Making A Come Back - Take Two

Since my last post I've been working out pretty consistently 3 times a week for 30 minutes at the YMCA I joined in January.  So my fitness come back has stuck!

My blogging come back not so much as you can tell.  I still enjoy blogging and think it will be beneficial to continue doing it but it seems that when I put pressure on myself to blog on a regular basis I avoid it like the plague.  Not really sure what's up with that.

So, my new "plan" is to not put that pressure on myself.  I'm just going to blog when I feel like it and have the time - which is hopefully at least a couple times a week.

But again, no pressure!

To catch you all up on what's been going on I'll give you the bulleted list for high lights.

• Fitness - 30 minutes 3 times per week all cardio.  This Wednesday (15th) I will be starting the Commit to Fit program at my Y.  I'll give you more information on that soon I hope.
• Nutrition - I've been eating and drinking whatever I want pretty much.  I've been employing the everything in moderation idea without the moderation part.  Definitely need to start focusing more on my nutrition to go along with my new fitness routine.
• Weight loss - The last time I stepped on the scale I lost 0.4 of a pound.  Not even a pound but it was better than gaining and it was a tiny step in the right direction.  Obviously adding 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week is not enough to see weight loss so I really need to start focusing on my nutrition.
• Sleep - I was doing really well at sleeping for at least 8 hours every night and then I had one crazy weekend where I went out 3 nights in a row and since then my sleeping has just been all messed up.  I've been staying up to watch shows I've recorded on the DVR and/or reading books on my Kindle.  I definitely need to get back to sleeping at least 8 hours every night so I can get back into a good routine in the morning of waking up when my alarm goes off instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly.
• School - I'm also going to class 4 days a week (1 class per day) plus an online class.  Nothing really exciting worth reporting there.  I do need to start focusing on school a bit more during the week.  I really enjoy coming home and not having to do anything but I know that's not ideal for my grades and stress level so I'll be working on that too.

Not that I'm putting any pressure on myself (you got that self?) but I hope to provide you with more information about the Commit to Fit program I am starting Wednesday, ways that I'm changing my nutrition to help aid in the weight loss, and how I'm doing on changing my study and sleep habits (once again).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday we are not friends

Before I get into my pile of homework I brought to school with me today I wanted to give my readers yet another post!  I seem to be on a roll with keeping up on the blog so why stop now right?!

Anyways... This past Friday I posted about getting enough sleep and my poor habits that lead to me feeling less than 100% - you can read it here.  Thanks to all of your lovely comments about how you figured out when was the best time for you to hit the hay and how many hours of sleep you need I decided I would try my hand at getting to bed by 10:00pm to wake up at 5:45-6:00am.

Sunday night I managed to get myself to bed by 10:30pm - not bad, still 7.5 hours of sleep.  Monday night was horrible, I didn't go to bed until after 12am.  Why?  Because I decided since I was sitting around at home all day Tuesday I didn't really need to worry about getting to bed at a decent time.  I still got 8 hours of sleep but I still felt pretty tired throughout the day.  One of those weird things where even though I got "enough sleep" it was at the wrong time of night I guess.  And now last night I got to bed at 10:30pm - not the time I was shooting for but again not bad.

Thanks to the lovely Caitlin @ Going 26.2 I know that it takes 2 week to form a new sleep habit so I need to be patient to see if this 10-10:30pm bed time is working out for me or not.

Even though I'm still feeling tired in the morning and throughout the day I am noticing that I am getting out of bed in a more timely manner than I was before so that's improvement!

Besides talking about my sleep habits I also just wanted to throw it out there that I'm really starting to dislike Wednesdays.

As mentioned last week in my Mission Accomplished! post I have gym Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - Monday being in the classroom and Wednesday and Friday being activity days.  Because I also have class from 5:30-8pm on Wednesdays I have to workout and then stay at school until class is over that night.

It sucks!

I do my best to freshen myself up by using dry shampoo, body spray, facial cleansing wipes (which I also use on my body), and of course a change of clothes but it still doesn't make me feel the greatest for staying in public.

