by Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of the best sellers: The Fat Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

I’ve noticed in my travels and with working with clients that a large majority of people in today’s fast-paced stressful world are struggling at least part of the time with falling asleep at night.

Over the years, I’ve also struggled on occasion with insomnia because of the stress placed on me by running a large publishing business. And I’ve researched and learned quite a few tips and tricks over the years to help fight insomnia and fall asleep faster.

Without diving into every single technique I’ve learned over the years, I’ll just touch on a few really simple, but powerful tips, foods, drinks, etc. that I think can help you to fall asleep easier and faster too!

Here goes:

The most important sleep tip to start with:

This one isn’t a specific food or drink, but rather probably THE most important tip I can give you… if you don’t follow this one, your chances of being able to wind down at night and fall asleep fast are unlikely…

You NEED to eliminate use of devices, computers, emails, and any other work related to your job (or other stressful things) at least 3 hours before you plan to go to sleep. Using devices or computers for casual reading at night is fine, but don’t do any work that gets your mind overly activated, such as anything dealing with work or other stressful things in life. Also, even for casual reading, it’s best to turn off devices at least 1 hour before bed as keeping your eyes focused on the light from devices is one thing that some researchers are saying could interfere with getting quality sleep.

An overly active mind late at night is one of the BIGGEST things keeping many people from falling asleep. As a success-driven entrepreneur myself, I used to work really late at night and then I’d find that my mind was always too active to actually be able to fall asleep, so I’d lay there for hours sometimes until I could get my mind to slow down so I could fall asleep.

This may sound weird, but one trick that’s worked for me is to grab a book while I lay in bed on something that I find sort of boring and try to read the book in bed. Because the topic is “boring” to me personally, it keeps my mind away from things that I find more interesting, and it allows me to fall right to sleep. So for example, if you find health and fitness interesting (I hope you do!), but you find economics boring, try reading an economics book as you lay in bed. I bet you’ll get sleepy and fall asleep much faster than if you laid in bed letting all your thoughts about daily life race through your mind.

No caffeine after mid-day:

You’ve probably heard this tip many times, so I’ll keep this one short… It takes about 6 hours for caffeine to be fully processed and eliminated by your body, so make sure your last caffeinated drink of the day (coffee, black tea, mate, etc.) is at LEAST 6 hours or more before your planned bedtime. And if you’ve been showing any adrenal fatigue from lab hormone tests, you should also consider reducing your daily caffeine intake if you currently use it.

Tart cherries or tart cherry juice:

Tart cherries (Montmorency) actually contain a natural form of melatonin that can help you to naturally get sleepy and more easily fall asleep. I’ve found frozen tart cherries a few times in specialty grocery stores and I use them for a late night smoothie occasionally.

I’ve also found a tart cherry concentrate in Whole Foods and other health food stores that you can add to a drink or caffeine-free tea at night to help get you that low dose natural melatonin. I use 1 spoonful of this tart cherry concentrate in a cup of chamomile or mint tea late at night. This helps immensely for calming down and falling asleep at night.

A side benefit is that tart cherry also contains powerful antioxidants that fight joint pain, gout, and other inflammation related problems.

DON’T overdose on melatonin supplements (most contain TOO MUCH)

Did you know that MOST people overdose on melatonin supplements. Most melatonin supplements come in either 3 mg or even 5 mg doses. However, according to some researchers, anything more than 1 mg might be too high of a dose, which can disrupt your sleep cycle the following day, making it hard to wake up in the morning, and harder to fall asleep the following night, disrupting your overall sleep cycle.

The proper dose seems to be something less than 1 mg from most experts on this topic (this was even discussed on the Dr. Oz show too), which is why I choose to NEVER use melatonin supplements, and only get the small natural quantities found in tart cherries or tart cherry juice.

Night time teas:

Try “night time teas” that have relaxing qualities such as chamomile tea, mint tea, lemongrass tea, or all of them mixed. A side benefit of chamomile tea, and another reason that I try to include it in my weekly night tea repertoire is that chamomile tea contains unique phytonutrients that can help fight estrogenic overload from all of the xenoestrogens that we are exposed to from chemicals, pesticides, etc. in today’s chemical laden world.

