Shawnee Harkins' Summer Fat Attack

It’s the summer, and that means “celebrate your beauty”, and let the girls take it all in! I’m no stranger to keeping it real with my Shewired viewer’s when it comes to taking responsibility for one’s excuses of their own body image, however I’m definitely your biggest fan when you decided to empower yourself  by taking control, and that means by taking the first step: awareness.

So, don’t fall victim to the mid-summer blues - the feeling that you are not ready to be seen in shorts or a bathing suit. Simply read on, and follow my tips for your very own Summer Fat Attack!

Sometimes, we get so overwhelmed with complex exercises to do in the gym to obtain the ideal physique, we tend to forget to just keep it simple, and keep it real.

Let’s start with sleep. Ask yourself, how much sleep am I getting nightly? Are you staying up to the wee hours of the night, and feeling totally exhausted the next day? Is the lack of sleep worth it in the morning? How productive are you truly being to yourself, and to your health, keeping up with the night-owls? If you sleep less than 6 hours, it promotes weight gain. The simple truth is you want to get between 7 ½ to 8 ½ hours of sleep per night. Poor sleep patterns alter hunger hormones, which causes late-night snacking. Lack of sleep also alters ghrelin and leptin, which are important regulators of appetite and energy expenditure - and critical for maintaining a healthy weight. Sleep loss causes increase in ghrelin and decreases in leptin, both of which increase appetite. So, if you are noticing tracks of crumbs in the morning when you awake, point the finger back at yourself, girl! Stop the late night snacking, and the self-sabotage, with simply putting yourself to bed early and getting more sleep! Fight the fat with sleep!

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