Yes, there is a locker room but I'll be honest, I've never been in it and I'm not comfortable taking a shower - if there is one - at school.

It's times like these that I wished I lived in town!  I would then be able to go home after gym to shower, eat, and do homework until it was time for class at 5:30.  Could this also be a bad thing as I would then be distracted by the TV and doing other things?  Definitely, but look at me now - I'm blogging instead of working on homework!

There!  I feel as though I've told you all about the important things going on in my head right now.  Oh wait!  There is more but I'll save that for another post because this one has already gone a little long.  And let's face it, I need to get down to business homework.

Questions for you...

Do you have a least favorite day of the week with your current schedule?

Currently listening to...

Redneck Side - Justin Moore - album: Outlaws Like Me (Can you tell I like Justin Moore yet?)

Getting enough sleep??

Good Friday morning!  I am a few hours away from the start of my weekend and I am pumped.  I would actually be more pumped if I wasn't feeling so tired right now.

Things just fell into place for this blog post to be about sleep today. 

We'll start at the beginning though with last night.  After getting home from class and watching some TV with my mom (Castle marathon to catch you up before the new season starts) I watched three of my DVR'd shows before going to bed which happened after 11pm.  It's fall so all of my favorite shows are starting back up and there are still those shows that are in the middle to end of their season already that I'm still trying to keep up on.  I love having a DVR so I can record the shows I would be missing because I'm in class or because I'm watching a show on another channel.  But there is a downside to a DVR...it can only hold so many shows at a time!  So, if you don't watch what you record pretty soon you're running out of room to record new shows.

With my night classes I don't get home until 8:30ish twice a week so that is definitely cutting into my TV watching time, forcing me to rely on my DVR to record more shows than ever.  Not necessarily a bad thing because then I can watch them when it's convient for me.  On the flip side though I usually spend time that could be devoted to homework by catching up on the week's shows.  Being more disciplined about doing homework before watching TV is something I'll be working on this semester.

Maybe I'll reward myself with being able to watch one TV show for completeing the week's work for one class when I am home?

Anyways, moving on...

Because I stayed up past 11pm watching TV I got about 6 hours of sleep which doesn't seem to be enough, or isn't at the right time of night, considering when the alarm went off at 5:30am I hit snooze like it was my job for an hour until finally getting up at 6:30am.  Ever notice that getting say 8 hours of sleep, say from 10pm to 6am feels totally different in the morning than say getting 8 hours of sleep by going to bed at 1am and getting up at 8am?

By getting up at 6:30 this morning I only had a half hour to get myself ready and on the road to make it to work by 7:30.  A half hour is not enough time for me to get ready without feeling rushed, and potentially forgetting to take something crucial to my day with me.  If I would wake up at 5:30am I would have plenty of time to get ready, and even have some chill time to check email, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever I feel like doing with that time.  But in order to wake up at 5:30am and not feel like complete crap because I am soooo tired I need to start getting the right amount of sleep.

This brings me to the question of the day.  How do you know what the right amount of sleep is for you?  I can't remember a time in my life where I felt like I was waking up refreshed from getting the right amount of sleep, or if I do I don't recall how many hours of sleep that actually was.

Alexis over at Daily Ramblings was just talking about this yesterday.  For her 7.5-8 hours of sleep per night isn't enough.  As she put it her body needs a solid coma to functiont he next day.  Read her entire post here.

Getting the right amount of sleep is an essential part of leading a healthy life because let's face it, when we run ourselves down and don't get enough sleep we're more likely to get sick, be irritable, and a whole bunch of other bad junk.

So, I'm asking for your help readers...answer me these questions.

How did you find out what the right amount of sleep was for you?

What are your tips to making sure you can get that right amount most of the time?  It's not a perfect world so I realize that there will be times that getting the right amount isn't in the cards.

What's your typical bedtime, or that range you usually hit the hay during, and what time is your usual wake up call?

What I'm currently listening to...
Sunshine Babies - Justin Moore, album - Outlaws Like Me (I miss summer & flip flops!!!)