How Are You Sleeping?
By Meggan Larson
I met with a client recently who was struggling to get her weight under control. She was frustrated and stressed out (understandably) and had no idea what was causing her weight to continue climbing. We went through her diet and sure there were some improvements she could make but overall it wasn’t actually that bad. She wanted to incorporate more exercise into her life so we worked on a plan for that but something was nagging at me that wasn’t quite adding up. I began to ask her about her work and home life and started to get some clues as to what was really going on with her health.
Then she told me this…
That her work took up a lot of her time and she only slept about 3-4 hours per night. Excuse me? I couldn’t possibly have heard that correctly. Each and every night?? That is an alarmingly insufficient amount of sleep for our bodies. When we don’t get enough sleep to properly get into each sleep cycle that our bodies need, our cortisol levels increase in our bodies. That causes our appetites to increase and naturally gain weight. But that’s not all! When we are sleep deprived, our metabolism slows right down and the food we eat gets stored more than burned. Sleep deprivation also leads to hormonal imbalance and can also affect your thyroid. Wow! Who knew that sleep was so important to weight loss?
If you’ve been sleep deprived for too long then it’s time to start getting some quality shut-eye. Even if you’re not gaining weight yet, it’s bound to happen if you continue down this road. Sleep is just as important to a healthy lifestyle as a good diet and exercise. Go to bed earlier, turn off your device when you’re in bed, and if you need some natural help to get you into a solid sleep cycle then look into Young Living lavender and cedarwood essential oils. Those were the ones that worked for me when I was going through chemo and the steroids kept me up at night.
If you want to learn more about keeping your body healthy and supporting yourself naturally, we do facebook live classes every week. We’d love to see you there! Join our class group here.
~ Meggan 🙂
p.s. As always I’d love to hear from you so if you have any questions or comments please comment below or email me at Meggan@thelaundrymoms.com
Meggan Larson is a wife, mom of three, and challenge overcomer! Being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and undergoing aggressive chemotherapy when her second born child was only three months old, gave Meggan an expected twist to her life. Dealing with pregnancy weight gain and the debilitating effects of chemotherapy, Meggan’s weight soared to over 228 pounds. Feeling humiliated with no desire to socialize, Meggan was desperate for a change. Shortly after losing 20 pounds with the Trim Healthy Mama program, Meggan found out she was pregnant with baby number three, which ended in an emergency C-section and unexpected hysterectomy. Despite the challenges she faced, Meggan has just celebrated her one year “trimiversary”, and her success of releasing just over 60 pounds! Meggan is confident that her success on plan is “doable” for anyone looking to gain back their health and wanting to live a trim and healthy lifestyle!
