Episode 19 Transcript | Coach Kendra

EPISODE 19

TRANSCRIPT

Hey guys, welcome to A Lifelong Habit of Exercise. I'm Coach Kendra and this is episode 19. Today I want to talk about sleep and how that impacts us with our exercise, but also how that impacts us in our lives overall. First, I want to start by saying that I am no sleep expert. So with that being said, I really want to talk about how as we are already into the holiday season, we have vacation time, and we have time off from our jobs and from the regular day to day life. And a lot of times what most of us do with that time is we like to use that time to stay up later or sleep in later, or we kind of change our sleep patterns during this time, because we have more time on our hands, we have more time to not be on a schedule. And so a lot of us take time, and what we do is, again, we stay up late watching movies, or hanging out with family and friends and doing different things as far as that goes and what ends up happening is we end up just throwing off our sleep schedule completely and this affects a lot of things.

So what is our sleep really messing with? When we talk about sleep, when it comes to exercise, a lot of times we don't necessarily always put those to hand in hand, but they definitely deserve to go hand in hand. A lot of times what I've noticed with my sleep is that I like to sleep eight hours, and normally I sleep eight hours, and I have it planned ahead of time. And when I'm able to go to bed at the time that I have planned and I'm able to sleep eight hours, I am so much more rested, I am able to put my phone down, I'm able to do all of those things, because it is a plan time. A lot of times what I do, and I know, again, this podcast is about sleep, maybe we'll do another podcast in the near future, about being able to turn your electronics off. But when I plan my sleep, and I know this is the time that I'm going to go to sleep and this is what's important, then I also try to turn my electronics off at least an hour beforehand. And when I'm able to do that and get the rest in that sleep that my body needs, I'm able to wake up and a lot of times I do my exercise in the morning. I'm able to wake up so much more refreshed, so much more rejuvenated, so much more ready to go for the day and not just right away at that moment, but for the rest of the day. So a lot of us what we do when it comes to exercise. And when it comes to the holidays. I know last week we talked about exercising over the holidays and getting creative and starting to plan now and plan ahead of time for what's to come and what it is that you want. But when it comes to sleeping, a lot of us go again in that reactive, and when it comes to holidays, we're like, "Okay, well, now's the time that we get to enjoy everybody", which is absolutely true, we get to enjoy everybody around us. But we don't have to do that at the cost of our sleep, because then that really truly throws our sleep off when we're ready to get back into things. And it even throws our sleep off for the time being when we are trying to exercise if we've made that plan where ahead of time, we've said okay, we're wanting to exercise over the holidays, if we're not getting the sleep that our body needs, then exercising over the holidays becomes a little bit more difficult. It becomes a little bit harder to stick with our plan, it becomes a little bit harder to get motivated. It impacts us in so many ways our body is not rested the way that it needs to be rested. And a lot of us think that that's okay, because we're like, hey, it's the holidays, we can sleep in. And we can do this, and we can take naps and we can stay up later. And we throw our sleep patterns off. And some of us may not have those sleep patterns to begin with. So it's really extremely important if we don't have those sleep patterns. If we aren't used to getting eight hours of sleep, if we're not used to getting a well night's rest, then we should start doing that now we should start putting that into practice. Because that is affecting our exercise that is affecting our body that is affecting our ability to function throughout the day. So exercise really depends on sleep, but I also know people that are like, hey, well I don't sleep, so I'm just not going to exercise because what's the point? And I'm not saying that that's good either, but how about we start working a little bit on our sleep patterns, a little bit on getting just a little bit more sleep every single night a little bit more sleep, turning off electronics, and really being able to go all in with the sleeping so that the rest of our day can benefit from it.

It's just like exercise, right? Exercise when we do exercise, there's so many more benefits than just us getting not exercise done. Us just moving our body in that moment, there's so many more benefits. And those of you guys that have been exercising for a little bit have been able to start seeing those benefits. But sleep, it's so much more than just that eight hours that it's taking, or just that nine hours that you are sleeping. There's benefits throughout the day, there's benefits long term. And again, I am not a sleep expert, and there are so many books out there that can tell you all of those benefits. But when it comes to exercise, those benefits of sleep, one of them is the exercise. One of them is the energy, the ability to function at a higher quality level, when you get a good night's sleep. When you are well rested, it directly impacts your exercise, it directly impacts that, so it's really good when we're not sleeping, what is it? What is it messing with, if we're not getting the proper amount of sleep, if we're not getting a good night's rest? What is it that we're messing with and one of the things truly is your exercise.

