Last blog, we talked about the two simplest ways to improve your health–Drinking more water and getting outside more! My next suggestions are a little harder to swallow in our already busy lives..but hear me out!
This next one is an obvious one, but it is so necessary. It’s interesting though, how this seems to be the one that we daily make an excuse for not having time…Exercise! Think about it, and be honest…When was the last time you pushed your heart to its limit? Felt your heart pounding to the point you can barely breathe? If you never push your heart to its limit, that limit is going to get less and less every year. Eventually, even going on a 20 minute walk is going to seem like an overwhelming feat. Kinda scary, right?
My husband does a physically demanding job, and he always says he “exercised” all day. I’ve said the same thing, as I chase after children and clean the house all day. But if we’re honest…we know that’s a lot different than the feeling our heart gets when we go for a 15 minute run. And if you’re like me, maybe you couldn’t even consider going for a 15 minute run for fear of needing to call an ambulance halfway through. I’m kidding…kind of…so what do we do? How do we solve this problem, especially if we haven’t regularly exercised in years? Barbara O’Neill recommends HIIT training.
What on earth is HIIT training? And does it involve hitting anything? HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This type of exercise has been shown to be the most effective exercise for helping with muscle strength and endurance, and it only takes 15 minutes! How do you do it?
Choose any activity you enjoy…walking, running, cycling, rebounding, etc. I personally enjoy rebounding because it is a way to exercise that is low impact and is something the kids can enjoy too. I spent $40 and got a personal sized trampoline. It sits in our living room, and I jump on it whenever I can fit in a few minutes. The kids have fun with it too, and because it’s out all the time, it makes it super convenient for my lifestyle.
With HIIT training, you do 30 seconds of high-intense exercise. Push yourself to your limit. If you’re honest, you can do anything difficult for just 30 seconds. Then there is 2 minutes of recovery where you continue to exercise, but not as intense. Then you repeat that cycle 6 times, which equals 15 minutes. The main thing is that during the intense exercise, you want to increase your heart rate and your breathing rate, and push yourself! So if you like walking, maybe walk up a hill and walk as fast as you can for 30 seconds, and then walk slower and at an easier pace for 2 minutes. And then repeat 6 times. You’ll be amazed over the weeks as your endurance grows each day!
The last and final point I want to talk about is sleep. In today’s society, it is fairly common to stay up late and regularly get 6-7 hours of sleep. And if you’re a breastfeeding mom (actually feeding my little one as I type this), your sleep is interrupted and poor at times. It may not seem like a big deal, but over time, these bad sleep habits can start to have an affect on your health in serious ways. I’ll try to keep this from getting too scientific, but I do think it’s important for you to understand the “why,” because if you’re anything like me, this is going to be the hardest habit to break (and honestly, I’m still working on this one, unsuccessfully).
I enjoy staying up late. Nothing ridiculous, but I’ve always been a night owl. In college, I was the type to stay up till 3 a.m. writing a paper, instead of setting an alarm and finishing the paper early the next morning. I’ve always functioned better at night, so I’ve kind of embraced it at this point.
However, during Barbara’s lectures, which I mentioned in the previous article, she talked about some of the consequences of not sleeping at the right times, and I was convinced. But her evidence had to be something pretty convincing in order for me to change, because I have lived this way for years. I’ve even tried many times to change my late night habits, and I’ve always been unsuccessful. What is so important about going to bed early anyway?
It all has to do with hormones. In her book, Sustain Me, Barbara says, “The most intense release of rest and rejuvenation hormones are between the hours of 9pm and 2 am (or 10 pm and 3 am daylight saving time)” (O’Neill, 2024, p. 13). This hormone release is part of the natural process called the circadian rhythm.
There is also a time of “house cleaning” while we sleep. During this time, our system cleans out any metabolic waste that gets built up from our neurons firing all day (O’Neill, 2024, p. 180). We also have processes in our brains during sleep that help us file away memories, heal, build our immune system, and even a time where our brains are creative ((O’Neill, 2024, pp. 181-182). Did you ever come up with a great idea while you were sleeping? That’s because of the REM cycle.
You can certainly imagine the consequences of not going to bed early enough or not getting enough sleep. These consequences contribute to many physical and emotional issues, and can even lead to various health problems, if you regularly do not get enough sleep. One way I’m working on this is to start small. I find it is frustrating as a mom to have to go to bed immediately after my kids do. I haven’t spent time with my husband, or I’ve been rushing around all day, and I really want some time to relax in the evenings. How do you do both?
You have to get a little creative! Come up with some activities for your kids that occupy them. My kids love reading books, so sometimes we put them to bed a little early and let them stay up a little later in their rooms to read their books. That gives my husband and me a little extra time to catch up and hang out in the evenings on occasion. And just because you want to go to bed earlier doesn’t mean you have to go to bed at 8 pm the first time!
Right now we’re going to bed at 11 pm, which is better than our usual bedtime of 12 pm. Maybe as we get used to that, we can start moving our bedtime to 10 pm, etc. Many times when we hear advice like this, we get stressed out and think we have to change everything at one time, but then we get overwhelmed and quit. It’s better to make smaller, more manageable changes, and add things slowly over time.
I love what Barbara O’Neill said at her health conference that I went to this past fall. Many of us make excuses for why we can’t make these difficult changes in our lives. Some say they aren’t capable of exercising because they are too out of shape…but everybody is capable of bouncing up and down on their toes (even if you’re sitting). Some say their schedule doesn’t allow for them to go to bed early, or they can’t fall asleep that early…but you certainly can start by going to bed just 15 minutes earlier. Others say they can’t imagine trying to eat healthier…but you can start by just paying attention to some labels, or choosing one meal to be healthier. Change doesn’t happen all at once. It starts with deciding to make one small change and sticking to it. What’s one thing you can change in your life starting right now?
Till next time,
Abby
Sources
O’Neill, B. (2024). Sustain Me. Seal Books
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