Friday

The end of a long week. The sun is out, the snow is melting, the weekend is supposed to be more of the same. Thank goodness. 

I'm doing more research on the topic of early waking insomnia; made another try at the deep sleep setting on the brainwave app, this time with slightly more comfortable earphones, and letting it go for 30 minutes at a stretch. It puts me to sleep quite effectively. But when it stops, even gently, I wake back up. Or I did last night.  Here's what I recall:

• 8:15, went to bed to read. Put the headphones in and started the app. Fell asleep before it ended
• 8:45, woke up, restarted it and fell back asleep. At some point woke enough to take the earphones out, but went back to sleep.
• 11:51, woke up, restarted it, turned off the waves noise that has been running with it, and put iHeart Radio on for an hour on the sleep timer. Fell asleep eventually, but woke up at some point after 12:21 and before 12:51. Took the earphones out and swapped to the pillow speaker and restarted the radio (I think). This may have occurred a couple of times before I fell asleep for good.
• 5:16, woke up after dreaming a lot. Left leg's IT band is painful.

So, about 3 hours sleep, an hour or so of thrashing, and then another 4-5ish hours. I guess that works out to 8. The new "more comfortable" earphones are a bit more comfortable, but are really loud. I think I can say confidently that the radio layered over the sleep tones works, but is too loud to do at all often - I would worry about losing my hearing. All that said, I am reasonably alert this morning - far better than yesterday.

159.6 this morning. Some of it was water, but some of it still is - my ankles were a mess last night. I guess all I can do is try hard to stay clean and avoid sugar. Ironic, because here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
• the usual supplements
• scrambled eggs
• bacon
• a few macadamia nuts
• broccoli cheese soup
• strawberries
• a piece of cheese
• Naked QDoba burrito with shredded beef, salsa, sour cream, guac, and cheese
• 1 giant jelly-bean egg (1"x2" pastel Easter candy egg with white stuff in the middle - no idea what the real name is)
• single-serving Haagen-Dasz strawberry ice cream

I didn't have honey at bedtime - and I didn't need it.  And I asked Lee to hide the bag of the eggs so I don't get any more until Easter itself. They're a particular addiction of mine - most folks find them disgusting and they're hard to find, so I jumped on them yesterday.

Did a slower 2-mile walk yesterday, working on racewalk technique. I think that's what tweaked my IT band; I realized that my left leg was not straight on landing and was working to get it to be straight. I thought it was tight hamstrings at the time - and I suppose it could be. Anyway, I can't recall if I woke any earlier than 5:16 this morning because of the pain, but I may have, a bit. 

Another weekend. Maybe one with nicer weather. I would like that.