When I'm doing this when I get a good night's sleep, like I said, I'm able to get up, I'm able to do my morning routine, I'm able to take the time that I want to do and I feel already rested, I don't want to lay in bed. I'm not extremely tired, I'm not exhausted, I'm able to have a clear mind to start the day, I got rest, I was able to rest my body and my mind and all of it and able to start the day fresh. Not holding on to the night before when we don't get sleep. A lot of times, it's almost like we've noticed that it's like I just want a little bit more sleep. I'm exhausted. I'm doing that. That's like when we have to wake up with an alarm clock. It's like, our body is like waking up, okay, it wasn't necessarily ready to wake up, but sometimes it like, okay, I just want a little bit more sleep. I just want a little bit more sleep. And I'm not saying that no matter what when you don't wake up with an alarm clock or when you get a good night's sleep that it's absolutely where you didn't have to wake up with an alarm clock. That's not the case, we all know that. But it is something that we've all had those days where we're just like, we didn't get enough sleep, we're going on three hours of sleep, we're going on four hours of sleep. Have you ever paid attention to your body when you only get six hours of sleep? When you only get seven hours of sleep? Have you ever paid attention when you get eight hours of sleep? That is something that I absolutely want you guys to start doing for the next week, I want you guys to pay attention to your body. Track your sleep, even if it's just kind of a mental track. I know a lot of you guys have probably started to keep planners and keep journals, and I want you guys to track that. Just a quick note of how much sleep you got the night before. A quick note of how much sleep you got, and how do you feel? How is it different? Do you like the feeling? Do you not like the feeling? If you get only six hours of sleep? What is it, are you still tired? Take note and start being aware of what's happening? What are your thoughts about exercise when you get six hours of sleep versus what are your thoughts about exercise when you get eight hours of sleep. That is something that I noticed too. When I get six hours of sleep, or when I get seven hours of sleep, my thoughts about exercise are different than when I get eight or nine hours of sleep. When I get more sleep, my thoughts about exercise are completely different than if I'm functioning or trying to function on five hours or six hours. And I don't do that as much anymore, but I used to do that a lot. I used to function on very, very, very little sleep. And I did that in college, which is not great because I was a college athlete. But I did that in college. I did that throughout high school I did that even in my little bit later years. More recently though, I've been trying to get at least eight hours of sleep. I know how it feels when I get eight hours of sleep. I know what I'm able to do exercise wise when I get eight hours of sleep. I know what I'm able to do throughout the rest of the day. I understand and I can see the difference and I track the difference of what it is when I get those different hours of sleep.

It is way more energy. My body just feels completely different when I'm functioning on eight hours of sleep versus six hours asleep. It is completely different if I'm able to sleep through the night, or if I waking up constantly, because my brain is still going because I have so many different things on my mind. There's so much different there's a huge difference on a good night's sleep. A good eight hours of night's sleep versus a good six hours and then hoping to get a nap throughout the day. So much different with my exercise. Now I'm to the point where if I get six hours of sleep, I honestly my thoughts about exercise are very, very limited. I'm so tired, my body is just not in the space of where I want to exercise, all I can think of is about how tired I am and how much I want a nap. I used to, in high school, it was funny because I actually was just talking to my mom about this a while back is that I used to not sleep in high school, she never knew this. Because in my mind, my thought was, the sooner that I go to sleep, the sooner that I had to wake up and do the exact same thing all over again. And that was helping me to avoid sleep. That was my thought, because I'm like, "Hey, I had homework to do. I had basketball practice, I had class," I had whatever. And then when I got home, when I finally got a chance to rest, I didn't want to go to sleep because I wanted to enjoy my time. It was the only time that I had that I wasn't doing homework that I wasn't working out that I wasn't doing practice that I wasn't doing class. So I wanted to have me time. And even if that meantime was just laying in my bed, and thinking, or just doing that stuff that was for me, I was holding on to every minute, every hour that I could before I had to wake up and do it again.

And so I want you to think about that. If you don't sleep eight hours, why is it that you're not sleeping eight hours? Is it because you think you're going to miss something? Maybe it's just simply missing the time with yourself? Is it because you are avoiding getting to something else? Maybe you have a presentation due? Maybe there's something big coming the next day or coming that week? What is it? Why are you not sleeping? I know another reason that I haven't slept at times is like I said, my brain is just constantly going sometimes. So what I've done in that is I get to the point of where it's like what would get me to sleep well if I empty my brain, right? And so a lot of times I do thought downloads, which we've talked about before, and I get to that place of comfort of ease of calmness, because I've emptied my brain because I've thought about all those things, I've done a thought download and got it all out and I'm able to feel calm. It's kind of like one of those things that again, I have a two year old and we talked about this many, many times over over this podcast we've had. And then by the way, I can't believe we're in Episode 19 already. But we talk about how I have my two year old and one of the things with smaller kids and children is bedtime routines, right. And not everybody does bedtime routines and I don't do a specific bedtime routine every single night that is every single night no matter what. But a lot of times she does her baths at night. And when she does her baths, a lot of times that starts to calm her down. And she plays in the bath and does all that stuff, but it started to kind of calm her down. And so one of the things that I do for me personally, is I do thought downloads before I go to bed, I used to not do that and I used to have all those thoughts running around in my mind. But what it's come to do is get everything out of my mind and kind of empty my brain before I go to sleep. So that everything else, I'm able to just relax. And I do my thought downloads on paper and pencil. Like I do them handwritten, not on my iPad, even though I take a lot of notes on my iPad, ones that I do before bed, so that I can have all my electronics off, I do them by hand, just to get all my thoughts out all of it out all of it out all of it out what else what else, what else what else and I kind of prepare myself to go to bed. I prepare myself because I know how I function a lot of times when I lay down when my brain has a chance to be still and be silent and be with itself. And when I'm able to be with my thoughts, which a lot of times that's bedtime for us, right? Because that's when the world kind of stops our busy life stop, we're able to finally calm down and our brain starts to just go go go.

