the more food your body will crave.
As well as making it harder to fight food cravings, feeling tired can also increase your stress levels, leading to yet more emotional eating.
To control your appetite and reduce food cravings, try to get plenty of rest—about eight hours of quality sleep every night.

More help for emotional eating

Diet and Weight Loss Help Center: By developing healthy lifestyle habits and relieving emotional problems without the use of food, you can achieve weight loss success.

Emotional eating help

• Healthy Weight Loss & Dieting: How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off
• Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress
• Easy Ways to Start Exercising: Making Exercise a Fun Part of Your Everyday Life
• Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief: Finding the Relaxation Exercises That Work for You
• How to Sleep Better: Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
• Stress Relief in the Moment: Using Your Senses to Quickly Change Your Response to Stress

Resources and references

The 20 Signs of an Emotional Eater – A quiz from emotional eating specialist Robert Gould, M.D., that will help you see if you’re an emotional eater. (Shrink Yourself)

Weight Loss: Gain Control of Emotional Eating – Find out how emotional eating can sabotage your weight-loss efforts and get tips to regain control of your eating habits. (Mayo Clinic)
Emotional Eating – Covers emotional eating, the difference between physical and emotional hunger, and ways to break the cycle of emotional eating. (The Nemours Foundation)
Do Food Cravings Reflect Your Feelings? – According to weight-loss specialist Linda Spangle, people's food choices tend to correlate to the type of emotions they're experiencing. Learn how to identify those feelings and find alternative solutions to eating. (WebMD)
Study Offers Clues to Emotional Eating – Learn about a 2011 study that demonstrates how sugar and fat feed our emotions on a physiological level. (CNN Health)