The Petite Advantage Diet (34 page)

Now, this does not have to be forever. Just for twenty-one days, as most research indicates that it takes twenty-one days to break a habit. That’s another reason why I made this Petite plan twenty-one days long.

I
n the introduction, I eluded to the small reductions in calories and the small increases in metabolism that make a
big
difference to Petites.

As much as I feel it is imperative that you follow my eating and exercise plan to the best of your ability, you must also keep these points in mind, as they will either minimize or totally derail your likelihood of success.

Sleep is critically important to your successful weight loss. According to a study conducted by the American Cancer Society, the average American was sleeping eight hours a night in 1960 and is now sleeping,
on average
, 6.7 hours. I italicized
on average
, as I believe many people are sleeping far less than that in the classic urban and suburban, overscheduled, overstressed environment. Why is this so detrimental to Petites? Because sleep deprivation is directly linked to weight gain. Two critical hormones that regulate appetite and satiety–leptin and ghrelin–are adversely impacted by a lack of sleep.

Leptin, produced in fat cells, acts as an appetite regulator and assists you in pushing away from the table when you are physically full. Think of leptin as satiety’s BFF. With leptin around, your satiety levels are firing away and your body properly responds to this very influential signal when it is full (except for those mentioned in the previous chapter who appear to be what is called “leptin-resistant”). In numerous studies, the moment participants were sleep-deprived, their leptin levels dropped, and this happened as quickly as in one night. Therefore, the researchers observed that participants ate more for no other reason than a lack of leptin, which was reduced by a lack of sleep.

Leptin levels also reduce the moment you go on a calorie-reducing diet, so if you are cutting calories, which is what I am urging you to do–although the calorie cycling will help to mitigate that drop–coupling that with sleep deprivation will cause your leptin levels to drop that much further. That is why sleep is so very important when you are on this plan and also why the calorie cycling works mentally
and
physically to ward off hunger, the enemy of all Petites.

Ghrelin, which is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates appetite. Think of ghrelin as the plant in the play/movie
Little Shop of Horrors
–the one that keeps saying “Feed me!” Researchers find there is an inverse relationship between sleep and ghrelin. When participants are sleep-deprived, their ghrelin levels elevate, which results in them eating more. Again, this happened almost immediately when participants were sleep-deprived.

Many studies have been conducted, but the University of Chicago and Stanford University studies both conclusively proved that less sleep correlated to more weight. And the less participants slept, the more they weighed. It showed a perfect inverse relationship.

Let’s go back to our belief system. The vast majority of overweight people I come across do not believe in this sleep/weight relationship. They have yet another flawed belief system. They tell me that they have to stay up to get things done or that they don’t need that much sleep or that they have trained themselves to operate on less sleep.

My response to them, respectively, is: “No you don’t”; “Yes, you do”; and “No, you haven’t.”

When you stay up to get things done, you operate at a much lower mental and physical capacity the next day, as you are exhausted. Your mind is not as sharp, your attention and memory functions slow down, and the speed at which you think is diminished. And, quite frankly, you generally feel like crap. You do
not
feel like moving around (which we have established is critically important), nor do you have any desire to exercise with intensity (ditto–critically important). Oh, you do one thing better than you did when you were properly rested–you eat! You eat because your hormones are out of whack. What do the vast majority of people do when they are sleep-deprived? They eat to try to stay awake. Think about that for a moment. Your energy levels are weakened as a result of insufficient sleep, so you add insult to injury by eating more, which also depletes precious energy. I’m surprised you can even move around, let alone get anything done.

The research is unanimous: you require seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Once again, your flawed belief system allows you to believe that sleep deprivation is a positive, when I am here to tell you it is a serious negative, especially as it applies to weight loss.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York City found that:

• Those who slept only six hours a night had a 23 percent greater chance of obesity.

• Those who slept only five hours a night had a 50 percent greater chance of obesity.

• Those who slept only four hours or fewer had a 73 percent greater chance of obesity.
²

And no, you have not effectively learned to operate on less sleep. Your body has simply stopped asking for it. This is the exact same thing that happens to people who no longer drink water. Their bodies just stop asking for it, since they didn’t give them any. Ditto with skipping breakfast and saying “But I’m not hungry.” You aren’t hungry because your body just stopped asking for food in the morning. It makes sense, if you think about it. You can train your body to react positively to what you do repeatedly, and you can train your body to react negatively to what you do repeatedly. It’s a two-way street.

If you are not regularly sleeping seven to eight hours a night, something is terribly wrong and you need to keep a log of when you go to bed each night and when you get up each morning. That is why the sleep question was a part of your Peer Review. By making sleep a priority, you dramatically increase your odds of success at weight loss.

I also urge you to develop what I suggest in
The 7-Day Energy Surge–a
“sleep strategy.” Here is how you develop your strategy:

• Determine what time you will get up tomorrow morning.

