12 Tips for Better Sleep

It's that Lent time of year again. Though I’m not very religious myself, I usually give something up for lent. This year, I’m instituting a No Screens in Bed rule. This isn't to say I’m not going to have a few nights of staying up too late watching cute puppy videos on youtube, but if I do, I won’t be in bed when I do it. And having to get out of my warm comfy bed to watch a youtube video is going to be a real deterrent for me.

But it works! The first time I did this on a weeknight, I managed to turn my typical 5-6 hours of sleep into 8 hours and 15 minutes of sleep.

In today’s society, many of us have problems with “turning off.” With all of the advances in technology that allows us immediate access to practically all of the information and entertainment you could want, we tend to have a constant stream of stimulation. We’re over stressing our brains.

Sleep is critical. Studies have shown that lack of sleep can have significant impact on your health. Some medical conditions related to sleep include: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, immune function, and the common cold.

“people who averaged less than seven hours of sleep a night were about three times more likely to develop cold symptoms than study volunteers who got eight or more hours of sleep when exposed to the cold-causing rhinovirus.” - Cohen S, et al. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold, Arch of Intern Med. 2009 Jan 12; 169 (1):62-67.

Not only is your physical health impacted, but also your mental health. Lack of sleep can increase stress, anxiety, sadness/depression, and mental exhaustion. In turn, your emotional and mental state can impact your ability to fall asleep and sleep soundly. (http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/whats-in-it-for-you)

Over the years, my dad and I have discussed sleep issues extensively. Here’s a compiled list of things you can do to improve your sleep and decrease the time required to fall asleep.

1. Use your bed only for sleep or sexy time (not that I do that, Dad!). This means no reading in bed, watching TV in bed, checking your phone in bed, eating in bed, etc. Your bed should be solely dedicated to sleep, otherwise you condition yourself to expect mental stimulation while in bed.
2. Make your bedroom your sleep sanctuary. Some options include: installing blackout curtains and soundproofing windows (or using an eye mask and ear plugs if those don’t drive you crazy), painting the walls a soothing color, getting newer/softer sheets, or even buying a more comfortable mattress. If you’re a neat freak and maybe have some obsessive-compulsive tendencies, make sure you always keep your room clean, so that you’re not stressing about a mess. Make your bed every day. My grandmother always told my father that he’d sleep better in a crisply made bed, and he told me the same thing growing up. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, but it makes a difference. I get a sense of joy from the neatness of freshly turned-down sheets and curling up with smoothed sheets around me.
3. Don’t eat a large meal within two hours of bed. Eating a small snack that’s low in fat, like an apple, will be digested relatively quickly - usually within an hour. If you eat a large meal, your body will still be digesting when you’re trying to fall asleep. Also, if you’re prone to heartburn or gastrointestinal reflux, lying down while food is in your stomach makes reflux more likely. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/ask-a-health-expert/is-it-true-i-shouldnt-eat-one-hour-before-bed/article550198/)
4. Create and follow a standard sleep schedule. Sorry, to break it to all you partiers out there, but this means no staying up into the wee hours of the night on the weekends and sleeping away half of the day. If you wake up at 6 a.m. during the week, you should wake up at 6 a.m. on the weekends, too. Not only is this useful for getting enough sleep on a daily basis, but also it’s beneficial if you’re prone to headaches - changing your sleep schedule can cause a migraine. This may be particularly bad for those of you in your 20s who haven’t quite reached the age where you’ve realized your body can’t keep up with your wild partying all the time. Another important fact to note is that you can’t “make up” all that lost sleep. Sure, if you slept badly last night, you could go to bed a bit earlier tonight to “make up” for a couple hours of lost sleep, but if you lose 2 hours a night during the work week, you can’t make up those 10 hours on the weekend. You’ll never get that sleep back.
5. Don’t take naps (unless you’re sick). This goes along with number 4. Taking a nap late in the afternoon can really mess with your sleep at night, because you most likely won’t be tired when it’s time for you to go to bed.
6. Establish an evening routine. What I mean is every night as you get ready for bed, you follow the same routine. 30 minutes before bed, I change into my PJs, wash my face (+ maybe do a face mask), brush my teeth, turn on my bedside lamp and turn off the overhead light, and then do my physical therapy stretches.
7. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, etc. I know a lot of people have said that some alcohol at night helps them fall asleep, but alcohol can prevent you from sleeping soundly. I know for me that I can pass out pretty quickly, but I tend to be fully away by 5 or 6 am the next morning, even if I only went to sleep a few hours before.
8. Don’t exercise right before bed. Yes, you should be exercising regularly, but doing it right before bed perks stimulates the body to secrete cortisol (stress hormone) and can keep you from falling asleep.
9. Don’t stay in bed if you can’t fall asleep. If you find yourself laying in bed and feeling wide awake and frustrated about not falling asleep, do 10 minutes of meditation, deep-breathing, etc. If that doesn’t help, get out of bed and read a book for 20 minutes, or go drink some warm milk. What it comes down to is that you shouldn’t just lay in bed thinking “Ugh. I’m still awake. Why can’t I fall asleep? It’s 11:23 p.m. I have to be up at 6:00 a.m. If I fall asleep right now, I’ll only be getting 6 hours and 37 minutes of sleep. I’m going to be so tired tomorrow.”
10. Don’t stress about getting a set number of hours of sleep each night. Everyone is different and you need to find the length of sleep that leaves you feeling energized, not exhausted, the next day. One of the suggestions for a Paleo/Primal lifestyle is switching to life without an alarm clock; this is a good way to figure out how much sleep you need is to let yourself sleep until you wake up. You will have to go to bed earlier in order to make sure you wake up for work on time. Keep a sleep diary by tracking how long you sleep and how you feel periodically the next day: how do you feel when you There are a few sleep tracking apps that you can use to figure out how long you sleep each night. I use the Sleep Cycle App for Apple.
11. Steer clear of blue light at night. Blue light, similar to the type of light on your phone, tablet or computer, is associated with sunlight or daytime hours. Studies have shown that being exposed to short-wave light at night suppressed melatonin by ~50% (http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232.full.pdf+html). So looking at your electronic device at night can actually make it more difficult for you to fall asleep and reach deep REM sleep. Reddish light on the other hand does not significantly affect melatonin levels. Programs such as f.lux for your PC or Twilight for your Android can be installed to mimic natural light. The program uses your location to determine the times of sunrise and sunset. When the sun sets, the screen becomes more red; when the sun rises, the reddish tint fades away to the normal screen coloring. Unfortunately, Apple devices aren’t as easy to change the screen coloring. Instead, you can try using orange-tinted safety goggles. Or you can just read a book by candle/firelight. Whatever works for you.
12. Make sleep a priority. Too often we stay awake just a bit longer to finish reading a book or watching a movie or TV episode. Recognize the importance of your sleep and stop making excuses. Good luck and sweet dreams...

