I Feel Good . . . I Knew That I Would

Let's hear it for James Brown!  I feel good!


Thanks to my dear and faithful blogging friends, I feel like a new woman!  The past three nights I have made a few changes and I'm back to sleeping mostly through the night.  Amazing what a few hours of uninterrupted sleep with do for a soul.

Here's what I did:

• cut back on time spent on the computer last two hours before bedtime
• took a 3 mg melatonin two hours before bedtime
• drank a cup of chamomile tea about an hour before bedtime

By the time I got to bed, settled in and opened my current bedtime story (The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman), I lasted about 20  minutes before nodding off.  I took that as a sign and turned off the light!  The first two nights I got up once to use the bathroom, somewhere around 3-4 am (virtual tea party time!), but promptly fell back asleep for an hour or two.  Last night, I didn't even wake up to use the bathroom until 6 am!!!! WOW!

Besides getting my sleep back, I've been getting more exercise.  Friday afternoon as Kailyn and I were taking a walk out by Lacamas Lake, she mentioned that it might be fun to check out the 5:30 pm Zumba class at the gym.  Why not?  Well, I usually use my knees as a "not yet" excuse, but I was feeling kind of chipper, so I said "Sure!  If I can't take it, I can always just go walk the track until the class finishes."

We arrived a few minutes early, and I talked with the instructor about being a newbie, with knee issues.  She said to modify and have fun.  I did.  I modified (that was the easy part, as there was no way my body could do what she was doing!) And, I had a blast!  I don't think I quit grinning the entire hour.  The music saturated me, loud and raucous, and there was a whole lot of shaking and shouting going on in that room!  ( Many of the "regulars" wear these sparkly little tie on skirts and can really make them shimmer!) What a fun way to work up a sweat!  I told Kailyn I want to go back next Friday night!

Just to be safe, I came home and iced the front and back of my knees and legs for a good long while. But, that energizer bunny feeling lasted and on Saturday morning I woke up feeling like Wonder Woman!  I decided to pop over to the Saturday aqua aerobics class (I haven't been regularly for over a year) and give it a whirl.  I soon discovered that I was pretty challenged "in the river" (our pool has a built in "river" with a current that I used to love, but my knees aren't quite up to that yet). So, I hung out in one of the little "pools" and did the exercises along with everyone else and felt I got a pretty good workout.

After the hour of aerobics, there was a 30 minute water yoga class, so I stayed.  I'm still feeling a little sore from the stretching, but it's a good sore.

Whew!  I've had quite a weekend. It could have been very different, as I was not very happy when I weighed myself on Friday morning.  I've been haphazardly attempting to watch what I eat, and doing a fairly decent job of it.  I've been weighing in at home on Friday mornings.  I was excited that after the first three weeks I had lost 7 pounds.  Then I went to a nutrition class and got super serious.  I tracked everything I ate, followed the plan faithfully.  This past Friday morning I had gained 3 pounds!  I was not happy, to say the least.

Fortunately Kailyn brought me back to reality with the comment that I'm still ahead of the loss by 4 pounds, and maybe it was just a fluke, or water retention, or whatever.  I didn't want to listen . . . but I did.  This was on our way to treat ourselves to pedicures.  Somehow, after that, (and maybe a decent night's sleep) I kind of turned my misery around and that's when we went for a walk.  The rest of the weekend was so positive, I'm just not going to dwell on the weight gain. I'm now tracking online at a website I think DJan sent me. It's really neat because it breaks down everything nutritionally and helps me see where I'm missing nutrients, and where I'm overloading. (Thanks DJan!!)

I want to keep this positive attitude, so I'm just going to keep on tracking . . . and exercising! Oh, and keep what's working for my sleeping success! I feel GOOD (da, da, da, da, da, da, da) I KNEW that I would.  Oh yeah!

Thanks to each and every one of you who commented with great ideas for sleeplessness.  I really like the idea of a virtual tea party, but I hope to be sleeping through it!