Suzanne Proksa:
Welcome to the Suzanne show with me, Suzanne Proksa, HR and business strategist, former featured Etsy seller, plant addict, concert lover, gardener, landscaper in training, and human straight up obsessed with helping others and cheering on women. Here, we talk a little business, personal development, women's health, and a whole lot about things that matter, help people, and give them joy. Grab your coffee or your wine, Break out one of your hundreds of notebooks. Light that soy candle, and let's dive in. Everybody, I have a treat for you today. This is Suzanne, your hostess with The Mostess. And today I am talking with Robin Powers. She is a health coach with a BA in psychology and a certified personal trainer nutrition coach, pre postnatal exercise specialist Woah.
Suzanne Proksa:
And group fitness instructor who helps busy moms implement daily strategies to improve their energy, strength, and confidence. Welcome Robin. I am so excited to have you here. If you didn't know, I am also a certified wellness coach. I'm all about sleep, all about sleep. So we are gonna have some fun today. Let's just dive right into this. I have a lot of questions.
Suzanne Proksa:
So first of all, how does consistent lack of quality sleep affect our overall health and ability to achieve our health and fitness goals.
Robynn Powers:
Well, I don't think it's a big secret that when we want to reach some certain health or fitness goal, that it is gonna take a little planning and a little effort. It's not gonna just happen. So when we're sacrificing sleep, we're not gonna have as much energy. We're not gonna be as focused. We're not gonna be as organized and productive, which is going to affect everything else in our life. It's going to have an impact on us meal planning, meal, prepping, scheduling those workouts and actually doing them and not saying I'm too tired. I'm not going to do it. It's going to affect our eating pattern or choices.
Robynn Powers:
It's going to, even if you do go and do that workout, even though you don't feel like it, you're not gonna put as much effort into it and have the energy to do it. So it's going to impact so many areas of our lives. It's gonna cause extra stress. And all of those things are gonna have have an impact on our overall health and well-being because that it's all those things affect us daily, but those things take a toll on us over time as well. It even can affect our ability to fight off illness and disease. So it is not just the next day after you don't get sleep, but all that stuff adds up and it affects your health in the future as well.
Suzanne Proksa:
All right. So popular question. How much sleep is enough And to further dive into that, if you happen to know the answer, the different types of sleep, like how do you figure out what is the right amount? Because we've all got, or most of us at least have, like, sleep trackers, either in our watches or our phone or whatever. And it's telling us, oh, you got this much of this kind of sleep and this much of this kind and this much of this kind and you look at it and you think, Okay. I wonder if that's good or bad. So I'm just curious if you happen to know that as well. Fantastic. But definitely how much sleep is really enough? Because I know we keep hearing every single day, right?
Robynn Powers:
Yes. So there is 5 stages of sleep. And as you move from one to the other, you're actually going to a deeper sleep. Those 5 cycles take about approximately it's just, an average of about 90 minutes that can vary from person to person or within, you know, different bites of sleep or different cycles. So going through the 5 stages is one cycle. And like I said, that'll last anywhere really from 60 minutes to a 110 minutes, but the average is 90. So it's recommended that you go through 5 cycles. So go through each of the 5 stages, 5 to 6 times a night.
Robynn Powers:
So what that means is that you're getting probably about 7, 7 and a half to 9 hours of sleep to really get the benefit of this sleep. But that also means that you're not getting disruptive sleep because once you wake up with in one of those cycles, you, when you go back to sleep, you have to start all over again at the beginning of this, you know, the first stage. So you might not ever be getting into that deep sleep that's required either if you're waking up at night. So it really depends on the person, what their quality of sleep is. And
Suzanne Proksa:
I, I, you, you talk about the trackers,
Robynn Powers:
but I, you know, honestly, I don't know how accurate those are. I don't have a tracker myself and I haven't done a lot of research on them. But really the test is how do you feel in the morning? Do you feel like you're ready to get up? Do you feel like you're energized and ready to go? Or do you feel groggy and feel like, you know, hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep again? I think we really have to start paying more attention to our bodies and how they're feeling instead of just relying on some electronic tracker.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you for humoring that question. Okay. So what's the relationship between the lack of quality sleep and healthy habits.
