The more I read about sleep deprivation, the more It all adds up in my head that-that is exactly what has happened to me. I’ve been exercising 5 days a week and eating healthy foods but day after day after day I still felt exhausted, spent, heavy eyes, discontent and times I would feel just RAGING hunger even though I KNEW I wasn’t eating too little calories. I blamed it on too much exercise or too little calories but the one thing I did not think of… SLEEP!

I’ve learned my lesson! There are THREE ESSENTIAL parts to living healthy and losing weight.
1) heatlhy foods! the right calorie intake to help support that
2) a consistent exercise routine that varies from week to week to keep your body guessing
3) ENOUGH SLEEP!!!

I would get around ~7 hours of sleep but then some days I would only get 4-5 but I never, ever caught up on those days. I’ve just kept going forward and when It got bad, my body is like OK IT’S TIME TO SLEEP and I would HAVE to nap during the day but again, I didn’t put 2 and 2 together and didn’t THINK about not getting enough sleep! I’m thinking I need 8-9 hours PER NIGHT because of all the exercise and activity I do during the day PLUS the hours of sleep I’ve lost. I went to sleep around 11:30PM last night and plan to go to bed around that same time tonight. I’m already tired right now but my appetite has been SO MUCH BETTER. I can actually plan out my meals and go with it without feeling so much hunger from the sleep deprivation. Sheesh… I have thrown my body out of whack for sure and now It’s time to play catch up. I’m wondering how long It will take for me to really get caught up on the sleep? I guess I’ll see! I’m thinking Sunday after church and lunch, I’m going to get as much sleep as I can while I have that free time while Katie naps. TIME TO GET MY ENERGY AND BODY BACK ON TRACK so I can lose the rest of the weight I intend to lose finally!!! I want to lose maybe 10 more pounds? This sleep deprivation has thrown me off in ALL WAYS. I can’t focus properly, tired all the time, low energy, crazy appetite, body temperature whacked out to where I was constantly cold, low sex drive, no period and quite a few other symptoms. Make sure you are getting enough rest, espically If you are very active like I am!!!

I took Katie outside again this morning before her nap and I trimmed some on the bush outside our kitchen window. Today I’ve also washed and folded 2 loads of laundry, cleaned our bedroom fan and a few other tasks around the house so hey, my motivation is slowly coming back! Once Brad comes home tonight we’re gonna eat dinner, watch one of our shows online then I’m gonna eat dessert and go work on building my sleep hours back up again and I CAN’T WAIT! Sleep is goooooood!