A friend and client mentioned they had to ‘bully’ themselves out of bed this morning and it caught our attention as a fun turn of a phrase. It addresses a nasty issue though, something we see in almost all clients – lack of stress recovery.

Sleep is certainly important but quality of sleep matters most and if you are consistently having morning difficulties you are at risk. You are at risk of stunted neurological recovery and the cascade of slow almost imperceptible damage that comes with it. Suffice to say…you need proper rest/recovery.

A big tip is getting use to eating with a timing that see’s you waking up hungry. You have evolved to wake up because the light comes up and you are needing to hunt and forage. Possibly one of the worse habits humans have developed is messing with this system. You are still 100% based on your circadian rhythms* and if you consistently muck about with them you are eroding your body and brain everyday, effectively lowering your quality of life and aging faster than you need to.

Wake up hungry and your body chemistry will get you prepared and feeling as you should after a night of real sleep. Nothing is perfect and it won’t solve all of your problems but over time it will be a huge help, you will feel the difference and people will see it in you and tell you so.

How do you do it? The proper approach is not over eating into the evening BUT also not under eating. So if you eat too much around the dinner time and thus cannot have a small evening snack you may wake up so empty that your stomach does not want food. It won’t want food because your adrenaline related systems will have already been activated for energy because your blood sugar is already too low. The opposite then is going over board with snacks and being so over fed you are still digesting food in your belly come morning.

Have a reasonable dinner, not small or big, every night for at least 10 days and experiment with snack size and choices and timing. Try protein based snacks verses fat and vice-versa. Try snacking 1 hour before you go to bed and 2 hours. Again you are going all night without food so even though you are physically inactive your system is repairing and will use resources. If that blood sugar is too low come morning you will have a tough time getting in a decent breakfast.

If you find it very tough not to over snack then you are not eating enough in the morning and lacking in certain nutrients throughout the day as well as maybe being a bit dehydrated. Keep in mind this isn’t about trying to become ‘a morning person’, it is specifically about waking up hungry. It’s not a weakness being hungry in the evening, lack of control is caused by under eating at previous points in your day. Nutrition only works if you impose balance, balance which nature use to impose and we have supposedly conquered…but thats for another post.

Be well, be strong,

…and by the way, our bully was happy they just pushed forward because the weather and light snow made for a perfect morning walk with the family dog ;n)

Andrew and Tierney

-WeFit

* https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/sleep-drive-and-your-body-clock