New Tradition: Healthy Meals with Friends

I've implemented a new tradition with my friends. Once a month, we’re going to gather at someone’s place and cook a healthy dinner. Each person brings the ingredients for one dish which gets shared with the rest of the group. Leftovers can get taken home by all and serve as at least one lunch for everyone that week. For this first one, my roommate and I got all of the leftovers because we went to see a movie after dinner and we didn't want to let the food sit unrefrigerated in the car. Of course then my roommate went out of town for work, so really I kept all of the leftovers… works for me. I got at least four meals out of the leftovers, and still had another three meals portioned out that I didn't eat - I need SOME variety in my life.

I have the most dietary restrictions of the group, so everyone caters to me… just kidding, but not really. We've also got one girl who doesn't eat any meat except for chicken and another who doesn't have gluten or added sugars (she’s practically paleo), so our meal plan is roughly:

• 1 chicken-based entree (i.e., stir-fry, chicken tikka masala, etc.)
• 2 vegetable-based dishes (i.e., ratatouille, roasted asparagus, sweet potato, tomato basil soup, etc.)
• side salad
• fruit for dessert

February 15th was the first night we did this and we had three people attend. I’d say 3-4 is a good number if all of the chefs need to prep and cook their dishes. More people probably would have led to some collisions

My roommate made a Spicy Sweet Potato Soup, with roughly the following ingredients. She tweaked this recipe to suit my needs and her dislike of chicken broth/stock.

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 tablespoon ghee

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

4 cups water or chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root, or 2 tsp ginger powder

1/4 cup smooth almond butter

2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

If you divide this soup into 8 servings, each serving is 106 kcal, 14 g carbs, 5 g fat, 3 g protein, 5 g sugar, 3 g fiber, 168 mg sodium, 260 mg potassium, 165% vitamin A, 18% vitamin C, 5% calcium, 5% iron.

