The Munchies

This week of 5-6 hour sleeps is catching up to me. I can *really* tell when I haven't had enough sleep. I didn't quite have it right when I said I thought I'd get the munchies today. It's more that no matter what I eat, I feel like I need to eat more. Bottomless pit syndrome maybe? I've known for a while that there's a connection between sleeping and weight loss, based mostly on experience. Today I decided I needed to build upon my knowledge, so I consulted google. I felt really smart when I realized the connection less than two paragraphs in. Hormones! Yes! Of course. I learned all about those frustratingly-hardly-ever-"normal" beauties during my Curves Complete certification. More research confirmed what I suspected - leptin and ghrelin are the ones to blame.

A brief teaching break here:

Leptin is produced in our fat cells and sends the signal to the brain when you are full. Ghrelin is produced in the GI track and is what stimulates our appetite. 2 guesses as to what happens when you don't get enough sleep? Yup, leptin goes down and ghrelin goes up.. aka you want more and more food and you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. So while I am sitting here with my tea, fighting the urge to snack every hour, it feels nice to be able to curse at my hormones.


Another interesting fact from I know from Curves Complete.. when people are obese, they have large amounts of leptin (makes sense right?). You'd think that would mean the brain would be told we're full sooner. But what happens is that we obese folk can build up a resistance to leptin, similar to people with diabetes and insulin. So instead of telling the brain it's full, the body just says "Bring it on, I'll make room in the stomach somehow!" Now of course, it is far more complicated than just leptin levels and there are many other contributing facts, but it's still interesting. And annoying. Of course, now that I've finished writing this, I found a pretty decent article that doesn't use frustratingly long medical jargon. If you're interested in this topic, feel free to read more about it here.


Ok, off comes the teacher hat.


So now that I'm done complaining, what am I going to do about this? For starters, get more sleep. I need a plan, I do better with plans. It's harder because I don't get off work until 8pm, so I'm home around 8:30 and it takes me half an hour to wash my tupperware from the day and prepare food for the next day. It wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have this one 6am shift during the week. So I can't just sleep in every other day. I'm a big fan of up at the same time every day. And by big fan, I mean my body loves it even if it takes weeks of will power to finally get into a decent schedule. I am also considering joining a boot camp for the summer, which has some 6am start times as well. So, ideally I will be a in bed by 9:30, awake by 5 schedule before too long. Going to bed that early is such much easier in the winter, when it's dark out by 6pm. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just stating a fact. 


I suppose the other thing I should mention today is that I had my weigh in. As I suspected, I didn't lose anything this week. Of course I had hoped I would, but considering I lost 9.5 pounds last week, I am not upset in the least. Besides, this is turning less into a numbers game for me. Yes, it is still incredibly important and I can't *wait* to see a 1 in the hundreds column. However, I refuse to let a number dictate how I feel. Yesterday I felt strong and confident. I still do today (although not totally strong as my abs are killing me from the workout I did with my friend yesterday afternoon). If I don't see a loss next week either, then I will start to examine things, but for now.. I am a healthy living life and enjoying it!