Change – Pagina 10 – Crisbie Coach

Eating Well for Sleeping Better

It is well-known that what we eat influences the quality of our sleep. It is even more important to eat well in the evening, because we go to sleep afterwards. Eating out a hamburger with friends coming out from work, eating a whole tablet of chocolate in front of the television, or eating too much on coming back late from work, they are not good habits.

Why don’t we sleep well after having eaten late in the evening, or having eaten a lot or to having eaten a fat or sweet meal?
Which are the effects on health and on wellbeing if you sleep badly?
Which are the recommendations in order to sleep well and wake up completely restored?

Let’s see.

Why eating late it’s not good?
The body accumulates more fat. Recent studies have compared people eating late in the evening some food and people eating earlier the same kind of food. The former show more fat in their blood test.

This also represents a cardio-vascular risk for those people who would eat just before going to bed and after 10 p.m..
You may have some cramps or refluxes because of the lying down position in bed and therefore you may not sleep.
A bad digestion may wake you up during the night and therefore it may alter the quality of your sleep.

When you don’t sleep well, the whole body will suffer and you may become nervous, be in a bad mood and may not be able to focus well. Besides, the sleep regulates also our hormonal balance. The hunger hormone (the ghrelin) and the satiety hormone (the leptin) are produced while sleeping. If you don’t sleep well or don’t sleep enough, the two hormones are unbalanced: more ghrelin than leptin is produced. Then, you will be prone to eat more for compensating the lack of sleep or the bad sleep. You will eat more and sleep worse, in short you will find yourself in a vicious circle.
The stress hormone (cortisol) and the sleeping hormone (melatonin) are also regulated by the sleep. If they get unbalanced, the whole quality of your life will suffer.

Finally, the hemoglobin becomes rarer. This antibody protects the organism against bacteria, viruses and some toxins, therefore it is needed for a good immunity. As it is also produced during the sleep, you may become more vulnerable if you don’t sleep well. That’s why fatigue or stress can provoke illnesses.

In the long term, an irregular sleep or lack of sleep will increase the risk of depression, obesity, cardiac illnesses and diabetes. It is therefore fundamental sleeping well and also trying to pay attention to what you eat in the evening.

Try to privilege some foods rich in tryptophan and vitamin B2, because they make sleeping easier. The tryptophan, needed to produce the melatonin (the sleeping hormone) can be found in bananas, tuna, chickpeas, dates and milk. The vitamin B2, that also make sleeping easier, can be found in all dairy products (milk, yoghurt, cheese), green beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and in asparagus.

Recommendations for a healthy evening meal:

eating at least three hours before going to bed;
eating slowly, without stress;
eating up to when you start feeling full, not more;
eating with moderation foods as pasta, potatoes, cheese;
avoiding sauces, excessively salty or excessively sweet food;
avoiding alcoholic and energising drinks and other stimulants like caffeine;
it would be better to avoid smoking too;
sugar gives immediately available energy, therefore avoid also sweet drinks, sweets in general, above all if you would eat them in front of the television.

Do you feel hungry before going to bed?

Someone say that it would be better going to bed being a bit hungry, also your shape would benefit. But if you cannot really make it, then eat a light yoghurt with no sugar, some walnuts, drink some warm milk or an herbal infusion. The good old chamomile is an excellent option.

Ready for this challenge?

Keeping Your 2019 Resolutions

We are still in January and many of us have decided about their objectives for 2019, the so-called resolutions. The new year brings with itself the desire of change, the need of renewal. We would like to spend more time with the family, to take that trip that we have been dreaming about for so long, to change job, to enrol in a gym club, to lose weight, to stop smoking…the main goal is feeling better with themselves and with the others.
Why does it happen then that along the way we forget about them or we abandon them?

Here are some questions you should ask yourself.

Are your objectives too much ambitious, vague or simply they are too many? In this case you are putting too much pressure to yourself. If you have decided to stop smoking or to lose 10 kilos, you must ask yourself why you have started smoking and why you are always hungry. Are they not ways for relieving the so many daily tensions?

Are you positive in comparison to the achievement of your objectives? If you think that you will never make it, it is sure that you will never make it. Henry Ford used to say: “If you believe you can make it or if you believe you cannot make it, you will be always right”.

Is your goal appealing? You have decided to lose weight or to stop smoking. As such, they are great objectives. But find a bigger reason for which you want to achieve these objectives. For instance, you want to stop smoking for being able to recover breath faster when you go jogging or you want to lose weight to put again on those beautiful pants that suited you very well.

Bad habits are difficult to lose, above all you need time. As I said before, if you have been sticking to them for years, you have your good reasons (to protect you from stress, for example). You cannot change your habits in some weeks. Some time ago, studies told us that you can take up a new habit in 21 days. Now, neuroscience has found out that you need at least 60 days! Take you your time then, establish a new habit with calm, don’t stretch your body too far, your body is comfortably used to the old habit and it doesn’t feel like to replace it. You must make it understand, day after day, that another way is possible and it is also healthier!