Also remember that you can add a spoonful of the tart cherry concentrate and you’ll get a double-whammy of sleep aid! This works well about 1-2 hours before bedtime to help your body and mind relax.

One more tip…

If you still have troubles falling asleep even after implementing all of these tips, make sure to pay attention to fixing any hormonal issues you might have, including any possible adrenal fatigue, since being overly stressed out during the day can cause imbalances in your natural cortisol cycle which can make you more awake at night and more tired in the morning (obviously the opposite of what you want).

Eliminate any stressors from your life that you can, and also trying other relaxation techniques including meditation as a way to deal with stress if you still feel that you’re too stressed out each day.

Here’s one more reason to pay attention to this advice and make sure to do everything possible to get better sleep…

Did you know that a lack of sleep can actually make you GAIN weight?

A proper hormone balance is very important not only for losing fat, but keeping it off, and lack of sleep (including restless sleep, going to bed too late, getting up too early, and any other types of sleep deprivation), can throw your body’s hormones out of balance.

This means that regardless of how much you exercise or what type of diet you go on, you will still struggle to lose your unwanted fat, especially from your stomach.

So you can see how important sleep really is, as it touches multiple aspects of your health.

And one more thing to note, if you are still having trouble falling asleep, our friends from YuSleep have this special message for you…

Do You Wake Up At 3 AM Too?

If you fall asleep just fine but you wake up around 3 am almost every night, mind racing and you can’t fall back asleep for hours…

You lie there staring at the ceiling, watching the clock tick toward 5 AM… 6 AM…

Then drag yourself through another zombie day…

You should do this 30-second cherry trick this evening before going to bed.

A sleep expert with 18 years of sleep research says it quiets your racing mind and relaxes your body so your brain can enter deep stages of sleep.

Many people over 50 have already tried it and they sleep through the night like a baby with NO MORE 3 am wake-ups and wake up refreshed!

Here’s the simple cherry trick to try tonight…

👉 Click here to see how to do it!

The post Drink this 2 hours before bed to sleep better (plus 5 tips for insomnia) appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

By: Cat Ebeling, RN, MSN-PHN, co-author of the best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen, The Top 101 Foods that Fight Aging & The Diabetes Fix

This delicious salad has the best of summer in it!

Cucumbers that hydrate your cells to reduce wrinkles, arugula which is full of folate to boost your mood, cancer-fighting antioxidants and fiber, tomatoes which contain lycopene to protect your skin from sun damage, red pepper which contains lots of vitamin C to work with collagen diminishing wrinkles and fighting aging, parsley that contains magnesium—important for over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body, and red onion, full of immune fighting quercetin.

Enjoy this salad for lunch or as an accompaniment with grilled chicken or grass-fed burgers. Your skin and body will thank you!

Ingredients

• Arugula greens
• 1 red pepper – cut to bite size pieces
• 1 half red onion – cut to bite size pieces
• 2 Roma tomatoes – cut to bite size pieces
• 1 medium cucumber – cut to bite size pieces
• 1 can of garbanzo beans, more or less
• Juice of half a fresh lemon
• Handful of fresh parsley – chopped fine
• Handful of fresh basil leaves or other fresh herbs – chopped fine
• 2-4 T Primal Greek dressing or mix your own with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic or wine vinegar, herbs, and a pinch of sugar
• Pecorino, Parmigiana or feta cheese, crumbled or shaved
• Sea salt and pepper

Directions

1. Chop all veggies and herbs except arugula.
2. In a large bowl, mix vegetables with garbanzos, lemon juice and dressing.
3. Arrange arugula on plate and spoon vegetable mix over the greens.
4. Top with shaved or crumbled cheese. Add salt and pepper if desired.
5. Serves 2-4 people.

