It's time to turn the TV off when this image comes on.
So how are you sleeping these days? Are you getting enough sleep? Sleep is the third part (along with proper nutrition and exercise) of the equation for weight loss and getting in shape. If you are going to get up early the next day to exercise you have to get to bed on time. I am a genius, I know.
But I have the solution for getting you in bed on time. Four magic words. Turn That TV Off! Four magic words AND an exclamation point, so you know I mean business. You see studies all the time that we let our kids watch too much TV and how bad it is for them, but then we go and do the same thing to ourselves. I talked about the effects TV has on your eating behavior last week, but it also effects your sleeping.
I'm not asking you to stop watching every show you like, but if you are watching TV just to watch TV what are you doing? No grown up should ever find themselves mindlessly watching The Suite Life or Hannah Montana. There are also studies that found that watching shows like CSI and NCIS where there is graphic, murder type drama on the show effects your sleep and can actually make you depressed because they make you think of your own mortality.
If you don't sleep enough you mess up two hormones that can effect your weight loss. It lowers your leptin levels and raises your ghrelin levels. What do those do? Leptin tells your brain when to stop eating, so lowering that is bad. Ghrelin tells your body to KEEP eating, so having both of those hormones going opposite directions is a recipe for disaster. Plus additional studies have shown that low levels of leptin decrease your metabolism. Triple bad.
Step one tonight is to turn the TV off 1 hour earlier than usual and avoid watching disturbing TV (CSI, the news, anything with The Hoff) right before bed.
I will give you a few tips on getting better sleep in the near future.