Pillow talk

Now that I'm back among the working population for 3 whole days, I'm happy today is what a friend of mine calls "Little Friday", aka Thursday. Amazing how quick the mindset shifts into the "can't wait for the weekend" mode. It's been a good week so far, as I've been noting daily. Last week during spring break, I was on Facebook, anticipating the return and wondering if I forgot everything. One of my work buddies responded "It's like Groundhog Day here. Nothing ever changes." That gave me a good laugh, and I'm finding her words true. The good stuff is good; the annoying stuff is so annoying that I'm already considering drop kicking some folks to China. Definitely Groundhogday-esque.

Still I'm relieved and grateful to be back in my routine. Everything is feeling better. Knees, eating, outlook, my anticipation of a real paycheck after the last pathetic one after having used all my accrued time.

One thing that isn't so hot right now is my sleeping. I'm an early riser, and not because of Benjamin Franklin's sage words, "Early to bed, early rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". I've always wakened early, by 7 at the latest, even as a teen-ager when my friends could sleep until 11 and beyond. Sleepovers invariably found me lying awake in sleeping bags and strange beds for hours waiting for my friends to wake up. My best friends would be given a wake-up kick at some point, but if I was at a lesser acquaintance's home, or one of the popular girls', I'd just wait them out, not wanting to risk my "included" status ;D !

Nowadays, I'm always awake by 4:30, largely because I fall asleep so darn early. What happens (and I know menopause has played a big role here) is I fall asleep by 9 and wake around 1; then toss for an hour or so before going back to sleep. So many of my 50 something friends have this syndrome and we note we should call each other in the middle of the night. It's pretty common among the post-menopausal set, so all you youthful bloggers...cherish your sleep.

Last night I fell asleep well before 8:30! Then I woke at 11:45 and couldn't go back until after 2:30. Watched Letterman, Craig Ferguson and an episode of Frasier before dozing during a Cheers episode. And the biggest thing that kept gnawing at me was that I was STARVING. Really hungry. Of course I didn't eat anything, and framed the hunger as a very good thing. That it indicated weight loss. But man, did I want to go and polish off the whole box of Special K crackers with some REAL cheese - no LC Lite! I finally fell back and slept all the way to 5:30, which is the equivalent of my sons sleeping until noon and beyond.

Funny, when I woke this morning, I wasn't ravenous like I was in the night. I had my usual breakfast of yogurt and fruit at 7:30 and the 2 eggwhites/1 egg yolk with cottage cheese at work at 9. No need to immediately shove mass quantities into oral cavity.

I didn't go to the meeting so had time to make a wonderful salad for lunch. Arugula, 1 oz of Feta, lots of cucumber, scallions, celery, carrot, radish, black olives and something else that I can't recall. There is nothing better than knowing I have a yummy lunch waiting for me.

Had another good food and exercise day yesterday. 3 in a row - it's been awhile since I had 3! I did end up having tea last night, because after dinner, I still wanted more food even though my stomach was full-ish (before the middle of the night pangs). While biking at the gym yesterday I read in the April Oprah magazine a piece called "10 Biggest Health Mistakes" by her trainer Bob Greene. One of the "mistakes" he listed was "not paying attention to the hunger scale". He said, "Imagine a scale from 1-5, with one being full and 5 being ravenous. If you're hitting a three - your stomach is grumbling, your physically dragging - it's time to eat. Any lower than that and you're eating to fill an emotional need, not a physical one." WOW! That popped into my mind when I had that after dinner urge to eat, and I could clearly know it wasn't true physical hunger. Another tool to help me be more mindful about my physical state related to appetite.

Tomorrow morning is the first weigh-in for Tammy's challenge. I'm excited but nervous, given how the scale can play with my mind. But it's one of the terms of the challenge, so I'm doing it! Hoping Trainer Bob's words will continue to inform my eating decisions, or at least give me pause before I impulsively shovel in cake and other assorted crap. See you tomorrow at the scale!