Adult Napping: Helpful or Harmful?

Napping is just for babies; Naping throughout the day causes me to be less productive and MORE tired

Yup, I hear you and I sued to think the same things. Actually, this is the Stigmas around adult napping that most people have. The reason being, I found for myself and probably the most of the world, is that we are just not educated enough about napping and the benefits. 

There are 3 types of napping:

Planned Napping: This is when you may nap before you get tired if you know you will be up longer than your usual.

Emergency Napping: Occurs when you find yourself so dang tired that you can't continue to function. Usually when driving or operating something. I don't think I am the only one who pulled over on a long road trip to cat nap. 

Habitual Napping: Is when a person taps a nap at the same time each day. Most young kids are like this as they have routine or even someone who takes a quick siesta after lunch each day.


Are you a napper? If so let me know in the comments which one you are. 

Benefits of Napping:

• Naps can enhance performance, restore alertness and reduce mistakes and accidents
• Ease stress and help with memory.
• Naps can restore alertness directly following the nap and even into a few hours after
• Napping can have some psychological benefits like feeling a sense of luxury, a mini-vacation, and can be an easy way to get rejuvenation. 
• Naps can help you be more consistent in your everyday tasks

Although there are great benefits there are some negatives as well:

• Sleep Inertia
• Nighttime sleeping problems

Tips on how to figure out if napping should be something for you to start:

If you are experiencing new fatigue or tiredness maybe from a switch in work hours , pregnancy, illness, #NewMama life you may want to figure out how to incorporate a nap time into your daily routine. 

If you know you are going to experience sleep loss that night then might be a good idea to get some shut eye or rest.

If you just feel it is something you want to try then by all means follow the tips below on how to nap in a way that will benefit you.

Tips for nappers:

You want to create a restful sleep environment - nap in a dark place comfortable room temp and very few distractions.

Keep your naps short - ideally you want to aim for 10-20mins anything longer can create a negative effect on your body and make you more groggy and less functional. The ideal time is 15min cat nap.

Nap in the early afternoon- I don't know about you but usually around 2-3pm I start to have "stupid" brain. Meaning I basically stop functioning. (My usual wake up time is 3:30am because I am the most functional early morning before the pitter patter of little feet followed "mama, mama, mama, mama," starts). So usually after lunch is a quiet time for everyone and it does help a lot.

Now that you have an idea about napping are you going to give it a try? Remember you don't need to actually fall asleep to rest and get the benefits. Mindful breathing, meditation in a similar environment as you would for napping will also be beneficial as well, unless you are dog gone tired and then please have a power nap for the sake of all those around you :)

Mindful Eating

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, and non judgementally." 

Optimum Nutrition is essential for overall wellness. It is the process of providing the body with sufficient nutrients through food to maintain proper health and wellness.These nutrients include, water, enzymes, minerals, adaptogens, vitamins, essential fatty acids, carbohydrates and phytonutrients.  A proper diet provides us will all of these in the right portions for our ever changing bodies. There is no fixed diet that will work for this. 
It is so important to LISTEN to our body and what it needs, but listening is much different than turning to comfort food, reaching for the easiest thing as we react to the emotional unfulfilled needs. 

Now a days we are always on the phone, watching TV, listening to music and not really paying attention to what we are actually doing or putting into our bodies. More so WHY we turn to certain things over others. We are living in the multitasking world and as some people pride themselves on being wicked multitaskers, it isn't all that great to do for your overall wellbing.

Creating mindful eating habits will greatly help with providing your body with what it needs most: to be nourished properly. 

Here are some simple guidelines to help you distinguish between mindless and (more) mindful eating and bring our bodies and minds back together.

1. Let your body catch up with your brain - eating rapidly past full and ignoring your body’s signals vs. slowing down and eating and stopping when your body says it is full. Slowing down is one of the best ways we can get our mind and body to communicate what we really need for nutrition. The body sends a satiation signal about 20 minutes after the brain, which is why we often unconsciously overeat! So, sit down to eat, chew each bite 25 times, set your fork down between bites, etc!

2. Know your body’s personal hunger signals - are you responding to an emotional want or responding to your body’s needs? Often we listen first to our minds, but we actually might be MORE mindful if we tune into our bodies first. Rather than just eating when we get emotional signals (whether that’s stress, sadness, frustration, loneliness, or even just boredom), we can listen to our bodies. Is your stomach growling, energy low, or feeling a little light-headed? True mindful eating is actually listening deeply to our body’s signals for hunger!

