My problem...

I know my biggest obstacle; late nights and poor sleeping habits.

This is the cause of most of setbacks. I have trouble getting up and doing my workout, which means that I'm inevitably going to struggle to fit in later today (i.e. today I have a football practice with the kids’ team I coach, which means that I won’t get home till 8:30 tonight, so I will hopefully get my workout in during my lunchbreak… hopefully…). I can accept that some workouts will be missed because life gets in the way, but this scramble could have (and should have) been avoided.

Being tired makes me more prone to cravings, specifically for simple sugars and carbs, both for the sugar rush that they will bring (and of course the inevitable crash, but that doesn’t seem to be in the forefront of my mind when I’m like this), and for the comfort aspect.

I’m up late doing nothing. No, really, nothing. I can’t sleep because my head is too busy, but I’m too tired to do anything productive. And because I’m up and bored and frustrated and Nick is in bed asleep I’ve got a scenario that covers several of my food triggers. I pick and pick, mostly on healthy foods (because that’s pretty much all that’s available in the house), but it will put me over my calorie goals.

So I’m missing workouts and undermining my nutrition… no wonder I struggle with my goals. And aside from all that, there’s a wealth of information that supports a string link between good sleep practices and a healthy weight.

Now that I’ve identified this, I have to figure out what to do. The obvious answer is “just sleep more”, but that’s like saying “just eat less” to someone who’s struggled with their weight for any length of time… there’s no “just”. I’ve been on medication for my sleep problems, but they always leave me fuzzy headed in the morning, and I’m concerned about the long-term side effects. I’d really like to develop some holistic solutions.