Happy Thursday. We had a wonderful dinner last night at the Uruguayan restaurant and enjoyed some amazing steaks and wonderful company.
However, our dinner reservation was at 9pm and we didn't leave the restaurant until 11:30pm, this is Very typical timing for dinner here in Spain. As much as I loved the night, I already knew it was going to negatively affect my sleep pretty severely. I actually slept all the way through the night, but the quality of sleep I got was just very poor after eating so late because my body was working hard to digest all that food while I was sleeping.
I wear the Whoop tracker and it measures the quality of my sleep. The 2 pictures below show my "stress" when I sleep. Sleep stress is measured by my heart rate, respiratory rate, and deep sleep etc.
Look as this wild comparison of what happens when I eat dinner (picture 1), vs when I don't eat dinner (picture 2). And not just from the tracker but I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel throughout the day (I am already dragging today and adding more caffeine than normal). This is how I came to realize that on a regular basis I can't be eating dinner, and I now know that any late meals will result in poor sleep and I'll pay for it the next day.
You don't need a fancy tracker to figure that out, journaling how you feel vs when you eat and what you eat can be a big eye opener for you in learning what's best routine/approach for you.
Are there anythings around meal timing and food that obviously affect how you sleep or feel?
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Tuesday! Thanks to those that hung out on the Livestream last night. One of the topics we talked about is breaking a stall. And unfortunately the best advice I have for breaking a stall is "keep it boring" and just stay consistent. Honestly that's been my motto this year. I love variety of course, but the more simple/boring I keep things with my food the better results I get. Usually when we add "variety" we add a lot of diary, or carbs, or those replacement recipes that increase cravings or contain hidden dairy/carbs/calories.
It might be hard to get into a routine at first but I do find that just eating the same things most days is actually a lot easier. And if you really enjoy that food (and know how to cook it), you'll still look forward to it each day.
If you're feeling stuck, just focus on consistency and keeping that food simple, and I PROMISE it will work...you just have to be patient.
Boring =Results! Have you found this to be true for you?
Today I enjoyed 2 small ribeyes air fried and 4 juicy eggs. Weird part is I still feel hungry or should I say not fully satisfied. I am going to try and refrain from eating anymore today but I may have a slice of bacon or two. I am off tomorrow for a Drs appt with my son and he has asked for Culver's. I may get a couple patties for lunch however, their food always makes me snackish...why is that I wonder?
Happy Tuesday evening!
We spent the day at the farm show w/out 5 yo who didn't feel well. Which was probably good as it was windy, cold, rainy. We figured we walked 3+ miles. So lots of fresh air and exercise.
We ate breakfast on the way (location is an hour away from our house.) They had a Chicken Club Protein Bowl, so I had that. The "cheese" was plastic american cheese and it had tomatoes on it; but otherwise it was just eggs, bacon and chicken breast. I also had about 1/2 of my normal protein coffee on the drive.
We skipped lunch.
After some farm errands in that city, we came home to chore and go through all the swag we got. Caps, tee-shirts, flashlights, rain gauges, fly swatters, chip clips, pens and I seriously will never have to buy another note pad or sticky notepad, ever! And of course the nice grocery bags and 5 gallon buckets.
Then we took the grandkids swag in to them. Stickers, caps, corn hats, coloring pages, rubber bracelets, pencils.
Then we went to our Mexican ...
