Don’t Sell Yourself Short, What to Avoid Before Bed, Control Your Attitude to What Happens to You
Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one:
Stop selling yourself short and be proud of the things that you do.
There are many things that you should avoid before you go to sleep in order to improve the quality of your sleep.
Control your attitude to the things that happen in your life.
Starter Mindset Tip: Don’t Sell Yourself Short
A lot of us are really good at putting down our own achievements. We see people around us that we believe are doing things “better” than we are, so we put down what we are doing. Let’s set the record straight right now. You are not going to be the best at a lot of things that you do, there will always be someone better, unless you are Usain Bolt. This does not mean that they are better than you, this doesn’t mean anything at all, stop comparing your achievements with others. Let’s look at running as an example. Let’s say you go for a short run twice a week, but you have a bunch of friends who run marathons on the regular, so you don’t feel like you can call yourself a runner. That is some poppycock! If you run, you are a runner. End of story. It doesn’t matter if you run once a week or seven times a week. If you run, you are a runner. Say it proud and celebrate the fact that you get out there and pound the pavement or the trails to be better and feel better. If you run, call yourself a runner. If you write, call yourself a writer. If you meditate, call yourself a meditator. Stop selling yourself short. Be proud of what you do, celebrate it, and stop comparing yourself to others who you think are “better.”
Health Recipe: What to Avoid Before Bed
Timing: Just the time it takes to think about avoiding some normal habits
Level of Difficulty: Easy - Hard depending on how ingrained your habits are
Serving Size: Tackle one item off the list at a time, grow from there
Spice Level: Can get a little spicy at first when trying to kick some sleep sabotaging habits
INGREDIENTS
Just yourself and some new things to avoid before bed
REASONING AND BENEFITS
Just like there are many things we can do during the day to set us up for some sleep success, what we do in the hours leading up to sleep can have a big impact on the quality of our z’s.
Try to stop eating at least 2 hours before you go to sleep. It takes a lot longer for your body to digest while you are sleeping, and that will put you into a lighter sleep.
Avoid activities that cause stress because this can make it hard to quiet your mind down when it comes time for bed.
Avoid caffeine. If you are in the routine of having a post dinner coffee, pop, or caffeinated tea, let’s stop that habit and replace those drinks with decaffeinated drinks. Caffeine has a half life of 6-7 hours, so that means 6-7 hours later, you will still have half that caffeine in your system keeping you in a lighter sleep.
Avoid alcohol. Alcohol will fragment your sleep, and make it hard for your body to get restorative deep sleep.
Avoid bright artificial lights, especially overhead. This will throw off your circadian rhythm because your body will think it is still day time. Use dim table lamps at night.
Avoid screens before bed time. Ideally one hour, but start with just 10-15 minutes before you head up to bed. Spend that time doing something relaxing such as reading.
INSTRUCTIONS
Just like having a morning routine, having a nighttime routine can help get you in the routine of keeping up these good pre-sleep habits.
Look at the list of things to avoid, try focusing on just one to start. Is there something on the list that you think you consistently do that you could change? Focus on that first.
As you get comfortable with the first one, start introducing the others. Find ways to incorporate them into your routine so you don’t even have to think about doing them.
Is there something on this list that you have a really hard time avoiding? Think of things that you could replace that habit with, think of a way to make it hard to do that habit you want to stop. Get creative, ask a friend or family member to help you out.
PRO TIP: Changing a routine or a habit can be pretty darn hard, if you can start tackling some of these things to avoid at night, you will be on your journey to becoming a sleep master.
* If you are used to snacking at night, it will take your body some time to get used to avoiding food before bed because you have built in the expectation of food at night. After some time without food, you will create the new normal in your body and kick those late food cravings.
** Sleep may just be the most important part of your health to work on and improve.
*** If you can do this, paired with 7-9 hours of sleep, a morning hang out with the low angle sun, some movement during the day, and a consistent sleep schedule, then you will have rekindled your love with sleep. A relationship that may or may not have been damaged since you were a kid. What a comeback love story folks.
Dessert Quote:
“When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.” — Epictetus, Interpreted by Sharon Lebell, p. 15, “A Manual for Living.”
Now we want to hear from YOU! Please let us know what you think of today’s newsletter, and send us an example of how you applied the health recipe to your life! We would love to share how you introduced this week’s recipe into your life’s unique menu. Thanks and have a great Sunday!
Sources:
Learn more about improving your sleep:
Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Simon and Schuster.
