Buns...

I love it when you train legs and then for the next few days you feel like you've got buns of steel... unfortunately its only a feeling, my buns look more like jelly than steel at the moment!OMG my butt is so sore today, after my awesome leg session yesterday. I switched a few things around, and boy am I feeling it. Also tried out the Dumbell Iron Cross for legs and shoulders, good to try out new things. I love training shoulders, its my fave.

Last night I had an awesome 7 straight hours sleep, ah it was heavenly! When I got up this morning, OH said to me: "Wow - you actually look refreshed! Did you sleep?"

Hopefully the dark circles and bags under my eyes are starting to shrink!

I had 4 nights last week without sleeping tablets, and while I was a bit sporadic with sleep, I felt like I was finally getting somewhere. But then I had a dreadful night on Sunday night, so I reluctantly put myself back on half tablets. Its just a matter of getting a routine established I think. I'm trying to get back into taking my glutamine, as I feel that helps a bit too. I think the worst thing is the fear that you wont be able to sleep - once you've lost that confidence that you can fall straight to sleep its hard to get it back.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to thrash it out in a cycle class, Thursday morning cycle is always a good one. My goal at the moment is consistency and re-establishing routines; and I have to say it feels good. I felt fantastic when I left gym this morning, and this is the feeling that I need to focus on. Cant wait to start feeling my clothes get a little looser!

A good week...

I've had a good week!

I sleeeeeeeeeeeeep! Whatever it was seems to be out of my system, my sleeping patterns have been improving every night this last week. To the point where on Friday night AND last night I slept 7 or 8 UNINTERRUPTED hours - and I cant tell you how amazing I feel! Now I've just got to do it without the sleeping tablets. Last night I only had a half, so I think I'm on the mend. YAY!

I also trained 3 days straight last week - go me! Suffering some big time chest DOMS now though, even though I only lifted piddly little weights :( Thats my punishment for not training for a few weeks... although at the time I DID think that trying to sleep was more of a priority!

I did have some upsetting health news this week, but I'm not going to go into that just now. Nothing life shattering, just a little upsetting.

Yesterday I went to the INBA Nationals, I think its the first time I've been to a comp where I didn't really know many people competing. It was a HUGE turnout - I couldn't believe how many competitors there were! For the first time I actually enjoyed watching the guys too, some of them were real showmen - good to watch, especially the open classes.

Got to catch up with Sue, Carolyn and Eleni again, and also meet Kristin and Kerry! What a great bunch of ladies to spend an afternoon with...

It was also good to catch up very briefly with everyone else - the venue was quite jam-packed with people though, so it was hard to spot the familiar faces in the crowd!

Oh yeah - I must post some pics of our veggie garden - we have actual cucumbers, and zucchini (as in the vegetable bit, not just the plant anymore)! So exciting, and the amount they grow every day is astounding, - cant wait to eat it!

Sleep Glorious Sleep

Hallelujah! Last night I got a decent amount of sleeeeeeeeeep~!

I've been at my wits end this week. Not being able to sleep because of stress or anxiety is one thing, but 3 weeks of insomnia for NO APPARENT REASON has been driving me up the wall.

I even caved in and went to the GP and got some very mild sleeping tablets. Which did nothing. I hate taking medication like that, so believe me it was a last resort.

I have had three chiropractic adjustments this week, and I also tried acupuncture. I wasn't totally sold on the acupuncture, it was a chinese lady who told me I had too much "fire" in my system, too much acid. She said if I sort the acid out (ie go on an alkaline diet for a month) it would sort out the sleep situation. I've kinda thrown her suggestions out the window - I'm all for natural therapies, but I think a big part of it is believing in it. And I didn't believe her.

So I took some suggestions from my chiro on board, he said we need to break the cycle, so he told me to get "bombed"!!! And it worked to a point - I slept for 5 hours straight on Wednesday and Thursday nights. But then I woke up at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep.

Last night the 5 hour thing happened again, but I was able to get back to sleep - and slept until 8am. I cant tell you the relief I felt!

Today I went and had a deep tissue massage of my back and shoulders, and it feels amazing. They have a floatation tank there which I'm going to try next time, it sounds heavenly. Apparently an hour in the floatation tank is equivalent to 4 hours of REM sleep.

Psychologically I'm working on letting go of a few emotions. I'm setting myself some new goals, and the main one is getting back to my happy self, which is something that's been missing for the last 6 months or so. I'm also going to work on letting go of the pressure I've been putting myself under, and just go with the flow. Getting myself back to the gym is also high on the list of priorities. The last 3 weeks my training has been either sporadic, or non-existant.

So wish me luck that my sleep patterns are on the mend! Its amazing how having a good nights sleep can make you feel like a new person!

Awake is the new sleep...

...at least it is for me anyway.

I'm cursed with insomnia lately.

Its been an issue now for two weeks, I'm so sleep deprived that I dont know what to do. Its taking me at least 2-3 hours to fall asleep. Then I cant seem to stay asleep for any more than 3 hours. Once I wake up, it takes me another hour or more to get back to sleep.

The stupid thing is, my mind is calm, I'm relaxed. I'm not stressing over anything (other than not sleeping, that is) - it seems to be a physical thing. Its like, I'm simply too physically alert. The lights are on in my brain, and although I can easily still my mind, I just can seem to slip under into sleep. The longer this goes on, the more frustrated you get - then you start tossing and turning, cant get comfortable, get more frustrated, get upset...

I have tried meditation, I start to nod-off while I'm doing it, but then go to bed and just lie there for hours not sleeping. I tried counting backwards. I have got some herbal insomnia tablets, I have tried drinking myself to sleep, and muscle relaxing techniques... why cant I sleep?!

I went to the naturopath yesterday, she thinks its a reaction to some herbal remedy she gave me last month. She believes I'm sensitive to alcohol (which is highly concentrated in the herbal liquid) which would explain why when I do drink wine etc, I feel the alcohol coursing through my body. I just assumed that everyone got this - apparently only about 1 in 1000 people experience this. So this is effecting my liver function, which is also not helping my sleep situation.

Whatever... I just want to sleep.

Last night I was sooooo tired, and the neighbours rudely decided to have a party. Lots of "doof-doof" music. We put the air conditioner on to drown out the noise, and I also put in ear plugs. This time it only took probably an hour and a half to fall asleep - but then I woke up again at 3am when the A/C went off - it was so hot, and then couldn't get back to sleep again.

So now its 4.40am, I've had 3 hours sleep. Today we are going to the Amberley Air show, I dont know how I'm going to make it.

Sorry for the whinge.