The Cook & The Coach Blog

Healthy Home = Healthy Life

7/22/2016

I want to share some stats and awesome info that I recently read in the book Eat Move Sleep. First off let me give a plug for the book...it's been a great read that goes super fast and has tons of practical tips to help you start making changes in your life. It's not loaded down with science but provides enough to let you know that the stuff he is saying isn't some nonsense he pulled out of thin air.

There is a chapter in the book where he refers to a study of more than 6,000 people that all tried to lose weight and what the common characteristics were of the most successful. A common theme among the successful was being healthy at home. Seems like common sense right??? You spend most of your time there but so many people live in a toxic home that doesn't promote health!

Here were just a few of the interesting stats that the study showed:

92% of the participants found a way to workout from home
78% ate breakfast every day
75% weighed themselves once a week
66% watched less 10 hours of TV per week

I love that first stat and I wish I could say that I knew that before I started working out at home but that was just a complete accident. It makes a ton of sense though! Whether you are doing a Beachbody program, going for a run, or following some fitness app program being active is key. The thing with home workouts that we love is that the convenience and the time we save. Let's be honest most people are busy these days so finding 60-90 minutes to get to a gym, workout, shower, and get home is tough. So if you can roll out of bed lace up your shoes and be done working out in 30 minutes that's a huge plus and I think that is why 92% of the people that were successful found a way to make that happen at home.

Eating breakfast... If you've followed us for a bit you know I've dabbled with Intermittent Fasting. There is a great science behind it and can lead some amazing results. It's a hard thing though for a novice to jump right in to and be successful. I think that is why the breakfast stat is an important one. Eating breakfast is a great way to set the stage for the rest of the day. If you start your day with a quality breakfast you will be a lot less likely to jump at the office donuts or the french fries at lunch. Your cravings will stay in check!

Weighing yourself once a week, this one was a little interesting to me. I get that tracking your progress is a good way to determine if you need to make changes but for the average person they really don't know what changes to make. Other than maybe eat less and exercise more, which we know isn't always a great solution. Plus weight isn't the sole determiner of progress. So we will just let this one go...and agree to disagree.

I love this last stat about TV watching. Frankly because I used to be a 10+ hour a week TV watcher. Let's be honest even the most riveting show gets boring at times so I turned to ice cream to help with that boredom. Mindless TV watching often times leads to mindless eating. On top of that TV watching also means sitting which is terrible for your health. The amount of activity went up substantially when we ditched the cable and we would encourage you to do the same.

Other Ways to "Healthify" Your Home

Clean out your pantry and fridge! If you have junk in the house you will eat it.
Get some quality sleep! Sleep is one of the most underrated things people focus on when it comes to their health. It is vital to get some quality sleep every night and let your body reset. If you want a great book to read on the subject check out Shawn Stevenson's Sleep Smarter.
Eat as a family. Kind of a weird one coming from a nutritional geek but our relationships are key to our health. Slowing down enough to sit around a dinner table and have a conversation with your loved ones will not only help your relationships with your family, it will also set the stage for your kids' kids in their homes.

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Let There Be Light... But Not Too Much!

7/13/2016

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For the longest time humans used the sun as their only source of light. Then came fire. Then came the lightbulb. Then came TV. Then came the iPhone! Nowadays it is hard to avoid electronics that emit light. If you are living among humans it is the norm.

The point of this post isn't to give you a history lesson on how light came to be, but to actually share with you more detail into how light affects our health. I've heard a lot of health minded folks talk about the effects of light and how it correlates with your hormone cycles. When I got a little pop up on my phone this past week I figured it would be a good opportunity to share something I learned and also share a bit about how light can influence your health.

Circadian Rhythm

This term refers to how your hormones cycle up and down and how you go from being wide awake to sleeping liking a baby. The main hormones at play here are cortisol and melatonin. These two hormones work inversely with each other. When one is high the other is low and vice versa.

Cortisol is often referred to as a stress hormone or fight or flight hormone. This can give people the thought that it is a bad thing but this hormone is needed to function. It is a rise in cortisol in the morning that tells you to wake up. As the day goes on your cortisol levels should decrease and with that brings on a rise in melatonin. Melatonin is the key player in making you sleepy and getting a good nights rest. It often is used in supplement form to help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Health Impact

It is this daily shift and balance of hormones that make up your circadian rhythm. This can affect all areas of your health. A lack of sleep can affect a person's weight in a negative way...and obesity thus increases a person's chance of getting pretty much every other disease out there. Melatonin disregulation can also increase chances of certain cancers. The World Health Organization has even classified shift work as a probable carcinogen because of the disruption of to a person's circadian rhythm.

Artificial Light's Impact

Being exposed to light, especially blue light, later in day is also associated with disrupting a person's circadian rhythm. Thus increasing risk factors of everything explained above. When you are staring at a TV screen, iPad, or smart phone late at night you are basically sending daylight type light into your eyes and brain which suppresses melatonin and increases cortisol. Another thing that can play into this imbalance is staying indoors all day long. By limiting your exposure to natural sunlight your body doesn't get that dosage of light that tells your body that it is time to be awake and alert. Yeah your computer screen at work gives you a fake light but nothing beats the real thing.

Solution Time

If you struggle with sleepless nights, waking up tired or low energy levels during the day you could likely have a circadian rhythm that is out of balance.

Here are 5 things you can do to help your cause and get your circadian rhythm back in balance.

Go for a walk early in the morning! Getting exposed to natural daylight early in the morning will give your body that shot of natural light that says: WAKE UP, it's daytime!!!
Using blue light filters on your devices or in the form of glasses. Check out the images below to see how I recently turned on a filter on my iPhone.
Having a pitch black place to sleep is key making sure your body knows it is time to sleep. Even light that trickles in through your curtains and alarm clock can influence the quality of your sleep.
Turn down the lights at night! There is no need to sit in fully illuminated room at 10:00 p.m.
Set a screen curfew. I know this one can be challenging since many people are used to sitting in front of a tv, laptop or tablet at night. The closer your curfew is to when the sun naturally goes down the better. If you can't set a curfew or are just stubborn refer to tip 2!