Step Away From the Cake

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 hom

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

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 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

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 underne