So this time I shall be updating for 7 days instead of my usual 5. I’ve been struggling with some impaired motivation and mental performance, which I will explore in this post. We’re in the last few days now, and have our celebratory lunch booked for Sunday, July 1st!!
Day 21: June 22: Well, at least I managed to sleep in a pitch black room last night. I also managed to get some breakfast! Coincidence? I know I’m going to a friend’s birthday party in town tonight, so I snack a little before I go. But it’s OK, the menu is chock full of things like sashimi, fried fish, tamagoyaki and beef, so I help myself. I parody myself by drawing attention to how much meat I’m eating and everyone has a good laugh, easing the difficulty of avoiding the bad foods. I drink some potato shochu, a clear Japanese distilled beverage. Kinda like vodka, but not so strong.
Day 22: June 23: So, even drinking paleo approved booze sucks. Feeling the effects today. But it’s OK. I go to Starbucks, get a coffee, bring it home, and blend in some coconut oil and a little butter. BulletProof Coffee bitches! It keeps me fuelled as I wonder over to CostCo on my monthly shop. I really feel like I’ve picked a bad month to do this challenge. Goodbye parties, birthday parties abound, and tonight I had a wedding party. But it worked out OK, Joe and I both agreed that the 10,000yen price for the wedding was worth cheating for. Of course, we tried our best to limit the damage and avoided the pasta like the plague. Cheats tied at 2-2.
Day 23: June 24: The day after the wedding, and nothing major to report. A lazy day at home, cleaning the house and stuff like that. Good food, good company and a decent movie to finish off the day (The Dark Knight was on TV…). I bought an timer for the socket in my bedroom, so it will now automatically turn on a light about 15 minutes before my alarm goes off, so I’m hoping it will help me wake up in the mornings.
Day 24: June 25: I slept pretty well Sunday night, but I think it was a bit short, and this is where I made a big mistake: I had two cups of coffee. Though all my food was good, the ingestion of so much coffee affected my sleep that night and set off a series of events that we’ll explore later in the week. I went to the gym, did my thing, and decided to do some HIIT exercise on a stationary bike at the end. I decided to try a Tabata protocol; 20 seconds all out, followed by a 10 second rest, repeated 8 times, total 4 minutes. Except I was wiped out and wanting to vomit after 2 minutes, or 4 repetitions. I need to build up to this I think.
Day 25: June 26: I found it difficult to fall asleep Monday night, probably the result of too much coffee, but I still slept pretty well. I think this timed light malarky is working. I woke up a little bit quicker than earlier and did some stretching before breakfast, which was great. I went to work feeling really energetic and full of go, until I actually started teacher, when my energy started to go down. Kids suck the life out of me apparently. Again, I drink too much coffee… Tuesday night futsal as usual, I run my ass off, exhaust myself and generally have a lot of fun.
Day 26: June 27: I had an extra egg for breakfast this morning, and overall I’m feeling good. But the energy levels again start to fall and I resort to coffee. There’s a trend beginning to emerge here. I meet some friends for dinner and have some wine, before retreating to my place where we play Settlers of Catan. I get to bed later than I have all week, and I think the mix of too much coffee and the alcohol really affects my sleep quality.
A pleasant way to spend some time on a Wednesday evening.
Day 27: June 28: Today is just down right god awful. I pretty miserable all day, resort to coffee and sleep for a lot of my free classes. I’m feeling pretty demotivated and down. I come home and watch a motivational video, which makes me feel better (after it made me feel worse!). I don’t know if it’s that, the 85% cocoa Lindt chocolate or the binaural beats app I experiment with, but I end up feeling really good in the evening. I have a great dinner and watch the first part of Weight of the Nation on HBO. I need to get off the coffee and break this cycle. I skipped the gym tonight because I felt pants.
So things are not great in this final stretch. The cognitive dissonance that I’m experiencing as my sleep quality has been impacted has been having a pretty big impact on me in the past few days. Another thing I’ve noticed is that this week I’ve been having a nice serving of mixed fruit at breakfast; peaches, strawberries, grapes and pineapple and I seem to be getting hungry quicker. I think I’ll eliminate this element of my breakfast and see what happens.
Nothing like some comfort food on a Thursday when you’re feeling a bit rubbish.