Besides, remember that the path won’t be always linear and you may find obstacles. There will be some easiest moments then others but losing a battle doesn’t mean losing the war. Accept the ups and downs: your body will learn to adapt slowly.

Choose an objective that won’t sound like an obligation, in the sense that it must represent a real choice, a thing that you want to do, not that you must do. Control your thoughts, remember what Henry Ford said. Don’t focus on what you still have to achieve, but celebrate what you have already achieved. List the small victories and congratulate yourself. Stay positive!

Think about the strength that a seed has to become grass. It must come out from the soil to be able to live and flourish. It works slowly under the soil, up to when one day it comes out and sees the light! For you it is a kind of the same thing. Work slowly and one day you will see the results, because you are stronger than you think.

And now the four tips:

1. set one objective at the time, but define it well, use the SMART model (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound). Even though this model has been created for organisations, it may be helpful also to individuals engaged in goal setting.

2. Adopt the strategy of small steps by dividing your objective in some smaller objectives.

3. Celebrate achievements: the first kilo you have lost, the first whole day without smoking. Put some post-it all over your place with your success on it. Tell yourself “Well done!”.

4. Inform your family and friends about your goals and ask them to help you with this. Getting their support will help you in achieving the results. Look for some groups on Facebook that share your same goals, participate in forums on the Internet. Remember that you are not alone, there are other thousands of people that may have your same goals and exchanging ideas with them can be helpful to you. You can create yourself a blog, that can become your journal (a journal on paper is also okay).

Always remember that you are stronger than you believe!

A Guide to Budget-Friendly Self-Care Purchases for 2019

Self-care has become one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, promising a year full of health, well-being, and self-love. However, the problem with self-care as a concept is that it is extremely vague. What does promising to take care of yourself actually entail? Is it possible to invest in self-care without spending a fortune on exclusive treatments and high-tech gadgets?

Eating Better

According to INC (1), the most popular New Year’s resolution for 2019 is to eat better or diet. Now, with increasing evidence showing that dieting is both ineffective and bad for your overall health, your focus should definitely be on simply improving your diet rather than drastically restricting it.

There are a few items that can help you do that. A slow cooker is a great way to eat healthier and save money, and some models cost under $50. A juice blender is great for people who want a way to have a healthy breakfast on the go, with cheaper models costing as little as $20.

Mental Health

Self-care for mental health can mean different things for different people. If you need to reduce stress, meditation is an excellent tool with loads of free options — try an app such as Insight Timer to help get you started. Journaling is another great budget-friendly, stress-busting habit, which can give you a sense of order and control.

It is also crucial that you take care of any unresolved or undiagnosed mental health disorders you may be suffering from, so go see a medical professional if you suspect you may have depression, anxiety, seasonal affective disorder, or any other issue.

Physical Health

Don’t forget that your mental health is strongly connected to your physical well-being, so regular check-ups are in order. One area people tend to neglect is dental care. Poor dental hygiene can be both a result of and a contributing factor to depression, not to mention affecting your physical wellbeing. This guide to affordable health insurance can help you keep these costs under check.

Exercising

Exercise doesn’t have to cost you anything. For example, jogging, walking, and hiking are all great forms of exercise that can be done for free, and there are some excellent free YouTube channels for workouts from yoga to Pilates.

If you do want to invest in your fitness, go for some new exercise gear that gets you excited for your workouts. Health.com has a great guide to buying budget-friendly workout clothes without sacrificing quality. Alternatively, you could spring for that gym membership — just make sure you make it worth your money by going regularly.

Sleep

Sleep is often neglected as a health habit, especially compared to diet and exercise, but it is just as important as everything else. One of your main resolutions for the year should be to sleep better, and there are a few simple ways to achieve this.

Firstly, create a consistent sleep routine and stick to it. This means going to sleep at the same time every night to wake up energized and refreshed in the morning. This is free, and it’s possibly the most important part. However, you can enhance your sleep with small, affordable luxuries such as high-quality bedding or a soothing pillow mist spray.

Self-care is often used as an advertising tool to sell luxury and expensive wellness items. However, the truth is that true self-care is available to everyone and can actually cost very little (even nothing at all). The items you purchase for self-care should be tools to support lifestyle improvements, not the improvements themselves. The most important thing is your attitude and commitment to taking better care of your mind and body — the stuff is just there to help.

(1) editor’s note: Inc. is an American weekly magazine which publishes about small businesses and startups (Wikipedia)

6 Tips To Meditate While Walking

Walking and meditating are two powerful anti-stress remedies. Practicing them together brings enormous physical and psychological benefits. Ten minutes a day are enough and you can practice meditation walking at any time of day and anywhere. No excuses, then! Do you want to try?

The meditative walk, both outdoor in the nature and in the chaos of the city, allows us to free ourselves from everyday stress.

Walking by itself is good for your health. It allows to eliminate cardiovascular diseases and back pain, for example. Why not combining this practice with meditation? Here are 6 tips on how to do it.

