The Results!

Friday, March 29th

7:30 AM cheese sandwich
11:30 pretzels and hummus, chobani greek yogurt, banana
2:30 PM two lg bowls of honey bunches of oats
6 PM small salad with ranch dressing

6 or 7 waters

about 6 hrs sleep
no excercise
energy at a 7

Saturday, March 30th

7 AM:
2 sm. pancakes with syrup
1/2 c. scrambled eggs
2 PM veggie sandwich on ww bread
8 PM lg bowl of popcorn with salt, 2 fruit bars

5 or 6 waters

5 hours sleep
energy at a 7 for the first half of the day, 4 for the rest.

So I know that my last few days have not been exemplary!  I went on a weekend retreat for my home and family management class, and it was so great!  However, I was not able to bring my own food and so I tried to pick the healthiest options of what was available.  Also, I slept in a cabin with 5 other gals and we stayed up late chatting away like teenagers.  Heck, some of them were teenagers.

It was a great experience.  We had some spiritual lessons, played a lot of rambunctious run-around games, and climbed to the top of this terrifying pole and jumped off!  I was paralyzed with fear, and had to give it a second try and hang out at the top of the pole for 15 minutes before I could finish, but I did it!  I was pretty impressed with myself, not gonna lie.  The only other time I remember being that physically terrified was at this giant body slide at seven peaks water park.

This fatigue management experiment has been really good for me.  There were moments when it was very difficult, especially to resist the temptation to binge on junk food!  I feel like writing everything down that I did as far as food, water, and exercise kept me very aware and accountable.  The result have been different than what I expected.  I don't have all this crazy energy like Super woman, but here is what I have noticed:

First, a couple negative side effects (they are both kind of in the same genre and I think they say a lot about my personality)
1.  I got the worst sleep trying to get the most sleep!  Going to bed earlier before I was tired enough had me up for hours, my brain going a million miles a minute, and when I did sleep, it was lightly and heavily interrupted.
2.  Having such a strict healthy routine caused me to obsess over my body. Even though this project was for the purpose of getting more energy and not losing weight, I found myself constantly wondering how I looked, if I was losing weight, etc.

Now for the POSITIVE!

1.  I don't feel sluggish hardly EVER, and my headaches and other sick feeling have drastically decreased
2.  I have more energy for high demand activities, like games where you hop all around or when I exercise
3. My skin has a "glow" about it
4.  My favorite result is that I am so much happier!  I feel a lot more balanced, peaceful, and positive, and happy with myself.  I feel much less crabby, moody, and reactionary.

Overall, I would say that I definitely have more energy and decreased fatigue!  Hurrah!

My dear mother (bless her soul) was in on this experiment with me.  Here are her observations at the close of  our research:

"The most challenging part of this whole experiment has been getting enough sleep. I found that the sleep factor played a major role in how energetic / lethargic I felt. The next hardest thing was to consume smaller, more frequent meals during the day. As far as the content, I generally stuck to healthy foods. It takes a concerted effort to make time every few hours to fuel my body instead of waiting until I was fairly hungry. Exercising at least 20 minutes 3x a day was never a problem. The days I didn't exercise we're sluggish- feeling days. It's been eye opening to note the difference in my energy on the days when I slept enough and ate properly compared to the days I didn't."