Fitness, Nutrition and Health- All Welcome (Hardcore and “Light”)

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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@Mom2aphysicsgeek - I’ve always been someone who needed 8 hours of sleep/night to feel good (and stick to my food plan). Then peri-menopause hit and my sleep plummeted to the point that I was awake every single hour with hot flashes. I had a health care provider recommend acupuncture. I don’t know if it was a co-incidence or not but after two sessions, my hot flashes disappeared. I still have nights that I’m more restless than others, but overall, I’m back to good quality sleep.

What’s worked for me, in addition to the acupuncture:

  • Going to bed at a set time every night
  • No caffeine after 12 noon
  • No more than 2 glasses of wine when I indulge on the weekends (if I drink more, I'm up at 2 am without fail)
  • No chocolate at night or desserts with a lot of sugar.
  • Light reading only before bed and no brain puzzles or games

I’ll be interested in reading what works for others.

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Controlling exposure to electronic devices and ambient light is also important. Some suggestions: at least 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep, turn off the TV in your bedroom, put away that laptop or Ipad, turn off your Kindle, silence your cell phone or better yet, turn it off. Lots of sleep studies have concluded that electronics in the bedroom at night are major contributors to sleep issues.

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I think many of us have sleep issues (especially as we have gotten older) and I agree that quality (and enough) sleep is extremely important. I get very stressed if I don’t get enough sleep and go through periods of waking up in the night for several hours. I try to turn out the light at 10, but I wake up before 6 no matter what I do. I think I need about 7 hours of sleep. I try to take care of myself- if I get home late from a business trip I do NOT get to the office “on time” the next morning, whereas others would settle for 4 hours of sleep and be there anyway. I am guilty of having electronic devices by my bed and using them right up until lights out…

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I’m OCD with sleep and heart rate measurement on my Garmin. I need at least 8 hours and close to 3 of that needs to be deep sleep. Otherwise I’m sluggish at work and during workouts. I think Matt Fitzgerald said that a full night of sleep is more important than a workout.

If my resting Heart rate isn’t in the 40s then I know it is time to back off.

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I am physically exhausted at the end of each day most of the time so luckily falling asleep has not been a huge issue for me (Im 46). However, getting to bed early enough so that I get a certain number of quantity hours is the problem. I have to get up at 4am for work (I start work at 5am) and due to being mom taxi, I dont get to bed until 10pm most nights. My daughter has dance until 845pm then by the time I get her home, she showers and such, its pretty late for me.
6 hours is not enough sleep for me and I have to do that 4 weekdays and it wears on me!

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So much to keep up with her - in a good way!

I picked up on something @MichaelNKat said - “it can be the difference between training and exercising”. I’m definitely more focused on the “exercising” and that’s totally ok with me. I might have a loose training plan but it’s usually just me talking with myself in my head.

@wannabee35 the suggestions above are good. I’d add two additional suggestions. One, for a couple of weeks use the C25K plan but instead of running use walking - so a slower walk for the slow intervals and a faster walk for the “run” portion. See if that makes a difference.

The second idea is to check your local running store or club and see if they offer a basic running clinic. People of ALL ages and skill levels go to these. They may analyze your gait and running technique and make suggestions for how to adjust your body stance during running.

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One more comment that may be controversial. :slight_smile:

Depending on your physical shape, I would like to challenge the people who are relying on the idea of 10K steps to really look at how you are getting those steps. If you are not real physically active or have physical issues (weight or otherwise) getting to 10K steps may be a great accomplishment and worthy goal for sure! BUT if you are in decent shape and without a lot of physical roadblocks, I would challenge you to look at how you are getting those 10K steps. True, 10K steps is good for movement and getting off a chair. But I know I can get 10K easy by just having a busy day at work where I’m moving around or by a busy weekend morning at home doing some cleaning and cooking. I’m MOVING but is it really exercise worthy??? Could I do something more or really aim for a good portion of those 10K steps to be a 30 minute walk or something where there is constant movement, increased heart rate and even some sweating?!

It’s just something to consider. Feel free to challenge me on it. :slight_smile:

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@wannabee My PT did a full gait assessment at a running clinic that made a huge difference for me and helped me understand what was happening. Almost all my injuries are on my dominant side and it all stemmed from my old knee injury (ACL/MCL tears). Basically I was compensating for my knee in some way and manage to tear my achilles tendon, a calf muscle, and develop plantar fasciitis (thankfully not all at the same time). While I no longer run (because of a displaced disc in my back), at the time, I was able to get back to 3 -5 mile runs after PT.

The PT also gave me great suggestions for types of sneakers. The hard part for me is they are expensive and I needed to change them out every 6 months. The frugal shopper in me wasn’t happy ; ).

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I agree- one compromise might be to say “Of my 10,000 steps, 5000 of them are going to be purposeful steps” or whatever you want to designate. That means walking around your building or up and down the block or stairs. Whatever. I try to get 6000-8000 steps over what I have run. Some days I don’t make it.

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^^ Yes, appropriate shoes are usually in the $100+ range. Our local running store has a tent sale each spring and fall. I go and stock up with a 1-2 pairs each sale and get them for more like $60-70 - they are usually just models that have a new model out.

I also use an insert in my running shoes - my foot is used to these now and I feel weird without it. But I can tell when the support has broken down in running shoes - just starts to feel “mushy”.

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My 10k steps are not cardio. It just means Im on my feet for 10 hours a day and quite frankly Im tired so running isnt my “thing”. Thus Im biking for fitness instead. Weight loss to me is all diet. Exercise is for mental sanity to me!

