Knowing Science Stuff is Neat

This morning I woke up and decided it wasn't a good day for me to go to CrossFit. I was sore from yesterday's Strongman training and I burned my finger cooking last night. Heavy hang cleans were probably not going to help me feel better. I'm trying to remember that exercise is fun and that I enjoy it and no one makes me go to the gym, and I can take a day off when I want. I got a little restless by noon and decided to go for an easy run on the Beltline.

Get in Bed or You'll Get Fat

No, sexual activity still doesn't qualify as your daily cardio, although I have yet to test this out with a heart rate monitor. To avoid getting fat, you need to get in bed and get more sleep. Sleep affects your weight.

The amount of sleep you get influences the production of the hormones leptin and ghrelin in your body. Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain that it is full. The less sleep you get, the less leptin your body produces. Ghrelin tells your body it is hungry. The less sleep you get, the more ghrelin your body produces. See the problem? When you're tired your body thinks it's hungry and keeps wanting more.

When I am sleep-deprived I can eat all day and not feel satisfied. I usually don't even notice until my pants start cutting of my circulation.  I almost never overeat on Mondays (unless I've had a Sunday Funday), but by Thursday I'm starving hours before lunch. Fridays are bad to begin with, and if I've gone out the night before, I can pretty much guarantee that I will eat three lunches.

So I challenge you to go to bed 45 minutes earlier every night. I struggle with this because Agent Hotchner's sexy grimace keeps me up watching Criminal Minds reruns, but I am going to work on that. If you keep a food journal, like I do, look for correlations between more sleep and better food choices.