The post Mediterranean Salad Recipe appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

This blog is republished from our good friend Danette May.

You already know that any movement you do gives your mood a big boost and makes a big difference in your weight loss efforts.

There’s no shortage of ways to move your body, but you may be wondering if your time is better spent walking or running?

Either one is good, but which one is better?

When it comes to only how many calories you burn per hour, running is the better workout. Your exact calorie burn depends on how much you weigh and how fast you run, but running expends more energy.

Want an idea of the difference in calorie burn between running and walking?

Consider these statistics for a person who weighs 155 lbs.:

• Running 30 minutes at 5 miles per hour burns 298 calories
• Running 30 minutes at 6 miles per hour burns 372 calories
• Running 30 minutes at 7.5 miles per hour burns 465 calories
• Walking 30 minutes at 3.5 miles per hour burns 149 calories
• Walking 30 minutes at 4 miles per hour burns 167 calories
• Walking 30 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour burns 186 calories

Though running clearly provides a greater impact on how many calories are burned, that doesn’t mean that doing it is easy.

Depending on your physical condition, running for 30 minutes (or longer) may be out of the question.

So, does that mean that you have to walk for more than an hour in order to get the same amount of impact?

The good news is there’s another option.

It’s called High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT.

Studies have shown that by going back and forth between walking and running you can eliminate the need to run long distances and still get a big effect.

How does HIIT work?

A HIIT workout has you doing a hard workout for a very short period of time, then resting while still doing something active. That means that you get your heart rate way up, and then you recover and catch your breath, then do it again.

When you ask your body to push itself you create a brief oxygen shortage. When your body recovers, you take in more oxygen to make up for the loss.

The result is that you burn more fat.

Studies have shown that a HIIT workout can burn more calories in a shorter period of time as a result of the EPOC effect.

There are a lot of other advantages to doing a HIIT workout.

Besides a better fat burn, it also boosts your metabolism for as long as 48 hours after your workout. It takes less time than a regular workout and you don’t need any expensive equipment.

(The Original source article found here)

Did you know that certain exercises can help you slow aging and help you to look younger, but other specific types of exercises can actually age you FASTER.  Not good!

Make sure to AVOID the types of exercises that accelerate aging in your body.  My colleague Steve Holman explains which exercises to avoid at this article:

This exercise accelerates AGING in your body (plus 5 tips to look 10 years younger)

Steve also shows you on that page which specific format of exercise helps reverse aging!

The post Walking VS Running appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

Most of us think of exercise in terms of how we want to look—losing weight, a carved six pack, the firm fanny, or chiseled arms. Sure, those are great, but exercise has wide-ranging benefits that go far beyond just looking good.

Aside from the health and physical benefits, did you know that exercise–especially weight training and High Intensity Interval Training–can actually slow down the aging process? Yes, it has been scientifically proven to slow aging dramatically! Researchers have discovered a way to actually shave as much as ten years from your age with vigorous exercise. And no, you do not need to start training for an Ironman, you just have to start getting exercise in your life.

Exercise has the ability to not only change the VERY cells in your physical body to slow down aging, and actually change the structure of your brain as well, making you feel stronger, more confident, happier and more focused. Starting an exercise program today, no matter how old you are, will absolutely change your life for the better!

After the age of 35, most adults begin to lose 8-10% of their muscle mass per decade. That means by age 55, you have lost up to 20% or so of your muscle mass—if you aren’t exercising. This sneaky condition means your metabolism—and your ability to burn fat—decreases drastically with loss of muscle, and that worst part is that you probably don’t really notice the muscle loss, until you get to a point where everyday activities become difficult. Muscle is one of the most metabolically active parts of our bodies, so losing muscle means our metabolism drops!

Research from UCLA suggests that the more muscle mass older people have, the longer they can expect to live. These findings add to the growing evidence that overall body composition—how much muscle you have, versus how much body fat you have—not the more commonly used and less specific measurement of body mass index (BMI), is one of the best predictors of all-cause mortality.