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I also agree @abasket. I can easily get 5000 steps just doing normal activities. There is a 75 minute power walk in my day, or an hour on the cross country ski machine if it’s raining, nearly every day. Something to get the heart rate up.

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A lack of adequate sleep (typically pegged at 7 hours but depending on the study, 6-8) results in increased levels of Cortisol, a stress hormone, which interferes with weight loss and promotes fat storage.

Until recently, my life had been a perfect storm for sleep disruptions. Training people in the early morning, then working a full day at my day job, training people in the early evening, then doing my own training, eating dinner at 10:00, staying up until 1:00, then getting up with the sunrise to start again. Now that I’m semi-retired from my day job (only go into the office or meet with clients 2 days per week), I ‘m working at changing my habits. It’s a struggle but I’m taking it one step at a time in replacing bad habits with good ones. First on the list was to turn off the bedroom TV by 11:20. Late night talk shows were a real trigger for staying up late. Next will be to get off of all social media by 10:00. Disconnecting will be a radical change, lol. Then working out and eating dinner by 8:00.

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@abasket, “exercising” as opposed to “training” is perfectly fine. You get all the health benefits, get to mix things up more to keep it all fresh and is a lot more fun and enjoyable than highly structured “training”! ?

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The “10,000 steps” “standard” is really a myth. The genesis of it is likely a Japanese pedometer company that back in the 60’s did the first consumer mass marketing of a device for the public to count its steps. The name of the pedometer in Japanese translated to “10,000 steps”. Current studies have found that at 7,500 steps, the health benefits plateau but also can be seen with as few as 4,400 steps. Also, the intensity of the steps is not of great importance. Just getting up off our butts and moving will give us the health benefits. Here’s a pretty good article that summarizes all of this. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/10000-steps-a-day-or-fewer-2019071117305

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My 10K steps comment was just “food for thought”. I have heard people say, they don’t understand why they aren’t losing weight/fit/firmed up because they get 10K steps daily. ANY movement off your butt and a chair is great and worthwhile but l guess it’s debatable if it’s beneficial “exercise” - again, every person is at different points and for some getting to 10K is already such a reach - that that is truly a goal to reach for.

I guess sort of the bottom line might be to aim for a certain # of minutes consecutively of some form of exercise - whether that is purposeful walking (not walking the poky dog), running, biking, rowing, swimming, zumba, whatever! And building up from there if you’re up for it.

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Wow- Thanks to all who made such great suggestions for me. I think I will start with the running store to see if they have a running clinic. My husband loves his PT who he sees for neck issues so maybe an appointment there would be a good plan. Thanks again!!

As for sleep-- I really need 8 hours. Wearing my fit bit to bed has been very interesting. I have found that I need to get to bed earlier than I thought so try to have lights out by 10pm. This allows me time to fall asleep and wake up a few times and still get 8 hours when my alarm goes off at 7 am.

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Sounds like they are missing 80% of the equation - what they are putting in their mouths!

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I am SO glad I live in the Central time zone. I have much more trouble with sleep and bedtime in the other time zones. Are shows are over at 10 and the news comes on. I can’t handle the shows being over at 11!

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I’ve been able to take my sleep seriously now that the kids are out of the house. It’s a combo of no more Mom Taxi duties and no more staying up waiting for them to get home safely.

I need 8-9 hours. It’s almost impossible for me to sleep in, so I have to get to bed on time, and sometimes I will go to bed quite early. One night last week I slept 10 hours!

H is the Princess & the Pea. Wakes at the slightest sound. We also have different sleep and wake times.

We initiated separate bedrooms. He has one of those adjustable beds that allows him to sleep in a position that doesn’t aggravate his back and shoulders. He also has a CPAP machine now. He likes to watch Netflix before bed. He still does not sleep all that well, frankly.

I like the bedroom very cool & have no need for an adjustable bed. I have a dawn simulator alarm/light in addition to a negative ion generator. Although both of these products are specifically for SAD, one of the ways they both work is by improving sleep.

For more reading: www.CET.org

I no longer watch any shows or movies in bed & I don’t surf the web in bed. I do miss the late shows and the laughter, but going to sleep is more of a conscious decision now, instead of a by-product. Does that make any sense?

I am in the habit of turning on a podcast at bedtime. It helps keep my mind from racing, and also acts like something of a white noise machine. I’ll often play something I’ve listened to before. It really helps.

All of my strength training podcasts emphasize the need for adequate sleep in order to recover and build muscle mass.

I was in the habit of having a beer late at night to close out the day, but I have stopped that for Dry January. I’m falling asleep just fine now. I have read that booze interferes with your brain going into deeper sleep cycles. I have not noticed feeling more refreshed or anything like that, yet.

When I do wake at night, either to pee, or change positions, or because the dog threw up (O.o) I feel much more confident that I will fall back asleep, even if it takes some time. This (waking at night) used to make me nervous. OMG, I’m not going to get enough sleep! The alarm is going to go off in X hours!

I’m not under a lot of pressure to be anywhere in the morning now because I mostly work from home. And, if for some reason I don’t get enough sleep, I can usually get in a short nap or go to bed extra early.

I am on low dose progesterone & estrogen (post-M dosages) and do not suffer from hot flashes or night sweats (knock on wood). I don’t actually know if the BHRT is helping with that or not, or if I simply chose my parents well.

Many of my female friends/coworkers are nervous about taking BHRT, therefore going without, and they are often complaining of poor sleep, hot flashes, and night sweats.

I really am a mess without enough sleep. It was one of the hardest things for me about parenting.