Being Well Rested

I am going to second my If All Else Fails post and reiterate how helpful it can be to a weight loss effort to go to bed early when you're tempted to eat and to just plain go to bed when your tired.  Like many people I am an emotional eater but what is even more damaging to my body is being tired.

I have been a single parent since my son's birth and the memory that over arches everything we ever did or I the feelings I felt was the sense of being tired all the time.  It is not his fault; it is one of the consequences of doing things outside of God's will.  He always intended for a child to be raised by both of his biological parents and in a perfect world that would happen.  I honestly believe one of the main reasons why so many women are overweight is that they are raising children on their own or with very little help.  If they're serious about the responsibility then they are probably tired all the time.

I bring this up because we often find that food will help to combat that sense of tiredness (if even for a short time) but when the energy rush has dissipated more food is required.  I remember when I worked downtown going to the little market a couple of blocks from where I worked and buying potato chips and dip nearly every afternoon to snack on for the remainder of the day--just so I could make it through last part of my work day.  Of course we'd stop and get fast food on the way home because I was too tired to cook.  And then I would eat to get through the evening responsibilities.  There were times when I couldn't crawl into bed fast enough after I got Ian to sleep at night.  But here's the rub; when you've eaten a lot in the evening your body uses it's energy to digest the food and you don't get restful sleep which means you to wake up tired.  It was a never ending and destructive lifestyle that packed the pounds on.

Now that Ian is 18 I can just go to bed if I want--and if I was smarter I would.  Sometimes I just stay up, just to stay up, and I eat my way though the evening trying to stay awake.  It can be rather sad really.  You may laugh but I seriously crawled into bed last night at 6:30pm.  There were multiple reasons for doing so: I was tired, I was chilled to the bone, and I was hungry (because I was tired.)  I finally gave up the fight, brushed my teeth and crawled into bed with my sweats, socks, two shirts and a hoody sweatshirt on in order to warm up.  I was warm and sound asleep by 7:30pm.  I woke up at 5am this morning and I feel good.  And, the scale didn't reflect a late night binge either.

So my advice to anyone trying to lose weight is to do everything in your power to make sure you get enough sleep.  When you are well rested and have the phyiscal resources you need you are far more likely to bre able to accomplish everything you need to get done.