Exercise and Sleep

I have not been sleeping well lately at all. I’ve been blaming it on stress at work, and that is probably still very true. But I have also started to seriously entertain the possibility that my lack of exercise after my injury has adversely affected my sleep patterns.

I keep saying it, but it’s important to mention again, I have never in my life been athletic before these last two years. So I’m not used to sports injuries, and I’m not used to actually missing going to the gym! Therefore, I’ve been asking people who have been athletic if lack of exercise affects their sleep. It turns out it really does!

That may seem like a no-brainer to some of you, and maybe I’m just slow, but I’m really hoping that’s at least part of the issue. Because it’s an easy one to fix – I’m hoping to get back to the gym this week. I am planning on just scaling or substituting any exercises that would be hard on my injury with injury-friendly exercises. After almost 3 weeks, I’m pretty anxious to get back at it!

I was actually really hoping to get back to the gym on Monday, but my sleep got in the way of that. My problem is that I have something planned every day after work this week, so I have to go in the morning if I’m going to make it. But without sleeping well, going in the morning is difficult. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle! So I missed Monday, yesterday, and today. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll have better luck.

Meanwhile – my diet is still in check and therefore I’m actually feeling really good about myself. I’m proud and happy that I have been able to keep my eating in check this whole time and therefore I didn’t gain a lot of weight due to my inactivity. In fact – I actually weigh less now than I did when the injury happened! It never ceases to amaze me how important eating is.

Just a quick follow up from my post on Monday, but here is the paleo quiche recipe that my mother-in-law made for us. Delicious!

Do you have any tips or tricks for sleeping better? Do you find you don’t sleep as well if you’re not exercising?

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Wednesday Ramblings

I figured if Meg can do posts like this, then maybe I should try one! Disclaimer: mine probably aren’t going to be as funny/good as hers, but I’m going to give it a shot!

1. I need more sleep

This week has been rough. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about Daylight Savings Time, and I really don’t like complaining about it because it happens every year people! Get over it! But, for whatever reason, this year it has hit me harder and I’ve been playing catch-up on my sleep all week. It has resulted in me missing CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance (CFE) on Monday, and me skipping CrossFit and my CFE class today too! That has guaranteed that I’m not going to hit my March goal of 5 CrossFit classes and 2 CFE classes each week, as now I can only get to 4 CF and 1 (MAYBE 2) CFEs this week. But I don’t regret sleeping in – I have been dragging this week!

Stanley doesn’t like Daylight Savings Time either!

2. I might be getting sick

I never get sick. I have taken 1 sick day in over 4 years, and the last time I was seriously sick was right after we got engaged (foreshadowing?). But the last few days I have been feeling more nauseous, congested, and just groggy. I think it might have to do with my sleep issue, or maybe my sickness is causing me to feel more tired? Either way, I haven’t been feeling great lately, but I’m hoping I can fight it off before it actually knocks me out of commission.

The last time I was really sick – two days after I proposed to Meg!

3. I’m becoming a coffee snob

For a while I stopped drinking coffee during my Lurong Paleo challenge, but since then I’ve decided to reintroduce it to my diet in moderation. Unfortunately, I no longer drink the coffee at work. To be polite, the coffee at work tastes like medieval swill combined with laundry water. I used to drink it because I needed the caffeine, but now that I don’t need the caffeine I’ve become more of a coffee snob. I had a bunch of gift cards to Starbucks that have lasted me this far, but now that I’ve run out I’m in a quandary, because I don’t want to spend $2-3 a pop for a cup of coffee. So, today, I brought our french press to work, and I’m going to keep it here. Yes, I’m going to be that guy who brews coffee in his office using a french press. I’m not ok with this yet, but I’m also not ok with setting up a new savings account to get Starbucks on the mornings where I go to work from the gym (other mornings I just brew coffee at home first).

The french press on a filing cabinet in my office. Maybe I should turn the area into a coffee bar? Get some coffee mugs, coasters, napkins, etc.?

4. I love floor hockey

I’ve written before about my love of team sports, and in particular my floor hockey league, but I just have to reiterate how much fun it is. We started our new season two weeks ago, and I am the captain of one of the eight teams in the league. I’m really happy with how my team looks so far, and I truly believe we have the best chance I’ve had so far to win the championship (so far, in the 4 prior seasons, I have 2 playoff wins. I’m only marginally better than Tony Romo). But I don’t love floor hockey just because I have a good team – I play with such a great group of guys. For a small league run through a local YMCA, we have a lot of commitment to this league. I write a weekly column analyzing the teams and breaking down stats. Someone keeps stats every night. One of our league members owns his own photography business, and he did portraits of all of the players. Another guy is a graphic designer and designed our t-shirts and is creating customized team logos for playing cards. Another guy is a software developer and has created our own website (still under some construction). And lots of other guys spend their own personal time contributing to various aspects of the league. Is it silly how involved we are in floor hockey? Yes. But it also makes this league special, and something I truly look forward to.

My portrait this season, taken by Kurt Brownell (http://www.kurtbrownell.com/)

5. I can’t get enough team sports

See above. But seriously, in any given week I’m playing basketball twice a week, floor hockey once, and ultimate frisbee once. And I really want to try to get some pick up football games going again. I just love team sports. I have no idea why I’m so infatuated with them, but I honestly believe I would play them 7 days a week if I could. Even CrossFit workouts, when done as a team, are just more fun and interesting to me. Last Saturday I did a “partner WOD” where we were set up in teams of 2 to complete the workout. It happened to play to two of my strengths: kettlebell swings and rowing (the third component, sadly, was wall balls and I hated every second of that torture). My partner and I posted the best score of our class, and I am always more proud/more motivated when I’m working as a team than I am individually. Maybe that is why I hate running so much?

