FitSugar

Another Reason to Get More Sleep: Performance

FitSugar — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:15:00 PDT

Your lack of sleep could be affecting your performance at the gym...

The amount of sleep a person gets affects his or her physical health, emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity and now performance too. Studies have associated lack of sleep with serious health problems such as an increased risk of depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

According to new research presented at SLEEP 2007, athletes who get an extra amount of sleep are more likely to improve their performance in a game including faster sprint time and increased free-throws. Furthermore, athletes also reported increased energy and improved mood during practices and games, as well as a decreased level of fatigue.

What does this mean to you? Well, get more sleep, even if you're not an athlete. If you're overtired, you may not get as much out of your exercise routine as you should. Besides, no one ever said, "Gosh, I am too rested to workout today", now did she?

Fit's Tip: It is recommended that adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep each night. Don't have time? Then at the very least, try to fit in a nap during the day. Work isn't the issue, being a mom is? Then ask your husband to help you sleep an hour more tomorrow morning.

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OnSugar Blog: The Great Delivery!

OnSugar Blog — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:10:14 PDT

There's an amazing tale to be told of how each baby enters the world. We've been following along with CherylDee's pregnancy. She presents her lil one's birth story on the latest post to her Lipsticks to Baby Bottles blog. Here's an excerpt.

So the best friend and her sister met me at the clinic for my checkup. (It's great to have your best friend by your side!) My doc had to check how dilated I was to determine how soon or how late my delivery would be.

Dr. Heng: Hmm...you're only 1cm dilated. Don't think baby is coming anytime soon. Also your baby's head is very low. I can feel her head. Quite a bit of hair.

Cheryl: So nothing to worry about yeah?

Dr. Heng: Nope. I'll see you again next week okay! Eat healthy! See you next week!

So we decided to go get our nails done. Typical girlie thing to do. I started to feel some pains. Like I felt constipated. But I knew it was coming from the baby. So I called my mum to tell her and she was all, "Maybe you're being paranoid." So I decided to just not panic and carry on doing my nails. The best friend noticed that I was starting to get uncomfortable and said we can leave if we wanted to, but I though, heck, must be my imagination. After getting our nails done, we had our dinner which I felt I was dying already, so we quickly rushed home to my place and I plonked my butt in bed squirming in pain.

Thank goodness the best friend decided to stay with me at home, because I would have died in the pain I swear! She helped call Sham who was still at work to rush home. By the time he got home, I told him we needed to head to the hospital. Something was not right. The pain was nothing I had imagined. Good thing Sham's cousin lives across the street from us, because he offered to drive us down to the hospital and thank goodness that the hospital was literally 5 minutes away by car from our house.

So we get to East Shore Hospital and they immediately put me in a wheelchair and I get pushed up to the Delivery ward. (It started getting so real at this point of time!)

My doc happened to be in the next room delivering another baby so she came to check on me right after, and broke my water bag for me and in a span of just an hour, I dilated from 1 cm to 3 cm. No one prepares you for the kind of pain you go through for labour. The starting was not so bad. But then it started to get more pain as the contractions became more frequent. They gave me laughing gas to help with the pain, but that made me puke heaps. I remember my doc saying, "Baby won't be arriving till about 7/8 am. So I'm going home to sleep. See you later!"

Continue reading about Kiara Eve's arrival here. Have your own birth story to share? Share your child's story in our Birth Stories group over in the LilSugar Community.

Weight Loss Tips: 10 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism

Shape — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:10:35 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Weight Loss Tip #1: Maximize Your Muscle - Muscles are fat-burning furnaces, so be sure to do enough resistance training to build and maintain them (these fast workouts tone your whole body in 30 minutes), and follow your workout with a healthy meal or snack that contains protein, carbohydrates and fat. Building new muscle raises your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) so you'll burn more calories every day.

Weight Loss Tip #2: Don't Forget Cardio - Cardio improves definition and burns the fat that covers your muscles, especially belly fat. Combining regular aerobic exercise with strength training will give you the slimming effect you've been going for. After all, toning without cardio is like building a house on a weak foundation. Blast calories with these 20-minute cardio workouts from celebrity trainer Jackie Warner.

Weight Loss Tip #3: Never Skip Meals - Eat six small meals a day to avoid blood-sugar spikes and minimize urges to binge. Try to schedule meals at the same time each day. If you feed yourself well throughout the day, you'll learn to understand when your body truly needs food. You can't starve yourself and expect to make good choices at the next meal. Need a few healthy lunch ideas? Check out these top food swaps from a nutritionist.

See the rest of the tips after the break!