We can’t believe week 3 is already here! We hope you have started building a base that is sturdy and sustainable with the healthy habits we have been focusing on. Keep working at maintaining the habits we have built in the last two weeks and try and build on them as we add in two more this week.

Sleep

This week we will be focusing on adding more sleep into our routine. We see this so often as a large factor of an athlete’s performance not only in the gym, but how well someone can function at work, school, or keeping up with kids. We also understand that there are many factors that can play into how much sleep each individual gets, depending on personal circumstances (kids, work, homework, etc.). Although, focusing on how much sleep you get and being consistent about it can change more than your performance in the gym. It can affect your mood, behavior, energy and stress levels as well as increase attention span.

The average adult is encouraged to get between 7-8 hours of sleep on a consistent basis, the key word being consistent. If you sleep 5 hours 5x a week and the other two days you get 8 hours, the 8 hours of sleep you got for two nights will not benefit you because your body is still trying to recover from the lack of sleep you got the 5 other days that week. It’s similar to eating: if you have great eating habits for 2x a week, but the rest of the week you fall off the rails, you won’t get to ever see the results and benefits from the two days because it requires consistency in order to see change. To see change in your body and mind from healthy habits with food, you need to be consistent. To see change in your body and mind from healthy habits with sleep, you need to be consistent. Here are a couple of tips to build a consistent sleep schedule:

A couple of tips-

• Stay away from caffeine (coffee, tea, and soda) late in the day.

• If you have a habit of eating dinner late in the evening, try and push dinnertime a couple hours earlier so your body has time to digest before bed.

• Set a goal for the amount of sleep you would like to get each night (this is going to be different for everyone) and create a sleep schedule including the time you will get in bed, fall asleep, and wake up.

• Blue light exposure that is found in most all electronics can reduce hormones including melatonin, which helps increase deep sleep and relaxation. Try and turn off all electronics an hour before bed. This is a healthy habit to incorporate into your routine to improve not only sleep but improve anxiety levels and anxiousness that is triggered from media and news found on our devices.

• If you work out in the evening, try switching it up if your schedule allows. Getting your work out in earlier in the day can help with falling asleep faster.

Guilty Pleasure

I am sure you all saw this one coming… The classic “take away your sugary, delicious, everyday guilty pleasure” treat, AKA your lifeline. We all have one, and I am sure they all look very different. Maybe yours isn’t covered in chocolate and comes in a gold wrapper or maybe you don’t give a sigh of relief every time the pop can makes the “kkkkiirrkkkchhh” when opened. Whatever your guilty pleasure is, we are going to moderate it for the week. We are not saying we want to pull the rug from under your feet, but we do want you to think it is important to moderate these treats and find the importance of you being able to say, “I don’t need to have ____ today”. Again, this is going to look different for everyone. If you have this treat after every meal, let’s start taking it out with just lunch. If you have it every night, let’s try just 3-4 days a week. Start with a foundation and build from there, that is our goal with the Build the Base series. Inform a coach you trust about what your goals are for this week and allow them to help and walk you through some reasonable steps. Here are a few tips to navigate moderating this habit:

A couple of tips-

• Don’t deny yourself of your cravings, or in other words, don’t try and go cold turkey with whatever treat you are moderating. Figure out your goal this week and how you would like to moderate it, but don’t take it out completely. If that is your end goal, wonderful, but start small and build on it.

• Drink lots of water! Remember back to week 1? When you are craving something, drink a couple glasses of water and wait 15 minutes then ask yourself if you still want to have your treat.

• Switch it out with a healthier treat. If you feel like moderating isn’t in the cards right now, let’s try switching out your treat with something a bit more nutritious. We will be posting some options this week!

• Take a walk outside, journal, grab a book, or get out of the house if you need to! This will help you realize that you really don’t need that treat right this minute.

• If you are like me, you will just need to take your treat out of the house. If you plan on moderating, don’t do this just yet. But others who can’t even know it’s there, chuck it out!

• If you find yourself having this snack at a certain time of the day, plan other things during that time to keep yourself busy. This could also mean you may need a more balanced meal (protein, veggie, carb) that will keep you nourished longer.

• Find a friend and keep each other accountable! This is an important tip, especially for this week. Send each other stupid memes to keep each other distracted, friends don’t let friends curb a craving alone.

We want to see what you are doing to get more sleep this week, and what kinds of moderations, tips and tricks, and substitutions you are making for your guilty pleasure. Tag us in your Instagram posts and #CFDbuildthebase so we can see how you are working towards building healthy habits.

We will be posting other helpful tips this week on Instagram, so follow along! Good luck this week and remember, we are here to help! Grab a coach and let them follow along with you on this journey.