Robynn Powers:
So I kind of touched on this before, but talking about how, when you don't get enough sleep, you don't have the energy and the focus, and you are just less motivated when you're trying to create healthy habits. You have to have that plan. You have to be organized because you have to be prepared to carry out that plan. So whether that is, like I said, meal planning, so that you're not just getting, grabbing convenience food here and there and reaching for whatever's available. You have the healthy meal planned. You maybe even have it prepped if that's something that you, need to do within your schedule. And then the, that is part of a healthy lifestyle is getting exercise in. If you are constantly skipping or frequently skipping workouts, or just not putting much effort into it, that's gonna probably more likely to happen if you have not gotten the sleep that you need, because you don't feel like it, you don't have the energy or you just didn't, you overslept and then didn't have time for your workout, whatever it may be.
Robynn Powers:
It's going to make all of those things that you're, even if you get get the plan, it's gonna make it harder to actually execute those plans.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. So every so often, let's face it. I follow the rock on social media and every so often you'll see him talking about how he only got 3 hours of sleep And then he's downing that drink that he makes. And he's working out, dude is working out. So my question is how does not getting enough sleep and being tired actually affect your workout plan?
Robynn Powers:
I don't know what he's putting in those drinks. And honestly, that for a lot of people is a way to get by, right? Like what they consume might help them get through this other things that they wanna do, like working out. And if you are already disciplined in that, if you've already set as a habit, maybe you're still doing the workout, but you're relying on something. Maybe it's an energy drink or some caffeine in your coffee, whatever it might be, or, you know, some sugar rush to get you through it, but that's not sustainable. And it's not ideal because even if you do the workout anyways, you don't put it off, but you might not put you putting your full intensity into it and not getting as an effective workout in as you could, if you got the sleep in the 1st place. And then, like I said, adding extra things, not everything is bad that you might eat or drink to get yourself through that workout is bad, but if they can be adding too much caffeine or too much sugar to your diet to help you get through the things that you need energy for are gonna backfire in the long run and actually cause you worse health.
Suzanne Proksa:
Thank you so much for the answer on that question. So next up, how are stress and lack of sleep related in terms of health?
Robynn Powers:
So, first of all, I think something that's probably pretty easy for everyone to relate to is that when we are tired and have low energy, as I talked about before you have less focus, you're less organized. So within your daily lives, your taking longer to do things because you can't focus or you're not as organized. So you're, you're not getting things done as quickly. You're making mistakes, which then puts extra pressure and stress on you because you're having to do things again or getting upset that you, you know, didn't get it right the first time causing you extra time. So just in general on daily life, it puts the extra pressure and stress on you. But not only that, if you get less than your required amount of sleep, it actually affects your hormones. And one of those hormones is cortisol, which most people know as the stress hormone, the fight or flight hormone. And that hormone being released can actually cause things like increased abdominal fat.
Robynn Powers:
It's a cause of things like insulin resistance and high blood pressure, heart disease. So the these things are really important. It's not even just something, a feeling that you're feeling, but it's an actual physiological change in your body that affects your health.
Suzanne Proksa:
Yeah. I am so glad that you talked about that because I, I think many of us have dealt with the cortisol issue before, and it impacts so many different things. So, again, I'm just so glad that you brought that up. So let's dive into some more questions so that we can figure out how to help people keep some of this under control and get some better sleep and make some improvements. What are some of the things we do to counteract the fatigue and how are they affecting our weight loss goals?
Robynn Powers:
So I kinda touched on that before. We do talked about The Rock and his drink. Right? But there, there seems to be a pretty common habit among lots of people with trying to make up for that lack of sleep that they're getting. Right. They don't wanna feel bad. They don't wanna feel tired and drained all the time. So unfortunately, a lot of times, instead of just working on getting more quality sleep, they do something that is, I guess, easier or, takes less time and less planning, maybe is to grab, you know, some drink that's gonna boost that energy and make them feel alert for a little while. And those could be different things, the energy drinks with the caffeine and possibly sugar in them, the coffee drinks.
Robynn Powers:
I mean, there's a reason Starbucks makes so much money. Right? Everybody's grabbing their coffees in the morning. And a lot of times those drinks too, you know, it may be they're probably not going for the black coffee, you know, so they're not just getting the caffeine boost, but they're getting a lot of other added things in there, whether that's fat from the milk or the sugary syrups, and that's really adding a lot of empty calories to their diet. So it's not just the caffeine in itself. You're adding those unnecessary calories. It's shooting your blood sugar levels up, which is a really hard thing to deal with when you're trying to reach a health fitness goal, if you're trying to lose weight, because it makes it really difficult to lose, especially abdominal fat, when you're keeping that blood sugar level up all the time, You're not gonna burn fat if you're constantly putting that energy into your body. Right. And it's, it's not even the nutritional type of calories that you would want.
