- New Years Resolution
It’s about that time that people begin to slip up with their New Years resolutions. According to Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Stanford University and author of The Willpower Instinct, said that “people dramatically overestimate how easy it’s going to be for the to follow through on their resolutions”. Understand that you are going to splurge and eat that cookie sometimes, but let it be just that, a splurge. “Research shows that when you believe that the hard stuff will get easier over time, it gives you more willpower,” says McGonigal
According to a new study in Sleep and Biological Rhythms, “night owls have more nightmares and daytime sleepiness than early birds do”. Your circadian rhythms might be disrupted by staying up – and waking up – late, causing sleep problems for you. Try turning in 15 minutes earlier than usual every few nights in order to ease into a healthier sleep schedule.
- Lunch – In
Contrary to popular belief, not eating lunch won’t cause you to eat more later. It may in fact, be the key to shedding pounds. In a recent study at Cornell University, participants who ate smaller portions at lunch consumed 245 fewer calories daily and lost an average of 1.1 pounds in just two weeks. “Your body resets at every meal,” s ays lead study author David Levitsky, Ph.D. “for example, if you spend a day fasting, you’re not going to eat twice as much food the following day. And the same is true from meal to meal.”
A new study from Harvard showed that “women who imbibe just five to seven drinks a week are 20 percent more likely to be in good health later in their life.” Qi Sun, M.D., lead author in the study, explains that alcohol improves cholesterol and insulin response and reduces inflammation, which can help lower your risk of illness such as heart disease and diabetes. This of course is all in moderation. Exceed that dose and your chances for certain conditions such as breast cancer increase.
People who set a goal, such as a target number of workouts a week, stick to their routines with significantly more success than those who focus on a “big picture” outcome – such as losing 20 pounds – or go along without any set goal, a study in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found. Those people will also feel less stressed about squeezing in exercise. Schedule your gym time just as you would a meeting that way when someone asks if you can meet at 5, you can honestly say you have plans.
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