When recovering from addiction one of the most challenging things those in recovery can face is ongoing insomnia. While fighting to keep cravings at bay is certainly one of the foremost challenges, it’s only aggravated by living in the half-life that can be the result of constant exhaustion when sleep is a fleeting memory. Thankfully there are ways to help mitigate insomnia and allow those in recovery to achieve a good night’s sleep that will support them on their path to ongoing sobriety.
Natural Ways To Conquer Insomnia
Below you’ll find a selection of ways that insomnia can be conquered using natural methods, as opposed to chemically-based sleep aids. Trading one addiction for a dependence on sleep aids isn’t something anyone in recovery wants, so these techniques can be used to help conquer it without chemical assistance.
- Routine Is Key – The body can become accustomed to heading to bed at a certain hour, and this is one of the ways you can help combat insomnia. Going through a nighttime routine that includes heading to bed at the same time may not conquer your insomnia immediately, but as you become accustomed to being in bed at a certain hour your mind will start to settle in for sleep naturally at that time.
- Unplug From The World – Electronics tend to rule our lives these days, and evidence has shown that it takes time for the mind to disconnect and unwind after we stop staring at the screens on our TVs, computers, and phones. An hour before you’re thinking of going to sleep, turn off all your electronics and let your mind settle.
- Eat Right – Proper diet can be essential to helping you sleep well, and it’s most important that you remove sugars, caffeine, and other stimulants from your nighttime routine to ensure you can get a proper night’s sleep. It is also important to regulate how much you are eating to be sure you are eating enough to be full while not eating so much that you upset your stomach.
- Get Active – Getting out into the world and being active is a great way to exhaust your body and burn off the latent energy that can keep you tossing and turning into the night. Getting out to the gym, going on a walk, even working in the garden or doing some other kind of physical activity, such as dancing to music, can help you sleep through the night.
- Just Breathe – This technique is a little esoteric for some people, but it has been proven scientifically to have a soothing and calming effect on the mind. There are breathing techniques that will help you achieve a restful state, and if practiced every evening at the same time you will find yourself naturally settling into a good night’s sleep.
Contact Conroe Family Doctor For More Help
Conroe Family Doctor has been helping people in recovery for most of their career. Make an appointment with them for a consultation to help get you on the path to a good night’s sleep while recovering from an addiction. Don’t let another restless night go by when you can get the help of a trained professional at Conroe Family Doctor.
Nowadays everyone wants to lose weight by going on some miracle diet that will turn their life around. Because so many people are looking for this miracle diet, a plethora of fad diets have appeared on the market all guaranteeing to change your life phenomenally. While some diets can actually yield life-changing results in a healthy way, others offer only false promises. This raises the question of how to determine the fad diets from the real diets. Listed below are six ways to spot a fad diet.
#1 The Diet Stresses that Exercise or Lifestyle Changes are Not Necessary
Your lifestyle directly affects your ability to lose weight, and a comprehensive weight loss diet both recognizes and incorporates this. Factors such as the amount of sleep you get, the amount of stress you have, and the amount of exercise you do need to be taken into consideration when deciding on a diet. If a diet claims that you will lose weight regardless of these things, it is probably a fad.
#2 The Diet is Extremely Low in Fat or Cuts Carbs Completely
While limiting your fat and carbohydrate intake can be beneficial, limiting these things too much can actually prevent you from losing weight. For starters, whole grain breads combined with a certain amount of fruits and vegetables is actually a key component in losing weight. Also, certain types of fats are considered to be healthy fats and it has been found that those consuming healthy fats burn more fat than those who do not. The key here is portion control and knowing how to properly balance your fat and carbohydrate intake.
#3 The Diet Promises Rapid Results
Healthy weight loss takes time. There’s just no way around that fact. Dropping too much weight too soon is not healthy, nor is it sustainable weight loss. Generally, you will lose the most amount of weight towards the beginning of the program, however this will eventually slow down. A healthy amount of weight loss is about 2-3 lbs a week. Although this type of weight loss takes more time, it will yield longer-lasting results.
#4 The Diet is Starving You
Some diets advocate only eating 600-800 calories per day as opposed to the recommended 2,000 calories per day.Although this may yield weight loss at first, this will not last long term. Furthermore, if the body feels like it is being starved, this will cause it to store more fat instead of dropping weight. Ultimately, starvation has the opposite of the desired effect.
#5 The Diet Claims You Can Eat Whatever You Want
Opposite of the diet that starves you is the one that claims you can eat anything and still lose weight. That clearly doesn’t work or we would have no need for diets. Diets that promote this usually have an extensive exercise program or only allow you to eat whatever you want for one day out of the week with a very restricted diet the rest of the week.
#6 The Diet Claims to Work For Everyone
There is no one diet that works perfectly for every person. Each person has their own individual dietary needs and these need to be taken into account when choosing the right diet. Diets that claim to be a “one size fits all” are almost always fad diets.
More and more research has found that the foods we eat directly affect our bodies in very specific ways. Certain foods, for example, can have particular benefits to various parts of the body. With that being said, there are certain types of foods that can promote healthy vision. In addition to having regular eye checkups, adjusting your diet could help you to adjust your vision.
As a general guideline, when eating for healthy vision, you will want to look for foods that have a high content of vitamins A,C, E, and the mineral zinc. These vitamins and minerals health to protect the eye from degenerative conditions by protecting the retina from an abundance of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules that damage the proteins and DNA within cells, and the retina is especially prone to a high level of free radicals.
Foods containing large amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin are also essential to vision health. Lutein and zeaxanthin are two carotenoids the protect the eyes from harmful UV radiation. In addition, they also neutralize free radicals and improve pigment density in the macula. These two substances are usually found together in foods.
Omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is another important substance needed to protect the retinas. For starters, DHA is a naturally-occurring substance in the outer segments of retinal photoreceptors. In addition, Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to have anti-inflammatory properties.
Listed below are three types of foods that promote healthy vision. These foods contain the essential nutrients to help protect the eyes and promote optimal vision health.
Food # 1: Those containing high levels of Vitamins A, C, E, and zinc
These include foods such as apricots, cantaloupe, carrots, mangos, red peppers, ricotta cheese, spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, grapefruit, kiwi, oranges, strawberries, almonds, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, chickpeas, oysters, pork chops, red meat, and yogurt.
Food # 2: Those containing high levels of lutein and zeaxanthin
These include foods such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, corn, eggs, kale, nectarines, oranges, papayas, romaine lettuce, spinach, and squash.
Food # 3: Those containing high levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
These include flax seed, flax seed oil, chia seeds, soybeans, halibut, salmon, mackerel, cod liver oil, herring, oysters, anchovies, caviar, sardines, tuna, and walnuts.
