Jen Aswell

Sleep Chances are, you’re not getting enough sleep . In a society where coffee mugs say ‘hustle’ and time is equal to money (and money is considered the ultimate prize), it’s no surprise people think it’s ok to forgo a full nights sleep. However, the price we are paying by staying up a little too late can have big consequences over a lifetime. I’m talking about cognitive performance decline, an increase in safety related accidents, reduced immune function, appetite regulation issues, decreased metabolism and hormone disruptions just to start.    The ideal amount of sleep varies by person and changes as we age, most experts clock it as between 7 and 9 hours for adults.  It’s a good idea to monitor your sleeping patterns to see what works best for you. Personally, my sweet spot is about 7.5 hours. At 7 hours or less I get up rested but get tired mid afternoon. More than 8 and getting out of bed feels like an awful idea. It’s not just the amount of sleep that matters, your g

I love to exercise. Yes, you can hate me but hear me out. I don’t exercise to lose or maintain weight. Ever. If you want to change your weight, changing when and what you eat is the answer, not exercise. Sure, exercise will burn calories, and burning calories will burn fat but not enough to make any substantial difference in your body set weight. At the end of the day, your body wants to hang onto its fat stores if your stressing it out for hours at the gym. It thinks “oh man, things must be tough right now so I better hold on to whatever I can.” Your body thinks you’re in danger when you exercise too hard or too long. It panics and tries to maintain homeostasis but protecting your fat stores.   Another big problem with over exercising is injury. If your focus is using the gym to burn calories, you are going to be on that treadmill for hours every week. And all that wear and tear is going to add up to plantar fasciitis, hip pain, knee pain or a myriad of other over use injur

*excuse the pun ;) Many have now discovered when they eat is just as (maybe more so...) important as what they eat. Fasting is no longer a terrible f word met with tsk tsk noises and warnings about slowing metabolisms. In fact, I was just at a market this weekend  and when offered samples I would let them know I couldn’t partake because I was fasting, I was astonished at the amount of people who also fasted or had a story about someone else’s fasting success.  Fasting is the quickest way to reduce insulin levels and your body weight set point. Bye bye buddha belly. Studies also point to fasting potentially for longevity enhancement . In fact, longevity improvements are seen with intermittent fasting even without caloric  reduction. Fasting can also cause a reduction in   inflammation.  Inflammation is bad for the joints, the heart, your waist line and can even play a role in cancer and depression.  So how can we see all these great benefits from fasting and yet no

What to Eat I grew up in the 90s where fat was demonized. As a overweight kid, my mother, following doctors orders, had me eating special k with skim milk. All the low fat yogurt, and rice cakes never stopped my weight from creeping up. In fact, I was always hungry. When I was old enough to make my own nutritional decisions I was of the “a calorie is a calorie” mindset. Which of course is true, but that is only a part of the equation. But at the time, I didn’t know that. I learnt how to calorie count and drank Diet Coke like it was a necessary macronutrient. But like most of us who follow this paradigm - it worked...until it didn’t. So I cut more calories out, ended up feeling unsatiated and downing a bag of chips before I even knew what hit me.   I was weak willed. If I tried harder, if I was better, I could resist temptation and stick to my 1200 calorie a day diet. I will start again tomorrow, but tomorrow took much longer to come then I thought it would. Finally I was de

If you haven’t figured it out already, I am a go with the flow kind of girl. I have found the current ‘hustle’ mentality to be counter productive and creatively draining. I focus on listening to my body and I usually wait until inspiration hits before I put my all into something. When I get excited about exercise - I exercise, when I get excited about binge watching Riverdale - I put on my comfy pants and snuggle up with the pug to watch.  This past year, my intuition has led me on a bit of a health journey. Last fall I flowed into a ketogenic diet and fasting protocol. The more research and books I read on the subject the more I was convinced that this is the path I am meant to be on. And the more I practiced the advice I gathered, the better everything got! I feel great, my insatiable hunger has decreased (my main reason for trying keto) and my energy has sky rocketed.  So far, so good! You might be thinking fasting is a little extreme, I used to too, but in this series