The magic of sleep

Everybody loves good sleep, but they often don’t get proper sleep. Babies and teens sleep well but when we get to adulthood, we begin to purposely avoid it. We may want to sleep at night but we don’t sleep very well. We don’t do the right things when it comes to sleeping.

Sleep the actual magic happens. That’s the time our body goes through the process of repairing. Sleeping is the time when our body repairs itself. Sleep is also when your brain stores memory. In fact, while we're asleep, the brain repairs itself. So, if you are not getting proper sleep, you're short changing your brain and body. We have stress hormones that develop during the day when we work but when we sleep, they get washed away. So, if we are not getting proper sleep, then we are not fixing our stress problems.

Most of our hormones are set on a circadian rhythm and sleep is a big part of driving release and removal of them.  Breaking your sleep cycle will affect your hormone cycles, which is quite damaging to your body and brain.t’s not about how much sleep you get because the ideal number of necessary sleep varies from person to person. So, quality of sleep is

The amount of sleep someone needs varies from person to person. The quality of sleep is more significant than quantity. The environment needs to be the ideal one when we sleep. Avoid non-natural lights in your room when you sleep. Trying to avoid blue light is a good idea. And your room needs to be noise-free as well so that you don’t get up until your sleep is naturally completed. Taking alcohol or any kind of medication is a big “No” before sleeping. They can hamper your normal sleep cycle.

The environment needs to be the ideal when we sleep. Here are a few tips for better sleep:

Artificial lights

Avoid artificial lights in your at night and in your room when you sleep. Artificial lights are typically in the blue spectrum, which breaks the circadian rhythm, telling the brain it is daytime.

Noise-neutral

Your room needs to be noise-neutral.  Allan uses a fan to make his bedroom noise-neutral, but you may prefer full quiet.

Alcohol/sleeping meds

You may be unconscious with alcohol or sleeping pills, but unfortunately you're not going through the full sleep cycles.  As a result, you're not getting good rest and your hormone cycles will be disrupted.

Sleep smarter | Shawn Stevenson

How is sleep affecting my weight loss?

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Todd loses over 300lbs

Todd is a 46-year-old married, father of two from Illinois. He also has an inspiring story to share. Now in the fifth year of his weight loss journey, Todd was able to lose over 300 pounds.

Todd’s wake up call began in September 2011 when he found himself in the hospital. At that time, he weighed in at 589 pounds. The doctors told him if he didn’t do something about his health, he’d only have about five years to live. He looked at his daughters from his hospital bed and thought about how he would not be around for them. He knew he needed to make a change.

But it would be difficult for Todd. Because of his physical limitations, he was unable to exercise. After doing some research and finding that at least 80% of weight loss was due to adopting an appropriate diet, he knew what he needed to do. He adjusted his diet and was able to lose 323 pounds.

Todd had a few tips for those who want to make a change:

Don't give up

There will be good and bad days. Some may even start questioning themselves. Is all of this worth it? Know that it is worth it. The good days will last longer than the bad days.

Lower your carbs

Cut back on your carb intake. Eat 4 to 5 smaller meals with snacks. Eat lean proteins, raw vegetables, and drink plenty of water. This will also help with getting your body into ketosis faster.

Todd has had an amazing journey in losing over 300 pounds. Want to connect with Todd directly? You can find him on My Fitness Pal as stogie40 or via his profile on www.realbodiesrealresults.com. Be sure to comment on transformation page. Don’t forget to check out the six-month program at which will give you access to a registered dietician, food plans, recipes, and much more.

Patterns of success in weight loss

Music used for the podcast Intro and Outro: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Obesity and exercise

In this science episode, we explore studies on exercise and obesity. Does exercise help reduce obesity? Some interesting studies seek to answer that question.

A 2003 article of Journal of the American Medical Association by Drs. Frank Hu and colleagues examined the relationship between women’s BMI and their physical activity. An important term here is “Body-Mass Index”, briefly BMI which measures the relationship between a person’s weight and height. The ideal BMI for a person is between 18 and 25. So, anyone with over 25 BMI is considered overweight and below 18 considered underweight. The study took 6 years to examine 50277 women aged between 46 and 71. What the study found was really very interesting. Individuals two were sitting two additional hours a day had 23% more obesity. So, less daily movement is one of the major reasons for increase in obesity. So, someone who watches TV for two hours is more prone to obesity than another person who chooses to walk around and constantly on the move. The study report says two hours of daily walking or around the house saw obesity decrease by 9 percent and one hour of brisk walking saw 24 percent obesity decrease.

Another study also in 2003 published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Drs. Koh-Banerjee and colleagues examined 16,587 men aged 40 to 75 years who they described as healthy. The study took nice long years to complete and it was about weight and waist size. The study found that just 4 hours of weekly increase of physical activity resulted in a reduction of their waist circumference by about 1.9 millimeters. On the other hand, the men who increase their TV watching by 20 hours a week had waist size increase of about 3.0 millimeters. One of the key finding of the study was the group that exercised daily had way to less obesity than the group that did not.There are many more studies that indicate the level of activity is an important factor that determine your fitness and obesity. Consider how your activity level can be affecting your weight loss or weight gain. Obesity is at an epidemic level and it is time to change that. The change starts with you.

There are many more studies that indicate the level of activity is an important factor that determine your fitness and obesity. Consider how your activity level can be affecting your weight loss or weight gain. Obesity is at an epidemic level and it is time to change that. The change starts with you.

Weight training for fat loss

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Finding mindfulness with Bruce Langford

In today’s podcast, we meet Bruce Langford of Mindfulness Mode to discuss how mindfulness can help you on your health and fitness journey.

