A nap a day makes the fat go away

Napping is not just for babies or senior citizens. Napping is a sign of strength and resilience. It’s a powerful mid afternoon move in my book and one that only the best of the best make time for.

The midday nap is a consistent past time the world over and it carries long and storied traditions through time. Time to rethink the nap, me thinks!

Whilst you may feel you get 8 hours of sleep, how many of those hours are you in deep sleep and not on the verge of the anxious grab of the iPhone at any given minute?

All humans nap! Most humans think it's a sign of weakness and that the more hours you are awake the more productive you are! I’m not sure @timferris would agree.

The Siesta is the most well known nap terminology, fronted by the Spanish, all of Latin America and the Philippines. My favourite code for napping is what the Bangladeshies call it; the ‘rice sleep’ or ‘bhat-gum’. And whilst it may not be the done thing the Brits love a good nap too on the sly or a quick toilet nap!!!

POST­PRANDIAL SOMNOLENCE: Otherwise known as a food coma!

If you ever find someone slumped across the sofa looking as if they can’t move or muster a conversation, communicating only with grunts and gesticulations, you can be sure they have slipped into a food coma. This is medically referred to as post-prandial somnolence, but I like the good old-fashioned food coma: it says what it does on the tin. Luckily for humans, overeating and greed are universal traits so the symptoms are universally recognised and therefore treatment is too. Leave them to sleep it off, removing all surrounding plates of food in case they wake up and eat! 

If you are feeling as if you are slowly creeping on an extra layer of winter thermals in the form of body fat then you might be stressed, wired and tired and a nap may be just what you are in need of. When the body is over worked and stressed it doesn’t have time to repair or regenerate and if weight loss is your goal your body will not conform. You see your body needs energy to lose weight and if you are stressed you are burning energy and running on empty rather than being metabolically efficient. 

So go forth and nap you’ll be a better person for it, but forgoes sake whatever you do take a lunch break!

Here’s to a happy gut and a lean body!

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