One site again this week, and much of me kvetching about health-related things. I'm not sleeping super well, and with the counting calories and other things, it's wearing on me. Yesterday I woke up crabby and grumpy, which lasted until I flopped in bed, put an arm over my eyes to shade them from the sun, and took a two hour nap. After which I felt better, but one of my eyeballs didn't like the pressure I'd put on it and refused to focus properly for a half hour.
So the doctor has recommended I try what basically sounds like a multivitamin for sleep. Take two at bedtime, and they're a mixture of melatonin (the chemical that makes you sleepy), valerian, B6, and various other things. Downside: they're expensive. But I have birthday money, since the noise canceling earphones I'd bought didn't pan out. So I'll get to try them out for a month and see if they help.
I also invested in a small thing of hemp protein (+fiber) powder, on her recommendation. I'm getting to eat more meat these days, since I found a source for pork and now one for turkey, but it's still really hard to eat enough of it. She starts each day with a protein/fiber smoothie/shake concoction that sounds like it's mainly made of vegetables, but contains a good chunk of the day's protein and fiber requirements. I despise the sound of my blender, but I may try to make it work. The issue is going to be making it not taste hideous, because...
Another thing I learned today was that my calorie tracking app vastly over-estimates how much sugar I can have in a day. So I had my doctor (PhD in Nutrition, or soon to be PhD in Nutrition) manually enter sane goals for various nutrients. She nearly halved my daily sugar allowance, which makes me very sad for any ice cream, chocolate, or other sweets. I'm dreading looking at the pretty box of fancy truffles my friend got me, lest I find a single one of those delicious treats is my entire day's sugar. (I really hope not, they're cherry sized...)
The final thing I learned is that the sleep trackers in smartwear, like Fitbits or Jawbones, are only useful for the broadest of information. This is annoying, because I was rather hoping I could buy a good one and figure out why I don't sleep very soundly. However, it does mean that I don't have to go out of my way to get a super-expensive one if I want to try it anyway. Today on Meh.com, a site that offers one deal a day, they were selling a pair of low-end activity trackers in the Fitbit/Jawbone bracelet style. $20 for 2. I'm not expecting much, but it will tell me (hopefully) how much my heartrate accelerates during exercise, how many steps I take in a day, how many calories burned, etc.
Any of that basic information would be helpful, honestly. Since I'm exercising 3 days per week at the gym (possibly up to 5 days a week, with 2 days being "just go there and walk or something"), and their heartrate monitors are broken more than half the time, it'd be nice to have something that'll tell me how I'm doing. The cheapo trackers won't be here for at least a week or two, though, so it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I have a lot of calorie counting to do...
So the doctor has recommended I try what basically sounds like a multivitamin for sleep. Take two at bedtime, and they're a mixture of melatonin (the chemical that makes you sleepy), valerian, B6, and various other things. Downside: they're expensive. But I have birthday money, since the noise canceling earphones I'd bought didn't pan out. So I'll get to try them out for a month and see if they help.
I also invested in a small thing of hemp protein (+fiber) powder, on her recommendation. I'm getting to eat more meat these days, since I found a source for pork and now one for turkey, but it's still really hard to eat enough of it. She starts each day with a protein/fiber smoothie/shake concoction that sounds like it's mainly made of vegetables, but contains a good chunk of the day's protein and fiber requirements. I despise the sound of my blender, but I may try to make it work. The issue is going to be making it not taste hideous, because...
Another thing I learned today was that my calorie tracking app vastly over-estimates how much sugar I can have in a day. So I had my doctor (PhD in Nutrition, or soon to be PhD in Nutrition) manually enter sane goals for various nutrients. She nearly halved my daily sugar allowance, which makes me very sad for any ice cream, chocolate, or other sweets. I'm dreading looking at the pretty box of fancy truffles my friend got me, lest I find a single one of those delicious treats is my entire day's sugar. (I really hope not, they're cherry sized...)
The final thing I learned is that the sleep trackers in smartwear, like Fitbits or Jawbones, are only useful for the broadest of information. This is annoying, because I was rather hoping I could buy a good one and figure out why I don't sleep very soundly. However, it does mean that I don't have to go out of my way to get a super-expensive one if I want to try it anyway. Today on Meh.com, a site that offers one deal a day, they were selling a pair of low-end activity trackers in the Fitbit/Jawbone bracelet style. $20 for 2. I'm not expecting much, but it will tell me (hopefully) how much my heartrate accelerates during exercise, how many steps I take in a day, how many calories burned, etc.
Any of that basic information would be helpful, honestly. Since I'm exercising 3 days per week at the gym (possibly up to 5 days a week, with 2 days being "just go there and walk or something"), and their heartrate monitors are broken more than half the time, it'd be nice to have something that'll tell me how I'm doing. The cheapo trackers won't be here for at least a week or two, though, so it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I have a lot of calorie counting to do...
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