There is a simple but powerful ingredient to losing weight and keeping it off.
It’s something that not a lot of fitness and nutrition experts seem to talk about.
No, it’s not what you eat, and it’s not exercise.
It’s sleep. 😴
Can you lose weight while you have poor/insufficient sleep? Of course.
But you will lose muscle, not fat. Losing muscle sucks, regardless of your gender or how fit you are. On the other hand, losing fat is awesome.
So before you get exercising and eating less, you need to fix your sleep.
If you start ona diet and/or exercise regimen without fixing your sleep first, it’ll only get you so far.
And chances are, whatever weight you lose, it’ll come back on soon enough.
Fixing your sleep BEFORE you start to lose weight is going to be considerably easier than doing it while losing weight.
So how do you fix your sleep?
It’s actually not that hard.
If you have a habit of using your phone until going to sleep, try turning it off earlier and earlier in the evening.
Try shutting it off half an hour before going to bed. Bonus points for leaving it in another room.
Can you do this for a week without messing up?
Sweet! Now try moving the goalpost: turn your phone off one hour before bedtime.
Can you do it consistently for a week or two? Now turn it off another half hour earlier.
Repeat until the last 2 – 3 hours before bedtime are CONSISTENTLY screen-free.
What if you relapse and end up taking your phone to bed again?
No big deal! Just dial things down to the last sustainable level: were you able to turn off your phone one hour before bed for a week before you slipped back? Revert to that for another week or two.
Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it before: no TV in the bedroom!