My other friend made a spicy veggie stir-fry, and I whipped up NomNomPaleo’s Braised Chicken with Artichokes and Pearl Onions.

We scarfed down our dinner before I thought to take a photo of the nicely plated meals, so here’s a shot of one of the portioned meals I had throughout the week.

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

I was desperately craving some blueberry muffins the other day. So what's a girl to do, but start baking?

I am a self-proclaimed baker, not a cook. Don't get me wrong, I can whip up some decent meals, but baking is by far my strong suit - it's intuitive. I know what the various batters are supposed to look like and I just mix in my Paleo ingredients until it looks right. So here's one recipe for Paleo blueberry muffins. I did use maple syrup, but you can easily exclude it if you're on a Whole 30. Yes, blueberry muffins are considered SWYPO (Sex With Your Pants On), but if you've got a craving, I think it's better to let yourself indulge in that craving instead of eating everything else you can get your hands on and then still being dissatisfied. Go ahead... you know you want to!

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup almond butter

1 cup almond meal

3 Tbls tapioca flour

3 Tbls arrowroot powder

1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

a couple shakes of sea salt

2 eggs

2 Tbls maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly mixed, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
3. Distribute into 10 muffin tins - you can either coat each section with coconut oil, or you can use a muffin tin liner - silicone is easier to separate from the muffin, but paper works well too.
4. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
5. Let cool for a little bit, then devour as if you were cookie monster and these blueberry muffins were cookies. But try to get all of these muffins in your mouth instead of letting them fly all over the place, it'd be a shame to waste such deliciousness.

Paleo Naan Review

I seem to be really into Indian food these days. My gal pal KAOS is my Indian food buddy. Whenever I had the hankering for my go-to chicken tikka masala, I'd call her with something along the lines of "So I'm feeling like Indian... you in?" It was a good bet that she'd say yes. We had one restaurant that we'd always order takeout from, then head back to her place and watch an Indian movie or something like the TV show Vikings. Both are excellent options, though definitely opposite ends of the spectrum. If you're looking for a good Indian movie, I highly recommend Jodhaa Akbar - it may be 3 hours and 33 minutes long and comes with an Intermission, but it's pretty awesome. I love it. Go watch it! Or if you're looking for something more like the stereotypical Bollywood film where the characters randomly breakout into song and dance, give the Dhoom series a try. I haven't watched all of them, but Dhoom 2 led to quite a few laughs and sighs over the dreamy Hrithik Roshan - he's also in Jodhaa Akbar. Notice a trend?

Anyways, I seem to have gotten sidetracked by an Indian hottie... back to Indian food. I found a recipe for Paleo Naan on My Heart Beets. It went great with the butter chicken from last week.

Paleo Naan! Nom nom nom!

This recipe has only five ingredients! If you read the recipe on the site, it says it contains just three ingredients, but really you need the last two: salt and ghee. The ghee helps give the naan the golden color you expect from naan, and the salt really brings out the flavor. Otherwise, it's a decent attempt at replicating naan, but tastes a bit bland. The downsides of this recipe include cook time and the about of ghee necessary to get the flavor and color looking the way that I wanted it to. The first thing my roommate said when she came home an hour after I made naan was: "Yum. It smells like butter." Yeah, I tend to feel the same way... Butter = yum. It's easy to go a bit heavy on the ghee. This photo below shows what happens when you use too much ghee - still tastes delicious, especially when you're wanting bread, but it is a bit on the greasy side.

The alternative is if you don't use enough ghee. And it basically looks white with a few browned patches, like you can see below. I found that the best amount of ghee was 1 tsp per side. Don't put 2 tsp at once, because then one of the sides looks golden and the other looks pale.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples

1-2 lb pork tenderloin

2 Tbls olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbls Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp pepper

2 apples (I used Gala), cored and thickly sliced

1/2 onion, sliced (you can use more than this, but I'm not much of an onion person, so I only use a little)

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Trim pork to remove the silver skin. Rub the tenderloin with 1 Tbls olive oil, then rub all over with salt.
3. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet. Once hot, place the tenderloin in the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side (there's four sides in case you were wondering).
4. Remove tenderloin from the pan and set aside. Add the apples and onions to the pan and cook for 4-5  minutes
5. While the apples and onions cook, rub the tenderloin with the mustard, thyme, and pepper.
6. Place the tenderloin on top of the apples and onions and transfer to the oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 145-150°F.
7. Transfer the pork to a plate and cover with aluminum. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Is gluten-free worth it?