So before I have a chance to do that, what I do is I stop and I take notes and I do thought downloads and thought downloads and say what else and what else and I Empty out all my thoughts that are going on. So because I know how I want to feel to go to bed and I know what's keeping me from doing that. Those thoughts that are going on in my head. I know the thoughts that keep me awake, so I attack those before I give them a chance to keep me awake. I don't let those interfere with my sleep because I already know that's coming. I already know it's coming, so I prepare ahead of time to get my sleep and I know what that's going to take for me to do that. I want you guys to remember that our emotions are what causes our actions. So our actions when we're not sleeping, a lot of times, it's because we're not feeling a certain way and so what is it that you are feeling? So this is what I want you to do along with your becoming aware of how you feel for the week, how you feel when you get a certain amount of sleep. I also want you to make a note of how you felt when you were going to sleep before you were going to sleep.

How did you feel not right before you fall asleep, because you're probably going to be calm consistently. But if you did not get eight hours of sleep, how did you feel before you went to sleep? If you went to bed at 2am, instead of midnight, that you were supposed to go to bed or you were planning on going to bed at 8pm? And you went to bed at 4am? How did you feel during that time that was keeping you up? How did you feel? Because remember, your emotions are what caused your actions that avoiding going to sleep? However it is that you feel? What is it that's keeping you from sleeping? The eight hours or the time that you have planned to sleep? Maybe it's that you don't want to sleep eight hours. That's possible. But why don't you want to sleep eight hours? Why is it that you don't want to sleep? Remember when I said when I was in high school, I didn't want to sleep eight hours. I mean, I guess technically I would have wanted to sleep eight hours if I would have been asked but eight hours of sleep was not on my mind. The only thing on my mind was getting some me time. And I think there's a lot of us that just want me time and feel like that is the only time we have maybe we have kids, maybe we have a busy job, maybe we have two jobs. Maybe there's so much going on. We have all of our family stuff, especially during the holiday, there's more stuff, but what is it? Why is it that we are not getting the sleep, that is eight hours of sleep, the recommended amount of sleep, why are we not getting a good night's rest? I want you guys to really take note of that.

So like I said, For the next week, I want you guys to pay attention to how it is what is the differences with yourself, when you get seven hours sleep, eight hours of sleep, whatever it is, you may get four hours of sleep, whatever it is for you that you normally get. That's a good quality sleep. Because some people get two hours of sleep and then wake up and do some things on their phone and then go sleep another two hours and wake up and do some things on their phone and go to sleep another two hours. And that's not really six hours of sleep. All you really did was kind of two hour naps. So what is it that you guys do like if is it four hours of sleep that you normally get is it six hours of sleep and start to become aware of how your body and how your day goes when you get that amount of sleep, whatever it is. For me now it's like seven hours of sleep. On a rare occasion, sometimes it's six hours of sleep, and then it's eight or nine hours and how my body is like for me, I would take note of how my body is how I function throughout the day. And if I only got six hours of sleep, what it is that I was feeling in those two hours that I was not going to sleep. Maybe it's that I didn't want to miss out because there was a movie on TV. Maybe it's that I was just trying to get some me time. Like I said, that's a huge one with me, and I know for a lot of you guys that may be a huge one is that we feel like that is the only time we have to ourselves and so we just want to kind of savor it. You know, with food sometimes we have that really good food or meal and we just want to savor it so we eat it a little bit slower. I feel like that's what we do. Sometimes we avoid sleep, we help the day to last a little bit longer before we have to get in the hustle and bustle of everything for the next day.

One of the best things we can do is to listen to our bodies. But in order to listen to our bodies, we have to pay attention we have to become aware of things. So I really really challenge you guys to become aware of your body when you get a certain amount of sleep. So for the next week, become aware of your body become aware of your body when it has to do with sleep. All right, you guys until next time.

Can you believe that we are already on episode 19? I can't believe it myself. Episode 19 is already finished. You just listen to it. So for the upcoming few weeks, I want to let you guys know that we are going to be taking a holiday break and we will be returning with the next episode releasing on January 6, 2021. So enjoy your families. Enjoy your friends, enjoy your time, make sure that you are planning ahead of time and getting everything taken care of. If you want to exercise you get your exercise on. This gives you a chance we have 19 episodes if you have not listened to an episode yet, go back and listen. If you've listened to an episode that you absolutely loved, go back and re-listen. This gives you an awesome opportunity to go and listen to some episodes that you've either missed or you want to catch again. We will return with a new episode at January 6, 2021. Have a great holiday break.

Did you know that I'm doing a five day free workshop the workout mentality workshop. Women if you're ready to never stop exercising again, head over to the Facebook Group Women Who Want to Workout to save your place for this upcoming workshop.