Get the Best Sleep of your Life: 6 Healthy Sleep Tips

Sleep can set the routine for the whole day. Waking alert and rested can put you in a successful frame of mind, and prepares you to tackle the day. As part of my Get Healthy 2015 series, with collaboration from Casper Mattress, I am sharing some helpful tips to get more restful sleep at night. Being a busy mom and blogger, and naturally a night owl, getting enough sleep isn't an easy task for me. I have incorporated these 6 tips into my daily routine to help ease transition from being awake to falling asleep, to wake up more rested.

*Disclosure: I was asked to write an article on my best sleep tips and tricks for Sleep Awareness Week by a representative at Casper, a sleep start-up company. I was not compensated in any way. This article is written 100% by me and includes my honest opinion that was in no way influenced by a third party. For even more tips to ease you to sleep, visit the blog at Casper.*

We're Out of Soda... (and the Reasons I'm Not Buying More)

As part of my "Get Healthy 2015" goals, I've decided to stop another bad habit of mine. We've successful cut down eating fast food to 2-3 times a month (if that), and we're back on track with three months under our belt of home-cooked dinners. My house is slowly getting organized as I continue to clear out the clutter. There are major things left on my list of getting healthy, and those are cutting out soda from my diet and working out regularly.

My husband and I are soda addicts. When you say "grab a cold one" in this house, we're not asking for a beer. We want an ice-cold Coke (for me) or Dr. Pepper (for my husband). We've been known to go through entire 6-packs in a day. Our recycling bin is often in a state of overflow, from soda cans.

Putting the above paragraph down in writing is a huge step. It's not like I was ever not educated about how bad soda is. It was a habit, and I ignored the warnings from others. I've struggled with weigh issues most of my adult life, but yet I was constantly in denial that soda could be the root cause.  Reading this, you might ask, "why now? Why all of a sudden are you committed to not buying soda anymore?"

A Gift for Pony Club and free printable

I know I said that I would show you my kitchen window herb garden, but it was raining and I really wanted to create a tutorial for making over some flower pots as well as planting a few new herbs in said pots. So instead I did an indoor activity today and created my first printable.

These words were spoken to me once at a Pony Club Championships in 2010 and they have managed to stick with me. So, to give back, I created this print for my former Pony Club chapter, in their colors. I plan on printing it out in cardstock and frame it to hang in the barn.

Pony Club is a youth organization that teaches leadership, confidence, and a sense of community through riding and horsemanship. I first joined Pony Club at age 14, and continue to participate in my club through volunteering. To learn more about Pony Club, visit http://www.ponyclub.org/.

For the free printable click here. Feel free to share these words of encouragement with anyone who might need it!

Until next time,
Renee