My team this season, the Redhawks! Taken by Kurt Brownell (http://www.kurtbrownell.com/)

6. I hate being humbled

I’ll be honest – I’ve been feeling pretty full of myself lately with my athletic accomplishments. Between playing ultimate and actually being decent, to finishing toward the top of my class a few times at CrossFit, I’ve been feeling a little cocky. The beginning of the CrossFit Open should have humbled me a little, but I turned it into an opportunity to gloat about how far I’ve come. Well, yesterday morning was a cruel reminder that I’m not as awesome as I thought I was. The funny thing about CrossFit is that it has the incredible ability to either make you feel good about yourself (like when you PR) or to completely crush you into the ground. Yesterday’s workout had 3 movements, 2 of which I’m terrible at: box jumps and thrusters. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good workout for me, and I was absolutely gassed at the end of it, and still had one of the lowest scores. Then I went to play basketball afterward, and had more turnovers than points. By a lot. It is good to be reminded that I’m not the best thing since bottled beer, but it is still a painful lesson.

I don’t think I was the only one humbled by the WOD yesterday, it was “Rahoi” – a hero WOD. (Photo by Aaron Smykowski at FCCF http://www.flowercitycrossfit.com)

7. I really don’t understand protein powder

I understand the benefits – and I’m big on using it now because I’ve noticed that my recovery is much better when I have protein immediately following a workout. But there are so many different choices! There’s whey and soy, there’s isolate, casein, blends, combinations, and words that are really long that I can’t pronounce. There are a million different brands, all claiming to be the best. And it seems like everybody I talk to swears by the powder that they use – but they’re all different! I just don’t know which ones to trust, which ones are good and which are bad, or if it really doesn’t matter at all. I know Progenex is often the CrossFit protein supplement of choice, but at almost twice as expensive as alternatives, it’s hard for me to justify buying that brand. It’s frustrating for me that I don’t know if I’m using the right supplement, and we’re in the midst of switching again (I just bought a new one that I think is making me feel more bloated!) Any advice out there?

Those are my Wednesday Ramblings. Not bad for my first one probably, but still not as good as Meg’s!

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The Importance of Sleep

I haven’t been getting enough sleep this week. I’m not someone who needs 8+ hours per night, nor do I need to sleep in, but I do consistently need 7-7.5 hours every night. I wasn’t always like that, or at least I don’t think I used to need that much sleep, but maybe as I’ve gotten healthier I’ve just noticed the importance of sleep.

I feel like whenever you are trying to get healthy it’s always “diet and exercise.” And that’s true – whenever someone asks me how I did it I always respond with “diet and exercise.” But in reality it is much more than that, and I often overlook the importance of sleep. I find that when I am consistently getting adequate sleep I lose weight faster and my body feels different. It’s not just for mood, or for energy, but I really think it has health implications. And that might sound like old news to you, but it is a new revelation for me.

I’m not trying to add to the chorus of people whining that they are too busy and don’t get enough sleep. I am more realizing today that my lack of sleep this week has caught up to me. I have been doing 1-2 WODs (Workout of the Day at CrossFit) at 5am for the last few weeks, and I love doing it that early in the morning. The people in the 5am classes are great, it’s a wonderful way to start my day, and it allows me more flexibility in my schedule for the rest of the day. I need to be very careful when I do these, however, that I am making sure to get enough sleep the night before and the night after.

I didn’t do that this week when I went on Tuesday (didn’t get enough sleep the night before or the night of). So when I went to the 6am WOD on Wednesday I was already starting to feel it. My floor hockey game Wednesday night went late so I didn’t get out until after 11pm, and not in bed at home until after midnight. Thursday was a rest day, so I got to sleep in until 6:30 to get ready for work, but Thursday night the Vikings played the Bucs on Thursday Night Football, and I made the bad decision to stay up way too late to watch my favorite team play get crushed by the Bucs. I tried to get up at 4am to do the 5am WOD this morning, and it just wasn’t happening. I was still able to get up at 5:30 to go to my pick up basketball game at 6:20, but I played terrible and have been dragging all day.

This week I have gained 3.5 pounds from Monday to today (I don’t normally weigh myself mid-week, but I was curious if my sleep deprivation had caused any physical issues). I have felt sick for the last two days, have had low energy, and digestively it hasn’t been a good week either. It sounds dumb to type it out, but how often do we realize that sleep has a very real physical impact on our health?

And don’t tell me you don’t have time to sleep because you’re too busy. We make time for the things that are important to us, whether it be time for exercise, meal planning, cooking, and sleep, or spending 3 hours watching Thursday Night Football. We all make these decisions, and this week I wasn’t any busier than weeks past, I just didn’t make the best decisions for my health. Needless to say – I plan on sleeping a whole lot more next week!

Do you get enough sleep each night? Why not? Do you notice a difference in your health during weeks when you are getting enough sleep and weeks you are not?

Here are a few resources I have found on the weight loss and health benefits of sleep:

• Mark Sisson’s Definitive Guide on Sleep
• A Web MD article on weight loss and sleep
• CrossFit Journal’s article on sleep and performance

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