We are down to the final two Stupid Things Healthy People Do!...Take a close look at this one - it probably affects the majority of people more than any other single thing.

Stupid Thing #4: You're Stressed Out

• I don't have to tell you that we are living in a fast-paced world and that most of us have stress levels that are through the roof. But what you might not realize is that your stress levels are making you fat.
• Stress creates an increase in the hormone cortisol, and chronic stress creates a chronic increase in cortisol. This is a problem because is slows your metabolism, leads to cravings and is linked to greater levels of abdominal fat storage.
• The vicious cycle of stress and weight gain goes around and around. Stress causes you to eat emotionally, and your raised cortisol levels cause that food to be stored as fat.
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It's a new week and it is time for another installment of Stupid Things Healthy People Do! I hope are you finding these tips useful and are taking a look at how they could be affecting your health.

Stupid Thing #3: You Are Sleep Deprived!

• In Gallup Poll surveys, 56% of the adult population reported that drowsiness is a problem in the daytime. That's means more than half of us that clearly don't get enough sleep.
• Healthy adults require 7-8 hours of sleep each night. When you fail to meet this need, your body goes into sleep debt, which continues to accumulate indefinitely until you catch up.
• A lack of sleep negatively affects your immune system, your nervous system, and interferes with healthy hormone release and cellular repairs.

The best way to combat sleep deprivation is to set a scheduled bedtime. Your body will benefit from a consistent sleeping and waking routine, and you're sure to get all the rest you need.

If you have trouble falling asleep once you're in bed, then try these two tips:

• Make sure that you don't drink any caffeinated beverages after lunchtime.
• Don't eat for three hours before you go to bed. This helps eliminate sleeplessness due to indigestion, and will also turbo-charge your weight loss.

• Research suggests that most people eat out one out of every 4 meals and snacks. That's an average of once a day.
• Restaurant food is designed to do one thing: to taste good. In order to increase eating pleasure, each item is loaded with fat, salt and sugar. This causes you to eat way more calories than you actually need.
• Even when you order ‘healthy' items, you're still taking in more calories and fat grams than you would if you had prepared the item at home. Imagine the last salad you ordered out. Didn't it come with cream dressing, croutons, cheese sprinkles and a piece of butter laden bread on the side?
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• It has been said that 75 percent of the population is chronically dehydrated. Would you disagree? When was the last time that you actually drank 8 glasses of water in a day?
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