Keep your back straight.
Synchronise the breath on your steps, by keeping a quiet walking pace.
Become aware of your body: focus on your feet, on your legs, on the movement, on the contact with the soil. Try to eliminate tensions and concentrate only on the steps.
Focus on the feelings this practice gives you. Are they pleasant? Does your body relax? Does your mind relax?
Then move your attention on your emotions. What do you feel? Do not judge the emotions you feel, let them go, observe them as a spectator.
Finish your practice by standing, contemplating the feeling of fullness and thanking your body and mind for the beautiful meditative walk.

Do not try not to think. Thinking is the activity of the brain, it is impossible to stop it! On the other hand, try to take advantage of the moment of relaxation you are experiencing, to become aware of your body and your emotions without this affecting your mood and without judging.

By regularly practicing the meditative walk, you will feel more and more balanced and at peace with yourself.

What Is Stress?

Stress is considered the result of the interaction between the person and its environment.

It can be considered as a state of inadequacy, of divergence between how the person perceives the situation and how the person thinks about being able to face the situation (or not being able to). The person can then feel a sense of incapability and may think that she is losing control of the situation: this is the reaction of stress.

The reaction of stress goes back to our mechanism of survival, to the stone age when men had to hunt to procure themselves food. A classical example that is done during the training courses on stress management is the following: if you find yourself alone in front of a lion, what would you do? There are three possibilities: fight, flight or freeze. These reactions allow us to react rapidly in a situation of danger. And they are still applicable today.

Nevertheless, our brain, and our body as a consequence, can react in this way also to situations that don’t represent a threat, like for instance being stuck in traffic jams, family or work difficulties.

At a somatic level the reaction to stressful situations is translated in a series of hormonal and metabolic changes, like for example the acceleration of the cardiac pulsation, increase of the arterial pressure, excessive production of sweat.

At a psychological level, stress is translated as an accentuation of the state of vigilance and emotional state (tension, feeling of discomfort) that causes a state of nervousness or an inhibition of the psycho-engine.

If the reaction of stress is short, the person succeeds in adapting. If the reaction persists hours or even days, it becomes intense or chronic, then you may have some health problems.

Recently, I watched a TED talk on how to make stress your friend. It is a very interesting and innovative approach, have a look at it and let me know what you think.

Procrastination

To procrastinate is a fashionable word nowadays. We procrastinate for invoices to be payed, for the dentist, for the rubbish to bring down…

Waiting too much can have serious consequences. Think at the climate change, for instance. Or at illnesses. If you don’t’ try to find out what you have as soon as you noticed the first symptoms, it may become too late. The doctor may say: “You would have come at the beginning, it would have been different. We would have been able to deal with it, the chances would have been better… ”

Cras in Latin means tomorrow, pro means for. Therefore, pro-cras means: it is for tomorrow.

Statistics show that in the United States about 20% of the population, post-pone the boring tasks to the next day, as if the tasks in question had then the virtue of disappearing or becoming less boring (in reality, isn’t it rather the opposite)?

A study carried out by Chinese researchers shows very interesting results: procrastinators have certain hyperactive intellectual regions, that are a part of a network of mental wandering: when it is time to take an appointment with the dentist, to pay the invoice or to bring down the rubbish, these centres make the person think at something else. And, let’s say it, to try to find out excuses on how unpleasant would be carrying out these tasks.

Besides, in procrastinators’ brain, another zone is weak. It is the zone that blocks the activity of wandering and that allows to remain focused.

People who work in advance according to a planning, in order not to be taken by surprise at the time of an examination, or of the fiscal term, they have a high activity of this area, so that the wandering zone is blocked.

When the mind gets loose from the planned purpose and begins to wander, the brain gets vulnerable in that area, which is very sensitive to all that is uncomfortable or disagreeable.

What to do?

The brain is a muscle, let’s train it and exploit its plasticity!

Gaining Perspective on Negative Events

Take a few moments to bring to mind a difficult experience you are dealing with: some event in the past that made you sad or angry, for example, or some anxiety or worry you have about the future.

Try to understand your feelings using “you,” “he/she,” and “[your own name]” as much as possible. If your name is Dana, for example, you would ask yourself, “Why does Dana feel this way? What are the underlying causes and reasons for her feelings?” If you begin to see the event in your mind, try to watch through the eyes of a distanced, third-party observer, rather than through your own eyes.

The goal here is not to avoid or separate from your feelings, but to analyze them from a clearer and more helpful vantage point. Spend three minutes reflecting in this way, writing down your thoughts if you feel so inclined.

Although it may feel unnatural to talk to yourself in the third person, research suggests that it can help you confront difficult feelings without becoming overwhelmed by them. Eventually, you might be able to use this kind of self-talk during difficult events as they’re unfolding, such as a stressful task at work or a particularly challenging social situation.

You can practise this exercise in any situation that may happen to you, it takes only 5 minutes!