The Connection Between Weight Loss and a Snoring Cure
The Connection Between Weight Loss and a Snoring Cure
Every one snores at one time or another, whether the cause is from the congestion of the common cold or an awkward sleeping position. However, studies show that overweight people have a bigger tendency to snore than someone of average weight. Along with a snoring problem, an overweight person can develop more serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and chronic fatigue that have been linked to snoring. Although there are many different treatments for snoring, your doctor will most likely suggest weight loss as the first one.
One Step at a Time
First, you should know why overweight people have a bigger tendency to snore, disrupting not only their own sleep, but the slumber of everyone in a household. Extra fatty tissue around the neck and chest area puts pressure on the airways that can cause them to narrow, or obstruct, decreasing the amount of air you breath in. In order to compensate for the airway narrowing, you try to take deeper breaths that cause the vibration of the tissues that makes that irritating loud noise we call snoring. This happens when you sleep, since the muscles in the neck and upper chest are more relaxed, allowing the obstruction.
Losing the excessive fatty tissue will allow the airways to stay open during sleep, preventing or curing the snoring problem. Not only will the quality of sleep improve in your household, but your overall health will also improve, reducing the risks of heart disease or hypertension (high blood pressure) and reducing the strain on your joints, bones and muscles. A visit to your doctor is in order when you start your weight loss plan in order to be sure there are no underlying health conditions that can prevent or make weight loss difficult, as well as finding conditions that may have contributed to the snoring problem in the first place (such as asthma, allergies or obstructive sleep apnea, among others). In addition, your doctor can treat or eliminate current health conditions and suggest healthy diet plans and exercise to assist you in meeting your weight loss goal.
Along with realistic weight loss goals, a healthy diet and overall body exercise, building the muscles of the throat and face to prevent airway collapse due to weak muscles is another step in your cure for snoring. There are some very basic exercises that you can do to gradually reduce and then eliminate the snoring problem as you continue your weight loss routines, adding the strength in the throat to keep airways open as you sleep. The exercises can be done at any time of the day, such as during a commute to work or school or while taking a daily walk during your exercise routine. In addition to setting your goals and beginning with these simple exercises to reap the reward of better quality sleep, there are other things you can do in curing a snoring problem.
Make Changes to Meet Your Goals
Since excessive weight contributes to snoring problems, it is important to reduce weight while still maintaining and improving overall health. Eating a proper diet with portions in moderation will help in meeting your weight loss goal, but you should make some changes in your habits and then stick with them until they become second nature. Making healthier choices in the foods you eat as well limited starchy and carbohydrate loaded foods will give you a healthy and level weight loss with the feeling of hunger that drives you to eating unhealthy snacks with high fat content. In addition to being better for you and helping in your weight loss, a healthy diet gives you more energy to power through your day as well as contributing a feeling of overall well-being.
Along with the gradual changes toward a healthier diet, gradual changes should be made for the proper exercise needed for muscle, bone and joint health. Keeping your current physical health in mind, most people will start with stretches and then walking that increases the heart rate while protecting the muscles from strains by warming up the body and telling the muscles it is time to exercise. A brisk walk a few times a week will help to burn off calories, improve heart health, and help you to expend pent up energy that may keep you awake at night, contributing to snoring when you do sleep. In addition to the health benefits of exercise for anyone, it helps tremendously in weight loss and overall health.
Losing weight to cure your snoring problem will not happen overnight nor over a week or two, but is an ongoing process of becoming thinner, healthier, and quieter in your better quality sleep with no snoring. Once you reach your weight loss goal and stop the snoring, it is necessary to keep the good habits you have developed in order have a long-lasting or permanent cure for snoring.
Author’s Bio:
Andreas Henderson, MR, published author and medical researcher with more than six years experience, has dedicated himself to providing people with the knowledge they need to effectively find a snoring cure.
On his blog www.StopSnoringAdvice.com, he shares his discoveries with the rest of the world and aims to abolish snoring from the face of the earth.
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Homemade Protein Bars
Just a quick post to show you a great video I found on making your own homemade protein bars. The video is by Kimberly Coventry from FitKim.com and these things are really easy to make.
They are no bake too which is great. I made them a couple of days ago and I have to say that they actually tasted pretty good, especially with the honey on top. Definitely try them out.
You can check out some of her other videos on her Youtube channel at FitKimTV (there are a few more quick and easy recipes) or just visit her site at FitKim.com
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Old Habits Die Hard
This will be just a quick update. In the past few weeks I have received dozens of emails from readers. The majority of them have had what I consider to be a common theme.
Falling back into old habits
I have failed at losing weight more times than I can count. I’ve tried many diets and even though I did lose a bit of weight it would always come back.
You’ve heard it a million times before that diets don’t work over the long term. A lifestyle change is what you need and replacing old habits with new habits is the way to do it.
Easier Said?
Old habits die hard and replacing them is sometimes easier said then done.
We’ve all built unhealthy habits over many years and to think that they can be completely eliminated in just a few weeks is crazy. Falling back into your old habits is almost common place among people trying to lose weight.
Here is the Fix
There are 2 things that I did to break the cycle.
1. Small Changes
Giving up your favorite junk foods is hard, very hard. I realized this when I tried to quit Soda Pop cold turkey. My first attempt lasted 1 day. For me the fix was to make a small minor change in how often I drank them.
4 per day was the norm for me. So for the first 7 days I replaced 1 can with 1 bottle of water. I didn’t even notice the difference. After the next 7 days I was down to 2 cans and after a month I was drinking just 1 can a day.
I stayed at 1 can a day for another week and then cut back to just 2 cans per week before finally replacing them with water/juice. All told I had made those small changes over 7 weeks and in that time the cravings slooowly disappeared.
(Note that I had tried the cold turkey method a few years ago and it did work for while. The problem was that I cut it out too quickly, don’t make the same mistake)
2. Breaking The Pattern
This is where the whole concept of trusting yourself comes in. At lunchtime I couldn’t trust myself to walk by a McDonald’s without ordering something weather I was hungry or not. It was an addiction and a terrible habit.
The fix was just to not carry my wallet on my lunch break. I left it at the office or in my car so even when the urge to buy came up, I had no way of making the purchase.
After about a month of doing this my desire for a Big Mac combo dropped quite a bit and I was able to walk past the store without even looking at it. The most important thing was that I had broken the pattern of just buying regardless of hunger.
Doing whatever you can to break your normal eating patterns is such a huge part of changing your lifestyle for the better.
Conclusion
Falling back into your old habits can happen but by making small changes over a long period of time you can prevent them from coming back. Breaking your current unhealthy eating patterns is also key to your long term success.
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