How Can We Get a Good Night's Sleep?

A good nights sleep can sometimes be hard find! We toss and turn and wake up wanting MORE sleep.

How can we get a good nights sleep?

One: Turn Off and Tune Down

Turn off the television unless you want to watch shows that are peaceful and calm. Stimulation before sleep can be one of the biggest causes of insomnia. Tune down the music you listen to. Favor peaceful sounds over energetic dance music.

Two: Beam up into spiritual realms

Evening is a wonderful time to repeat your favorite spiritual mantra or think about the spiritual experiences you have been having. Let your everyday conscious mind relax and get ready to enter another part of your consciousness where you will sleep and dream. Nighttime is not the time to offer your logical mind a wide screen to create plans on. This is the time to clear your mind and imagine the blue sky, the waves of the ocean, or streams of your favorite colors.

Ask the doctor: What are your most pressing health questions?

It has happened more times than I can count: I've been sitting anxiously on the exam table, barebacked in one of those awful and faded hospital gowns, with a list of questions for my doctor rolling over and over through my mind. Then the doctor comes in, asks all the routine questions, kindly covers any concerns, and examines me. Before I know it, the appointment is over, I'm alone in the room and getting dressed again. All those questions? Never asked, never answered.

Sometimes, the questions have been big -- is it time for me to have a mammogram and should I be concerned about this mole? And sometimes, they have been small but nagging -- what's this little thing right here and what is a normal blood pressure? Occasionally, I've called back and left a message or spoken to the nurse practitioner on staff. But more often, these questions just keep rolling around until the next time I wiggle into the gown and up on to the table.

Sixteen Tips for Getting Good Sleep

There’s a lot of advice out there about getting good sleep -- and it's very important. We quickly adjust to being sleep-deprived, and don't notice that we aren't functioning at a normal level, but lack of sleep really affects us. If you're feeling blue or listless, try going to sleep thirty minutes earlier for a week. It can really help.

Here are tips that have helped me get good sleep:

Good habits for good sleep:

1. Exercise most days, even if it’s just to take a walk.

2. No caffeine after 6:00 p.m.

3. An hour before bedtime, avoid doing any kind of work that takes alert thinking. Addressing envelopes—okay. Analyzing an article—nope.

Sleep Your Pounds Away

These days most people confide that high on their wish list is weight loss. The reasons range from fitting into skinny jeans to trying to remove some pressure off the knees to improving heart health. Some of my friends are looking for a genie in a bottle. However, there is something almost as good: Sleeping your weight away!

When you sleep through the night, your fat cells secrete a hormonal appetite suppressant called Leptin which also triggers the metabolism to burn more calories. Exactly how and why Leptin works is still not clearly understood by scientists.

Research also shows that adequate sleep (generally about 8 hours) helps you deal with daytime stress. Daily stress reaches its crescendo at night when you replay the scenarios – would have, or should have? Also, be aware that daytime stress could replay in nightmares which interfere with quality sleep – hence the benediction, “sweet dreams.”

How to Overcome the Dreaded Weight Loss Plateau

You go on a balanced diet, exercise for an hour daily and lose weight every week, but then you plateau, even worse you have gained a couple of pounds. Frustrated and puzzled, you feel bad about your body image - a recipe for disaster. Sliding down the slippery slope of self-esteem with stress levels rising, you are considering self-sabotage. Stop! Here are some tips to jumpstart your weight loss.

* Don’t Stress. Stressing about not losing weight can potentially trigger weight gain according to research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology by Dr. Jason Block. Also, cortisol, a stress hormone, has been implicated in depositing fat around the middle. So, if you stew about seeing yourself as fat and unattractive - guess what? You will actualize your negative self-perception. Instead fortify your identity by participating in creative and meaningful hobbies. Get at the root of what you do well and what you love to do. When you feel happier, you are lighter.

Grazing: A Better Way to Eat?

It seems like every time I look at a magazine, there’s some new research on the best way to eat to lose weight, be healthier, and look my best. I guess three squares just don’t cut it anymore; today, the trend is more toward eating small meals throughout the day or grazing, eating only when you’re hungry, without restricting yourself to mealtimes. Forget the days when dieting meant you could hardly eat at all—now the approach is to be eating almost constantly, in hopes that it will fuel metabolism and stave off hunger cravings. Is this really a healthy way to eat, or just Hollywood hype?

Eat to Your Health

Negative Calories: Diet Holy Grail or Urban Food Legend?

What if I told you there are certain foods that can make you lose weight through the sheer act of eating them? That’s right—sit in front of the TV, eat these foods, get thinner. There are things we can eat that make us consume fewer calories than not eating at all does? Sign me up.

Being the extreme Web searcher that I am, I decided to do some research on the term “negative-calorie food” while looking for recipes online. Some Web sites (mostly disreputable blogs and weight-loss sites) claim that certain foods, because they’re tricky for our bodies to digest, actually burn more calories than they’re worth and therefore help us lose weight. This diet folklore surrounds low-cal foods like citrus, melon, and celery.

10 Steps to Beat the Post-Holiday Bulge

Do you have a spare tire, love handles, or a belly bulge left over from the holidays? Or maybe it’s been accumulating for more than a few holiday seasons? Did you have your cake, drinks, cookies and turkey dinner – and eat them too? Don’t fret. Here are a few simple tricks from my best-selling book: The Life Force Diet (Wiley, 2006) that can help you start the New Year on the right—and maybe lighter—foot:

1. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to beat dehydration. Alcohol consumption, fatty foods, and insufficient water are some of the main reasons people feel “hung over” and heavy from the holidays. Every cell in your body needs adequate water to function properly so try to drink at least 2 Litres a day to flush fat and toxins out.

Healthiest and unhealthiest options at a restaurant

Weekends are, by far, my 'splurge' time. I really look forward to eating out at our favorite restaurants; enjoying time with friends and family, while indulging in some epicurean delights. That said, eating out at restaurants more often than not can do damage to a healthy diet. This isn't only true for those trying to lose weight, but also for those trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Fact is, even those dishes that 'appear' healthy on the menu, often come with hidden ingredients like butter and oils that can take a seemingly healthy dish and turn it into a calorie and fat intensive meal.

'Kick' your fitness routine up a notch with kickboxing

Not many people know this about me, but I’m a black belt. Yep, you can be a little impressed; it was a lot of hard work. With the exception of breaking a guy’s arm (another story for another day), I have been lucky enough that I haven’t had to use my skills to fend off an attacker. However, there are certain moves that ALL OF YOU should know. Try and incorporate them into your fitness routine. All it takes is a few extra minutes on the punching bag.

According to an article in Fitness Magazine, kickboxing burns an average of 500 calories an hour (some estimates reach 810). The exercises effectively target your arms, shoulders, abs, thighs and butt all in one workout (talk about killing a few birds with one stone!) In addition, kickboxing serves as a fantastic form of stress release (how often do you get to pretend you’re beating up your archenemy - or at some times, your significant other?!? hehe!). I know I always feel better after getting out some of my built up stress and aggression. Who needs yoga when you've got a punching bag and an active imagination?!