More Than Just Calories

More than Just Calories

It's not your fault.  There are many factors involved in weight loss.  As we age, it is not as simple as calories in, calories out anymore.  We must assess our life from the angles of how we manage our stress, the quality of our sleep, what we are eating, our body composition, our emotional and spiritual health, our amount of movement and exercise, the quality of our relationships and the ability to set and achieve goals.  

Stress Management

The first important thing to do is to learn how to manage stress. 

A good practice would be to do a daily stress-relieving ritual, like the Non-sleep Deep Rest Protocol (NSDR) Dr. Andrew Huberman which takes a minimum of 10 minutes. 

Try to take breaks every hour - refrain from using devices and technology during your breaks. 

Learn to respond differently to stress through activities like daily grateful journaling, walks in nature, dancing for pleasure, bird-watching, deep breathing, relaxing activities, meditation and prayer.

Principles to Get Better Sleep

With the constant bombardment of blue light all day from white LED lightbulbs and devices, it is difficult to regulate our sleep-wake cycles. 

First thing to do to get better sleep is to regulate your circadium rhythm – best thing to do is go outside within 2 hours of waking, but the earlier the better. If sunny, the bare minimum is 5 minutes, for overcast days, 10 minutes and with dense cloud cover is for 30 minutes. 

Avoid bright light at night.

Ideally, at least 1 hour before bedtime, switching to red light can help you transition to bedtime and contribute to your body's production of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep.

Listening to soothing music and trying to stick to a sleep schedule can help promote sleep as well. 

Breathing through your nose while you sleep is important for quality sleep. 

There should be no light as much as possible in the bedroom when sleeping.