Check in with your Health: Sleep

Sleep. To rest. To recover. To recharge.

Part two in a four part series dedicated to feeling and performing your best moving into the colder months and holiday season

Sleep.

Sleep is king. Without it we can not function the way we are meant to. We know this. We are supposed to get about 7-8 hours of sleep. We know this as well. But for some reason modern culture has made “the grind” a super sexy thing. We brag on how little we are sleeping or how much caffeine we are throwing back to survive. But sleep is not something you can bank up and then take out when you need it. A regular sleep schedule is very important to health and emotional well being, mental clarity and daytime performance.

Three easy ways to ask yourself if you are sleeping enough

1. Brain fog – our memories and daily interactions are stored away while we sleep. If we aren’t sleeping enough what we learn each day is not being committed to memory. Some things to look out for are an inability to focus/concentrate. Decreased alertness. Feeling confused or scatter-brained. Forgetfulness or slow recall.
2. Weight gain – a lack of sleep can increase perceived hunger and effect our appetite regulation.  Which inherently increases calorie intake. A lack of sleep can also increase our cortisol (stress hormone) levels and effect the way our body processes blood sugar.
3. Feeling sick a lot – when we miss out on sleep our bodies production of T cells (immunity on a cellular level) goes down and the inflammation in our bodies goes up. This increases our immune systems vulnerability to viruses and bacteria. It also affects our long term health related to inflammation, such as heart disease.

Step up your sleep hygiene to ensure you are getting the best sleep possible with the hours you have available to you.

• Sleep in a cool room. Optimal sleep temperatures are 60-67 degrees. So think a nice, chilly room.
• Make sure the room you are sleeping in is dark,pitch black, the darker the better. In the summer use blackout curtains when light hours are longer.
• Try and find a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at very similar times every day.
• Reduce bluelight right before bed. Turn off the TV and put down your phone about a half hour (preferable an hour or more) before bed. Do not fall asleep with the TV on…. Why do you need a TV in your bedroom in the first place?
• Keep your bed/bedroom for sleep and sex. Oh gosh, that sounds so difficult 🙄  how am I going to wind down at the end of the day without spending 20 minutes mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or answering last minute emails? Following up with the last point, it’s important for our body to equate being in our bed with sleep, so avoid work and outside distractions that may have you keeping work and stress in the back of your mind.
• Spend some time each day out in the sunlight. At least 30 minutes a day of sun exposure on bare skin. Suns out guns out. This helps regulate our circadian rhythm (aka our sleep/wake cycle)
• Exercise regularly. This promotes good health in general, but also promotes good sleep. Most of us have pretty sedentary lives, so a little activity each day helps us tire out so that we can fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep more easily.

Check in with your Health: Eat

Eat. To live. To nourish. To perform.

Part one in a four part series dedicated to feeling and performing your best moving into the colder months and the holiday season

Eat.

This is extremely simple. We all need to eat. It is a part of our instinct for survival and something that has become very social and cultural for humans over time. But with the passing of time and increase in technology we have seen what we eat, and just as importantly, how we eat change very dramatically. This is not a call to action to run outside and hunt livestock and start picking berries and gathering up mushrooms. What I would like to suggest is that we practice stepping back and looking at our eating habits from a 10,000 foot view.

