Sleep More, Weigh Less?

Graphic courtesy of Stanford News Service

There are numerous studies on the effects of sleep, or lack thereof on hormone balance and the effects on metabolism. Generally, people who get 7-8 hours of sleep a night have faster metabolisms because all their hormones are in balance. Get less than 7 hours and your chances of increasing your BMI [body mass index] go up proportionately. And it works both ways – get more than 10 hours sleep, and that will also throw your system off. I read once that getting a full 8 hours of sleep a night can increase your metabolism by as much at 40%. That’s huge when you’re trying to control your weight. There’s a great article on the subject from Stanford University – you can check it out here: Stanford Report on Obesity linked to hormonal changes, lack of sleep.

That being said, I get more than I used to, but most of the time it’s between 6 and 7 hours, and it’s rare that I sleep soundly through the night. I’ve realized lately that where we live [on a main road] can get too noisy when we have a window open, or even just having an air conditioner in the window, so if I use earplugs I sleep much more soundly. Luckily my husband doesn’t need them, so he has become my alarm clock, since I never hear it anymore. It’s not an issue in the fall or winter – or even spring when the nights are still very chilly and the house is a comfortably cool temperature inside. 

But, in the periods where I’ve gained noticeable weight, I was definitely getting very little sleep – 4 to 6 hours nightly due to being young and not knowing better. Ever since I was a kid I hated sleeping because my parents both worked and got home fairly late in the evenings, so we’d eat dinner [finish your plate!], watch a bit of TV and then it was bedtime. I was so starved for their attention that I grew to feel like sleeping was a waste of time or even a punishment. I think I established those feelings towards sleep by age 4… 30 years later, I’m still trying to shake them and make sleep a priority – a reward, not a punishment.

Looking At Food Triggers Hunger…

I found the little article I referenced in my last post in Scientific American Mind magazine. Here’s what it said:

“Looking at food triggers hunger, and the culprit seems to be a gut hormone called ghrelin, which encourages eating and activates reward regions in the brain. McGill University neurologists used fMRI to measure the brain’s response to food and nonfood images. People who received an injection of extra ghrelin displayed the most activity in their brain’s pleasure centers when they saw images of edible items.”

I’m actually more interested in what the response was in people who were not injected with ghrelin, who were shown edible images… but either way, it lends proof that the ’see-food’ diet truly does exist… eating food is pleasurable, and seeing food gets the pleasure party started in your noodle.  ;)

That being said, I thought of a little trick I’m going to try this week. I’m going to keep a fruit bowl in front of me at work and at home [I work from home two days a week] in hopes that when I get the need to nosh, I’ll reach for an apple or some grapes, and not hunt for potato chips or good & plenties. Fruit in itself is beautiful and really haven’t met a fruit I didn’t enjoy eating. Sure they have natural sugars, but they, unlike refined sugars, need to pass through the liver to be converted into glucose before being absorbed, which naturally slows the process of their sugars entering your bloodstream. Which means, no sugar spikes, no sugar crashes and uncontrollable eating as a result of said crash. And they’re sweet, delicious, full of vitamins and fibre. So… today’s task: going to the grocery store and buying 3 servings of fruit per day for the next 5 days. 

It may take some experimenting – maybe refrigerating my fruit bowl at night to prolong the fruits’ life, but I do believe that keeping them at room temperature lets them ripen naturally and promotes the most flavor – and flavor will keep me coming back for more. If that doesn’t work, then maybe multiple trips to the store each week will be necessary, but there’s always a grocery store within 5 miles of wherever I am at any given moment where I live.  =)

I just found the actual banana hanger/fruit bowl combo pictured above at StacksAndStacks.com for only $15.99.

You Eat What You See…

A comedian once joked that, “food network is like porn for fat people.” When I heard it I laughed, but then I went, ‘huh…’ because I watch a lot of food network and well, I’m not thin. But, I’m not any heavier than when we first got cable a few years ago and started watching it… But, I definitely get inspired when watching my favorite chefs prepare foods that look really tasty, and I have been known to get up and make whatever it is I saw. And it’s not always the healthiest menu.

I don’t think I could give up watching my cooking shows – my culinary expertise and creativity have increased dramatically since I started watching shows like Barefoot Contessa, Everyday Italian, Good Deal with Dave Liebermann, Tyler’s Ultimate… and now my favorites also include shows like Jamie at Home, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger and Simply Delicioso and anything with Bobby Flay… Thanks to him, I put some form of pepper or chili in almost everything I make now. 

But maybe the adage, “don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach,” applies to watching shows about food and cooking. Maybe watching them after eating something will quell the desire to prepare and EAT everything you’ve [I've] just watched on TV…? 

In any case, I will only be posting pics of healthy foods, because I do go back and read my own posts for reference, so seeing fruits and veggies, etc. is probably healthier than seeing pics of candy and desserts, etc. 

Photo courtesy of producepedia.com

Fake it ’til you make it…

I was at a family party today and saw one of my Aunts, whom I haven’t seen in a couple of months. She looked great! She’s been doing weight watchers since April, and working out regularly at the gym, doing various cardio classes. She was so excited about how great she’s feeling that she started sharing some little secrets and tips she’s learned from her ww instructor.

One that made me giggle was “fake it ’til you make it.” She was referring to exercising, but I think it applies to pretty much anything you want to do… like eating healthy.

In my case, I love healthy food, but if something not-so-healthy is in front of me and I know I have a healthier option with me [like an apple vs. a candy bar], I will almost always go for the sugar-laden, bad-for-me snack, and my healthier option will travel back and forth with me to work until I throw it out. If I used the ‘fake it ’til you make it’ method, I could just fake that I like apples better than chocolate. I can tell myself that and as long as I start to eat the apple, I’ll end up enjoying it and feeling better for it. So, I’ll give that a try…

I found out yesterday at the family party we went to that my Grandmother has Diabetes. So, it’s on both sides of my immediate family, making me very high risk. I need to stop screwing around and accept the fact that if I don’t take care of myself, my lifespan will most certainly come up short. 

So, in my immediate future, I was going to make pancakes for breakfast today… but instead of having 2 or 3 and drowning them in syrup, I think I’ll just have one and eat it with a scrambled egg or two for some protein. Rather than not having any at all and feeling deprived. 1 with eggs is way better than 3 with tons of syrup and nothing else. I can have my pancake and eat it too!

Photo courtesy of producepedia.com