Sleep Away the Pounds

I’ve read several articles lately that have talked about the role of sleep in weight loss. Looks like it isn’t that simple equations of calories in (food) versus calories out (exercise). Weight loss appears to be a 3 legged stool, with the third component being sleep. Without the third leg, it’s tough to balance.

Weight lifters have known about the importance of sleep for a long time. That’s when we really build muscles – while we sleep. We tear them down in the gym. Looks like sleep is also the time our body likes to “take care of business” without any distractions – stuff like regulating our hormones. Gee, those have something to do with weight loss…

I am a girl that needs her sleep. I’m a 7.5 to 8 hour per night person. This morning when I woke up it was pouring, so I treated myself to an extra hour. Nine hours of sleep! What a luxury! And after last night’s lifting session, I bet I needed every second of it!

Yesterday was good for a number of reasons. I ate well, finishing off at 5:30 with a yummy dinner of Chicken Marengo (sautéed chicken in a tomato sauce over a little rice). It’s a “desperation dinner” – I get a lot of my recipes from the desperation dinner column of the local paper, or from the show “30 Minute Meals” on the Food network, or various crock pot recipes (do you see a trend here?). I don’t have a lot of time to cook during the week, but I insist on a home cooked meal 5 nights per week.

I did 2 2 mile runs – one in the morning alone and one in the afternoon with my son. While he did tae kwon do, I did a killer upper body workout. First 2 sets of push-ups to warm up (there ise only 1 kind of push-up, the Army push-up, and it does not involve knees). Then 2 each of 2 exercises for each body part: back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders. Then I finished off with negative chin-ups until failure (thanks, Chris, for that idea). I managed 2. I guess that means my workout was good. My muscles were shaking when I was waiting for my son. But no soreness today.

This afternoon I am swimming,