Little Habits to break so you can lose weight

1. Listening to music. Soft, appealing sounds encourage you to dine longer and order more food. Loud, fast music speeds eating, meaning you scarf what's on your plate before you realize that you're full. INSTEADTurn off the music at home and focus on the pleasure you get from each bite, or fill up on good conversation instead of dessert during restaurant meals.

2. Standing. Those who eat out of plastic containers at a kitchen counter consume up to 50% more the next time they eat than those who sit at a table and eat off a plate. Standing makes the meal feel more like a snack, which people consider less satisfying, say researchers. INSTEADEat at a proper place setting, even if you're only munching on hummus and carrot sticks, to help make it feel like a meal.

3. Eating a little of everything. People given 24 flavors of jelly beans ate twice as many as those given only 6 flavors, according to the Journal of Consumer Research. A larger assortment appears more interesting and encourages you to sample extra. INSTEAD Survey the food at a party or buffet and decide what you want before filling a plate.

Fresh Fruit: Banana, Common, raw, peeled

Fresh Fruit: Banana, Common, raw, peeled

Calories (cal) 172
Total Fats (g) 0
Carbs (g) 40
Protein (g) 3

SLEEP to SKINNY

wow if it were only that easy
I found a great article while looking for ways to go to sleep and stay that way :)
http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/jacob-teitelbaum-md/sleep-your-way-skinny

Sleep Your Way to Skinny
By Jacob Teitelbaum, MD
Obesity is an epidemic and has many causes. One of them is that the average night’s sleep has dropped from 9 hours a night to 6.75 hours a night over the last 100 years, and sleep is responsible for many weight and appetite controlling hormones, such as the growth hormones, leptin, phrelin and ghrelin. So can you really sleep your way to skinny? Many studies suggest you can.

How much sleep is optimal for staying thin? Between 7 and 9 hours is best. Less than 7 hours increases the risk of obesity approximately 30% and adds an extra 5 pounds on average.

According to Jean-Philippe Chaput, MSc, from Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues, "Current treatments for obesity have been largely unsuccessful in maintaining long-term weight loss, suggesting the need for new insight into the mechanisms that result in altered metabolism and behavior and may lead to obesity."

The increase in body weight in the US population has been paralleled by a reduction in sleep times. For the past 4 decades, daily sleep duration has decreased by 1.5 to 2 hours, and the proportion of young adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night has more than doubled, from 15.6% in 1960 to 37.1% in 2002.

Studies in adults and children have repeatedly shown that reduced sleep is associated with increased weight.

To determine the relationship between sleep duration and weight, researchers followed 276 adults aged 21 to 64 who were enrolled in the Quebec Family Study, a 6-year study in a community setting. The investigators compared weight gain relative to 3 categories of sleep duration ― short (5-6 hours), average (7-8 hours), and long (9-10 hours).

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers gained 4.4 pounds more in a 6-year period. At 6 years, short-duration and long-duration sleepers were 35% and 25% more likely to experience a 12-pound weight gain, respectively, compared to those who slept 7 to 8 hours a night.

Compared with average-duration sleepers, short-duration sleepers had a 27% increased risk for the development of obesity, and long-duration sleepers had a 21% increase in risk. Adjustment for caloric intake and physical activity did not affect these connections.

Love & Blessings,
Dr. T

Step 4

All health improvements benefit from keeping a schedule. Whether that's working out everyday before work, stretching every night before bed or automating your meals, creating a schedule helps you to be prepared, and therefore, less susceptible to excuses, lapses and temptations.