Some things to look for and ask yourself…

1. Am I adequately hydrated? If not how can I improve on this?
   • Our bodies need water to survive. Literally every cell, tissue and organ in our body need water to function. We should be drinking about half our bodyweight in ounces of water a day! (example: 180lb individual should drink about 90oz of water. More is exercising regularly)
2. Am I eating my veggies and fruits? Am I getting micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants) in throughout the day?
   • I am not suggesting throwing back fistfulls of vitamins and supplements. I am saying eat a gosh darn piece of kale (or broccoli or grapes or sweet potatoes…whatever!) We need the micronutrients from the food we eat to keep our bodies functioning optimally. Quite honestly you don’t need crazy amounts either. But make sure you’re eating about 500-800g of fruits and veggies a day.
3. Am I getting enough fiber? How is my digestion?
   • This ties in with eating real foods. Whole foods are wonderful sources of fiber and help keep our digestions and hormone balance regular. Generally we need about 40-50g of fiber a day, and if you are eating enough fruits and veggies this will not be an issue.
4. Am I eating enough protein? What is enough protein?
   • My first suggestion is to see how much protein you are eating. Track your protein for a day or two in an app like MyFitnessPal and see how much you are actually eating. You might be shocked at how little it is. Macronutrients are quantified (not weight) in grams. In general we need about .75-1 times our bodyweight in protein to be getting adequate amounts.
5. How are you eating?
   • What I mean is look at how you are interacting with your meals. Do you eat in the car or at work? Are you on the phone or watching TV? Are you stressed out and distracted while you’re trying to eat? Are you chewing your food properly? Do you put your fork down in between bites and enjoying your food? Or are you hunched over, prison eating at every meal?
   • We should not mindlessly eat and we should not eat like stray dogs… Be mindful of how you are eating. The simple version: the digestion process begins with our brains. We see and smell food and it signals our mouth to start salivating. That saliva tells our stomachs to start creating enzymes to breakdown our food. After that food is broken down our intestines pull the nutrients from it to fuel our bodies. If you’re shoveling food and not enjoying it you may not be digesting it properly and therefore not getting all of the nourishment you are meant to from the foods you eat.
6. Why are you eating the foods you are eating?
   • Weird question right? I’m asking you to step back and assess yourself. What are your goals? Are you eating to look good, feel good or perform well? How is your health? Do you eat certain foods because you think they’re healthy but feel bloated and miserable afterwards? Are you avoiding foods because you think they are the devil (aka gluten or dairy) but aren’t actually sure if you have any food sensitivities?
   • Also think of this from a mental/emotional viewpoint. In your already hectic life do you have the mental/ emotional capacity to stress all day about tracking, weighing and moderating foods? Are you spending a fortune every week on organic salads and then dreading every meal you sit down to?
   • Do you have a set of food “rules” that are some secret squirrel combination of every weird, new diet fad you have read on the cover of trash magazines waiting in line at the grocery store (weirdly accurate example, right?). A good starting point is to eat whole foods, that make you feel good. If a food does not make you feel good maybe consider limiting it from your diet. This is a great starting point in eating for sustainability and happiness.

Have you made it this far? (thank you if you have) Has this list of questions created more questions for you? Do you feel overwhelmed on where to start? Here’s the thing food is simple. It is an energy source we have given to much emotional power. Marketing and ease of access have made it hard for us to sort through the foods we have available to us and differentiate the okay from the not so okay.

A good rule of thumb, if it can’t sit on your counter or in your fridge for more than a day or so you probably don’t need to be eating it. Think lettuce vs potato chips or blueberries vs tastykakes….

If you need help reach out to Michaela for some guidance at Michaela@rivathletics.com or learn a little more about the nutrition coaching options available at RIV https://rivathletics.com/about-riv-athletics/nutrition/

Little by Little

-Michaela

Improving your health, fitness and body composition is no different than any other long term commitment in our lives. Nothing is earned in a day. To say that you need to earn heavy weights on the barbell or a sought after physique is an understatement. You can not buy a 500# back squat or 6-pack abs, that is why we admire those who have them so much. To earn these goals you have to be more than motivated. You have to do more than simply want it. You have to be ready to work, and work hard for the things you want in life.

Unfortunately we have been sold a long list of lies surrounding our health and fitness. The first that being motivated is all it takes. The second that it takes some predetermined amount of time to achieve our goals. This being said, we have been sold a load of BS!

Motivation is amazing. It gets you excited, it pushes you to take a first step or initiate a change towards your desired outcome. And for the first week or so motivation may be all you need to hop out of bed to workout at 4 in the morning. It might be all you need to turn down the cupcake at work in exchange for a salad. But what about 2 weeks later? What about the next month? How about 6 months from when you started? Where is your motivation now?

What you need is a clear goal and some commitment.

It is extremely difficult to wake up everyday committed to something you do not understand. Think about as a child how frustrating it was to hear “because I said so”. How can you commit to the consistency needed to achieve your goal if you do not know what your target is or how to reach it? I strongly suggest that you figure out what your goals are and why. You can not enact an enduring change without some level of understanding.

So first step is to DEFINE your goal: What exactly is it that you want? To just  “be stronger” is too vague. To “back squat more” is a little closer. To “back squat more than other people in the gym” is still a moving target. To “back squat 500#”, now that is something we can measure. Great! We have a clear and defined goal.

Now we need to figure out WHY this is your goal: Could you tell me how your goals affect you? Your happiness or success? How would it positively affect your life? How about your self esteem and self worth? Squatting 500# because you simply want to be strong is not going to have you in the gym every day before work. Because you want to impress the people around you is not going to help you finish that last set you want to skip. Because you have some underlying self esteem issue tying your self worth to your strength… maybe work on yourself first and then revisit this goal. Or because you want to prove to yourself that you can achieve something you never thought possible! That is an awesome why! That will have you heading to the gym after a long day of work instead of to the couch and Netflix.