3. Understand your motivations - eating foods that are emotionally comforting vs. eating foods that are nutritionally healthy. This is another tricky balance and, ideally, we find nourishing foods that are also satisfying and comforting. As we practice eating healthier and a greater variety of foods, we are less inclined to binge on our comfort foods, and more inclined to enjoy healthy foods, ultimately finding many foods mentally and physically satisfying as opposed to just a few.

4. Connect more deeply with your food - Considering where food comes from vs. thinking of food as an end product. Unless you’re foraging for your food on the regular, there’s a good chance you’ve become disconnected from your food. Many of us don’t even consider where a meal comes from beyond the supermarket packaging. However, eating offers an incredible opportunity for us to connect more deeply to the natural world, the elements, and to each other! As you consider everything that went into what you’re eating, it becomes effortless to experience and express gratitude to all the people who gave their time and effort, the elements of the universe that contributed their share, our friends or ancestors who shared recipes, and even the beings who may have given their lives to a part of creating this meal. With just a little more mindfulness like this, we might begin to make wiser choices about sustainability and health in our food, not just for us but for the whole planet.
   
   What has really helped me with all this is using portion control containers + learning about the proper food groups, figuring out my emotional connection with food and facing my bad relationship with it. Once I was able to get that under control I was really able to create the mindful eating habit.
   The Ultimate Portion Fix is program that helps with that EXACTLY.  
   You’ll learn so much to make it more than a strategy to help you lose a few pounds.
   Portion control is just the beginning. Autumn Calabrese makes it so compelling that you will achieve a whole new, more MINDFUL way of eating and thinking about food.
   This includes strategies that have helped her win trophies in competition, heal her own health issues, end sugar addiction for thousands of clients, and serve hundreds of thousands of customers in losing weight and achieving their healthiest selves.
   The Ultimate Portion Fix is about giving your body exactly what it needs to operate at its best! No starving. No random points that disregard food source. No fasting. No trendy fad. This is how you enjoy food, and get the most out of it because it feeds your body what it needs in the right ratio!
   And finally, the biggie: This program is going to help you stop poisoning yourself with so much heavily processed food.
   The tools shared will help you:
   • Break your sugar addiction: You’ll learn WHY you’re addicted to sugar (because knowledge is power) and how you can break the addiction. I’m talking grocery lists, meal plans, and easy-to-make recipes that emphasize whole-food ingredients, so you can finally cut down on processed foods without cutting out the joy of eating.
   • Get the whole family healthy: Those days of prepping one meal for the kids and one for the adults are over. With The Ultimate Portion Fix, you’ll learn everything from what and how much your kids should be eating, to getting them to eat enough fruits and veggies, and even how to end the “I’m only eating chicken nuggets for dinner” battle once and for all.
   • Feed yourself for performance: You’ll find out how you can customize your eating plan to your goal, whether it’s to lose those stubborn last 10 pounds or build muscle. These proven nutrition strategies are designed to maximize your nutrition so you can maximize your results — whether you’re paleo, vegan, or gluten-free.
     
     The entire program is explained in 30 new videos covering everything about the containers with deep dives into the principles of the plan so you can really grasp each concept. No more food guessing, only results.
   • Full set of color-coded containers
   • The Ultimate Portion Fix Program Guide
   • Tracking: On iOS, users can find container, weight, and water tracking in the Beachbody Nutrition+ App. On Android, users can track these items within the Beachbody On Demand App.
   • Fixate Volume 2 Cookbook with 102 new recipes for a total of over 300 recipes including the Fixate Cooking show
   • 75 Healthy Lunch Ideas for Kids PDF, a quick-and-easy resource for parents who want to make sure their kids are getting a variety of healthy foods and not eating the same things over and over again.
   • Access to more than 200 Fixate Cooking Videos
   • Beachbody Insulated Tote Bag with containers, ice packs, and plenty of storage so you can meal prep and take your food with you to stay on track
   Oh, and one more thing…
   When you purchase The Ultimate Portion Fix program in the month of March, you’ll get an invitation to join Autumn Calabrese via livestream as they reshoot  21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix EXTREME workouts — live and in real time! You do not need to be a Beachboy on Demand Member to access the videos.
   
   
   
   If you would like to join our #EatToNourish Group to get all the deeds leading up to Launch Day March.18, just fill out this form and I will be in touch VIA email. 
   *By joining the group for info there is no obligation to purchase. It is just meant to be an informative group to share the ins and outs of this program.