Is avoiding gluten worth it? The only answer is: It depends. Your body may be able to handle gluten just fine. Me? I know that gluten does bad things to me: migraines, upset stomach, bloating, mental fog, tiredness - all of these things happen when I eat gluten. I’ve known this for years thanks to first going gluten-free for a month four years ago, and then to going Paleo three years ago. Despite this knowledge, I kept eating grains for the last eight months. I’ve been cutting down significantly since January 1st of this year, but hadn’t completely given it up because I kept craving bread. This past weekend was a bit of an eye-opener for me though. Let me share…

On Saturday, I went out to lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant with a couple friends. I ate chips and salsa and queso, and then the taco salad. The food was good, and the conversation was better. We ended up sitting in the restaurant for two-and-a-half hours, and by the time we got around to leaving, all of us felt like we needed a serious nap. I’m not much of a napper; I usually only take naps when I’m ill. So, I fought to stay awake and be productive Saturday afternoon. I felt miserable though. My head felt pinched and throbbing, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my sinuses started acting up - my nose, cheeks, eyes, and ears all became a burning type of pain. I ended up laying down, but not sleeping for an hour Saturday evening before heading to a friend’s house for a Candlemas party. My friends and our conversations kept me there for the duration, but I felt worse and worse as the night wore on.

On Sunday, I ate no gluten and no cheese. I still ate some grains, like quinoa, but I managed to steer clear of the pizza, brownies, and bread at the superbowl party. The result? No headache. No stomachache. No lethargy. I didn’t notice it during the day, but by the time I was heading to the party, I realized how much better I felt then than I had 24 hours before. It was incredibly satisfying to feel energetic and not to have a low-grade headache in the background of my life. So I made a pit stop at My Fit Foods and picked up a gluten-free salmon dinner to eat instead of the pizza I had been planning on eating. It’s only been five days so far, but reminding myself of the huge improvement in how my body felt between Saturday and Sunday has been giving me enough motivation to say no to those urges to eat a cookie or stop at the store on the way home to buy some pita bread and cheese.

Here’s hoping I can keep it up…

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a recipe:

Butter Chicken
1.5 lb chicken, cut into 1-2" chunks
2 Tbls coconut oil

1 - 14 oz can coconut milk
0.5 cup tomato paste
1 sweet onion, diced
5 cloves, garlic, smashed and minced

3 Tbls arrowroot flour

1 Tbls garam masala

1.5 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp chili powder

0.5 tsp cinnamon

0.25 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper to taste - I used about a pinch of each

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the diced onion and garlic, cooking until the onion becomes translucent.
3. Mix all of the ingredients except for the chicken into the pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
4. Mix the chicken into the sauce and transfer to your slow cooker. Set on low and cook for 6 hours. Then enjoy.

I seem to have a think for Indian food these days. Stay tuned for my next post on Paleo naan.

What happened to me?

My family's delicious dinner this past Christmas. This about sums up my eating habits recently: potato sausage, potato bread (can you get more carbs than that?), Swedish meatballs. But I didn't go completely wrong - there's still salmon and broccoli!

What happened to me? That's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately. For the past 8 months I've thrown Paleo out the window. I said goodbye to Paleo and welcomed back bread, cheese, and baked goodies with open arms. I became re-addicted to bread and grains. I grew up as a bread, starch, and cheese sort of gal. If you had asked me as a kid what my favorite food was, I probably would have said either bread or mashed potatoes. Even now, I can tell you my favorite types of bread, because of course I've ranked them - naan, pita, ciabatta, and sourdough are the top four, but I could got on…

These past 8 months have brought that love/addiction/obsession back to the surface. A majority of meals consisted of pita bread or naan with cheese. I have favorite types of cheeses, too, in case you were wondering: gjetost (Norwegian brown goat cheese), brie, white cheddar, havarti, and gouda are just the top five. Part of the reason why I started eating non-Paleo again was because of some health-related issues that started at the beginning of last summer. I was exhausted all of the time and could barely scrape up the energy to cook Paleo meals. When I did cook, I was never in the mood for it - I've wasted a LOT of Paleo-friendly meals over the last few months. So I turned to pre-made meals from Whole Foods or easy-to-snack-on items, like bread and cheese, or vast quantities of chocolate.

