Egull1's Journal, 05 May 2021

I promise there was no cake involved in this fluctuation, LOL! Although, this weeks weigh-ins are bound to end up all over the place. If this girl wanted some variation introduced in her approach to exercise and health - she sure is getting one.

Monday came up with another low recovery score. A "no load" day as I like to refer to them. It would constitute the third day since last Friday that I did not do a formal workout.

If I had to talk myself off the ledge to start exercising back in 2017, this girl's mind had to talk itself off the ledge just to NOT exercise!

It's hard when one knows they can push through and have pushed through, but chooses not to. But, I actually do trust those deep sleep scores or at least the process behind it. In fact, I've actually accrued some pretty amazing data of my own. And, now I'm curious how many folks out there with fitbits have optimized their sleep so well, they've managed sleep scores in the 80's on just 5 hours and some change of sleep. Because, I actually have. And, I now understand the drastic distinction between working out on a night with 30 minutes of deep sleep vs. 1.5 hours.

I'm also getting quite good at fine tuning how I wind down before bed in order to get as much deep sleep as possible. And, I'll give you a hint - it's not about the quantity of sleep. It's the winding down part. It's all the little habits one puts in place to get the mind and body ready to rest in a "deeper" state.

Wifey asked a while back about techniques?

This is where things get a bit ambiguous. What winds me down might be totally different than what winds you down. The same reading that keeps me up all night might bore you tears and help you have the deepest sleep of your life, LOL!

What I can do is provide my routine and techniques within that routine that I've observed other athletes use and/or have read in articles.

But, first - let's cover these wonky weigh-ins. Not only did I have two FULL rest days back to back, but they followed a surplus day. Those surplus cals are normally burned in the gym. So, there may be a few ounces of actual fat here.

On top of being a in a caloric surplus, I'm now ensuring I get in a significantly greater amount of water. Which, is a good thing. However, since drinking more water followed one of the most sodium packed surplus days of this year in addition to a kick ass workout last Saturday, we have to throw water retention in the mix.

Anyhow, yesterday I finally got a wonderful recovery score and it was good enough to make it a "maximum load/maximum capacity" workout. I've never been so excited to workout in my whole life! LOL. I ended the evening with a "mini" PR and a 619 cal burn. Talk about burning the carbon out of your engine! I'm still feeling the high this a.m.

It's enough to say this new "varied" approach is definitely a challenge to the mind more than anything. And, yet I can't deny the progress every time I take a breath and trust the process. And, it forces me to deal with things that make me uncomfortable. I actually re-adjusted my cals on Monday and Tuesday since I knew my caloric output was going to be less. I was always insecure about being in circumstances where I might have to readjust consuming less because I didn't want to feel like I was in a deficit.

But, ya know it really wasn't that bad. Bottom line, I crave more fuel when I'm burning more, which is appropriate. I actually felt rather comfortable consuming less when there was less activity.

As for this uptick - my assessment is inflammation and bulk (i.e. waste). And, well ya know I can't force that one. LOL - the earth moves when it's so inclined :-)

Okay, so let's talk deep sleep and how do I get more of it. First, I want to preface - I am using a fitbit tracker, I have found their scoring to be "REM" friendly. That's not a bad thing. We all need REM sleep, too. But, the latest research is revealing in the 40 and up age range - deep sleep is frankly a priority and it's an absolute must if your older and very active.
I Think of deep sleep as the time when my bodily processes don't have to put up with this brains BS and actually get sh#t done! This is the stage when repair, clean up, and re-setting happens. And, from a fitness perspective, the more time I've spent in the "deep sleep" stage, the less time it has taken me to recover, increase strength, and improve endurance in and outside of the gym.

I've learned Over-training is definitely a real thing.

Here are a few general tips I use diligently before going to bed. And, again I can't impress enough - it's not about the "amount" for this girl it's about the quality and the "wind down" approach to bed time. I've had more than a few nights where there was only around 5 and half hours of sleep, but if I spent an hour and half in deep sleep - I was still hitting personal records in the gym.

General Tips I've learned from athletes and articles on sleep:

-Do not force sleep. If I don't feel tired - I'm not shutting my eyes. I understand at that point, this body and mind need to wind down. If I wake up during the night and can't go back to sleep, I make sure there is something handy that makes me fall back asleep. Usually, for me it's actually scrolling through my fashion apps or watching a few youtubers that tend to make me sleep as well. It's numbing and mindless and these eyes will usually start to droop.

-Do not force staying awake. Even if it's a weekend and I can stay up late. If I'm in bed and these eyes start to droop around 10:00-10:30. It's light's out! If I try to force staying awake to finish a movie or book - I tend to stay awake after and have a tough time falling asleep at all.

-Ensure as as many light sources are dimmed or shut off. For this gal, I go as far as unplugging the recumbent bike, because the LED light on the control panel is bright. I shut the bathroom door, because are darned neighbor keeps one of those motion detector lights on BRIGHT and it shines right through the window. I close the bedroom door as much as I can so no other light can seep in. And, I have a dimming curtain over the French door in my bedroom. I didn't want black out curtains, because I need some light to see my way to the bathroom.

-Warming up before bed time. There are 2 ways I make sure to be warm and cozy before slipping between the sheets. I have a hot mug of almond milk with some pumpkin spice and Jordan's skinny syrup and I also spend at least 5-10 minutes in front of our gas fireplace before I head to bed. It's weird, because any time I've skipped this - I don't tend to have a good deep sleep score. Ironically, this was a very specific suggestion in an article I read on improving deep sleep.

-Have a relaxing nightly routine. Now this is where it gets really individual. I've see more than a few articles out there on sleep stating this, but some of their suggestions were just not things that tend to make my eyes droop. This is where the sleeper needs to experiment on themselves.

In addition to the above suggestions, below are other things I incorporated into my sleep ritual that work for me because they make me very relaxed. In fact, the very act of doing them triggers sleepiness because I always do them now before bedtime.

-8 Minute hot/cold shower
-7-8 ounce glass of wine with a 25 mg CBD gummy
-3-5 minutes with the pro massage gun
-Sarah Dresser's 30 minute deep sleep meditation

So, that's about it.

For more info, Below is a link to the documentary that really inspired me to take another look at deep sleep and recovery and emphasis on quality vs. quantity.

https://youtu.be/7Ov78kZUT34

115.4 lb Lost so far: 94.6 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed reasonably well.