The Effects Of Blue Light And Sleep Quality On Your Weight

In the past few years, there have been talks about the adverse effects blue rays have on your body. As the biggest source of blue rays, the sun is made up of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red rays. Blue light exposure you receive from screen devices are relatively small compared to its biggest source, but it still bears long-term effects that may be challenging if you wish to revert.

There have been many discussions on the negative consequences on one’s eyesight after prolonged exposure to blue light, but what about your sleep?

A 2019 study was published in the JAMA Internal Medicine Journal and it revealed that having the television switched on throughout your sleep is actually bad for your health. It may seem insignificant, but the findings are not to be understated.

Blue Light Affects Circadian Rhythm

Your body has a natural clock that prompts your body’s preparation for the start and the end of each day. These swings are also known as the circadian rhythms and they vary from one person to another.

For the better or worse, blue light regulates our circadian rhythm. Exposure to blue light helps to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm – which justifies the need for sun exposure to get proper sleep – but too much may be detrimental to your sleep cycle. When you rely on the television to lull you to sleep or have the habit of spending time on your phone before you drift off, it disrupts your circadian rhythm. This can easily translate to sleep issues and extreme fatigue, amongst many other things.

It Disrupts Your Sleeping Patterns

Apart from messing up your circadian rhythm, blue light will disrupt your sleep patterns by boosting your alertness. This will force your body to stay awake even after you’ve switched off your devices. It’s especially worse for those who rely on their television as white noise as they drift off to sleep. Even if you’re not fully conscious, your brain will still actively pick up the sounds and information from the programs, thus rendering your sleep shallow at most. When you don’t get a full sleep cycle, you’re not giving the body a chance to rebuild and repair.

Increase Your Cortisol Levels

In the off chance that you don’t get to complete all 5 stages of sleep, you are also robbing your body the opportunity to recover. When the exhaustion and stress levels are not resolved, it will be brought forward to the next day. Furthermore, your body will release more cortisol to handle your stress, which will trigger higher blood sugar content in order to help you fight or flee the stressor. Unfortunately, you can’t do either since you’re not awake. Moreover, a high cortisol level may also trigger type-2 diabetes.

You Are Likely to Eat More

When your sleep is disrupted, your hormones will undergo a change. There will be an underproduction of the hormone leptin, specifically. This is a red flag as leptin suppresses appetite and encourages the body to use up energy stored in the body. Unfortunately, not only will sleep deprivation reduce the production of leptin, but it will increase the production of the hormone ghrelin. The ghrelin hormone is responsible for your hunger pangs. This spells bad news as not only will it translate to imminent weight gain, but it will also render your slimming treatments ineffective.

Conclusion

The good news is, you can easily avoid artificial blue light emission! Start by switching off all your screen devices, which includes your computers, phones and television. Leave 30 minutes or so in between before you prepare for your sleep. If you’re looking to lose weight and experience better sleep. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a great way to do so! TCM weight loss treatment will also look into your overall well being and they offer solutions such as Chamomile tea to help detox your body and has calming properties to aid in your sleep. Consult with our slimming experts at Slim Couture on the best way to tackle two issues at the same time!

4 Common Myths About Exercise And Weight Loss Busted

Apart from purely aesthetic reasons, being overweight is also an indicator of poor health. Whilst a lean and skinny body also has the propensity to be unhealthy, a heavy body will physically harm your body. Your tendons and joints will take the brunt of your physical exertion, especially if your workout routine does more harm than good. A heavy body will also make physical activities significantly harder and more often than not, this has caused several to fall off the bandwagon to only return to their unhealthy weights.

If you wish to shed those pounds via exercise, you’d need to know what are some of the exercises that may not be as effective as you thought they were. We’ve gathered and debunked 4 myths about the relationship between weight loss and exercise, and reveal the truths behind them.

Myth 1: Belly Fat Melts Away When You Do Crunches

Crunches have been the proposed solution for those who wish to slim their waistline. It’s a popular exercise as it works out your abdomen area. However, that cannot be further than the truth.

The fact of the matter is that crunches don’t actually burn belly fats. Since they elicit and work out only a localised small group of muscles, specifically the rectus abdominis, you’re not targeting your entire belly. Furthermore, there’s very little metabolic work done, which translates to breaking down little to no fat cells. Abdominal movements, unfortunately, don’t burn stomach fat.

