18 June 2011
Another week zooms by
It's amazing how time flies when you are busy. But, I'm still not getting everything done that I want to. Grrrr!!!!
What I have figured out though is why not getting enough sleep makes you gain weight. Weird, I know, but I have figured out what's going on. At least with me. On Wednesday night I went to bed early and it threw my sleep patterns all off. Thursday I spent the day tired and I had a hard time sleeping on Thursday night. By yesterday I was exhausted. After feeding the birds I went back to bed for a bit, then I took a nap around 2 pm. I taught summer school and worked last night so it was a bit tough. But this made me understand what was happening. By being so tired I didn't have the energy to workout, also I woke up starving and had to eat something first thing. Then, all day I was craving carbs. I had a Burger King breakfast meal. Pizza with cinnamon breadsticks for lunch. Pizza and little donuts for dinner. Breadsticks for snack when I came home. There was nothing resembling a vegetable in there and very little protein. No wonder I feel like crap today. So that's how you gain weight when you are tired. You eat carbs to get instant fuel but carbs create a vicious cycle. Once you start eating carbs you want more carbs and on and on and on....And that makes you put on weight. I get it. So even though I have to work all day today I am going to eat right. I just had a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with a banana. For lunch I'm having a salad - even if I have to go buy one at Safeway. Hubby won't be home for dinner so I have no reason to pig out. He made spaghetti the other night, I think I'll have that with more veggies. Also, I need to drink lots of water today. I've been really slacking on the water intake. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and not so exhausted...
16 June 2011
Sleep Number
A while back I read about sleep cycles. I read how they run in 90 minute increments and that if you wanted to get up at a certain time work backwards in 90 minute chunks to determine a reasonable time to go to bed. For example, if you want to get up at 6 am and you wonder if you should go to bed by 9 pm - work backwards.
6 am wakeup
4:30
3:00
1:30
12:00
10:30
9:00
So 9:00 pm would be a good time to go to bed because 6 am would fall at the end of one of the 90 minute cycles. This is the time when you move and wake up just a bit before rolling over and going back to sleep. So to wake up during one of these waking periods makes it much easier to get up.
Since school ended, and I've been working at Walgreens, I've been going to bed between 10 - 11 pm. That's late for me :) But because of the birds I'm still up at 5:30 - 6:00. Although I'm never thrilled to get out of bed, I haven't really had a hard time getting up and I never really thought about it. By looking at the little chart up there though, it all makes sense. By going to bed around 10:30 I'm naturally starting to wake around 5:30 - 6:00 so getting up at that time is not too bad.
Then last night, I was a little tired, and decided to go to bed around 9:30. What a mistake. The birds started screaming around 5:45 and I felt like I was drugged. Completely, wiped out, exhausted. Looking at the little chart up there you don't need Nikon binoculars to see the problem. Going to bed at 9:30 would have thrown everything off by 30 minutes to an hour. If I could have gotten up at 6:30 I probably would have been fine, but the birds wouldn't let me sleep that late.
The moral of this story is, while I think going to bed at 10-10:30 is late, it works for my sleep pattern and I should stick to it.
14 June 2011
Wow, just wow.....
Last night I watched that Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. I had never seen it before and since I <3 the Biggest Loser, I thought I'd check it out. It was pretty good, don't think I'll watch it again but it was definitely okay. One thing that struck me - hard - was when they were talking about why this guy was overweight. He said he had been sexually abused as a child and later on admitted that he was homosexual. Neither of those things struck me but what did was that you have to be true to who you are. You can't be something you're not, you have to be you. Yes, I've heard this, and said this, a thousand times but for some reason it finally connected last night. As I was driving to school today I was thinking about that and thinking about my life and wondering why I'm not happy. Or as happy as I think I could be. Then it hit me. There are only 3 things that I really, really want in life. I want to be athletic - as athletic as I can be anyway -, I want to travel, and I want to get my PhD. Those are really the things in life that I want. That's all. Of course I'm not including my house and my animals because I have those things :) What I was thinking about was what I wanted that I didn't have. Those three things; be athletic, travel, get my PhD. That's all. Those things are so easy and so within my control it's crazy. For the athletic part, I just have to get back into being serious about working out and keep it up. For the travel, that's a little harder but I just have to finish the bankruptcy and start saving some money. For the PhD, that's kind of a no-brainer. Finish my Master's, get my application to UH in and go for it. That's all. Completely within my control. Completely doable. Who knew it could be so simple.....
13 June 2011
Seriously Sweaty
I think the longest part of making a blog post is finding a picture I can use. I just wanted to post a quick update on my week so far (my week starts on Sunday). Good!!! I spent Saturday organizing and working on a plan. Yesterday I put it into action - kind of. I worked out in the morning. I did not spend hours on the computer. I worked my part time job. Ate decently, except for 3 cupcakes, came home and went straight to bed. Overall a good day.
Today is off to a fabulous start. I got up, fed the birds and dogs, and worked out. Now I'm cooling down a little so that I can shower. I can't shower when I'm super sweaty because I feel like I continue to sweat in the shower. Hate that. So in a minute I'll shower, eat breakfast and get ready for my class at 11. I don't work tonight so I'll spend the afternoon working on my thesis. Woo Hoo.
I want to make a note about my workouts. Yesterday I did Bob's Strength and it kicked my butt. Today I did the cardio and it also kicked my butt. The good news is, in both workouts I was able to push it a little further than I did last time. In the strength workout yesterday I was able to do some moves I hadn't been able to do before and in today's workout, I was able to keep up with them on some of the moves. I was also able to use weights on some moves I haven't been able to use before. Definitely making progress.
The thing is, if I'm making progress by only working out sporadically (haha, spell check wanted to make this spasmodically - that may also be true), imagine what kind of progress I could make if I was consistent? Hmm...maybe I should give consistency a go. How bout I stick to my plan for 1 week and see what happens......
12 June 2011
False Starts
I have a FitBit. I got it almost a year ago, strike that, over a year ago and have used it somewhat sporadically. I like it because it is small, no one knows I'm wearing it, and the data is free. I used the BodyBugg for about 6 months but that thing was huge and you have to pay to get your data - that sucks. So FitBit is much better. I also recently discovered Earndit. This place gathers data from your devices, FitBit, Garmin, Nike+, etc, and translate the activity into points. With the points you can then "purchase" things. It's pretty cool. Anyway, I signed up for Earndit 2-3 weeks ago and have actually used the points I've earned to get a couple of things - cool. Then, last Sunday, my FitBit got misplaced. I thought I had put it on the charger but it wasn't there. I looked all over and could not find it. I thought the dog took it somewhere. Then yesterday I found it under my desk. I guess the puppy knocked it off my desk and it slide underneath where it couldn't be seen. In the meantime, I got the above award from Earndit for earning less than 10 points 4 days in a row. The False Start award. Nice, huh???? That's what I was thinking today was, a false start. I don't have to be anywhere until 1:30 so it was hard - really hard - to stay away from the computer. Or to resist the call of the nap. The good part is I did workout this morning - hard!!! Thought I was going to throw up I was working so hard... So that's good. And I didn't go crazy at breakfast so that's good. Baby steps, baby steps....False starts are only practice runs....
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