Thursday

156.6 again.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
• bacon
• the usual supplements
• cashews
• cheese
• chocolate-covered blueberries - 1 handful
• "goulash": hamburger, stewed tomatoes, bell peppers, cauliflower, cheddar
• 3 dark chocolate peanut butter cups
• 1 tsp honey

A short list, but carby - sugary, really. I had a dreadful day. Hardly any sleep going in, a workday that didn't really end until 8:45 pm (started at 7:30 am), and a bunch of flying crises throughout. So I'm fairly sure that the sugar cravings were in response to stress. At least I wasn't out driving for any of it.

Sleep last night was better - not perfect, mind you, maybe not even good, but better than the 3 shallow hours the night before. You'd think that exhaustion would make it possible to sleep through the night. You'd be wrong. I woke at 1:15 am, again at 3:30, drifted off briefly at that point before giving up entirely around 4:09. Benadryl tonight, early rising tomorrow, and a long day, since we're driving as far as we can get.

Read an article yesterday from the Paleo Mom (Sarah Ballantyne) - it was on Facebook, so I don't have a link handy. She was talking about stress and its effects on the body and how to mitigate it. First on the list is sleeping better. Which I would love to do. Because stress is apparently messing with my hypothalamus, home of the hot flash (TM), which is causing issues with adrenals and possibly other glands. So here's my problem:

• I am in menopause.
• it causes hot flashes
• it causes insomnia
• I find these things stressful
• I have a stressful job with a nasty commute
• which adds to the stress
• so my insomnia gets worse
• and maybe makes the hot flashes worse???
• making me so tired I can't think or move some days
• which, unfortunately, does not help me sleep

Where on earth do I break this damn cycle? It seems like my life is set up to feed on itself.

Honestly, only bullet 5 is in my control. I mean to fix it. To some point, anyway - because my skills are in a stressful field, so it will only improve a little.

There are a few other things I can do. Not yoga, though. Walking, definitely. Preferably outside as soon as (whenever) that is possible.