Wellbeing #3 Flowing through 50- snacktastic!

Right, and we’re off. Week 1 was the framework, week 2 put the meat on the bones and added habit #1 to the “Move” section. Now, for habit #2- no eating or snacking after 8pm!

I don’t know about you but I love my snacks. Worst of all, candy, but let’s not just limit it there. This post is about “Time Restriction” which correlates both to weight (calories consumed) and sleep (metabolism work rate). The latter is my primary motivation for this particular habit.

Context:

I have had possibly less than a week’s worth of full nights sleep in 4 years. That’s largely due to having two boys (1 and 4 years) who tend to wake us up 1-3 times per night (in aggregate). There’s a whole other post (book in fact) on that which I won't be writing and all the things we could have done differently. However, let’s just say that knowing the amount of sleep I get it sub-par, I’ve began to focus more on the quality of the sleep I actually do get.

There are a number of factors to consider around quality of sleep but one is your metabolism and how hard it has to work while you’re asleep. In short, the less work it has to do (and the faster your heart rate drops to its lowest level) the more rested you will feel in the morning.

I have an Oura ring and they suggest measuring and considering 3 elements of heart rate when you’re asleep:

1. “your trend:” does your heart rate go up, down, stay level or change throughout the night?
2. “Your low point:” when you reach your lowest heart rate?
3. “Your end:” what happens to your heart rate right before you wake?

What: So my first habit to support a higher quality of sleep is “no food after 8pm”- that includes cheese and crackers if I’m in a savory mood, or candy / chocolate if I’m in a sweet mood. Nothing after 8pm. I haven’t cut out booze yet (that may come later in my 75 week project...like week 75 perhaps...) but food, I have. Assuming it takes roughly 4 hours to digest a meal, ideally I’m eating around 6/7pm but that’s often kids / family dependent.

Why: My heart rate tends to lower slowly throughout the night and often doesn’t reach its low point until shortly before I wake up. Sometimes it goes up for an hour or two before it goes down. That is largely because my metabolism is working overtime digesting the food and beverages I consumed that evening. Knowing I'm rarely getting more than 7 hours sleep (7.5 would be ideal for me), feeling rested when I wake is key. So, letting my metabolism rest up a bit earlier in the night, is part of that effort.

How: there isn’t too much planning I need to make this happen. Like all my new habits I’m aiming for 5 / 7 days per week, so looking ahead to the week can be helpful to identify which 1 or 2 days I may not comply, based upon social plans. That also applies to communicating those days to the Mrs, so she doesn’t tempt me with yummy snacks on my ‘good’ days.

Simple stuff but this time restriction habit serves a couple benefits around calorie consumption (and thus weight) while supporting better quality sleep. I’ll report back in a few weeks to see what difference it has (hopefully) made.

We have a few guest posts on the way over the next few weeks / months, so if there's a particular habit or two you've found that works for you and you'd like to share, please just let me know!

Cheers all,

Mark

#Purpose #Wellbeing #Metabolism #Sleep