I am on day 19 today and just completed a two day cleanse. It was rough. I struggled to sleep both nights I was cleansing. It was broken sleep, only a couple of hours at a time and some napping on the couch. I don’t think I ever got into that deep sleep where the magic happens. I awoke this morning extremely punchy and feeling exhausted. The weird thing is when I went to bed last night, I was so tired. I had such a hard time getting to sleep. I went to bed at 10pm, like I normally do and laid there till almost 11pm. My stomach was growling, I was hot and cold at the same time! So, I had one scoop of a shake in some water and downed that and tried again to go to sleep. I probably got to sleep at midnight and woke up at 3am. Yes, you guessed it, had to pee. Then, the struggle began again to get back to sleep. I realized something while laying there.

A lot of the time when I was stuffing my face with food all day, and was simply exhausted by the time I went to bed and got really good sleep that night, I would wake up the next morning feeling skinny! I would always think, wow, I can eat and still wake up skinny! The truth was, it was from the good rest. I will speak more to that subject in a moment!

Here are my results from my two day cleanse. I really feel like if I had better rest, I would have had better results.

Over two days I lost 1.3 pounds, and a total of an additional 7.75 inches. However, if I look at the total over 19 days that I have lost. It’s pretty amazing! A total of 10.2 pounds released and 17.5 inches shed. That’s awesome! I feel pretty amazing considering I am dog tired right now! I feel skinny!

I have to tell you, I was a little disappointed this morning when I decided to get out of bed. I was dozing from 3:30am til 4:45am. I was angry and felt like it wasn’t worth the NOT EATING for two days and just drinking water, the cleanse mix and eating those “snacks”. Sleep is so important in my life. I believe that there is a core belief at work here and my unconscious mind is hard at work to “hold onto” those extra pounds. Louise Hay says that weight is put on and kept on to make our unconscious mind feel safe. There is some reason that we need it to feel safe. Figure out that reason, and fix the issue, and the weight releases. Language is extremely powerful as well. Notice above I typed “I lost 1.3 pounds”. There is a HUGE difference between releasing and losing. Losing means I will probably “find it” again. Releasing means it was let go of. See the difference? Very interesting.

This sleep thing, is fascinating to me. The body and brain chemistry is fascinating to me. Let’s face it, I am a nerd when it comes to this stuff! According to WebMd, lack of SLEEP affects weight gain and good rest affects weight loss (release). Here is how it works.

If you are tired, think of the decisions you make when it comes to diet and exercise. No sleep or not getting good rest for me means that I am punchy and pissed off! So, that means, no gym, don’t really care about what I eat and I am using the excuse of “I’m tired”, to blow that stuff off. Not only that, insufficient sleep affects the hunger and fullness hormones in our bodies! That’s probably why I was so hungry yesterday, and the day before.

There are two in particular that it affects, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin signals your brain that it’s time to eat. When you’re sleep-deprived, your body makes more ghrelin. Leptin, on the other hand, cues your brain to put the fork down. When you’re not getting enough sleep, leptin levels plummet, signaling your brain to eat more food. Then there’s the cortisol spike that comes from too little sleep. This stress hormone signals your body to conserve energy to fuel your waking hours. Translation: You’re more apt to hang on to fat.

What is the answer? What do we do to get better rest? I know of a couple of things right off! Less stress equals better sleep. I tend to stress about upcoming presentations, important meetings and whether or not I am doing my best. Exercise is a huge factor in getting better sleep. I haven’t been going to the gym, having trouble fitting it into my schedule and walking is out of the question with these temps lately around Phoenix! I MUST fit in gym time. PERIOD. I am throwing a wrench in my progress if I do not MAKE time for it!

What do you do to get better rest? I have a routine, I get up and go to bed at the same time every single night. I DO NOT shut off that blue light from the phone – I read that it affects sleep patterns. So, I will be shutting my phone off at 9pm every night now. I will report how that works this week.

What are your patterns with sleep? Share with me what you do!