Nothing of consequence

[annathepiper]

+/-0: I'm a bit more functional today. On the plus side, got five hours of sleep last night--after double-dosing the Melatonex. On the minus side, I only got FIVE hours of sleep, even after double-dosing the Melatonex. It was really annoying, too. Went to bed around a quarter after ten in the hopes that if I dropped off I'd actually get nine or ten hours. And I did drop off... but I woke up around a quarter after three. Nothing seemed to provoke it; there wasn't a whisper out of Polly last night. Instead, without fanfare or preamble, I was suddenly AWAKE. And I remained such until the alarm clock went off at seven, though I lay still the whole time and let my thoughts try to wander in the hopes of dropping back to sleep.

-1: Lost my very promising Rogue in Nethack last night due to a fall onto poisoned spikes in a pit. This was extra special vexing as I'd found a wand of wishing on Level 4 and had gotten said Rogue outfitted very well indeed, and had just wiped out every hostile monster in Fort Ludios. It's quite ignominous to die while wandering around picking up gold. The lesson to be learned here, my children: get poison resistance early.

+2: The weather has reverted to cool, gray, and a little rainy. This is a Good Thing, not only because we desperately need the bolstering of our local water supply, but also because I have a small wondering whether I've been physically out of sorts due to weird weather. I have nothing on which to found this suspicion, but it's there nonetheless.

-3: My weight's back up to 168. Grr. It's been there for the last couple of mornings now.

+/-4: Reading The Devil's Highway by Hannah March. Not done with it yet, but while I am finding the story and its hero engaging, I am also finding the typos liberally sprinkled through the text quite distracting: things such as missing punctuation, improperly capitalized letters, and at least one occurrence of the dreaded "but it passed spellcheck" problem--the word "way" showing up in dialogue where "why" was clearly the needed word. Knowing what I know now about how the publishing industry works, I am not at all certain whether to blame these errors on the author or on a slipshod copyediting job.

-5: Some of my test servers have been repeatedly dying, shutting down due to 'thermal events'. Whatever that means. I presume it has to do with some component or other in the system overheating and crapping out as a result. I'm told that these particular Dells are chronically prone to this kind of problem. Whatever causes it, it's annoying--this particular cluster of machines serves as my primary cluster for running my daily build verification tests. Sigh.

Comments

[suntop.livejournal.com]

Just a little note about the weight thing. If you've been working out consistantly, you could be losing the fat, but gaining muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. :)

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean it's not annoying. :)

However, the thing is, my pace of exercise isn't exactly constant. It's more like 'three times a week', and what with my recent insomnia, it's been less constant than that.

[aikigreg.livejournal.com]

except that aerobic excercise is not anabolic - meaning muscle cannot be built through this process. Actually, long duration aerobics are catablic - muscle WASTING.

There is one exception - high intensity intervals can be somewhat anabolic, but I know you're doing long duration cardio instead.

However, don't let it get you down. Scale weight means nothing overall. If you haven't been measuring yourself, do so. It's a lot more satisfying to know your thighs have decreased an inch in circumference than to know you've lost two pounds. :) Keep a log of your neck, chest, waist, butt, and thigh measurements and see how they change over time.

[annathepiper]

Well, here's the thing:

While I understand the reasoning behind the suggestion you're making, it doesn't strike me as necessarily productive for me. I am certainly quite willing to acknowledge that it can and does work for other folks. For me, though, the idea of "measuring your physical dimensions rather than paying attention to your actual weight" kind of strikes me as akin to counting how many words I have in random lines throughout a manuscript when what I'm really interested in is reducing the overall word count. Especially when I have enough sensitivity to my own physical condition to feel when I'm carrying around extra weight, even if it's just temporary and a symptom of other things being wrong with me right now.

Besides, the reason for my vexation is not necessarily the hard number. It's that my physical systems are all out of whack right now, due to my insomnia, and the damned lack of sleep is making it difficult for me to make progress on my exercise as well as everything else in my life. I'm a lot more irritated at that than I am at the reading on the scale. The reading on the scale is just one side effect of the actual problem.

[aikigreg.livejournal.com]

You should absolutely do what is best for you. I was only offering an alternative to the ever frutrating scale. And since I've been in your boat exactly (though I was almost a hundred pounds heavier than I am now, when I know you're nowhere close to that) I thought I'd offer an informed opinion, since with the heavy research and contacts in the industry of bodybuilding/strength/aerobic training I practically have a CSCS degree.

I also wanted to make clear that there's no muscle being gained- just water. I wish my fat arse could gain muscle from walking. I'd be a frigging bull. :) :)

[aikigreg.livejournal.com]

Oh, wanted to add that when I said I was in your boat, I meant that I had all the symptoms you've complained about and more. I had insomnia for months, lethargy, constant illnesses and extreme back pain. They have been completely eliminated over the last couple years. I no longer have to wolf down 3-5 ibuprofen each night.

So the message is hang in there - you'll beat it.

[annathepiper]

By the way, I do thank you for your suggestion, even though I feel like it won't necessarily work for me personally. :) It's not the first time I've heard of the "take your physical measurements rather than worrying about your actual weight" approach, so I've considered this before.

And if I sound cross, my apologies! This is what nearly a week and a half of inadequate sleep does to me. :(

[apel.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that you still have problems sleeping. What you describe is called "terminal" insomnia, i.e. you wake up toward the end of your sleep cylce and can't fall back to sleep. Unfortunately by that time the herbs and drugs you've been taking may not have much effect and you probably don't want to take more for fear of being even more incapacitated.

Something else to try when you've woken up, is relaxing recordings that you listen to in a personal stereo. Nick Kemp has just recently become my favourite artist for these but Sounds True have a host of them and there are many others too.

In my experience outright relaxation routines tend to make people more tense. Me and many others get performance anxiety about not being able to relax. What works better are colourful self hypnosis recordings that have some sort of story line. In one I have you imagine that you walk through a mooonlit garden, for instance. Chakra meditations can also be distracting enough that you drift off. For some people recordings with affirmations work too. Louise Hay is the uncrowned queen of affirmations. I love her stress-free recording. It's key that you have the volume high enough that you can hear clearly but not so loud that it prevents you from falling asleep.

[annathepiper]

I'll be trying the Melatonex again tonight, though if this keeps up much longer, I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor. This isn't the first time I've had insomnia, but this is the first bout I've had that's gone this long. :| So far, the Melatonex is the only thing I've encountered that's put a dent in the insomnia at all; the valerian, in tea or in capsules, has certainly helped me be quite calm, but it hasn't helped me sleep. But I don't want to try to do more than a double dose of the Melatonex without talking to my doctor.

The recordings thing might be good... though the only means I have to listen to such things without disturbing solarbird is my iPod. And right now the only headphones I have would probably not stay in place as I try to sleep. They're the type that you sort of hook on over your ear, and I have a bit of trouble trying to keep them in place during the day when I'm in transit to and from work--never mind tossing and turning on my pillow.

I've got to remember to flip the mattress of our futon, too. It's one that seems particularly prone to needing to be regularly flipped and given a good thrashing to make it suitably comfortable. It's distinctly possible that the futon's overdue for such treatment, and it's contributing to my difficulty in sleeping. The thing that makes me suspect this is that on Sunday afternoon, I fell asleep QUITE easily in one of our living room chairs, deeply enough that I had a hard time making myself get up. :)