Better Sleep, Better Life!™


If you are like me, you know there is nothing like a good night’s sleep. I am rested, feel like I can accomplish anything and have a skip in my step. I don’t need any stimulating herbs to get me going (i.e., coffee) and I even look younger (well, at least I think I do.) I also noticed at some point, in my days of observing how I made my food choices, that when I was tired I craved sugary, high carbohydrate foods. A cookie, a sweet bowl of cereal, some toast with jam—you get the picture. Because I, like most women, was always trying to manage my weight, I took note of this phenomenon. I decided that I would do what I could to get more rest so that I did not crave carbohydrates and gain weight.

I then found myself asking my clients about their sleep at each appointment. I know that your body cannot heal without good rest. I would encourage them to find ways to go to bed earlier and looked for ways to help them sleep through the night. Last fall I decided that sleep was HUGE for helping my clients reach their health goals. I started doing research and found that my hunch was right on. From Dr. William Dement, the Founder of the Stanford Sleep Center, to T.S. Wiley, an anthropologist who tied disease to lack of sleep, all the literature said the same thing. Lack of sleep was detrimental to your health.  Since the fall, sleep has been featured everywhere: on Good Morning America, in Oprah magazine, and in the Berkeley student newsletter for improving test scores, just to name a few.

Lack of sleep also causes weight gain, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and even cancer. It’s an immune system nightmare not to get enough rest. I was so excited to learn more about sleep.  All we have to do is get more rest and we’ll be healthier? How do you do that when life is so busy? Well, it’s a choice.

I talked to a new client last week. She had every excuse why she couldn’t eat well. There was just no time she said.  Every moment was already filled. That is the same excuse we use about not getting enough sleep. One client told me, “I just get going around 11 p.m. That’s when I have time to myself.” Well, it’s all about prioritizing. Remember, we are human beings, not human doings. So, I encourage you to take a good look at your sleep habits. We will be learning a lot about sleep in the next few issues of my newsletter so you will know what constitutes a restorative night’s sleep and how you can reverse chronic disease just by sleeping. Wow—how cool is that! A good, restorative night’s sleep is the number one thing you can do to live a longer healthier life. Sleep on!
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Tidbits

	Seasonal allergies: try 1000 mg buffered vitamin C (it’s a natural anti-histamine) with each meal (3x/day), get 8+ hours of sleep nightly and consider taking a B Complex 1- 2 caps per day with a meal. If you need to kick it up a notch, call me!
	Teeccino: delicious coffee substitute that contains lots of minerals to support our bodies instead of coffee which is acidic and increases our need for minerals. Comes in many different flavors and can be found in the bakery area of Whole Foods at in Morgan Hill at Integrity Express.
	Integrity Express in Morgan Hill is now carrying organic heavy whipping cream and will soon carry raw milk. They also carry many of the ingredients needed for the delicious scones recipe below!
	Lack of sleep causes carbohydrate cravings. Get more rest and lose the cravings!