Turn Back Time: Recovering From Not Enough Sleep/Too Much Fun 😵
If I could reach the stars, I'd give them all to you. But how about some tips instead?
3 min read
WELL ON HEELS
👠 This week’s shoutout to the badass-est of the healthy ladies goes to none other than Cher, the Grand Dame of aging beautifully with the perfect recipe of grace and sass, in honor of her new book which is 100% on my Christmas list (in case Santa is a subscriber…🎅🏻). She switched up her diet in her forties and eliminated cheese and booze, enabling her to cruise through to her late seventies, where she’s still lifting weights and Zumba-ing, and the proof is in the mesh leotard.
Stage whisper: If anyone knows how I can get her one of my Well on Heels tees, please see me after class. (sale extended til this weekend, get yours now!)
LIVER COME BACK TO ME
For those of us in the “moderation in all things” camp (bravo Cher, but a cheese plate is my Roman Empire til further notice), ‘tis the season when things get festive and our healthy routines go temporarily out the window. I’m all for live your life, seize the cheese, etc. but also believe in calling in extra help along the way. If you choose to raise a glass, be responsible, and consider some of the tools out there to support your system:
🥦 Load up on sulfur-rich foods like broccoli and cauliflower, which contain high amounts of the powerful antioxidant glutathione, which helps reduce oxidative stress on the liver, your body’s natural detox organ.
🍷 Get a little help from your friends at Z’Biotics, your pre-alcohol BFF for better mornings. Probiotics decrease alcohol toxins in the gut, and this elixir is formulated for just that. Use code ALLTOOWELL for 10% off!
💊 Add supplements that have been shown to support liver health: glutathione (see above), B Vitamins, NAC, and milk thistle
HERE’S A TIP, MAKE THE CHANGE
That’s a lot of tips already, but if we agree that the Holy Grail of good health is consistently good sleep, then you know how upsetting it can be when it eludes you just when you need it most. A night of ragged sleep due to monkey brain, late night sugar cookies, too much mulled wine, or all of the above can leave you feeling shattered the next day, and, sad trombone alert: it takes approximately four days to fully recover from just one hour of lost sleep. In a cruel and ironic twist, I found myself awake at 3am pondering this fact before publishing this post. 😔
After one of those nights:
DO:
☕️ + 💤 If you MUST nap (not universally recommended): do it as early in the day as possible, limit it to 25 minutes, and consider the nappuccino.
🧠 Creatine monohydrate: yes, the sports supplement favored by our strong guys and gals- studies have shown that a double dose of this natural compound found in high protein foods can significantly sharpen cognition after lost sleep.
🌞 Get those rays! Get out in as much sunlight as possible, especially first thing in the morning and in late afternoon, to get your rhythm back in sync. It might be frigid outside but suck it up, it works.
7:58am. Mostly sunny with a chance of grumpy.
DON’T:
🙅🏻♀️ Go to bed super early to compensate—this cannot be stressed enough. 30 to 60 minutes at the most, but any more than that will just confuse your circadian clock even more.
🙅🏻♀️ Make a habit out of “catching up on the weekends.” You can make up for a bad night here and there, but chronic sleep debt can’t be “caught up” by logging extra hours every weekend. If it’s an ongoing issue, you may need to consult a sleep specialist.
✌🏻That’s all, folks. Wishing you good sleeps, and remember: THIS is 43.
