Monkey Say ... Monkey Do

I was out getting my morning coffee at the local Starbucks...I use the word "morning" in the loosest sense of the word as it was 1.30 is the afternoon, and I started thinking about the difference between saying and doing.

What sparked this was while waiting in line (at every Starbucks that I have been too - and that's a LOT (from Seattle (mecca of coffee) to TX to Hawaii, just about every stinking province in Canada, England, Ireland, Wales & Scotland) - and even though Mr.K hates Starbucks I must be caffeinated each morning or things will get ugly fast), you have to stand next to the tempting, tasty, sugar filled, very sexy cookies, cakes, donuts, fudge bars, scones etc etc. In my 2min wait to order, I thought about eating eat one of these bad boys and did a significant amount of mental math on how I was going to work a "low fat" scone (HAR HAR low fat).

The (normal sized) man in front of me fell for the temptation...and I got to witness the conversation:

Man - I'll have the choco-chunk cookie
Barista - one or two cookies?
Man - one please
Barista - the white chocolate one or the double chocolate one?
Man - oh, well....
Barista - they are BOTH very good ((Barista gesturing over the cookies seductively))
Man - alright then one of each
Barista - no problem sir, would you like me to apply these directly to your ass for you?

...oh, that last bit only I heard.

I got my weekend treat - venti half sweet skim milk mocha latte without whip. That is treat enough and as it stands, more then I should be having!

This little adventure got me thinking about what I'm saying and what I'm doing. Also my post regarding my friend and the butternut squash incident. I'm pretty close to being hypocritical, if not past that line already since I spout off about how I'm doing better and changing (I am - but I'm letting some things slide).

There are a number of things that I am doing that are really REALLY counterproductive to my goals here:
I have not been exercising for at least three weeks now;
I've only just started trying to get more water in me; and
chiefly, lack of Sleep.

A typical night for me M-F is into bed at 12.30-1.30am and wake up is 7am and I'm at the office at anywhere between 8 and 8.30 (well 8 is the start time, but there have been whole months where I have not showed up to work "on time" once and I NEVER have time to blow dry my hair....woolly hat to work if its cold!).

I use my weekends as "sleep catch up". Its not uncommon for me to sleep to noon or 1pm on Saturday and until 11 on a Sunday. The MOST sleep that I will get on a weekday is 7 hours and that's if I lay in for an extra couple of snooze hits. Not the best quality for sure, typically getting about 5.5 - 6.5 hours of sleep a night. Not good enough.

I know that getting more/better sleep does a body good, especially if you are trying to "lose weight". Staying up late is a terrible habit and I need to break it. I have done some reading on it and I'm going to make a new month goal.

For January, I'm going to make it my mission to get +8 hours of sleep a night.

Two hormones that signal the appetite, in opposing methods, may explain why we overeat when we under-sleep:

Shortage of sleep lowers levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses the appetite. When leptin levels are depleted, the body thinks it needs food, when in fact, adequate amounts of food may already have been consumed.

Another hormone, ghrelin, sparks the appetite. Research has shown that insufficient sleep elevates levels of ghrelin, making you hungry.

So there you go, I need to feed my body the good food (check), water it adequately (check) and let it rest and recover. ...nope.... Magic? Nope. Common Sense? Yes. Can I do it? I can, but I'm going to have to work at it. But some things are work working hard for, I think Mr.K would agree that I'm one of them.