It's time for your 8 week progress check! Take those measurements and photos, and upload them here. Only 4 more weeks to go!!
Now that you understand your food and water intake, you must get caught up on sleep! Getting adequate amounts of sleep is just as important as the types of food you're eating, when it comes to hormonal balance and body composition.
Inadequate sleep is one of the largest contributing factors to consistently elevated cortisol levels, aka, STRESS! The result of elevated cortisol levels on a consistent basis are high blood pressure, under-active or overactive immune system (autoimmune responses or allergies, anyone?), weakened connective tissue strength (which means wrinkles!), and blunted insulin sensitivity (inching you closer to diabetes). If that's not enough to make you eager to get to bed, just one single night of missed or inadequate sleep is sufficient to make you as insulin resistant as a type 2 diabetic. Say what?! ONE NIGHT OF INADEQUATE SLEEP IS ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE YOU AS INSULIN RESISTANT AS A TYPE 2 DIABETIC! Insulin resistance results in MORE insulin being released to control blood sugar, which means fat gain and inflammation. The CDC has even announced that shift work (because of the lack of sleep) is a known carcinogen. That's all some pretty scary $h*t. Good luck losing fat, defying wrinkles or staying healthy while sleep deprived!
We all need to get a MINIMUM of 7 hours of sleep every night. I know, this is a tough one for me, too. In fact it is THE toughest goal for me in this entire program! Getting up at 4:15am for the 5am class means that I need to be in bed, lights out, by 9:15pm. But it needs to be prioritized, and I learned that the hard way...
In the summer of 2015, I had a grand mal seizure, and we have discovered that sleep deprivation was a trigger. I'm not saying that you'll have a seizure if you don't get enough sleep... but I AM saying not to wait for a scary wake up call before you learn to set everything else aside, and just get to bed on time. I know, there are kids to tend to, kitchens to clean up, shows to watch, yada yada... I don't care. My kids have learned that I am officially off duty at 9pm and if they need help with homework or studying, it must be done by 9pm. Moving my schedule up has forced my kids to move theirs up, as well. Some nights, I even go to bed before my kids do, simply because I refuse to wait on them to get their chores finished and be in bed and ready for tuck-ins. If they aren't in bed by 9pm, they're on their own because I'm out! Of course, my kids are old enough to handle getting to bed by themselves, so this is what has worked for me. My kids don't get me after 9pm, but in return, they get a much better, healthier, less stressed out version of me the next day! I'm doing them a favor by cutting them off at night!
This week, your goal is to prioritize your own sleep over EVERYTHING else at night! You are required to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep every single of night. If it doesn't seem doable... do it anyway. MAKE IT WORK. This one is super important, guys!
Summary
1- meal plan and prep
2- eat slowly and stop at 80% full
3- eat 3-4 meals daily: all anytime meals on non workout days, and up to 2 post workout meals on workout days
4- 100 oz of water daily
5- record daily: AT meals, PWO meals, freebies, and water intake
6- fill in with supplements on any days you don't get in all of your meal requirements
7- get at least 7 hours of sleep every night