Polyphasic sleep, blah, blah, blah …

I survived.

It was rough, but I survived.

I’m not sure if you could call what I did polyphasic sleeping, but it is what it is. All I know is by the end of the week, my body hurt like a sum-buck.

On the plus (negative?) side, I’m now walking up earlier much easier. Even on my days off. It also helps with your hunger because, honestly, I’m too tired to be hungry.

Sorry for the short update, but my phone is about to die and I wanted to get something out. More to come if I survive.

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Polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleep is a term I learned today! Why am I looking up terms such as this? Well, to make a long story short, I’ll tell you that the job I’ve been at for 16 years is about to go under. Due to seeing the signs early, I got a 2nd job last year, around this same time, and have managed to maintain it! To do so, though, I’ve had to make lifestyle adjustments, such as sleep patterns, eating patterns, socializing patterns.

Last Wednesday, my full time boss told everyone that if they found another job, to go ahead and take it, not to hesitate. Basically, he said we were working on a day-to-day basis. My 2nd job bosses jumped at this because they’ve been wanting me to go full time there. I know, right? What a horrible “problem” to have! So I told them I’d be willing to work full 8 hour shifts if they were available. Sure enough, that was 2 days ago. They just called me tonight and told me to suit up, I start my 8 hour days in the morning. So my new schedule, until either my 1st job goes under, or I collapse, will be:

5:20am – wake up, get dressed, leave for work.

6:00am to 2:30pm – 2nd job.

3:00pm to 12:00am – 1st job.

12:01am to 1:00am – drive home, clean up, go to bed.

1:01am – 5:20am – sleep.

How long can I keep it up? No idea. I figure I may collapse from a heart attack before I adjust properly, but that is what lead me to the phrase polyphasic sleep. That is the term people who sleep an abnormally short period of time per day use to describe their schedule. I already sleep about 5 hours a day, so I figure what’s knocking one hour off of that going to hurt. Right?

As long as my nervous and circulatory systems can adjust, I think I’ll be ok after the adjustment period, which is supposedly around 2 weeks. On the bright side, if my 1st job doesn’t fall through immediately, that extra $$$ will certainly come in handy from working 80 hours a week.

Prayers appreciated! 🙂

Got to move my buns!

When last I posted, I was excited because I was showing progress with the path I was travelling down. I was feeling pretty decent, not getting super hungry, and was losing a bit of weight according to the scale.

Cut to last week, when we (the family) were all stressed with school starting back, we had numerous home projects going at the same time, and tensions were high. My reaction was to stop walking in favor of relaxing on my lunch breaks. I ate a few meals late at night instead of stopping at my fasting cut off time. And i let stress take over my decision making process.

The result was that I gained half the weight I’d lost back.

You gotta work for it, friends. Nothing is handed to you for free. I knew this but I let my emotions dictate my actions.

To quote my dear Negan, “Back to it!” I hope to have those rediscovered pounds off by weeks end.

13 years flashed before my eyes

This morning, our oldest son and I got up and went for breakfast. We do this on occasion, but it has been awhile, and with school starting up next week, I thought it was time. While we were siting down to eat after making our way around the Shoney’s breakfast buffet, I found myself a little sad. 13 years flashed before my eyes as we ate, and I realized that there was so much wasted time that I took for granted. Our oldest boy has always been home schooled. He’s always been there, helping out around the house or ready to go when we needed to go. He was home when I left for work, he was home when I returned. But now … in just a matter of days … our paths will seldom cross during the week.

Even if I wasn’t working a 2nd job, I still wouldn’t see him but for a minute or two. He will be gone all day, and even when he gets home, I’ll be going off to my full time job. When I get home, he will be asleep. On Saturdays, I work morning to afternoon, so we’ll have that evening, and most of the day Sundays, but still … I’ve always read those meme’s on Facebook that tell you not to work your life away, or to take for granted the moments we’re given … but evidently I didn’t listen.

I’m excited for our son to be starting this new adventure. He will be going into 9th grade at a private Christian school. He’s as prepared as we could make him, and I know there is a little part of him – behind the nervousness – that is excited to be leaving home to make new friends and new experiences. I just hope we’ve done enough. And, of course, I’m selfish and don’t want him to go at all.

 

A week and some change in

My last post, on the 23rd of July, I proclaimed my first day in a new, still forming, plan. 9 days in, I’m ironing out a few kinks, but i seem to be doing okay. While i am not 100% sure of my full-on starting weight before my announcement, I am sure of where I started that day when I stepped on the scales. I’m pleased!

Changes I’ve made include: starting and sticking to the 16/8 Intermittent Fasting plan, walking on my 30 minute lunch breaks at night 5 days a week, only eating when I’m hungry enough to actually be and feel hungry. This last one is a big one because, use to, I’d be like, “Ok, well I’m not hungry, but I probably will be later so I better eat something.” Then I’d attack junk food, still be hungry later, eat more. Now, I don’t eat until either my stomach actually growls, or I start to feel a bit nauseous, which tells me I’m definitely hungry. I’ve also cut out the midnight snacking (16/8IF), and don’t buy junk on my breaks at either job.

I’m struggling on some of these, but happy with my results so far. I thought weekends would be the toughest, and may still prove a challenge, but right now the scales have me interested in seeing if I can make the numbers go lower.