Day 7 of the 21 Day Keto Challenge November 2020

WHEW 7 days in!!

We made it to Saturday, we made it 1 week and I hope you are feeling AWESOME 🎉

With 2 weeks to go, we should mostly all be in ketosis by now and starting to feel some positive effects. 

Hunger is levelling out, we are getting a good grasp on the foods and our energy levels are balancing out nicely. 

So now, I want to tell you about the single most important thing you can do for your health. 

Because it’s not about carbs or Keto. It’s not even about food. Or exercise. 

Can you guess what it is? 

And once you know, can you commit at least – a little – bit of time to improving it? 

As much time and energy as you put into trying to improve other areas of your health? 

When really, it’s much simpler to improve and has the greatest health benefits you can possible imagine?

It’s sleep. 

Yep, simple old sleep. 

It’s free. It’s annoyingly basic. 

It’s one of our most human behaviours – but boy have we messed it up. 

Here’s some quick statistics on WHY sleep matters so much if you need convincing: 

Fact 1: When we are tired, our body creates hunger hormones. So we eat more, and have less mental capacity to make good decisions. 

Fact 2: More than 4 nights of reduced sleep (less than 7 hours) reduces your body’s ability to use insulin by 30%. Remember the email the other day about insulin? Yeah its kind of a big deal

Fact 3: If affects our brain. Compromised sleep can lead to depression, anxiety, poor decision making, reduced memory, reduced reflexes and inability to learn. Sleep is considered to be the cause of 20% of car accidents. 

OUR BRAINS NEED SLEEP. Our bodies need it too. 

It is as primal as eating, yet many of us still don’t prioritise it. 

I protect my sleep over anything else. 

I use to be a terrible sleeper (and I was overweight – not a coincidence) until I started to learn about it and really value why it was so important. 

Like anything in life, if we say we don’t have time for it we are saying WE DO NOT VALUE IT. 

IT IS NOT A PRIORITY. 

If you do not want to make time to improve your sleep try saying this to yourself: “My sleep is not a priority to me, even though I know it’s the most important thing I can do to be healthy.” 

But it’s hard, I know.

It takes time, and you go up and down.

You don’t just ‘figure it out’ one day and then sleep perfectly. 

Consistency compounds. 

You get a little better one day, so you have energy and mental space to get a little better the next day. 

There’s a WHOLE lot of studies and articles on how to do it, but here’s some things that have worked for me over the years: 

💤 Reducing alcohol intake before bed. Probably the biggest change for me. No more waking up at 3am thirsty and hungover! I save it for the weekend as much as possible, where I can sleep in

💤 Yogi Bedtime tea. I’m not a sponsor, I just love this stuff. I swear I get sleepy before I’ve even finished the cup. I buy 5 boxes at a time.

💤 Yoga and meditation, especially the Headspace app (they have a whole sleep series). Getting the mind quiet was the #1 thing I needed to learn to get to sleep. I used to be like ‘woah $70 a year for an app??’ Now I’m like… best $70 I’ve ever spent. 19 cents a day. If it even gives you one better night’s sleep, it’s worth it. 

💤 No screens in the hour before bedtime. A huge problem is keeping our brains awake with blue light (tv, phone etc). The less we can do this, the better we will sleep. 

💤 Make your bedroom your sanctuary. It should be calm, cool, dark, quiet and SO comfortable. Invest in good linen, pillow and mattress. You spend more time here than anywhere else and it affects EVERYTHING else.

All of these are just tools you can utilise, but combining them into a relaxing night time routine, and consistently getting to bed at the same time will create a bedtime schedule that you enjoy. 

I look forward to going to bed every day because I know it’s a wonderful place of relaxation, healing and health.

So, if you do just one thing for your health today, make it about your sleep. 

Think about what you may be able to improve and make a small improvement today.

Just a little one.  

Or if you’ve got sleep pretty sorted I bet you know someone that needs to read this, so send it to them!

Spread the sleepy word, and we are all going to be better off for it. 

Love,

Rachel xx