Robynn Powers:
And not only that, but if you're continually drinking that caffeine or that high sugar throughout the day, it's just gonna set you up for lack of quality sleep the next night. So it just makes that cycle go on and on and on because then when bedtime, you're not tired because you had your caffeine or you had your sugar rush and it starts all over again. It's a never ending cycle until you decide that you've had enough and that you want to actually feel good and be less tired and more energized naturally.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. So a lot of people may not realize that there are a couple hormones that are impacted by sleep. And those hormones happen to possibly prevent you from losing weight. So talk to us about how the lack of sleep can create hormonal changes in our bodies that can make it so we just, we can't lose weight.
Robynn Powers:
Yeah. So I already mentioned cortisol, which is one hormone that changes with lack of quality sleep, but there's also hormones that affect our hunger levels and our cravings also that get affected if we we don't have the quality sleep that we need. There is ghrelin, which is a hormone that affects our hunger levels and our cravings. So when we don't get enough sleep, that hormone gets released and causes us to feel more hungry, even though our body doesn't necessarily need more calories or nutrients doesn't need to be fed. It tells our brains that we do. So it makes us want to eat. And when we're trying to work towards, you know, getting healthier, that is not something that we wanna deal with. Right.
Robynn Powers:
We don't wanna feel hungry and tired. Right. That's that's even worse than those cravings. It's generally for things that are sugary or have lots of fat. And again, that's not something that you wanna be drawn to when you're trying to get healthier. So it makes it that much more difficult when you're having the hunger and the cravings to really stay on track with a healthy nutritional plan that you want to try. Right. And then there's leptin, which is the hormone that makes you feel full, tells you that you don't need any more food.
Robynn Powers:
Then hormone actually gets decreased when you don't get enough quality sleep, which means not only are you feeling hungrier and craving foods that maybe you wouldn't necessarily want to eat, but you're also eating more of them because your body's not telling you you're full. So. Yeah, it just kind of a snowballing effect. You're and not to mention that you lower your inhibitions too, when you're tired, which means you're more likely to give into those cravings and eat more and continue to eat more because you're not satisfied.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. Alright. So that's definitely something to keep in mind. Hey, y'all. Did you know that I offer tip jar specials every month? Where you can get something cool for tipping the podcast? If you are loving the episode or the podcast in general, head over to tip jar.vip or the podcast page at the suzanshowpodcast.com and check out this month's options. VIPs also get special access to events with my guests. Thank you for letting me cut in and now let's get back to the episode. So does lack of sleep affect our decision making abilities at all, including like what we're choosing to eat?
Robynn Powers:
Our decision making is definitely affected by the lack of sleep because if we're tired, we don't wanna make those decisions. Decisions are mentally draining. We get tired of making decisions. We make so many throughout the day. Right? So even if you start off in the morning, making good decisions by the end of the evening, when you're really tired, you, maybe you had a healthy meal planned. Maybe, you know, you're all set. You're like I'm doing this. I'm on the right track today.
Robynn Powers:
But by the end of the night, the time you get home from work or, you know, dealt with the kids all day, you're thinking, oh my gosh, I, I, I don't, I don't wanna do this. It's too much work. Or, you know, maybe I forgot to plan the meals and I have to decide. So you, you decide to do what's easiest, which is gonna be the least amount of effort. So you go for the, the chicken nuggets or the, you know, whatever, or grab some fast food on your way home because you just don't wanna do it. And you don't wanna make the decisions and and make the plan. So, yes, definitely lack of sleep is affecting decision making as far as your nutrition and what you choose to eat. And then, like I've said before about your hormones are actually changing and causing you to not wanna make the healthy choices.
Robynn Powers:
1, due to gravitate towards the sugary and the fatty foods and crave them and not be full or satisfied. So yes, has a huge impact on our food choices.
Suzanne Proksa:
Okay. So I know a lot of people that stay up late or way later than they should based on when they're getting up in the morning. And I would just like to give a shout out for my 9 PM bedtime. Love it. Anyway, what tends to happen when you choose to stay up late even when you're tired? How does that affect your health goals?
Robynn Powers:
I love that you have your 9 PM bedtime and you stick to it. That's awesome. I think for a lot of people and especially moms, it's hard because you put your kids to bed and then you're like, oh, I have time for myself. I'm gonna get all these things done that I couldn't get done during the day. You know, whether you're at work or with the kids and, dealing with all the other stuff, helping everybody else out. You're like, this is my me time. I'm gonna, you know, have a glass of wine or I'm gonna eat my own special snacks. I'm gonna read a book or catch up on, you know, the latest show I'm watching on Netflix, whatever it might be.
