Tag Archives: Sleep

255.4 Sleep

22 Friday Jul 2016

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I have definitely noticed a connection between the amount of sleep I get and the level of my carb/chocolate cravings!

This week I have stayed up way too late playing Minecraft with my husband. First of all, I LOVE that game. I love that it’s something my husband and I enjoy together and I just find it totally relaxing.

BUT, I really need to set some healthy boundaries around sleep. I have been staying downstairs, playing, 2 hours longer than I would like every night. As a result, I have noticed that I even wake-up feeling super hungry, which is unusual for me as I am not, regularly, hungry until around 10am. The change of sleep pattern and loss of sleep has also found me constantly wanting all the carbs and all the chocolate that the world can offer-up.

When I was getting more regular sleep, I didn’t crave this stuff.

And it’s not just about the amount of sleep, but it is the rhythm of it as well. I have been told that it is best to always go to bed and wake-up at the same time, every day, even on weekends. But, who really wants to do that?

The weekend is for sleeping-in, right?

I am starting to want it. It seems totally counterintuitive, but I’ve been testing the theory the past few months and I can’t deny the fact that my weekend days go far better when I’ve gotten out of bed around the same time that I do Mon-Fri.

When I force myself to get up around 6am, even on Saturday and Sunday, I just generally feel better. I have more energy, I eat better, I feel better emotionally, my mental state is sharper.

So, as I am winding-down from another hectic work-week and already dreaming of digging-out the mine and cutting down some trees, I’m already trying to plan-ahead and prepare myself to enforce a healthy bedtime tonight.

I have been maintaining my weight around 255 lbs, but I really want to get over this hump and start losing again. I know it’s happening because I am on the carb-train and now that I’ve discovered where the carb train starts (with my sleep patterns), I’m hoping that making some adjustments to the sleep hygiene and being determined to maintain a regular schedule will, once again, squash the cravings and realign my energy and focus.

Just put down the pick-axe and walk away…

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268.7

15 Friday Apr 2016

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268.7

I climbed the CN Tower!

Ok, no I haven’t. But, I’m gonna. The Spring climb of the tower is taking place this weekend and, last week, when I first heard it was happening this weekend I thought to myself ‘I want to do that’. But, I am nowhere near in shape to just jump-in and do it this weekend.

Part of me would like to try and give myself that ultimate challenge. But, the problem is that, once you get going you have no choice but getting to the top to get yourself back down. It’s not like a run where, if you just can’t go any more you can just step off to the side, rest and then go home.

You have to get to the top.

And, because I’m, seriously, afraid I would die in the attempt, I’ve decided to train with the goal of entering next spring.

There is one in Autumn as well, but I think I want to give myself a year to really prepare.

And so, I started climbing all the flights of stairs at work 2xday. My building is only 10 stories and I felt like I was dying towards the top. So, I have a long way to go.

I’m going to do the stairs 1xmorning and 1xafternoon, increasing how many times I can go up/down as I can. I’m going to stick with going up/down once until I feel like I’m not about to die around the 7th story.

After doing the stairs yesterday, I had “Gumby” legs. I felt like one of those little toys you can get where, if you press the platform that the toy is standing on downwards, the toys legs crumble.

gumby legs

I had read that climbing stairs uses the calf muscles a lot, but I was feeling it mainly in my quads and lats…until around 2am. I went to roll over in bed and felt this horrible pain in my calves. Yup, there it is. And today, I’m feeling the burn.

I love it though. I also slept better last night than I have in weeks. I’m sure this has to do with a) better diet; b) more water and; c) those breaks of exercise during the day when I got my heart pumping.

As I was climbing the stairs yesterday I wondered if you could listen to music while doing the CN Tower climb. It might be considered hazardous. But, if I could I was trying to think about what songs would be on my playlist:

Climb Every Mountain (From Sound of Music)
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Marvin Gaye)
The Climb (Miley Cyrus)
Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen)
Elevation (U2)

Thankfully, I have some time to create the perfect playlist.