• Now, work backward to ascertain what time you need to be asleep tonight (notice I said asleep, not in bed) to get between seven and eight hours of sleep.

• Determine what helps put you to sleep. Is it a hot shower or bath to relax your mind and body? Should you light candles? Lavender, chamomile, and ylang-ylang are believed to be sleep inducers.

• No computer in bed thirty minutes before you plan on falling asleep. You may watch TV, but please keep to a rerun of
Everyone Loves Raymond
or
Seinfeld
. Don’t watch
Bride of Chucky
and expect to fall into blissful sleep after you have stressed your mind and body to the max.

• Work both ends. What you do when you wake up first thing in the morning helps to determine when you fall asleep at night. When you wake up, first perform your deep breathing for five to ten minutes (you will learn about it in a moment), then turn all the lights on or open your drapes/shades, or both. Light tells your brain “we’re up and ready to rock” and that will enhance what is called your circadian rhythm–which is simply your “wake/sleep” cycle. Similarly, when it starts to get dark, your body hormonally says to itself, “we are going to go to bed soon” and starts to produce melatonin to prepare your mind and body for sleep. You literally control how your mind and body behave later in the evening by what you do first thing in the morning. And the hormone melatonin detoxifies harmful, cancer-causing free radicals (we’ve talked about them a number of times), creates more fighter cells (we want them to stay healthy), and may even boost the power of vitamin C. Those are big reasons to get that hormone pumping at night.
³

• Go to bed and get up within the same thirty minutes every day. I do this 90 percent of the time and my most successful Petites keep a pretty tight schedule. Again, this optimizes your hormones to your advantage and comes with the added plus of pretty impressive energy levels.

Petites, please understand that your smaller stature makes you more vulnerable to hormonal imbalance. Therefore, do everything in your power to enable your body to shed the weight. Getting to bed is clearly only a win-win proposition–or should I say lose-lose proposition when it comes to weight! There are lots of tricks to give your body the sleep it needs. One is to eliminate stress.

I don’t have to tell you that stress levels are off the charts these days, and I don’t really see things changing that much for the better in the near future. I so strongly dislike people who say things like “relax,” or “don’t take things so seriously,” or “it will all be fine.” That type of response did nothing but infuriate me when I was running at full “stress throttle” in the past. But, what you can do is rely upon some effective stress-reducing techniques like deep breathing, listening to music, or turning off the technical “chatter.”

I frequently start my day with deep breathing. I lie in bed, place one hand on my diaphragm, and then slowly breathe in through my nose. You place your hand on your diaphragm because you want to feel your lungs fill up with air. So frequently, we are pulling our stomachs in or wearing something too tight that constricts our breathing. Instead, I want you to use this time to let your lungs fill up freely and your stomach push out comfortably. That’s the goal of this type of exercise.

I start by breathing in through my nose for a count of four–one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand. Hold for those same four counts; then exhale through your mouth for the same four counts. Try to go for an extra “one thousand” and see if you can get up to eight or nine counts. I find that if I do this for just five to ten minutes each morning, I start my day out right. It just centers me to breathe, and I urge you to do the same.

This also works at any time during the day. Sometimes, when I am waiting to pick up my kids or standing in line, I also work on my breathing. It’s so easy and all the research concurs that deep breathing can significantly reduce stress hormones. I recall a statistic that said that just ten minutes of deep breathing can reduce stress hormones by 44 percent. That’s a huge reduction that may make a big difference in your weight loss.

Music also has tremendous stress-reducing powers that include helping you fall asleep. One research study showed that listening to soothing music for just forty-five minutes before going to bed helped breathing slow down (and slowing down generally indicates deeper breath, which is the goal), helped people fall asleep faster, and also resulted in deeper sleep, which is the most rejuvenating.
⁴
Another study used high school students (talk about stress!) and urged them to listen to relaxing music for one month. Seventy-four percent said they were able to fall asleep within ten minutes. That’s fast.
⁵

I also love music that can pep you up. I know that I cannot work out without my iPod blaring in my ears, and there is research that says that the pumped-up music actually enables you to work out harder (that’s key!) and longer (which is not as important as the intensity).

Another stress-reducing technique is to light candles. Researchers recommend lighting peppermint candles, as the minty aroma stimulates alertness, which may distract you from making poor snack choices. When you are feeling stressed, just light a candle, breathe, and turn on some soothing music. Talk about the one-two-three punch for reducing stress!

I also feel the opposite way about the power of candles when it comes to falling asleep. I strongly recommend that you dim the lights about an hour before you plan on falling asleep. Notice that I didn’t say “before you get into bed,” but actually before you turn out the lights and fall asleep. I believe that candles possess healing powers that let your mind and body shut down. Therefore, they help you “wind down” and tell your body “we are getting ready for bed.” Remember what I keep saying–you tell your body, through your actions and beliefs, what to do. By telling your body that you are getting ready for bed, you make your body behave accordingly.