Shannon Sponagle Nutrition
120 Pelham Street B0J 2C0 Lunenburg, NS, Canada

Downy Woodpecker enjoying breakfast in our garden this morning.

Are you sabotaging your healthy living goals by not getting enough sleep? Did you know: On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night. Many people need more. My ideal is 8.5 hours. What’s yours? Sleep affects levels of two hormones that are directly linked to weight gain/loss: ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat. When you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and (you guessed it...!) when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin. More ghrelin plus less leptin may equal weight gain. When we don’t sleep enough, we feel tired and are much less likely to exercise. When we are tired, we are much more likely to reach for comfort foods and also for quick pick-me-ups like sugary snacks and caffeine. (And increased caffeine is likely to affect our sleep later - it’s a vicious cycle.) Do you struggle to get enough sleep?

Lest we forget.

For anyone who needs a moment of calm today, here’s a simple 5 minute meditation from Jeff Warren, one of my favourite teachers. Take care of yourselves, friends. https://jeffwarren.org/explorati/the-most-basic-meditation/

School costumes. (And then they saw two deer in our backyard. )