This is your schedule:
Set a bedtime that works with your schedule, both during the week and on weekends, and stick to it
4-6 hours before bed, do not eat or drink anything containing caffeine
2-3 hours before bed, do not eat a full meal
60 minutes before bed, turn off all electronics (unless you are a doctor on call, blackberries, cell phones and pagers should not enter the bedroom) and dim the lights. In the middle of your brain is something called the pineal gland. It releases melatonin, the hormone that readies the mind and body for sleep in response to lowered light levels.
30 minutes before bed, have something to drink. Water is preferable, but warm milk can help soothe you to sleep.
5 minutes before bed, make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet and slightly cool. The ideal sleeping temperature is 65F.
Wake up at the same time every day, during the week and on weekends
Helpful hint: Reserve the bedroom for sleep and sex only. You are strengthening the association between your bed and sleep. Do not bring work into the bed, watch TV, talk on the telephone or perform any other wakeful activities.

***i always thought that reading before bed was a good thing but from reading this i am not convinced. Turning off all electrical things is a challenge, i now get off the computer at 10:30 - 11 shower, pack lunch iron, and then hit the hay, if i am waiting for hubby to get home i might turn on the DS and play a few puzzles (i am thinking that this isn't a good idea) but i am finding that being unplugged is a good thing and No cell phone in the bedroom and we have not turned on the bedroom tv in a few months so now i am use to sleeping without noise ... there might just be something to this preparing for bed thing :)

Step 3

Recently, the National Sleep Foundation asked people what kept them up at night, and it's no surprise that the most popular answers included financial worries, job stress and relationship stress. At the most basic biological level, the brain perceives these problems as threats it needs to process, deal with and solve; it can't turn off its alert system so that your sleep drive can take over.

Eliminating the stress in your life might seem like an impossible task. And it is. Instead of eliminating stress, trying minimizing it by employing effective coping mechanisms. For some, stress can be handled with meditation, yoga, walking or jogging. Ten-thousand steps a day (combined with a healthy diet) will help you lose weight, but stress reduction can be gained in short bursts of activity, like 10 quick jumping jacks or push-ups, or stepping away from your workday stress with a short walk. For more tips on coping with stress in your life, visit the Stress-Proof Your Life Challenge.

Bookend each night's rest with some light physical exercise: before you go to bed, do a soothing, 20-minute yoga routine to stretch your muscles and free them from the stress of the day, each morning, try Dr. Oz's 7-minute workout.

Step Two - Sleep

Step 2: Keep a Sleep Diary

Part of your sleep surveillance includes keeping a sleep diary. Get a handle on your sleep patterns and expose unhealthy habits. Make sure to note:
What you are doing before bed
The time you went to bed
When you woke up
How long it took you to fall asleep
What time you awoke
The time you spend, if any, napping during the day

***this may prove to be a bit challenging for me. I already have a bunch of notebooks and i blog about my day. I have never noted how long it took me to go to sleep on occassion i have said that i saw every hr on the hr ... which stinks and i do not nap unless i am sick.

Step One - SLEEP

Step 1: Go On Sleep Surveillance
Now's the time to identify your biggest lifestyle choices that could be affecting how you sleep. Are you a smoker? If so, then this is just another reason why it's time to quit. Several studies have linked cigarette smoking with instances of disturbed sleep. This includes the effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on sleep, the link between smoking and snoring and a tendency for non-smokers to be more alert and energized in the morning.

Giving up tobacco is the single most important thing you can do for your overall health. We're not asking you to go cold turkey - we're not even asking you to do it alone. The success rate of quitting jumps from 2-5% to 30-65% with professional help. Follow Dr. Oz's Kick the Habit Challenge for a flexible timeline that eases you out of nicotine addiction.

Smoking isn't the only lifestyle factor that can drastically affect how you're sleeping; alcohol consumption, anxiety, stress, being overweight or obese, lack of physical activity, certain medications and caffeine intake can all prohibit a sound sleep.

Examine your daily routine. Do you have coffee everyday at 4pm to beat the afternoon slump? Do you have more than 1 alcoholic beverage a day? Do you eat dinner after 8pm? Do you workout? Do you generally go to bed/wake up at the same time each day? Take note of these behaviors. Identifying them now will help you along your search for sleep.

****my factors
anxiety
stress
overweight
caffeine
I do often eat a late dinner
I do go to bed at approximately the same time daily