So now that you’ve established your goal and why you want to achieve it it is time to act on it! Don’t be afraid to ask for help either. If you knew exactly how to achieve your goal, you understood why you wanted to achieve it and you had the resources to do it, it would already be done! Is your goal a strict pull up? Ask a coach for some tips and accessory work, come into the gym a little before class or stay a little after. Want to trim up for summer or fuel your performance in the gym, set up a nutrition consult with me! Want to get a 200# snatch, maybe consider some 1-1 time with Michelle or one of our other olympic coaches!

And your goals don’t have to be limited to the gym, strength or body composition. Your goal might be to spend more time with your family. Or get a promotion at work. My main goal right now is to take one day off a week to do something I genuinely enjoy. Just for me, not for work or a chore, because y’all know how much I love grocery shopping…

Lastly understand that your goals will forever be progressing and shifting. If you are a truly hungry individual you will never be satisfied. The second you achieve your goal you will already be setting another one to demolish. Everyday make the small choices that align with your goals and take the necessary steps forward to achieve them!  Hunt greatness and constantly be pursuing excellence.

Another Success Story: Abby Long

I was always athletic when I was younger, dipping my toes into every sport but competitively playing volleyball for school was my main sport. I never focused on nutrition and just ate what we had in the house with takeout being an option when Mom or myself didn’t want to cook or was getting off a long day between school and work.

Once college came around I started to workout less and eat more. Again never thinking it was an issue and never feeling too bad about myself. Then came the end of senior year and the beginning of becoming a full fledge “adult” (still don’t have it all figured out but that’s okay)!! At this point in life I decided that the normal wasn’t working out for me anymore so I decided to jump right in with both feet and step out of my comfort zone of the elliptical and occasionally going to the gym once and awhile.

I joined Crossfit Riverfront October 16, 2015. I joined because I needed something different and it was 6 month until I was getting married.  It was also one of the most stressful times since I was just starting my first “big girl job”, I was buying a house, and planning a wedding. However I found a place to release that stress and get through whatever was thrown my way.
In the past two years I have gone to the gym more than I ever have since playing high school sports. But again never paid attention to the nutrition piece. In October 2016 the gym decided to do a Whole 30 Challenge. 30 days of just basically meat, vegetable, and minimal fruit. It was brutal at first but I stuck to it religiously.  I completed the Whole 30 Challenge and lost almost 20lbs and learned that whole food could be delicious and that it made me feel better about myself. However it wasn’t sustainable for a long period of time. I ended up spiraling back to old habits harder than before and gained back all the weight I had lost and then a couple more.
In June 2017, the gym decided to do a summer body fitness challenge. I’m competitive by nature and signed right on up for it. Throughout the six weeks I was working out for 4-5 hours a day but was not focused on nutrition and basically eating whatever I felt like. I ended up winning the challenge but didn’t sustain any of it because I burnt myself out.

Then in August 2017, I switched schools that I was teaching and began working at the front desk at the Riv. With these new job changes I learned the importance of meal prep. When going from one job to the next I learned that if I didn’t prep it was take out for me and that led to bad choices.

Towards the end of 2017 I was battling with self image issues and knew I needed some other change in my life. I started to work with a nutritionist in January 2018. She is great and makes a plan that is easy to stick to but I wasn’t always sticking to it as best as I could be especially when life got in my way. However I was making slow progress.

Then the nutrition challenge got announced at the gym. Me and my competitive nature couldn’t resist a challenge so I signed up. I knew it would be easy to stick to since it was mostly what I was already doing. However I also knew that this was what I needed to help get me past my sweet tooth that I just couldn’t kick. Within this challenge I stuck to the plan. It had similar guidelines as the whole 30 but with the added bonus of being able to have peanut butter and rice!! This made it so I didn’t feel so limited. I also explored different recipes and found meals that were super healthy, made of food I used to hate but now love, and didn’t make me feel guilty.

This challenge solidified the path I was taking and helped get over a hurdle that had been just a little too high for so long. Since January I have re-lost the 20lbs and have more confidence than ever. I’m still working on the nutrition and workout balance but I know now through this challenge what it takes to maintain a healthy love with food and allow yourself to have what you want (in moderation) but ultimately plan your week out and stick to it!!

The battle between myself, nutrition, and fitness can be though at times but right now I feel like I am strong and am slowly breaking down barriers day by day. It might not be easy but I know it’s all worth it in the end.