Daily Struggles

I don't know if it's still me recovering from being sick or the boredom of having nothing to do, but I it's a struggle for me to get out of bed lately. I haven't been sleeping the best at night and finally fall into a good sleep in the morning -- just in time to get out of bed! I know if I don't make myself get up, I'll totally screw up my sleep schedule. Once I'm out of bed, it's a struggle to get motivated to do something. Again, I don't know if this is because i don't really have anything to do or still recovering. Maybe it's a mix of both, because once I get up and start doing stuff, I have to sit down for awhile before I can do something else. My issue is feeling light-headed as if I'm going to pass out (but as Steve points out -- I used to feel like this a lot and have never passed out).

This got me thinking -- when I was back in high school, I had mono. How I feel now (as well as the cough I had) remind me of that whole experience. After doing some research, I guess once you have mono, you never really get rid of it. It can flare up from time to time, so maybe that's what happened last week? I just think it's weird that it happened all of a sudden (especially since I had mono almost 7 years ago!).

Another struggle that I have is working out, but probably not for what you think. Most people just struggle with fitting it into their schedule or just getting motivated to exercise. I have recently been more serious about losing weight (more-so getting "fit"). I have lost a few pounds which has encouraged me, as well as motivated me, to keep it up. Here's the problem -- Before getting sick, I could work out for an hour a day (I aim for 5-6 days a week). However, now I am only able to do about 15 minutes and then I'm done. I just feel wiped out and weak. Very odd! I'm guessing that this is just due to sickness last week and that I'm probably pushing myself too hard. Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll last for 20 minutes and build back up to the hour a day I was doing.

Now I'm side tracked in my blog-- instead of talking about more struggles I'm going to explain my "getting fit" strategy. I actually started back in January with a new eating practice. I would not eat past 8 pm (shout out to Alice for this inspiration!). I was really surprised how hard this was! I discovered that I really eat a lot at night (probably because at night I'm just lazy watching tv). By cutting out those late night snacks, I think I lost a few pounds. In the summer, I extended the allowance of food until 9 pm ( I stay up later now that I don't have early morning class or student teaching). In July, I added on daily (intentional!) exercise. With the daily exercise, I find it easier to make wiser snacking choices (like eating 1 cookie and yogurt as opposed to 5 cookies). So hopefully, I will bounce back from my ridiculous lack of energy and get back into full workouts. I find myself happier when I feel healthier (Steve is a fan of this plan !).

Oh and Steve has a weight plan too -- He has to eat MORE food. He is one to forget to eat as well as not eat a lot at each meal. So I'm trying to fatten him up a little bit by making more cookies and brownies (for him, not me :(, sad day). He has also found a new love for fruit snacks and eats several packs a day. All that food, along with his daily pringles, I'm hoping he'll gain a few pounds (let's face it... Steve's a bean pole!). But-- he's my bean pole, and I love him :).