That was the question posed by The Huffington Post.  It seems that Americans are veering more and more away from formal religion and focusing on self improvement instead.  They boldly state that:

… more and more people are connecting with regular and diverse spiritual practices such as meditation, yoga, mindfulness, expressive arts (such as dance, group singing/chanting), self-help studies, and spiritual travel. These things can all be done in connection with religious affiliation or without. These are not belief systems, they are active practices that shift awareness, emotion and help us to see where we get stuck in life.

They may not be too far off in that assessment.  According to the American Religious Identification Survey in 2008, “no religion” was the only population group to show a marked increase nationwide.  Meanwhile, those who call themselves Christian have dropped more than 11% while those who call themselves “Spiritual with no affiliation” rose to 18%.  Practices like yoga have gained popularity not only because of its health benefits, but also because of its ability to center and calm the soul while connected with others at the same time.  Studies show that people are tired of organized religion and are instead opting for individualized spiritual healing found on their own terms.

Do you agree?  Disagree?  To what extent has “yoga” become the new church?

Source

How many of us stay up late at night in an effort to get some extra work done?  We need more hours in a day!  Unfortunately for us, we’re going to have to make do with 24.  Like I briefly mentioned in my last post, there is a strong correlation between the amount of sleep you get and weight gain.  We can blame our weight frustrations on more than just a lack of willpower on our part to eat right and exercise.

Our bodies produce two hormones directly tied to sleep and appetite – Ghrelin and Leptin.  Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and is an appetite-stimulating hormone.  Leptin is produced by your fat cells, and functions to let your body know when it’s full, signaling satiety.   In short – Ghrelin increases appetite while Leptin suppresses appetite.  When you don’t get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night, you will naturally want to eat more because the amount of Ghrelin increases whereas the amount of Leptin decreases. There are tons of studies out there that prove this, but I won’t bore you with numbers here!

Lacking sleep leads to mindless eating and you’re less likely to be active.  How many times have you woken up with the intention of working out, but because you didn’t get enough sleep you just said, “forget it”.  I can personally tell a huge difference in my attitude (I get irritated more easily) and food intake (I snack a lot more and have massive junk food cravings).  I have a hard time sleeping before midnight, and on those rare occasions when I do try to sleep earlier, I find myself tossing and turning in bed.  I enjoy the late night hours where I get to catch up on my leisure reading or stay up online doing random things like (cough) blog/facebook/twitter.  Darn you social networking sites!  *Sigh*…

How do you make sure you’re getting enough sleep?

By now, we’ve heard just about every fitness craze there is:

• The Grapefruit Diet
• The Atkins Diet
• The Blood Type Diet
• The Ab Toning Belt
• Beyonce’s infamous Master Cleanse
• The Peanut Butter Diet, the Ice Cream Diet, the Chocolate Diet (seriously?!?!)
• Hydroxycut, Ephedrine, and all every other diet pill on store shelves

This is just a handful, but I’m sure this list can easily go into the hundreds if I tried.  The diet industry is big business – it is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it’s easy to see why.  Most of us are always looking for the next quick fix and who can blame us.  Who doesn’t hope to find that magic combination that will melt all your undesirable fat away?  Our culture tells us to do things quick, efficiently, and fast.  It’s really no wonder we approach dieting and weight loss the exact same way.

The latest craze I’ve been seeing around town these days is the Vibration Toning Plate.  It claims that in just 10 minutes time of standing on that vibration plate, you’ll get the equivalent of a 30 minute sweat session at the gym.  Oh, and apparently Madonna owns one.  Mention easy weight loss and attach a celebrity’s name to it and wa-lah, you’ve got the perfect marketing combination.  I’ve even seen this thing sold at Brookstone and sat on it once.  All I got was a nice butt massage.  Yea that felt good, haha~  Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t…

But all joking aside, at the end of all this trial and error, your best bet is still good old traditional healthy eating and exercise.  Notice I did not use the word “diet”.  Diets don’t work – they imply a short term mindset.  We must consciously, intentionally choose to alter our lifestyle and make small daily decisions to eat healthier and get our bodies moving.  What’s the toughest part about eating right and exercise for you?