Why is Eat. Lift. Sleep. Repeat so important?

Yep these three important components make up an all round healthy daily routine. Why? Lets find out!

 

Eat:

I mean eat meats, vegetables, some fruits, little starch and NO sugar for your body to work optimally.

You need to make sure you give your body the nutrients it needs to function including good fats.

To elaborate a little protein and fats found in meat, seafood and eggs fuels muscle growth and also many of the skin, hair, nail and brain cells of our body that are protein and fat based.

They also make up amino acids in our body, which are crucial for our body to make its own proteins from.

There are 9 essential amino acids that we can only acquire through eating. Many sources of meat have all 9 essential amino acids vital to health. Eating vegetables also provide essential nutrients and carbohydrates for energy.

A major contributor to many of the health issues we see today is insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is caused by constantly spiking insulin levels by having a consistently high blood glucose level, which we see from eating foods that have processed sugar in them.

Therefore, sugar should be avoided completely or as much as possible. That means basically anything in a package from sauces to juices to yogurt.

It is crazy how much sugar sneaks its way into our food. Check your labels or just eat fresh! So what about natural sugars?

Starch and fruit should be eaten for energy if you are for example working out. A piece of fruit before you workout can be good to give you the energy you need in your workout without spiking insulin levels.

The best advice I can give is to eat fresh foods, that are natural and avoid sugar! If you do that you really shouldn't have to worry!

Find more out about eating clean here

Sleep:

Why is this important? 

Well, dear friends, it is crucial to your health and overall performance. If you are getting less than 7 hours sleep every day you will spike your cortisol levels which will, in turn, spike your insulin levels increase your chance of many health risks associated with stress and bad diet.

Who, what, where, when, what?????????

Ok lets back up a bit. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which is released when you are stressed like a flight or fight reflex so you can continue to do function.

However when constantly released because you, for example, don't get enough sleep can cause havoc in your body.

A few effects of the constant onslaught of cortisol include high blood pressure, blunts insulin sensitivity increasing your chance of insulin resistance, increase of wrinkles and can screw up your immune system.

If you need to decrease your cortisol there are a few activities you can partake in to lower these levels.

If you find yourself exhausted when you wake up, overly stressed by traffic, too many deadlines to handle at work and not enough time to spend with family, friends or yourself?

Sometimes life pressures can take away from our time to relax and be well. Unfortunately, this is crucial to our health and well-being.

Activities such as spending time with family and friends, exercise, getting outside and in general relaxing can help reduce cortisol levels to normal.

You may argue you don't have time to, however, I would argue for your health and vitality and your own happiness you should make time.

Swap sitting in front of the TV for an exercise class with your friends, staying up late on your laptop for sleep, playing with your phone for a small walk. Enjoy your life with other people, being active and being healthy!

Click here to find out how you can have better sleep

Lift:

So there are some very obvious gains to be made from weightlifting.

Male or female.

And girls if you think you're going to get bulky seriously it's a myth. You have to take testosterone and steroids to look like a crazy muscle woman here are some pictures of women who do weightlifting and look AMAZING. Get over it. Go lift. Thanks.

If you want to know the benefits of weightlifting, here they are:

Increased metabolism (to help regulate and lose weight)

Increased bone density (to decrease the osteoporosis and brittle bones)

Muscular strength (decrease muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, general weakness, arthritis and many other symptoms of general lack of health)

Decreases visceral fat (inside fat rather than outside fat). If you're a healthy weight but eat rubbish it is likely you have high fat on the inside that is fat around your organs which can only be seen by and MIR.

This type of fat can lead to many diet based health concerns such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancers

Increases coordination and stimulates the brain increases athletes' ability in other sports.

Read why women should lift weights here

These are great benefits, which are greater than cardio alone. To improve your overall vitality and wellness, lifting weights is a great way to improve almost every aspect of your health.

So eat, lift, sleep, and repeat for a healthy, happy lifestyle!