Sleep?
To be honest, I've been feeling a bit shitty recently. Liking the weight coming off, and feeling much better than I used to, but I've been getting unbelievably tired in the afternoon. Inevitably this leads to the feeling that I need more energy than a couple of satsumas can give me.
So today I had a mini chocolate binge. Except, looking back, it wasn't a binge at all. Or not an old-style binge. I bought a Galaxy bar because I needed a boost, then got back to find a huge slab of Dairy Milk that had been brought in for us to share. Before, I'd have eaten the whole thing. In an ideal world I'd have left it alone (and not bought the Galaxy in the first place). In the real, slightly flawed world I took a couple of chunks off it and then left it alone. So it wasn't a 400g bar like I used to eat in little over one sitting, but it was more than I was planning for, and if I hadn't been feeling so run down I wouldn't have eaten the extra.
I always seem to have tons of energy in the morning, and then it fades away as the day goes on. By 2.30 I'm at the stage where I could literally fall asleep on my desk. And indeed, to my shame, I occasionally do. I know this is no good for my health, my productivity and my career, but I just can't seem to get out of the cycle. An what's more worrying is that I know that this general feeling of tiredness will make me more likely to reach for easy food. Ready meals. Pizza. Chocolate. All the stuff I've been managing perfectly well without until now.
I've tried eating more calories at lunchtime. Today I had an organic lentil soup that was about twice as many calories as the soup I usually have (I also have a huge portion of fruit with yoghurt at lunchtime, so I'm hardly starving myself). Other than feeling bloated for an hour or so with the weight of it in my stomach, it had very little effect. Likewise the organic bean chili I had on Friday. (2 and 3 portions of veg respectively, bring it on!).
So the next step is to tackle my sleeping habits. In summer it's always like this. I operate according to daylight. And when it gets light at 5am well, I wake up at 5am. It's OK when I go to bed early enough, but more and more often I just don't. I'm beginning to think that a little more sleep will make all the difference, so tonight's task is to block out as much light as possible, get an early night, and hope for more energy tomorrow afternoon.
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What's in a number? Well, it depends if it's a good number, really. My BMI is still stubbornly, obesely stuck at 31, but I'm on the verge of ignoring it. You see, as well as my startlingly non-obese waist measurement, I got a body fat monitor today. I measured my body fat and looked at the chart. And I was "overfat" rather than "obese". I can't describe the thrill that gave me! OK, so there's still work to do to get that measurement even lower, but I'm heading in the right direction. So, with two out of three measurements indicating that I'm no longer obese, do I believe them, or do I wait for that BMI to finally drop below 30? My current thinking is that two out of three isn't bad...
So today I had a mini chocolate binge. Except, looking back, it wasn't a binge at all. Or not an old-style binge. I bought a Galaxy bar because I needed a boost, then got back to find a huge slab of Dairy Milk that had been brought in for us to share. Before, I'd have eaten the whole thing. In an ideal world I'd have left it alone (and not bought the Galaxy in the first place). In the real, slightly flawed world I took a couple of chunks off it and then left it alone. So it wasn't a 400g bar like I used to eat in little over one sitting, but it was more than I was planning for, and if I hadn't been feeling so run down I wouldn't have eaten the extra.
I always seem to have tons of energy in the morning, and then it fades away as the day goes on. By 2.30 I'm at the stage where I could literally fall asleep on my desk. And indeed, to my shame, I occasionally do. I know this is no good for my health, my productivity and my career, but I just can't seem to get out of the cycle. An what's more worrying is that I know that this general feeling of tiredness will make me more likely to reach for easy food. Ready meals. Pizza. Chocolate. All the stuff I've been managing perfectly well without until now.
I've tried eating more calories at lunchtime. Today I had an organic lentil soup that was about twice as many calories as the soup I usually have (I also have a huge portion of fruit with yoghurt at lunchtime, so I'm hardly starving myself). Other than feeling bloated for an hour or so with the weight of it in my stomach, it had very little effect. Likewise the organic bean chili I had on Friday. (2 and 3 portions of veg respectively, bring it on!).
So the next step is to tackle my sleeping habits. In summer it's always like this. I operate according to daylight. And when it gets light at 5am well, I wake up at 5am. It's OK when I go to bed early enough, but more and more often I just don't. I'm beginning to think that a little more sleep will make all the difference, so tonight's task is to block out as much light as possible, get an early night, and hope for more energy tomorrow afternoon.
------------------------------
What's in a number? Well, it depends if it's a good number, really. My BMI is still stubbornly, obesely stuck at 31, but I'm on the verge of ignoring it. You see, as well as my startlingly non-obese waist measurement, I got a body fat monitor today. I measured my body fat and looked at the chart. And I was "overfat" rather than "obese". I can't describe the thrill that gave me! OK, so there's still work to do to get that measurement even lower, but I'm heading in the right direction. So, with two out of three measurements indicating that I'm no longer obese, do I believe them, or do I wait for that BMI to finally drop below 30? My current thinking is that two out of three isn't bad...
posted by YP at 7:26 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, I could have written this post. I too have been having a really noticably bad time with exhaustion lately, and the only answer I have is the new running habit. Like you I'm tackling the sleeping and extra calories to see if that helps a bit. Let me know if it works for you! :)
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