Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

I just read an article on "The Dream Diet: Losing Weight While You Sleep" and it had some interesting insights. According to the article, when we sleep our body produces hormones. Two of these hormones are leptin and ghrelin and both can influence our appetite. These two hormones work together in that ghrelin stimulates appetite, while leptin, sends signals to the brain that we are full. If you don't get enough sleep leptin levels are driven down which keeps you from feeling satisfied after you eat. In turn ghrelin rises causing your appetite to be stimulated. In retrospect when I go to bed full (really full) I usually wake up starving and thinking about that when I do go to bed that full I usually have severe nightmares. Therefore I'm not getting good sleep which is what the article goes on to say. We need at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep to produce the proper portions of theses hormones for the next days dieting.

There were two studies sited and the Stanford study seemed to shed more light on the subject stating that "Those who slept less than eight hours a night not only had lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin, but they also had a higher level of body fat...those who slept the fewest hours per night weighed the most." It goes on to say that we are all different in the way that our bodies react to these hormones like those with sleep apnea who do not have low levels of leptin but actually very high levels and when treated for the apnea those levels drop and it seems to help them lose weight. So it may not be our levels of these hormones that matters as much as our response to them. It finally states that "Until doctors do know more, most experts agree that if you are dieting, logging in a few extra hours of sleep a week is not a bad idea, particularly if you get six hours of sleep or less a night. You may just discover that you aren't as hungry, or that you have lessened your craving for sugary, calorie-dense foods."

So I guess we need good sleep to help us get through the next day's cravings and overeating. I'll just have to call the friend of mine who told me that I was going to bed too late for healthy weight loss because it's not when you sleep but how you sleep. And I'm sure not getting healthy sleep at night. Got to work on that and find out how I can sleep better. How about you?

I lost another 1.5 lbs this week, YEA!

Sleepy Eyed Lady

Well, yesterday didn't go any better than the day before but I still stuck within my limits. Today doesn't look like it is going to be any better but I'll do it. I made a mistake of eating too much roughage yesterday and I am paying for it today only in the opposite direction than you probably think. I'm bloated and not making any progress if you know what I mean. I discovered a new blog site that gave me some insight into that matter. She also has great tips on "going green" in today's post and some really helpful ones in her others. Check out Cammy!

I've discovered that since I started on this diet when I start to get hungry, before I can fix a meal I'm starving. Wonder if this happens to anyone else out there? Since I've retired and live alone I haven't been following any kind of a schedule for my meals. I think I'm going to have to start doing that so that I won't be starving before my evening meal is complete, when I usually cook something interesting or at least healthy and it takes longer than just a couple of minutes to get something ready to eat.

My old habits of staying up late ('til around 2:00 AM) and getting up around 10:00 AM aren't working since my vacation. I'm still staying up that late but am wide awake around 8:00 AM and I don't think that is enough sleep. Then in the afternoons I'm so sleepy and tired that I've been giving in to the afternoon naps. Well, I thwarted that yesterday and didn't succumb and I still wasn't sleepy until around 2:00 AM. And...I was wide awake at 8:00 this morning! ARGH!! I've heard that you need 8 hours for healthy weight loss and I'm going to research it to find out. Will let you know my findings.

Hey did you see Cara's blog yesterday? She talked about stepping on those scales more than once a week just like me and I didn't read hers before typing mine. Guess there's something to that "Like mother, like daughter" stuff. Cara also posted my muffin recipe with a twist. Check it out.

If I don't lose more than a half a pound or heaven forbid nothing tomorrow in my weigh-in I'm going to scream. I have been soooooo gooooood this week. I've planned ahead and everything.

Mornings

Wow, I hate mornings (especially after only 4 hours sleep). And afternoon naps. I layed on the couch yesterday afternoon reading a book and woke up an hour or so later with the book still opened. This made for a late night last night. My usual time to "lay me down to rest" is around 1:00 am but last night I had to make myself go that that room with the big bed in it at 4:30 am. Of course when I stay up that late I get hungry and last night (or I should say early this morning) was no different. I couldn't think of anything so, yup, I got into the Doritos and salsa. I know those things are bad for me in a lot more ways than I want to know but they do satisfy that urge and I only ate 11 of them. I think that is the only food that I've held on too from my fatty days. I just can't let them go. Like I've said before I'm not addicted to sweets but to salty stuff. Oh, to just set down with a bag of Wise Potato Chips again...but alas I know I can't (I still miss them though). I even tried to kick the Doritos thing with a salad with Free Catalina and it still didn't satisfy that urging. I think I just need that taste because sometimes after a sandwich (where I used to eat a half a bag of Wise Potato Chips) I'll pick the bag of Doritos up and just take out 3 and munch really slowly and that satisfies that craving too. So maybe if I keep the willpower in check they won't hurt me too much. And I am still losing. And I do add them to my points.

I had someone jump my case a couple of weeks ago about my sleep habits. She said that studies show that a person that doesn't go to bed before midnight doesn't lose weight. Anybody know anything about that? I may go to bed late but I usually get my 8 hours of sleep in (except for last night). I've always heard that every person has a different circadian cycle and this is mine.

I have a niece that comes to visit once a year and always brings 3-4 bags of chips with her. She'll set down and eat half a bag then go out and walk my driveway (the driveway from hell) a few times so she can have some more. She's always working on losing weight and never seems to get there. Gee, I wonder why? She didn't come to visit last year because she was moving into a new house around that time and I wonder what she'll do this year when she comes and I cook sensibly instead of the way I used to cook? She loves my vegetable beef soup with a big chuck roast in it and I don't make that anymore. I'll have to make her my cabbage soup with beef broth instead (that recipe to come later). She hasn't seen me since I lost 50 pounds so maybe I can motivate her. Wouldn't that be something?

When I was growing up in my teen years my parents owned a grocery store. Not a big chain but a "Mom & Pop" kind. It was good sized though. So needless to say we didn't have to pinch pennies when it came to groceries. Mom always brought home the best brand name stuff and we NEVER had margarine in the house, always REAL butter. Therefore I never acquired a taste for margarine. I've always eaten REAL butter. Well, since on WW I can't have the REAL stuff anymore and I've really been down about that. Then I discovered Land O Lakes Light Butter Spread with canola oil. You know I haven't had the real stuff in a long time (only the yucky margarine) but I think it tastes pretty good. At least close enough to the REAL stuff that I'm happy to stick with it when I get down there in the land of thin. So if you haven't tried it now's the time.