Meditation and Breathing Apps
The impact of meditation and breathing on the quality of your sleep cannot be overemphasized. Deciding to spend a couple of minutes breathing before bed can have a HUGE effect on both the quality and quantity of your sleep. And as sleep deprivation usually causes hunger and makes it difficult to make optimal nutrition and exercise decisions, you need to do everything you can to improve your sleep.
And if you find yourself having to deal with stressful situations, it’s all too easy to turn to food to help you deal with the emotions - which won’t help your weight loss goals. Having a regular meditative practise can help you deal with the stress instead of using food.
Here are my favourite apps:
Oak Meditation & Breathing (iOS only) - free
I’m a huge fan of this free app. I regularly use the Deep Calm and Box Breathing exercises for 1-4 minutes immediately before getting into bed. If you’re on Android, watch this video describing the 478 breathing technique used in the Deep Calm exercise, and this video describing Box Breathing.
One Moment Meditation (iOS / Android) - free
This is one of the most simple free meditation apps I’ve come across. The bell rings, you sit and focus on your breathing, and the bell rings again after a minute. Awesome.
I haven’t used it in a while, but several of my clients swear by it.
As above.