Turns out, I was deficient in Vitamin B12. This vitamin is necessary for normal functioning of your nervous system and cell metabolism. It can cause tiredness, weakness, dizziness, numbness or tingling in your fingers and toes, nerve damage (sometimes permanent), GI issues, mood changes, irritability, memory loss, and disorientation. Vitamin B12 deficiency is usually the result of an absorptivity issue. Other causes include insufficient consumption of B12 (such as if you're a vegetarian or a vegan), intestinal conditions (Crohn's disease, celiac, or parasites), or immune disorders (Graves' disease or lupus). You obtain vitamin B12 through your diet - it is not something that your body produces on it's own. Sources of B12 include: meat, poultry, shellfish, eggs, and dairy products.

Not only was I deficient in Vitamin B12 at that time, but also I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid is under-active. Some of the symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, muscle weakness, joint pain/stiffness, depression, impaired memory, dry skin, increased sensitivity to cold, hoarseness, and peripheral neuropathy (numbness and tingling in your fingers and toes), among others.

I was diagnosed with both of these issues after going to a neurologist complaining of numbness and tingling in my fingers. The numbness was particularly bad when I was working out, and sometimes made me a little worried about lifting weights, because I had a hard time maintaining my grip. While this was going on, I was also struggling with waking up exhausted (despite 9 hours of sleep) and had to resort to chugging down caffeine to attempt to stay awake at work. The caffeine just made me simultaneously hyper and tired, and I still couldn't focus. I felt like I was in a constant fog, just struggling to make it through the day. Some days just fighting through work for the first 30 minutes of the day seemed like more than I could bear. I stopped being active because I was tired and I compensated feeling tired with eating more. I stopped cooking for myself because it took more effort than I had to give.

My doctor decided to run some blood tests… and that led to the addition of a few more pills to my daily regimen in order to get my thyroid and B12 levels back in check. I started feeling more energetic again, but couldn't quite get back into Paleo. In a way, I felt betrayed by the Paleo diet. For me, the biggest benefit of going Paleo, was NOT being sick and NOT having to go to the doctor all of the time. And that benefit was slipping away. Here I was, uncommonly tired, gaining weight, and back to visiting the doctor every month. Despite eating meat or animal protein at practically every meal, I was deficient in B12. Despite following the Paleo lifestyle of getting enough sleep, eating clean, lifting heavy things, and moving around more, my body was failing me.

Fortunately, the supplements started to help. After a couple weeks, I started feeling energetic again, but by this time, I was re-addicted to grains and sugar, and though I would tell myself I really needed to get back to eating healthy, I didn't want to give up my addictions. The motivation to eat clean just fell away. I continued to give Paleo the finger.

I was feeling pretty good for a little while, but things started to hurt again. Being the overachiever that I am, I ignored the pain and continued to push myself at the gym and at soccer. I started wearing a knee brace again and ibuprofen became a frequent companion. Then something happened that I've never experienced while working out... my muscles wouldn't completely respond. I tried to use a medium box for step ups at the gym, and I couldn't get my foot up high enough. My quad muscles had obviously started to fire, but seemed to stop half-way. It felt like my body wasn't listening to me. From there, I continued to fall apart. My lifts got harder, and my body began hurting more and more. Around the same time, I started having severe neck pain, which led to physical therapy for my neck, and my exercise was reduced to walking. My migraines came back, and my constant daily headaches returned.

Suffice it to say, I've been falling apart for a while now. And it's time that I try to take charge of my life again.

To start, I'm working my way back to Paleo. I'm beginning with gluten-free, and moving on from there. I'm going to try to break my re-addiction to sugar and grains. And I’m trying to be more active again, which at this point includes swimming, biking, physical therapy (on my knee this time), and walking. And every little bit helps, right?

As I mentioned, I was still cooking some Paleo dishes. And here's one of the desserts I made.

Bacon-wrapped Dates

2 strips bacon

8 dates

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the strips of bacon into quarters, and wrap each piece around a date. Stick with a toothpick to keep the bacon wrapped around the date.
3. Place on a baking sheet and transfer to the hot oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes.