The Pillars of Wellness Series: How Much Sleep Do We Need, Unhealthy Oils and Making Exercise Social.

In this blog post, we are continuing our discussion of the Three Pillars of Wellness:

🌿 Sleep

🌿 Nutrition

🌿 Exercise

WHY DO WE NEED SLEEP? HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN WE’VE HAD ENOUGH SLEEP?

We need sleep to allow our body and brain repair, restore, and reenergize. Without sleep you can’t form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories, and it’s harder to concentrate and respond quickly. In addition, there has been some newer research to suggest that while you sleep, your body is also removing toxins in your brain that build up while you are awake. Who doesn’t want that?

Sleep doesn’t affect only your brain. It extends to almost every type of tissue and system in the body – and influences things like metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance. Research also shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or poor sleep quality, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity. I cannot emphasize how important sleep is, and as I have said before:

Creating a healthy sleep routine is the single, most important thing you can do to support your whole well-being.

So how do we know when we’ve had enough sleep? Well, it varies from person to person. Most people need at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. But the quality of that sleep is what matters the most. I’d rather have 5 solid hours of great quality, deep sleep than 9 hours of tossing and turning and fighting with hot flashes. I think the most important part of the routine is committing to climbing into bed at the same time every night, somewhere between 9:30 and 10 pm. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but for us ladies in our perimenopausal years, we really have to aim to be in the bed by 10:30 at the latest. That’s to keep our hormones balanced, and it can get kind of complex, so we’ll save that for another day. We’re keeping it simple today!

During these transitional years through to menopause, there are so many demands on us. We’re juggling all of these hormonal changes, careers, kids at home, kids flying the nest, taking care of aging parents, deaths of parents, and lots of other very stressful things. Sleep has got to be the priority over all else for the reasons I outlined above. It goes back to that old saying that if you aren’t taking care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else.

During this transition, it becomes increasingly important to listen to our bodies as hot flashes, joint pain and anxiety can all start to impact the quality of our sleep. That’s why working with a health professional (like me!) can be helpful. We can get a good handle on what your hormones are doing and together, we can make the required changes to bring things back into balance.

So what can you do right now? Well, for starters, try and hit the sheets at the same time every day, as I mentioned already. Make sure you’re staying hydrated during the day, avoid afternoon caffeine fixes, nix the alcohol, get some exercise, and make sure your eyes are exposed to early morning light as soon as you wake up, because this sets the stage for your melatonin come night. To add insult to injury, everyone (men included) find themselves producing less and less melatonin as we age, so getting that early morning light is super important as we all get older.

I am finding that many of the women coming to my practice don’t make the connection with how their day starts and progresses and how that impacts the sleep quality they are going to have at night. It’s important to look at the whole picture of your day, and not just the hours you are laying in bed. It’s all connected.

One final thing I want to mention this week about sleep concerns wearable sleep trackers. Many of us wear them and that’s not a bad thing. It’s wonderful to be able to track your sleep and learn more about it. Many of us have come to depend on the information these trackers provide as a means to tell us how we are doing, but it’s really important to do a self-check and feel your feelings for yourself. Do you feel rested? Do you recall your dreams? Did you get up excessively through the night and if so, why?

By the way, if you are wearing a tracker and have no clue what you are aiming for besides a happy face on your watch to say “good job” – things like the amount of time in REM and deep sleep are the important numbers to look at. Ideally, if you can achieve 1.5 hrs of each over the course of the night, that’s a good thing. And the sooner you can get your body into deep sleep once you lay down, the better it is for your brain to be able to do all the daily filing and sorting needed. So, get to bed early, set yourself up for success with an evening routine, and drill down a little deeper if something is standing in your way.

We’re moving onto food next, because it is important…and then exercise!

In the nutrition portion of this post, I want to tackle a food-related question I actually get asked about a lot. It concerns the types of fats and how much you should be consuming. Many people are afraid of fats, thanks to an active ad campaign over the past few decades vilifying it and telling us to cut it out of our diets in order to “get the bodies we so desire”. Research has proven quite the opposite more recently and it’s starting to become more widely accepted that your body actually needs healthy fats for lots of reasons:

• produce hormones

• provide you with energy

• improve heart health

• boost brain function

• feel fuller and satisfied

• better absorb nutrients

• and a myriad of other important functions!

The big debate remains: what fats are considered healthy? Hopefully this article will help to dispel some of the myths and settle some of the confusion.

First of all, please know that all fats are not created equal. The ones I list below are on my healthy list, however, and should most definitely be incorporated into your diet.

Nicole’s Top Picks For Healthy Fats:

• Avocado (I use avocado oil to cook with all the time and eat them whole several times a week)

• Fatty fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, and anchovies (all packed with omega-3 fatty acids)

• Nuts and seeds (especially chia and flaxseed)

• Eggs (they do not raise cholesterol…it’s a myth!)

• Grass-fed organic beef

• Full fat dairy (if you can tolerate dairy)

• Butter and ghee (please put the “butter-like” substances back on the shelf!)

• Extra virgin olive oil (tip: always look for “extra virgin” on the label to avoid chemicals used to process the oil and don’t cook at high temperatures!)

• Coconut oil (again, look for “extra virgin” to avoid the chemicals used in processing…but coconut oil works great at high heat, unlike EVOO above)

• Dark chocolate (look for 70% or higher)

A good rule of thumb is to avoid the highly processed oils that are full of unhealthy ingredients and additives. Things like chips, crackers, donuts, packaged baked goods, processed meats, and refined vegetable oils like corn, safflower, sunflower, soy, and vegetable. That’s right…these oils that most people use daily are highly inflammatory for your body and could easily be the reason you feel yucky all the time.

You may have also heard the term “trans fats” and you might also think our food doesn’t contain them anymore. Not so. Health Canada has banned artificial trans fat, making it illegal for manufacturers to add partially hydrogenated oils to foods sold in Canada. However, even after being banned, they can still be legally sold if they contain trace amounts of artificial trans fats. This amount is not required to be put on the nutrition label, so it’s quite misleading. The toll on your health from artificial trans fat consumption (even small amounts) can add up quickly and these dangerous fats are responsible for so many inflammatory processes in your body. Things like heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes and more. Best to steer clear of these fats and the places they usually hang out.

Now, how much fat is enough? For the general public, simply making an effort to choose these healthy fats over some of the more “unhealthy” ones, is a step in the right direction. For the average healthy adult, I recommend that fats make up somewhere between 25 and 30% of their diet. In easier terms, that means a small portion of fat with every meal or snack (a tbsp of olive oil on a salad, some nut butter on toast or alongside an apple, a palm-sized portion of meat at meals, ¼ of an avocado sliced on a wrap, etc.)

Remember, my goal here at Nicole Schur Wellness is to keep things simple – let’s not overcomplicate our choices! Be intentional: stick with the good fats and try to limit the more harmful ones. Substitute where you can and simply buy a better product when you run out of the one you are currently using. And always remember to have a bit of fat with every meal and snack.

Finally, I’d like to talk a little more about exercise. In a few weeks, we’ll be diving deep into the specific types of exercise that are important to consider during the transition through to menopause (hint hint…it involves lifting heavy weights, in relatively short spurts, often!). But before we go there, I wanted to expand a little further on what we talked about last week, including some hacks to make exercise more fun and more effective (or efficient, depending on how you look at it)!

• Leave your house. Explore local trails, walk in your neighborhood, find your community pool, see what activities might be available at your local community center.

• Do “walk and talks”…try catching up with friends and family, or even host a work meeting, while you’re out walking or inside on your treadmill. Have you seen those walking treadmills that fit under your desk? Walking and talking can be a great way to stay connected and get exercise at the same time.

• Consider your commute. Can you bike to work or walk? How about getting off a few bus stops earlier or parking further away? This can really help you to get those 10,000 steps in per day.

• Meet with friends for exercise instead of drinks. You can meet up for your favorite gym class together or even attend classes online together. This helps with accountability too.

• Move as much as you can. I realize that many of us sit at desks all day long. Try getting up to go talk to that colleague instead of emailing. Take the long way around the building. Make a pact with your self that you only take the stairs - no more elevators.

• If you’re heading out on a vacation, try to plan your trip around exercise. For example, sign up for a walking tour instead of the bus trip, book hotels with gyms, sign up for a sports activity while you’re on holiday (book a 5K fun run with a local running club) or even book an active holiday like a yoga retreat or a rock climbing holiday in and of itself.

• Try getting your kids involved: get them to do a workout video with you or make your time together something that includes activity: go swimming, play a sport, bring them on walks or plan hikes. Setting a good example for them is never a bad idea and the quality time together can be fun too.

• How about getting fit while you watch TV? I know commercials are all but a thing of the past, but how about incorporating some jumping jacks, push ups and squats while you watch TV? You can also use TV time to stretch, too. You can even make it a little friendly family competition to see who can do more squats in 2 minutes, or something similar. Kids (and competitive spouses!) love this game.

• Use social media to announce your goals, hype yourself up and look for willing fitness buddies for that next class. Use your fitness tracker to motivate you to get those steps in or reach those exercise goals. You can even use your tracker to do your workouts as most offer fitness programs nowadays.

• You might also consider trying something new. Try that new class in the gym, look for a new video online. You might find something you like, and it’ll keep you moving your muscles in new ways. It doesn’t have to be expensive. There are loads of videos online now and many communities offer classes at lower prices. My go-to places for free workouts online is usually You Tube…there are SO many videos for free! Plus, it’s free to walk in the woods and lift your own body weight!

• Finally, make sure you schedule your workouts into your day and make them non-negotiable. Even if you find 2 or 3, 10-minutes spots in your day, spread out - that is still a VERY effective way to get your workouts in. It doesn’t have to be an hour at 5 am every single day. Do what you can, whatever that is, and just be consistent. If you only have 10 minutes a day, then let it be a solid 10 minutes per day and show up in that space for yourself every day. Just be there for your self when you say will.