Aging can make our joints and bones more subject to arthritis (inflammation) and osteoporosis (weak bones). Obviously, these two things can lead to injuries and immobility as we age. Lifting weights and most kinds of weight-bearing exercise actually help to manage arthritis pain and create more mobility in our joints.

Strengthening the muscles around joints not only helps to support, lubricate, and strengthen your joints, but the tug on your muscles and bones created by resistance exercise (like weight training) actually will help to strengthen bones and counter osteoporosis.

Even people with mild to moderate hip arthritis can avoid the surgeon’s knife and hip replacement surgery by exercising. And exercise helps to improve flexibility, movement and joint range of motion as well.

Have you put on a few pounds as you have gotten older? Muscles and the mitochondria in our cells are strong determinants of our metabolism. Metabolism, as you may know, has to do with how many calories you burn in a day and how much energy you have. As mentioned above, losing muscle mass also creates a drop in your metabolism. Think of muscle mass as our ‘engines’. If you want to boost that metabolism back up, start a weight training program, which revs up our physical engines. Adding muscle to your body, is like adding high octane gas to our body’s engines! More muscle, more ‘horsepower’, more metabolism—and more energy!

Men who are looking to replace their declining levels of testosterone and DHEA will be happy to know—just 12 weeks of strength training significantly increases levels of free testosterone and DHEA. Testosterone and DHEA (a pre-cursor to testosterone) not only helps men in the bedroom, but it also benefits the body’s ability to burn fat, but it helps prevent heart attacks, and helps with feelings of empowerment, confidence and mental clarity as well. And ladies, this is for us too! Women actually need testosterone and DHEA for libido, mental clarity, confidence and ability to burn fat too!

We don’t need to set a goal of looking like fitness models to feel like our workouts are paying off—simply working out consistently will improve your health, your fitness AND your appearance. Strength training, aerobic training or HIIT will not only help you start to burn off some of that body fat, but your muscles will become a bit more defined, you will stand a little taller and walk with a bit more confidence too.

Exercise will help your body to burn off that dreaded belly fat as well. Exercise scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that healthy men who did 20 minutes of daily weight training had less of an age-related increase in abdominal fat compared with men who spent the same amount of time doing aerobic activities.

Exercise also improves your skin tone and helps you avoid the droopy skin look. We women especially hate that droopy skin/fat on the backs of our upper arms, but if you build up and strengthen those arm muscles, you can firm up this area, and have nicely defined arms. And it works for all those other areas of your body prone to drooping too! Because exercise speeds up your circulation and flushes out toxins, your skin begins to glow as well.

A study of almost 6,000 adults in the U.S., showed that those who exercise regularly are younger on a cellular level than those who lead sedentary lifestyles. Researchers can look at the telomeres on your chromosomes to determine how fast or slow your cells are aging. Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of your chromosomes in each of your cells. Telomeres are a little like those plastic ends on shoelaces that keep them from unraveling. Every time our cells divide, the telomeres shorten. When the telomeres become too small, the cells die, which is a big part of how we age. Short telomeres are related to many age-related diseases, including cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and cardiovascular disease.

In the study, an exercise science professor from Brigham Young University compared the telomere lengths in those who did regular vigorous exercise and those who were sedentary. His conclusion was startling: the more physically active we are, the less our biological aging. In other words, exercise truly does slow down our biological aging clock.

In fact, vigorous physical activity can take about ten years off your age, and moderate physical activity can turn back the clock about seven years. Who doesn’t want to be 7-10 years younger??

The best thing is, you don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to reverse the clock; it only takes a minimum of 30-40 minutes of running or other moderate to vigorous exercise five days a week.

One of the biggest and best new forms of exercise to hit the mainstream is HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training. This is a fast-paced, intense form of exercise that creates the biggest effect in the shortest amount of time. HIIT has been known to burn the most calories and increase overall fitness in the shortest period of time. HIIT exercise works like this—it alternates short intervals of maximum effort combined with several short recovery times. Often those intervals are 3-5 minutes or less of hard exercise with a couple minutes of rest. There are many different varieities of HIIT workouts, but they all have the same benefits. HIIT can boost your metabolism for hours, melt off fat, build muscle, and maximize those awesome exercise endorphins that give you that wonderful exercise ‘high’.

