That of all the amazing changes I encourage that despite my love of exercise and nutrition that I recommend. I find my self recommending improved sleep duration or quality to people who just “can’t figure out this whole healthy lifestyle thing”.⁣
⁣
Especially if you feel like you never have energy to even think about the gym, making a decision around food feels exhausting and/or you are RAVENOUS (assuming you’re eating enough) — sleep might help address these issues in one of our favorite things to do!⁣

When you don’t get enough sleep 😴 internally this can do things like impair our insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism and had even been shown to decrease our resting energy expenditure (calories we burn just to stay alive).⁣
⁣
This is coupled with the feeling we all know too well of extra hunger and less drive to exercise paired with decreased resistance to “unhealthy food choices” and desire to spontaneously move.⁣
⁣
Essentially tipping our beloved over simplified “calories in calories out” to the left. ⁣
⁣
You aren’t broken or crazy if a crappy night of sleep ends up with you eating pizza at sams club at 10 am on a Sunday (oh wait… is that just me???). It actually causes a suppression in your “fullness”’hormone and an increase in “hunger” hormone.⁣
⁣
All this to say — being hungry or moving less IS NOT inherently bad. But when we’re looking at the context of over all health eating more processed or “excess” (in context) due to “mixed up signals” or increase sedentary activity (because we’re tired!) can possibly contribute to downstream mechanisms related to impaired metabolism.⁣
⁣

Some research shows that exercise can help restore some of the impairments on glucose metabolism though! So that’s good news 🙌🏻⁣. A workout when tired STILL COUNTS 🏋🏼‍♀️
⁣
Overall — improving your sleep is a habit worth investing in! I have a few tips here! For more specific behavior changes (because change is hard) I’m gonna send you to @karinnordinphd page .
⁣
How many hours of sleep do you need to function best?! I need my 7-9 & it’s my true super power/secret weapon (+ coffee 😉 ) ⚡️!