How to Sleep to Get Lean
Are you getting enough good quality sleep?
The way you sleep at night can either help your progress or hinder it.
How to Sleep to Get Lean
Sleep is one of the most overlooked aspects of getting leaner and healthier.
We talk a lot about hormones and metabolism on this show, and about all the food and fitness related things you can do to optimize them, but we don’t often talk about one of the most important daily things you need to do to become a fat burning muscle building machine. – We’re talking sleep.
Without sleep you’ll have a hard time building muscle, and an even harder time burning off unwanted “stubborn” body fat. Sleep affects your hormones and your hormones affect your metabolism.
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A lot of times people think they are doing everything right to live lean, but they don’t realize that efforts in the gym and even in the kitchen can be undermined when sleep is missing.
Not to be dramatic, because every action you take to get fit and healthy has some impact, but without the right kind of sleep to tie it all together you will find yourself frustrated and probably wondering why you’re not seeing better results.
Disclaimer: I know that getting the perfect night’s sleep every night is unrealistic. – I’m a new mom with a 14 month old baby. I know better than anyone that a full night’s sleep is a luxury!
But as with everything, perfection is not even the goal here. Progress is.
And there are plenty of things you can do to start making progress in the sleep department.
You need to train yourself to sleep well, just like you train your muscles and your eating habits, your sleep does get better over time with the right plan.
There are lots of tips out there that can help you improve your sleep. Things like blackout curtains, sleep masks, ear plugs, or white noise machines..
But here’s the honest truth about what I did in the past and what I still do today that helps me get quality sleep.
- I drink hot herbal tea at night. – switching away from cold drinks, caffeinated, alcohol, or other types of beverages and drinking a warm herbal tea at night can help you start to feel sleepy and put you in a relaxed state of mind. I like herbal teas like chamomile, mint, and blends like sleepytime or bedtime tea.
- I do a work back to decide what time I need to be in bed. In the past I always had to be up super early for morning training clients, so if I knew my first session of the day started at 6 am, I’d have to be awake at 5 to allow for getting ready and travel time. So working back 8 hours from that I’d know I need to be asleep by 9pm.. That means in bed by at 8:30 to allow time for falling asleep. If you can wake up later than that then you can stay up later, but for anyone who has early wake up calls for work, you’ll need to learn to go to sleep earlier so you don’t sacrifice your health, fat burning or muscle building potential. It’s simply a choice, and a decision. Tell yourself what time you need to be in bed, then don’t make any excuses and just make it happen. At first it’s hard cuz you won’t feel sleepy yet, but the more you practice the easier it becomes.
- Allow set number of exceptions per week. Since we’re not in the business of being perfect, it’s important to acknowledge ahead of time that there will be times when it’s okay to get less than 8hrs perfect sleep. If you want to break your own rules on the weekends go ahead and do so, but just don’t break them so many times that it gets muddy and you completely lose sight of your goals in the first place. Also, having a set number of allowances will help you tell yourself.. Okay last night was an exception, so tonight needs to be on-point.
That’s pretty much it.
I also keep the temperature cool and the room as dark as possible, but other than those few things I never really had a hard time getting a solid night’s sleep. I know some people struggle more than others so if you’ve ever struggled with sleep and found a way to make it happen you should share your story in the comments below so it might help others.
Remember, proper sleep is absolutely key to your best health, fat loss and muscle building potential so don’t skip over it or treat it like it doesn’t matter. Take it seriously and start seeing better results within a few weeks.
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See you at the next episode,
Thanks for reading, and KEEP living lean!
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