I told AJ in the comments to my last post that I've had more energy, but that I've also been ravenously hungry. I'm starting to wonder if the first one is true. (The second one definitely is...I not only had two cheese hot dogs and chips/dip for lunch, but I stopped on my way back to work to get a huge chocolate milkshake at R. Gabriel's. It was like a craving that I couldn't ignore.)
It seems like lately I've been tired a lot, and I've taken an inordinate amount of naps. I don't know, it just doesn't seem normal somehow. I feel like I should be able to function during the daylight hours and sleep at night and not feel overwhelmed or extraordinarily tired like I have been.
Mom thinks that I've been working too much, so when my hours drop by half next week maybe things will get better. However, the following week I'm back to full time to cover for Wanda going on vacation. I'm not sure what my hours will do after that. The half time hours would probably be fine...I remember liking that schedule back when I had it before. I'll still be getting up at 5 and going in at 7, though.
Sean agrees that my schedule might be the problem..."Early in the morning until late in the eve" is how he put it. (I love how he says "eve" instead of "evening" or "night". Where did he get that?)
So anyway...we'll see, I guess.
I only managed to get one load of laundry done today, due to taking a stupid nap. With the two I did yesterday, that leaves one more for tomorrow. Stupid laundry.
I also made dinner--seasoned steak, steamed broccoli, and cheesy scalloped potatoes--and emptied the dishwasher, both of which seemed like nigh-impossible feats as I was doing them. The steak is okay, but the broccoli isn't all that good for some reason. I guess it's because usually I cut the crowns in half, but I didn't this time. Bleh.
Tomorrow Sean and I are going to see Spider-Man 2 with Adam, and then we're going to eat something, and then we're going to watch mucho Prince of Tennis. I'm looking forward to it. On Sunday Sean is going to help Kelly with his new media box, and then I don't know what all is going on. We never go see the fireworks or anything...I don't know if that will change this year or not.
Hope I get to sleep in tomorrow, because even though I napped from like 7 until 9:30, bed still sounds very, very appealing. ;P
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2 comments:
I actually don't see a problem here. I'm not a nutritionalist or any kind of doctor, but I think I might be able to explain, or at least make a good guess as to what's going on here.
Everything a person does that's new to them - let's take playing guitar - takes awhile before they're used to it (let alone GOOD at it). For the first few months of guitar playing, your fingertips hurt because the calouses haven't yet formed, your wrists hurt from holding down chords, and all in all, you don't sound any better rocking it out than you did when you first started learning. As those first few months of practicing, you feel better and then worse. And then better and then worse.
Here's another example of something that doesn't sound related. Logan has to have two naps a day. I think he's supposed to sleep 16 hours for every 24. It sounds insane, but it's because (obviously) he's growing in his sleep. That's what's happening to him. The doctor told us he has more teeth than she's ever seen in a one-year-old. He's in the 95th percentile for his weight, around 25 pounds, and he's off the charts in height. Almost three feet tall. He's getting more and more energy to do crazy shit that scares me to death every day, but he's still needing as much sleep as he can get.
Now let me draw in all of this together. I think that you've found yourself requiring more sleep and more food because what you're doing is actually working. You do a large part of your workout in the morning - not after a meal - and then you're stuck with two shakes until nighttime. You're getting hungry because your body isn't getting enough substance, whether the nutrients are there or not. Your body is used to larger meals, and it isn't used to being pushed this hard. So obviously, when what you're doing begins to work, your body is going to panic (no matter your body type, big, small, old, young, you're going to need more food when you are more active) and try and find that food it's used to getting.
I think the best way to counteract all of this is to give yourself a good lunch every day. It seems like that's when the cravings kick in - after your body has had time to process the workout. See what Slim Fast suggests for lunches if you want. Figure out something incredibly filling that isn't too bad for you. Maybe it's time to add a daily vitamin to your schedule. Your body is taking all the good shit in there and applying it to the direction you're now wanting to go, and you're left with a diminished quantity.
I heard something interesting about food once. Maybe it was on your site here. Your body can tell you what it wants, because if you eat something it doesn't want, you're still hungry. Not exactly a craving - you can keep eating junk food on top of junk food, or you can eat something healthy, with a better chance at settling your appetite.
If you find that you get hungry at lunch, I don't think it's because you're falling back into what you're trying to overcome. I think it's your body telling you that "OKAY HEATHER. ITS LUNCH. WE DID A GOOD JOB TODAY, BUT NOW ITS TIME TO GIVE ME A LITTLE BIT OF FUEL".
The sleeping guess I'm going to make is simpler to get. Your body needs to rest as you're growing up, likewise, when your body is accustomed to living one way, it will have to go to extremes to accomodate your change to another life style. Because of this, you get fatigued. Plan a nap every day to take. Set an alarm so you don't sleep in.
I have a feeling that it feels something like this:
You have more energy than you ever did before - when you have energy. But that energy is sporadic, sometimes with you and sometimes completely gone.
If that's how it feels, then I think I'm right. Schedule a nap - an hour or so - after work. Try doing that every day as well as your workout. Seems to me that your body is telling you something here.
It wants to do whatever you want, since it's your body, but it seems like it's going to need some rest so it can change the things around inside of you that this working out is doing to you. And it needs more nutrition to cover for the workout +2 tiny shakes it gets every morning.
After reading your post, I've started believing that right NOW is when your working out is actually starting to pay off. Your body doesn't still think, "Hey, this is going to end pretty soon, we can tough it out." It's realizing that this change is for real. Now it's screaming at you that if you want to do this, you're going to have to give a little back.
Again, I'm not a fucking doctor or anything. But I think that if you do appropriate research on a good lunch option that's more filling but equally as good for you - following that as well as you did your shakes - and start taking that one hour nap (you really should set the alarm though. Even if you wake up tired, you should get up. Power Naps, they call them. I think maybe your body is telling you it needs that time to start rewarding you for the work you've done) every day, you'll stop getting starved at work, and you'll find yourself more energetic whenever you're awake.
You can call me full of shit if you want. But I really think this might be the case.
-AJ
AJ, that makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought of it that way. I guess, in my typical perfectionist fashion, I assumed that I could do everything perfectly the first time.
I'm going to be working half-time next week, so scheduling a nap will be much easier then. I may go half-time for good after the following week; not sure yet. (In any case, I'm actually hoping that going half-time will give me more time to work out...so yeah, I'll definitely try to get in some naps too.)
Mari, I hadn't even thought that the caffeine thing might be a factor. I haven't been taking in caffeine for awhile now--maybe over a month?--but you're right, it could still be affecting me. That plus all the working out plus not managing to make it to bed "on time" every night is probably what this all boils down to.
Thanks for the advice, both of you. It makes sense, and I'll try to keep it in mind when I'm lamenting my food cravings and lack of stamina :)
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