Well everyone can have an off day and that seems to be almost the type of day I’m having. It literally started at midnight with the power going out (blessed be noise machines that are fully charged and can last the duration of the power outage)—realized that I can no longer really sleep in a totally quiet room (or at least can’t sleep in a room that sounds like a tomb—not to mention how much darker it seems to be when the power goes out (even though all the lights are turned off because everyone is in bed).

So with the disrupted sleep, I slept in again (which means that tomorrow will have to be an alarm set so that I make my meeting on time). I am trying to just do 7-8 hours of sleep, but usually end up 8-9 1/2 hours of sleep. Depending on the interview goes tomorrow (and if I have to debate between two jobs), the sleep could go back to 6-7 hours (depending on when I would need to show up to work).

I know getting enough sleep is critical for both getting healthy (losing weight) and also for lowering anxiety (two things that I have been struggling with lately). I’m one of those people who needs at least an hour of waking up before I would consider myself to be “awake” around most people; so I usually end up getting up at least 90 minutes to 2 hours (if not more) before I need to be somewhere (this though can include the commute time as well). So if I need to be at work by say 8:15 (and if I don’t have to walk the dog), I’d be getting up at say between 5:45 and 6:15 am; but if I have to walk the dog I’d be getting up even earlier than that. Then I usually require about 45 minutes to an hour of relaxing before turning out the lights (usually reading something on the Kindle); so usually I try to aim for lights out by 10:30, and hope that I can fall asleep by 11. This was the cycle I was in during my time out in Boston (where I considered walking the dog 2x a day (3-4 on the weekends) and walking everywhere to be my daily workouts); coming home my sleep schedule almost corrected itself to about 8 hours, until my last job where for the past year or so I’d try to be at work between 6:45 and 7:15 in the morning so that I could be out by 5 four days a week and then have a short day of Fridays. So to sum up this mini rant—I’ve screwed up my circadian clock over the past couple of years and am slowly trying to fix it, but being in the sciences (and academia) probably isn’t going to help fix it any time soon.

I may reach my bear minimum steps (11,500) for the day by bed time. I was going to march in place and then get the workout in—but the afternoon thunderstorm kinda derailed that plan (nothing like being stuck on the couch for about 45 minutes with a 50 pound dog quivering on you, due to her not liking thunder—yes my dog is a baby (though she isn’t the largest one we have). So, basically all I’ve managed today is my steps. The next workout for Shift Shop (which is Sculpt 45) will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m proud of myself for sticking with this program (it isn’t easy), and I know if I can dial in the nutrition I’ll start seeing results a little faster. Tomorrow I’ll be off the couch a little longer since I have to be on campus for part of the morning (plus again on Thursday). If I can find either this part time job, or maybe a full time job—being active during the day won’t be that big of a problem. I know that the inactivity on the weekends goes back to sleeping in and throwing off the circadian clock and all that jazz.

I just have to make it a goal to get through various programs on BOD (need to determine what the rewards would be), and that way I should stay motivated (and won’t have to worry about a TV right away—though it would be nice so that I can do PUMP and Combat), and get back on track to getting healthy and fit.