Zana’s Top Tips: build muscle, stay strong, sleep better and stop cravings

Zana’s Top Tips: build muscle, stay strong, sleep better and stop cravings

Build Muscle

Increase your protein - or at least, the quality of your protein.  This may seem obvious but very few eat as much protein as our body requires to sustain our lifestyles, never mind build muscle, especially now as many of us are moving towards more vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. The best sources of protein are fish, meat, dairy (cheese) and eggs. Vegans can get a lot of their required protein intake from lentils and chickpeas. If you are moving towards either vegetarian or vegan lifestyles, consider food combining to get the most of your protein!

Focus on weight training or short high intensity training sessions – no more than 15-20 minutes. Contrary to popular belief, training doesn’t increase muscle, but rather breaks it down. It recovers after your session. Training for more than 35-45 minutes can result in your body eating into more muscle than its capable of recovering to keep you going.

Consider adding creatine to your daily nourishment. It helps prevent muscle loss and greatly improves strength and stamina – which in turn will allow you train harder and build muscle faster. Try our Pure Creatine.

 

Stay Strong   

Watch your protein!  This may seem obvious but very few of us eat as much protein as our body requires to sustain our lifestyles, especially as we age.

Reduce stress & support your adrenals. Whether through meditation or adding in my favourite, Chill Pill. Stress can cause your body to eat into vital muscle tissue, resulting in a weaker not stronger body.  

Avoid over training. Contrary to popular belief, training doesn’t increase muscle, but rather breaks it down. It recovers after your session. Training for more than 35-45 minutes can result in your body eating into more muscle than its capable of recovering to keep you going.

Avoid low calorie diets. Unfortunately, up to 90% of the weight lost on low calorie diets can be muscle loss, decreasing your strength and stamina which is the opposite of what we’re all trying to achieve.

 

Sleep Better

Don’t have caffeinated drinks after 12.30pm. This practice certainly seems to make a difference for most but did you know that a standard (90g) bar of 70-85% dark chocolate has 71.95 mg of caffeine? Compared to an espresso with a mere 63mg it may be worth a miss before bed!

Take my favourite supplements, Magnesium Rocks & Chill Pill. Magnesium regulates neurotransmitters as well as melatonin, while Vitamin B5, present in Chill Pill, helps support your adrenal glands meaning you both relax and sleep better.

Avoid sugar and alcohol before bed. It will cause an insulin spike, which leads to a sugar drop. The consequence of this is that you’ll wake up around 3AM-4AM, interrupting your sleep, which none of us want!

 

Stop Cravings

Avoid and reduce sugar and carbohydrates, especially in the first half of the day. Sugar causes an insulin release which results in the release of ghrelin, the hormone that causes us to crave foods.

Support your adrenals. Stress also causes your body to crave sugar as fuel to help you fight or flee!  Increasing your protein intake and adding our Chill Pill supplement to your daily routine will support your adrenals and help you manage your day more calmly.

Increase your fat intake or go all in and do the High Fat Diet. Fat is the only food group that doesn’t cause the body to release insulin which means you stay fuller for longer, once you’ve eaten fat and you don’t crave sugar, either.

 

Zana Morris, Founder


Older post Newer post