Four simple ways to improve sleep and ease your stress

I DON’T know about you, but my sleeping pattern has been all over the place over the past few weeks. I obviously know the reason for it (not too difficult to work that one out!) and I’ve been doing something about it.

But I know from so many people in our lovely community that it’s not just me who’s been affected!

Stress has a habit of giving us sleepless nights and it also makes us eat more.

Few people realise the implications of being sleep deprived and how it can increase our appetites and as if that’s not bad enough, it can drive us to eat the wrong foods too!

Watch my video for four great tips on how to improve sleep by calming the stress.

Read more on stress

Two positive strategies to keep stress at bay

Don’t let the virus drive you to comfort eating

Control stress at evening danger time

Tell me how you feel

Please leave a comment below to let me know how your sleep is affected right now and what’s it’s doing to your life.

And feel free to share this blog with all your friends because they probably need a little bit of help, too!

The post Four simple ways to improve sleep and ease your stress appeared first on Slimpod.

How nurse Julie’s life is totally transformed in just 10 weeks

ALMOST every week I get emotional when people get in touch and share their stories – even though the Slimpod programme has been helping people to lose weight and live happier lives for over 10 years.

It makes me very happy to hear how Slimpod has turned people’s lives around and the first question I ask when I reply is:

“Would you PLEASE allow me to share your story on my blog so I can help and inspire your fellow Slimpodders?”

Last week I received a truly remarkable story from a lovely nurse called Julie and I was SO excited when she agreed to share her story.

But better still, she was happy to have a conversation on video

If you’re struggling with everything we’re going through at the moment and getting bogged down with all the negativity in the world, I urge you to watch this video.

I know it will really help you. Just click on the picture below and you’ll be taken to my Slimpod Channel on YouTube (while you’re there, hit the red button to subscribe to the channel):

 

 

Julie’s inspiring letter

This is what Julie wrote when she first contacted me:

“I want to say a personal thank you for the Slimpod programme and everything you do on a daily basis to support us all.

“I am a 56-year-old nurse working in the private sector. For years I have been a typical yo-yo dieter, like so many of us.

“In 2007 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and consequently I had to drastically cut my exercise down because of chronic pain and extreme fatigue and obviously my weight increased as a consequence.

“I joined up for the free trial on January 23 and within days found that my relationship with food immediately changed.

“I still weigh once a week but even when my weight stayed the same for two weeks I just shrugged it off as my body readjusting with no risk at all of self-sabotage (100% opposite to what I used to do).

“Now I have lost 1 stone 11 pounds.

“But other benefits that weren’t expected are:

1) for the first time in my life I look at myself in the mirror and am no longer disgusted

2) I am happier, less stressed and feel more positive than ever before

3) by setting myself small goals I have been able to gradually increase my exercise…I now do 10 minutes on my exercise bike and 20 minutes jogging on my trampette THREE times every day.

4) My chronic pain is reducing

5) I am sleeping better, only waking 2 or 3 times a night instead of 20+ times a night

6) I feel normal.

“As I am asthmatic I am currently on a 12-week lockdown at home. I live alone and I know that in my pre-Slimpod days I would have become very isolated and depressed, taking comfort from food.

“Instead I am going to come out the other side as a far better version of myself.

“This is because of you and the wonderful Slimpod community. So THANK YOU again.

“Those two words are totally inadequate to express my gratitude to you. Thank you for Slimpod, your compassion, your enthusiasm and also your team including Debbie and Trevor.”

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Two positive strategies to keep you well and keep stress at bay

I’M not sure about you but I’m usually a glass half full person.  I’m Mrs Positivity and Optimism and can sometimes drive the people around me mad.  Especially my husband!

But I’ve not always been like that. I’ve had to work at it. But that’s something everyone has to do because our brains naturally incline towards being negative.

So in the current situation we’re all experiencing, we need to work even harder at this because there’s SO much negativity in our environment and it’s contributing to a ridiculous amount of stress and anxiety which in turn will begin to affect our immune system and wellness if we don’t take action.

We have to work on our mental health and actively do things to support it.

I’ve been working on this a lot with the folks in our Slimpod Club and I wanted to share some of these important strategies with you too.

I can’t emphasise enough how important this is right now to keep you well.  There’s also a freebie up for grabs so stay with me!

Here’s the two important things you must do…

Protect your mind from the constant onslaught of negative news

Whether that’s on TV, radio or social media.  You must inoculate yourself from it.  The constant drip drip of negativity will add to already high stress and anxiety levels.

Let yourself off the hook a bit with your weight

And I don’t mean eat for Britain.  I just mean so many people get obsessed with ‘I must be a size 12’ that it just adds so much stress to life.

We don’t need this extra stress right now.  Give yourself permission to be human.  Stop stressing about your size and how you wish you could be and focus on taking care of the person you are right now.

It may be that getting into three sizes smaller has been your goal for your entire adult life but now is time to focus just on being healthy by eating  and let yourself off the hook for the end goal.

But guess what!  This is a really good thing if you’re on our Slimpod programme because it will allow your subconscious to take control!

Because you’re not making a conscious effort, there will be no self-sabotaging, no limiting beliefs no anxiety and no stress! This is when most people succeed, when they literally let their body get on with it.

Next up! Routine and structure to your day

We’re creatures of habit.  We like routine.  And lack of routine and structure to our day is what’s causing added stress right now – and this is a real big one because routine really helps with the feeling of being in control and it reduces stress!

This in turn helps your immune system because as I mentioned before, stress puts an enormous amount of stress on the immune system and then you are more at risk of being sick.

I mentioned earlier in my blog that I had a freebie for you.  Well, Trevor Silvester, the voice you hear on the Slimpod, has created a fabulous download which helps to give you inner strength therefore helps you avoid the negative effects of stress.

Our Slimpod Club community were the first to get this on Wednesday and this was one of the comments:

“Thanks Trevor!  I now feel surrounded by a golden light not unlike the Ready Brek glow, calmer and able to face the day.  If you haven’t listened to it I heartily recommend it.”

Here’s the link and enjoy!

https://www.questinstitute.co.uk/products-downloads/downloads/

Now you have some wellness strategies and a free download  – what’s the one (or two) things you can do over the next seven days which will help you get back to a routine and make you feel proud?  Let me know below!

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