I was hit with a megawave of tired today. I think that has more to do with the fact that I was up too late last night than with the fact that I’ve been dieting and exercising. I’m still working on adjusting to school-year hours vs. summer hours. I’ve decided I’m going to help myself along in the process by going to bed extra early tonight.
Going to bed early is a matter of self-defense for more than one reason. For one thing, I certainly don’t want to oversleep or wake up sluggish and slow-moving. We’re in the middle of a major parking war at JC. If I don’t get to work before the bulk of the troops come flooding in, I’ll be left bruised and battered on the frayed edges of the battlefield.
For another, I’ve just read this article from WebMD about the effect of sleep deprivation on weight. You get fat if you don’t sleep enough, studies say. There’s an attempt at a medical reasoning process in the article involving specific names of specific hormones, but I have my own theory. If you are tired, for whatever reason, your body craves energy. Therefore, you automatically reach for food as the most immediate possible source of energy.
If you want to not feel hungry at unfortunately high levels, then, you need to make sure you get enough sleep.
I believe proper sleep also restores concentration levels. If I go to bed early tonight, I will accomplish twice as much tomorrow. That seems only logical to me.
In other news, phase 2 of my diet, which is phase 1 of South Beach, is kicking right along on its 2nd day, which is the 23rd day of the diet as a whole. I’ve been eating lots of celery. I also made a big pot of mixed vegetables–broccoli, artichokes, snow peas, mushrooms, and chickpeas. I’ve been eating bowls and bowls of that. I figure you could eat the entire crock-pot full of this stuff in one sitting without consuming the number of calories in a single slice of cheese pizza, but I’m just eating a bowl of it at a time. That seems to be working out for me.
More on my venture into SoBe after I’ve managed to catch a long night’s nap…
Brown rice. I say again, add brown rice. A quarter cup.
Just sayin’.
You aren’t supposed to eat any grains at all for the first two weeks on South Beach. After that you start adding back in a few whole grains. The idea is that you are resetting your body’s insulin reactions by doing this.