Bruce Langford was an entrepreneur for his all adult life until he quitted his job to begin committed to bullying prevention. Thanks to that, he became a Mindfulness coach. He truly believes involving fitness activities into his antibullying program to be really effective.

He also hosts the Mindfulness Mode Podcast, where he shares the ideas of Mindfulness with the world.

Nowadays, it is not just all about prayers and religious stuff, because science has proven mindfulness to be really effective and able to changing our brain in order to let us be calmer, focused and relaxed.

Practicing Mindfulness has lots of benefits, first of all, it helps you releasing stress (that is a hormonal process, where a big quantity of cortisol are produced by our body) and sleeping better, and just these things are already a huge step forward for people. This leads people to be more focused and driven to their commitments.

The first advice Bruce gives is to be active, to get out in the world experiencing something that feels good, something that we really enjoy doing, like a good walk in nature, and that is where Mindfulness comes along, just being aware and conscious of the presence of nature itself, with its smells and sounds.

The important thing is to do this on a regular basis and routine, trying to give our mind a break (from social media, screens and caffeine too) and a quiet time, at least for 10-15 minutes per day.

As one final bit of advice, Bruce believes you should create a night ritual in order to ease the stress and sleep better.

Learn more about Bruce Langford at Mindfulness Mode.

https://40plusfitnesspodcast.com/sacred-baths-health/

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Habits and failure

A commitment to creating a fitness lifestyle is all about establishing habits and lessening the chances of failure. To be successful, a person’s “why” has to be at least partially for him or herself. This is critical to establishing a new self-relationship.

Consider Sandy, who has been featured on previous episodes. Sandy was establishing healthy habits and taking action. She was eating better, staying active, and drinking more water. All of this was allowing her to play with her grandchildren just the way she had imagined when she set out on her fitness journey.

In this call with Sandy, she considered next steps in her journey. She needed to develop her goals for the short-run. What did she want to accomplish in the next six months? These goals were to be measurable and attainable, and she seemed ready to get started.

She also recognized that she needed to drink more water. Sandy had a history of joint issues. Though her increased water intake was helping, but even more would be needed to get her to full hydration. This would allow her to avoid additional pain and problems in her knees. These added fluids would also help to flush toxins out of her system both quickly and efficiently.

Overall, Sandy was making progress. She was losing weight and getting stronger. She had increased endurance and was even getting compliments on her physical changes. However, unexpectedly and unexplainably, she dropped out of the program at Week 7.

Emotional roadblocks can be a tough obstacle to overcome. They have the power to derail previously established habits and threaten failure. This is so very important and will be discussed on the next episode.

Working with a personal trainer

Emotional roadblocks in health and fitness | Ellen Shuman

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3 keys to successful weight loss

In this episode, we cover the three keys to successful weight loss – patience, persistence, and progression.

Patience

You need to understand that nothing significant can be achieved overnight. So, you shouldn’t expect to lose 20/30/40 pounds in a week or a month. You'll have to have patience.
When you want to lose weight, you need to be practical and set an achievable goal, for example, 1 – 2 pounds in the first week. It’s also important for you to set small, specific milestones like 5 – 10 pounds in next month Most people find they lose weight rather quickly at first and then level out.  This is the body's normal state.  Persistence will keep you on track.  Just keep working and it will happen.

Persistence

The whole weight-loss thing is something that happens gradually. You can’t expect to achieve your milestone when you don’t do anything about it.  As we learned in episode 9, you can use weight training as a part of your weight loss program.  Starting small and progressing by slowly adding resistance will

Progression

At any stage of the process, you can’t afford to quit. It’s never going to be easy to get what you want. So, you need to be very persistent. Just after you make the commitment, you need to stick to your commitment and keep doing all that makes your goal achievement easier and a step forward.

Use these three keys, stick to your commitment, keep moving forward, and focus on the end goal. You can do this.

Todd loses over 300lbs

Music used for the podcast Intro and Outro: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Patterns of success in weight loss

Terry has a passion for fitness and helping others succeed in weight loss. As the founder of Real Bodies Real Results, he started his career in fitness years ago. He began offering fitness coaching and tips to friends and family, who later asked for his help in losing weight. After working with clients in this area, he knew these success stories would be valuable to those starting on this path.

Enter Real Bodies Real Results, a website with a mission to tell weight loss success stories in a deeper, fuller way to inspire others and share tips to be used by those undergoing their own journey.

A few of these tips include:

It's a lifestyle

Fitness and weight loss is a journey. Hard work is key. Only make the changes you intend to live with the rest of your life. Think of this as the new way you’re going to live your life, not just a diet. Fad diets, pills, and wraps are not sustainable.

Eat less move more

There is no one size fits all solution. You may need to reduce portion size or possibly eliminate some foods entirely. You need to do what’s right for you.

Motivation comes from within

Nobody will do it for you. Desire may be motivated by others, but ultimately it must come from within. You must love yourself enough to make the commitment.

Weight loss is not linear

Don’t let it discourage you. Consider this quote from Brandon on the Real Bodies Real Results website, “Will it be hard? Maybe. Will you be discouraged? Perhaps. Will you slip up at times? Most likely. Will it be worth it? Most definitely.”

The truth is, weight loss is a mental game. The main reasons that people decide to lose weight all have emotional ties. It is this emotion that gives people the motivation to continue or stop.

Remember, success in weight loss is a slow process. Keep at it and you will see success. For more information, check out the website at http://www.realbodiesrealresults.com/ or email realbodiesrealresults@gmail.com.

https://40plusfitnesspodcast.com/secret-successful-fat-loss-fitness/

Music used for the podcast Intro and Outro: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music