Midnight In The Garden of Hormone Hell

Look familiar to anyone? It is a depiction of the constant cycle of sleep deprivation, chronic stress, and cravings.

This month’s challenge is tackling the hormones Serotonin and Melatonin – both key components of weight loss. Running low on both hormones due to lack of sleep and chronic stress drains energy away from our body’s organs, encourages fat storage, and decreases our sense of pleasure. To desensitize, we eat more to fulfill our need for pleasure.

Nature intends for our bodies to slow down when it becomes dark outside. This signals our body to increase serotonin which gives us a feeling of satisfaction and calmness. In turn, melatonin is made from serotonin when there is no light. Melatonin is the hormone that triggers sleep and keeps us asleep.

The later you stay awake and extend your day with artificial light, the more your levels of serotonin drop. The quickest way to increase serotonin is with an insulin spike. This means that your brain gets a signal to eat sugar (in the form of baked goods, cereal, bread etc.). This is a survival mechanism and these cravings are almost impossible to ignore. Once you cave in and eat your serotonin will increase giving you a short lived feeling of satisfaction.

Unfortunately this pattern makes it harder and harder to go to sleep since the production of melatonin occurs when there is no light. As long as you stay up watching TV, on the computer or with the lights blaring high, no melatonin can be made. To compound matters, serotonin drops slowly meaning there will be less and less melatonin available when you do decide to turn off the lights.

This is madness sisters. Not only are our cravings particularly out of control when we are not well rested, energy levels plummet and a general lack of enthusiasm can occur – leading to mild or severe depression

So here is the deal…we must get this under control. Sleep may be boring to you wild Barenakd ladies but I can’t stress enough how important it is to your health and weight loss goals to nip this hormone hell in the butt.

The challenge this month is to get eight hours, you heard it right, eight hours of sleep each night. I personally challenge you to get nine hours on the weekends. No whining…just sleep. Even if you feel you perform well on your typical six hours, I want you to give your body eight to nine hours of darkness this month.

Here are some tips to help make the transition easier:

• Keep your bedroom cool at night. Preferably between 68 – 70 degrees. You can add a warm fuzzy blanket to your bed if needed.
• Invest in some light dimmers and as evening falls, begin to cut down the lighting in your home.
• Engage in some nooky. The release of endorphins that is experienced after orgasm promotes relaxation in the body. If you have trouble having an orgasm – get in my coaching program
• Play up your bed linens. Get some comfy cotton sheets that make you feel luxurious. Use as many layers as you like to get that spa getaway feeling.
• Check your mattress. If you can see your body’s indention permanently, it is time for a new one!
• It goes without saying limit your exposure to TV, computers or artificial light no less than one hour before sleep.

Midnight in the garden of hormone hell is on…

You may have to get creative with your schedule and implement some family help to make this happen. Get fancy with it and show off your creative solutions on our Facebook Fan Page Wall.

To get involved in this month’s challenge make sure you are a Fan on our Facebook Page. Leave us a message that you are “in.” Post on your personal wall that you are participating and leave a link to our homepage: www.barenakd.com.

Visit us back on the Fan Page Wall and post up as often as you can with how you are doing. We had some great entries in the January challenge and tons of good sassy discussion! Don’t miss out on the fun!

Remember – don’t leave your friends in the dark. Share the challenge with them and get them hitting the sack with you!

The most inspirational Fan will win one month of free coaching!

You can ask any questions you have here on the blog or on the fan page.

See you on Facebook!