Myth 2: Any Form Of Exercise Is Effective For Weight Loss

Similar to how crunches are not effective when losing belly fat, not all exercises will help you in losing weight. There are exercises that are designed to lose weight, but there are several others that meant to stretch or strengthen.

The exercise that will benefit you will be those that will improve your metabolic rate. Cardio routines are especially great at increasing your metabolism. That said, ensure that you don’t overcompensate and overwork your body. High-intensity cardio exercises pose the risk of incurring musculoskeletal injuries. Rather than exposing yourself to this risk, you’d have to exercise moderately throughout the day. Especially if your body weight is heavier than most, your joints and tendons are especially vulnerable. Thus, start slow and increase the intensity in increments. For instance, rather than running, opt for a 20-30 minutes walk 3-4 times a week. You’ll notice significant weight loss in a matter of weeks!

Myth 3: An Exercise Regimen Is A License To Eat Anything

You may have adopted an exercise regime and figured out what truly works and what don’t. However, you realised that your weight hardly budges. Perhaps, you should take a look at your eating habits.

Often, many perceive that once they religiously work out, this gives them the license to eat absolutely anything. That isn’t necessarily correct. Whilst there is slightly more freedom for your dietary choices, all this means is that you don’t need to limit yourself to just salads and chicken breasts.  Review your diet and exclude harmful and unhealthy foods, such as soft drinks and desserts. Ensure that your meals are clean. Otherwise, you can have fun eating anything and everything, so long as your physical activities make up for it!

Myth 4: Once You’ve Lost Weight, You Can Put It In The Backburner

Several weight loss treatments in Singapore are popular because they promise results within a short time. And most often, they do! However, there’s a real and subtle danger that lies within rebound weight.

Apart from suffering from health conditions such as hypothyroidism, excess weight often comes from poor eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle. If you don’t change the latter, the chances of getting a relapse are high. Even after opting for slimming treatments, ensure that inculcate habits that will help you maintain a healthy weight. For instance, you could consider TCM slimming; it’s a natural slimming treatment without any side effects!

Whilst these 4 common myths have been debunked, you’d need to research into the types of exercises that will benefit you and your body. Have a look at the different types of muscles that are activated. Remember not to target only one type of muscles and always have various exercise regimes. It takes a while but your body will thank you for it.

A Sedentary Lifestyle: Health Risks You Need To Be Aware Of

For most Singaporeans, the temptation to do absolutely nothing after a long day at work often triumphs their desire to move, much less exercise. The physical and mental exhaustion often warrants a portion of time to wind down and decompress. Sometimes, this continues even in the weekends and physical activities become an item on their to-do-list but never actually pursued.

This sedentary lifestyle is easy to fall into since you literally need no effort. However, this very lifestyle possesses a threat to your health by increasing the chances of developing chronic ailments. That said, don’t be disheartened just yet! There are ways in which you can prevent and revert the consequential effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

What’s a sedentary lifestyle

In 2018 alone, a study done by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has shown that 1 in 3 Singaporeans are not active enough. Whilst more men than women are found to have engaged in physical exercise, both genders are still lacking behind the global average. On top of the fact that physical inactivity is the 4th leading risk factor for global mortality is concerning enough, Singapore’s statistics is highly worrying.

Especially for city dwellers, having a constant exercise routine is challenging. Apart from the lack of recreational time and pre-existing medical conditions, most Singaporeans would rather spend time on their mobile devices. Whilst it is definitely easier to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, your body and health may be the ones to pay the cost.

How it affects your health

Ironically, not doing anything has the propensity to bring you harm. Long periods of sitting or lounging on your couch will significantly reduce your metabolism, which makes it harder to break down fat. The weight loss plan that you thought would work, in actuality, wouldn’t give you any satisfactory results. Extended periods of inactivity will also impair your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar – basically your insulin and glucagon production – and also your blood pressure. This easily gives rise to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, especially when weight becomes a concern. It may also lead to osteoporosis and even abnormality in cell growth, aka cancer.

It’s not only your physical health that gets affected but so will your mental health. A study was done with 10,381 participants who have adopted a sedentary lifestyle. According to their findings, they concluded that an inactive lifestyle increases the chances of one developing a mental health disorder, especially depression.