Now, the Mayo Clinic also says HIIT can stop the aging clock as well. The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, involved 72 sedentary adults in two age groups—young (18 to 30) and older (65 to 80). The participants were assigned to one of three 12-week workout routines: high-intensity interval cycling, strength training with weights, or a combined strength-training and cycling plan for three months.

The HIIT training plan required three days of cycling with four, 4-minute high-intensity intervals and 3-minute recovery periods), and two days of steady, brisk treadmill walking. The strength-training group performed upper- and lower-body exercises twice a week, while the combined-training group worked out five days a week at a steady state, and for less time.

At the end of the study period, all three groups had gained lean muscle mass and improved their aerobic capacity. But the HIIT group had noticeable changes at the cellular level. Younger volunteers experienced a 49% boost in mitochondrial capacity—the cell’s ability to take in oxygen and produce energy—while the older age group had a dramatic 69% increase!

Mitochondria are our cells’ powerhouses and are important to vitality, oxygen-burning capability metabolism, and energy. In essence, the health of our cells, and our bodies (which are made up of cells) is directly tied to the function of our mitochondria.

The bottom line is that adding short bursts of high intensity exercise is a great way to boost the benefits of exercise even more. Even finding a path where you can run for short bursts or pedaling your bike up hilly sections in a road will work. Obviously, you want to gradually ease into this type of exercise. There are many different types of HIIT workouts online as well.

What if you could do something that would immediately improve your mood, your focus and your memory while protecting your brain from Alzheimer’s, dementia, ADD/ADHD, and banish depression and anxiety? That’s exercise!

According to neuroscientist, Wendy Suzuki, exercise actually helps your prefrontal cortex which is involved in focus, attention, personality and judgement, to improve and grow, improving your capacity for focus and improving your mood. And what’s more, exercise helps to increase your long- and short-term memory.

A single 30-minute workout increases your ‘happy’ brain chemicals of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline, improves your focus and attention as well as your reaction times. Exercise actually helps your brain make new brain cells and helps your brain to expand and become stronger. And these benefits stick with you!

Your body changes for the better, your health improves, your metabolism improves, your moods improve, you gain confidence, you move better, you feel stronger, you stand up straighter, and your whole life improves with regular exercise.

Don’t ever feel like it is too late! All of these benefits happen, no matter what your age. We don’t have to become fitness models or superathletes, we just have to start moving and start exercising. It only takes 3-4 times a week of 30-40 minutes to make this work. (Of course, if you want to go longer or harder that’s even better!)

So, start now–whether it’s simply walking, running, cycling, strength training, or High Intensity Interval Training—or any combination of the above exercises. You will feel better–mentally, physically and emotionally–and your body and brain physically change for the better as well.

In the words of neuroscientist, Wendy Suzuki,

“Bringing exercise into your life will change your life for the better making you happier and more productive. You can actually CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY of your life for the better–and those around you.”

Don’t wait, start now. It’s never too late!

If you find this article interesting, our friend Steve Holman shows you what exercises can SLOW the aging process, and which ones actually can accelerate it.

This article shows you how to AVOID the exercises that accelerate aging in your body…

References
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/weight-training-appears-key-to-controlling-belly-fat/
http://www.shrinkinguy.com/blog/5-anti-aging-benefits-of-strength-training
https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_suzuki_the_brain_changing_benefits_of_exercise?language=en
https://www.newsweek.com/exercise-anti-aging-younger-cellular-level-telomeres-607228
https://dailyburn.com/life/fitness/strength-training-aging-study-100714/
https://www.fasebj.org/doi/abs/10.1096/fj.13-245480?journalCode=fasebj
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743517301470?via%3Dihub
https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/43/6/748/2812353
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(17)30099-2

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