Healthy Eating / Healthy Living

[blueerica]

Originally Posted by Prudence

My healthy living change is to start getting a reasonable amount of sleep. There are lots of things I could, and perhaps should, change, but if I don't start regularly getting more than 4.5-5 hours of sleep per night I don't think any of the other changes will be particularly effective.

Sleep makes a tremendous difference with weight, as does stress.. and it's pretty obvious you've had too little of the first and too much of the latter lately.

Taking it kind of easy and getting some massive sleep (I used to be able to only sleep 8 hours if I was sick, most days were around 5... Somehow now I rack up 8-9 hours a night!!) has probably been the only thing that has helped me maintain my weight, despite working out a little less and eating more. I can't explain it with anything else, because nothing else makes sense.

I also should add - and I hadn't really told anyone - I was losing a LOT of hair in the last year of school. Not chunks or anything, but WAY more than normal (and by way more, I mean I shed about 10x more than my cat... I had to switch to a wide-tooth comb... I almost broke my vacuum cleaner). Luckily I have thick hair, so it wasn't too much of a problem, but I was concerned. Once I moved out here and have been sleeping and getting more sleep for myself... voila! My hair loss is back to the 'normal' range.