For those who wake up early...
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Anonymous
I was having that same problem, both with the sleep and the weight, and I finally found a pretty good solution a couple months ago. I started doing the Ultra Simple Diet, which is really just a plan that makes you eat lots of high quality food without feeling hungry and it incorporates a nighttime bath ritual that encourages you to get right in bed afterwards. I only do it seriously during the week for one week a month (with no supplements), but I try to keep up with the food component most days and the bath ritual every few days. In less than two months, I have gained a ton of energy, gotten to sleep earlier, cut out caffeine completely, lowered my alcohol consumption and lost 10 of the 15 pounds I wanted to lose. All without feeling hungry (although the first few days of taming down the caffeine wasn't the best), and without sacrificing any of my quality time (although I am probably only watching 6 hours of tv a week instead of 12 - this is where most of the time came from). |
Anonymous
But I love TV! I only work out Mon-Fri. I found that if I even take one day off, my resolve suffers and I will end up missing multiple days. If I dont give myself a choice, I have excellent attendance. I am also trying really hard to lose weight. |
Anonymous
| Can you DVR your shows and watch them on your own schedule? That's what I do. I watch one show a night, at 8:00. Or half a movie. |
Anonymous
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I love TV too.
Plus I like to work out or at least to cardio everyday since that is my stress release. I actually only watch DVRed shows so I can watch on my own time. Plus I have a trigger -- Law & Order. I have watched half of every single one because it always puts me to sleep before they solve it! |
Anonymous
Well, you can't watch tv every night, get other things done after the kids sleep, spend time with your husband, and get to bed on time every night. If sleep is your lowest priority, that's okay. I would designate nights to certain activities. Every Monday is early bed night, every Tuesday is quality husband chatting, every Wednesday is TV, whatever works. |
Anonymous
| I get up between 4:45 and 5:30 every morning (wake up time depends upon who is running first). I usually get in bed by 9:30 and lights out by 10. I usually watch about half and hour to an hour's worth of TV at night. Or I read. |
Anonymous
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I wake at 430, at gym by 520, workout til 615/620, at work 7-330, daycare pickup 415ish. Solo parenting until bedtime (7ish) 3-4 nights per week. I am usually in bed 9-930, asleep 930-10. I do this 3-4 days a week, depending on my workload - non-gym mornings I get up at the same time and get into work really early, since it's hard for me to stay late.
I severely limit my TV watching. It has to be something that I REALLY WANT to watch. Reruns of American Pickers? Umm, DH likes it but I can find 3,564 other things around the house to keep me busy. Also, pretty much everything is DVR'ed - so that DH and I can watch it together - and also if you skip commercials they take less time  I get lots more done, and get to sleep earlier, during rerun periods!
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Anonymous
| For those of you PPs who really like TV: if you have a treadmill or eliptical or whatever in your house, and you haven't done this already, I would recommend looking into getting a whole house DVR. I have a TM in the basement and we put a small tv down there, but I still didn't feel like using it in the morning b/c all that's on that early in the morning is CNN or infomercials, and neither one will hold my attention. then we got the whole-home DVR which has killed two birds with one stone: I go to bed earlier because I don't feel like I'm missing anything, and I'm more motivated to get on the TM early in the morning (5:30) because I can use that time to catch up on all that mindless Real Housewives crap that I watch. I feel less crappy watching it if I'm busting ass on the treadmill at the same time. But OP, I hear ya on the struggle to get enough sleep. For me it's a good night if I am in bed by 11, and the only nights that I really force myself to do that are the nights before my 6:30 a.m. spinning class that requires me to be up at 5:50. Otherwise I might not get to bed until midnight. I know that they say that you need 7 hours of sleep to avoid those two hormones that make you want to eat more (gherelin and another whose name I cant' remember) but there's just so much to do at night. And on nights when there's not a lot to do, I end up vegging on the couch which makes it so hard to get up and get ready for bed. |
Anonymous
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OP here -
I work out with a boot camp in the morning, so even though we have a whole house DVR and a Roku in front of our elliptical, I would just never use it and definitely wouldnt get up at 5:30am for it. For the PP @ 12:21 who solo parents until bedtime and goes to sleep at 9:30, when do you see/have sex with DH? Also, when do you and DH watch all these DVRed shows? |
Anonymous
| OP your workout commitment shows how committed you are to losing weight. It really might be that more sleep is the trick for you. Try it for two weeks and see what happens. |
Anonymous
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Another working mom here who wakes up at 5:30 most days and has basically given up TV . . . . For me, it's hard to switch straight from TV to sleep, so I slowly started cutting it out and now almost always go straight to bed at 8:30/9 (after getting DS down) where I read and/or play on the iPad until 9:30 or 10 and then go to sleep. I never ever thought I would be one of those "no TV" people (we are even talking about getting rid of cable entirely -- gasp!) -- but it was easier than I thought to let it go, and I'm so much happier and nicer to DS and DH when I'm getting enough sleep. One other side benefit is that when I take a sick day now, I'm so AMAZED by the shows that used to be no big deal to me. It's a treat when I'm feeling rough to watch a House Hunters or Intervention marathon, whereas it used to be nothing special at all.
OP, can you maybe set a timer for yourself in the evenings? So if you decide you want to go to sleep at 10pm set a timer to go off at, say, 9pm. At that point, get yourself ready for and into bed, where you may still have time to read a bit or spend some quality time with DH before going to sleep. Start small -- try for half an hour earlier at first, and then move it back another half hour until you get to the point where you're sleeping enough. |
Anonymous
I don't watch any TV. Go to bed at 10, up at 5. |
Anonymous
| Can you exercise while you watch tv? |
Anonymous
Sorry, hit done too soon. I mean...go to sleep at 11, get up at 6:30, do your thing. Kids go down at 8, you work out in front of the boob tube till 9, two birds with one stone. Then you still have two hours to get the house in order and relax, hang out with your dh. Also you don't have to work out every single day to be in shape. Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday is plenty. Try new routines and see what works better. You may be able to subsist on 5 hours of sleep now but it will catch up to you. |
Anonymous
I wish I could, but I work out best, hardest, and most consistently in a group so I go to a boot camp in the morning. Also, I wish I could work out less, but as it is, I see so little in terms of results, when I take 1-2 days off, my weight immediately goes up, i.e. the weekends. I have been doing 5 hours for a couple months now and only got about 6 hours for the past few years. On the weekends, I sleep until 7, unless the kids wake me up earlier. I will just have to try winding down by 11. |