Robynn Powers:
But we're really sabotaging ourselves in that area because, yes, it might feel good in the moment, but it actually causes a lot of problems the next day. And in the long run, you know, all this stuff we've talked about as far as increased stress, the hunger, the cravings, the it affects our mood. Right. And so we're less able to deal with the people and the relationships in our lives and staying up late. And when we're tired, usually leads us to do things to keep us awake or, you know, keep us from being bored. And like I, I mentioned, you know, the special snacks, or I'm gonna have this glass of wine and that's gonna affect our quality of sleep too. If we're eating and drinking right before we go to bed, especially alcohol is gonna interrupt our sleep, whether we realize it or not, it does. So even though it feels like we're caring for ourselves by staying up late and trying to be more productive, we're having our me time.
Robynn Powers:
It actually is sabotaging our goal in the long run.
Suzanne Proksa:
All right, audience. This is where the help part comes in. So, Robin, we've talked about all of these things that sleep impacts and not necessarily in a good way if you're not getting enough sleep. So my question is, what are some tips that you have on how to improve your quantity and quality of sleep?
Robynn Powers:
I do have a whole list of tips on how to improve your quality and, and quantity of sleep, But some of those depend on what your issue is, whether it's that you're not getting enough sleep, like you're not going to sleep early enough, having trouble falling asleep, or if you're having sleep disruptions, but I'll give you some general ones that I think are important for everybody to think about and try to implement. One thing you talked about is having that consistent bedtime, because then it sets our body up to know when it's time to go to bed. And we start to feel tired at that time. And then, you know, ideally that we wake up at the same time every day by ourselves without the alarm, we just naturally wake up because our body is rested and ready for the next day. Another thing would be to turn off the devices, not right before you fall asleep. Don't bring them to bed and turn them off when you feel tired, but to have at least an hour, if not 2 hours before bedtime without those phones and tablets and computers, because that blue light actually tricks our bodies into thinking that it's daytime and that it's time to be alert and not fall asleep. So it actually helps in the process of feeling tired and actually being able to fall asleep in a decent amount of time. Nobody wants to lay there in bed and put their eyes open or closed and just not be able to fall asleep.
Robynn Powers:
Right. So that will help with that. And another thing is to have a consistent routine before you go to bed. And hopefully that routine does not include exercising right before you go to bed. Because even though, yes, exercise makes us feel kind of drained physically, It doesn't make us tired. We're we are more alert after exercise. So if you can fit your workout in before, you know, the last hour or 2 before you go to bed, that's great. And having a consistent routine, something that you do every night that helps you unwind, not the TV or the phone or the tablet, but something else that lets your body know like, okay, this is the time we're winding down and getting ready to go to sleep.
Robynn Powers:
That would be a huge help to consistently be able to fall asleep fast and hopefully not have those disruptions
Suzanne Proksa:
overnight. Thank you so much for those tips. Super helpful. So, obviously this is something that you help people with. How do people reach out to you? How do they find you? What programs do you have available to help people? All of that good stuff.
Robynn Powers:
Yes. I absolutely wanna help as many moms as I can and, and not just moms. I help anybody who's wanting help. But my program that I offer is just for moms. And you can find me and information about my program on my website at simply embellishedlife.com. If you want to check out your mom again, if you wanna check out my Facebook group, it's motivated moms for health, fitness, and a joyful life. You can do a search for that and find me on there. It's a free group posts every day to give tips and information, motivation to help you reach your health and fitness goals.
Robynn Powers:
And also, if you are looking for more, I said, I have lots of tips on how to improve your sleep. You can get a free kind of checklist of 15 ways to improve your sleep. If you go to free.simplyembellishedlife.com/ sleep. And I believe sleep is a huge, huge factor in our health and fitness, but that is not all that I help with. I help with all kinds of habits and aspects of health and fitness, but I think sleep is a very foundational part of living a healthy life.
Suzanne Proksa:
Robin, I am so happy that you decided to be on the podcast. As I mentioned earlier, I think sleep is a big deal. It's at the top of my to do list every day, getting enough sleep and all of those things. So thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to talking to you soon.
Robynn Powers:
I enjoyed being here and really appreciate you having me on. I wishing everybody a great night's sleep tonight, and I hope that you've taken some helpful hints and some motivation from what we talked about today.
Suzanne Proksa:
I hope that you loved this episode. If you did give me those shout outs, show me some love on iTunes, give me a rating and hey, if you wanna know where to find me, you can find me on pretty much all social media at Suzanne Proksa suz anneproksa and you can also head over to my website suzanneprosa.com. Until then, I'll see you in the next episode and here is the parte music for you.