Solutions to sedentary lifestyles

The only solution for physical inactivity is as straightforward as it gets: be physically active. Clock in an exercise routine that combines both cardiovascular exercises and weight training. It could be as simple as walking for 30 minutes a day and doing 30-minute sessions of push-pull trainings a week. However, if you’re dedicating the majority of your time sitting down, having a weekly routine may not even cut it. Instead, reduce your time spent being sedentary by walking to your workplace or even spending more time doing simple chores at home every single day.

If your health is already at risk, don’t panic. Figure out solutions to tackle one problem at a time. For instance, if you have gained several pounds and have trouble trying to lose weight, perhaps you may want to invest in an effective weight loss treatment. If you are trying to reduce your high blood pressure, commit to a healthier and cleaner diet. There’s no way getting around it as the majority of Singaporeans are desk jockeys but incorporate tweaks to your way of living will prove to be sufficient.

Vegetarianism Made Easy: 4 Tips For Smoother Diet Transition

Whether it is from stumbling across the horrific truth about animal husbandry, adopting a healthier lifestyle or a viable approach for weight loss, embracing a vegetarian diet has many benefits. As with any diet/lifestyle change, making the change to be a vegetarian is not easy. Avoiding all variations of meat is challenging, especially for women as meat products are excellent choices for iron. Whilst difficult, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

To help with your diet transition, here are a few tips you can try picking up and include in your lifestyle.

1. Take It Slow

Vegetarianism can be rather daunting and jumping straight into it can give your body physical and mental stress. An all or nothing attitude may pose bane and get in the way of your progress. Instead of going 100% from the get-go, consider taking smaller steps. Implement sustainable changes such as going meatless on Mondays before transitioning to three times a week to meatless weekdays. You may also start by giving up one meat product at a time, from red meats to poultry to pork then seafood. There is no right way, just do what makes you comfortable.

Approaching vegetarianism this way also means not putting yourself in a box. You can be vegetarian today, a pescatarian tomorrow.

All change takes time and it wouldn’t do you any good if you put yourself on a pedestal. If you caught yourself slip because you were tempted by a meat dish, it does not render your previous efforts obsolete! Go easy on yourself and just go back on track the next day.

2. Seek Comfort In Familiarity

Unless you’ve adopted an all-meat diet, not eating any vegetarian dish is almost impossible. Think Margherita pizza, mushroom soup and something as simple as scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Start by jotting down some of your favourite plant-based dishes and start your journey with what you’re comfortable with. It’ll make your lifestyle change so much easier.

Vegetarian dishes need to be exotic, as seen from the examples above. Substitute your meats with vegetables and that’s it! It needs some getting used to but roasted eggplant curry tastes just as good as a chicken curry dish.

3. Meat Substitutes

If you don’t wish to let go of your favourite meat dishes, you can change them to their vegetarian versions. Satiate your meat cravings with meat substitutes. Meat substitutes used to have a bad reputation but it has come a long way since then. There is a reason why there is so much rave for the impossible meat.

Continue to try the different brands and products until you find the one that works. Some products are designed to be prepared in a certain way whilst some are versatile and will work for any type of dishes.

However, it is worth to note that just because they’re called meat substitutes, they can’t entirely substitute meat products. The vegetarian imitation will leave you disappointed if you’re hoping to get the exact same taste and texture.

 4. Cook and Experiment

Vegetarian food may have a reputation for being expensive, but it doesn’t have to be as such! Look at the all-accessible and inexpensive Indian cuisine and you’d be introduced to several scrumptious dishes!

That said, if you wish to have full reign of the flavour profile, perhaps it’s time to bring it into the kitchen! Browse through tried and tested recipes and experiment! Tweak the recipe to suit your palate! It will be an interesting opportunity to use a specific set of ingredients and make something mouth watering.

Conclusion

Being a vegetarian doesn’t have to be complicated. As with every goal, it is best to focus on the journey rather than the end goal. Revel in the feeling of being healthier, both physically and mentally. Another outcome of adopting a healthier diet also means a few pounds shed. Whilst it may not be a comprehensive weight loss plan, it is one of the important aspects!

If you’re serious in losing weight, you might want to look into perhaps opting for weight loss treatments in Singapore. Having a team of experts to guide you in your weight loss journey will make it easier and less lonely. Going for a slimming treatment will also allow you to reach your desired weight faster than if you go into it blind.