Last night, I knew I would want to sleep in today, and I did just that.  I periodically woke up this morning and just decided to go back to sleep.  It wasn’t a lack of motivation; I knew I would eventually get my walk in, but I wanted to make sure I was caught up on sleep.  While I’ve been waking up naturally around 5:00am, I have found that I’m a little sleepier in the afternoons than I used to be, and much more so than I would like to be.  I think I’m just not quite getting enough sleep.  According to my watch, I am averaging 5 hours & 56 minutes of sleep over the past month.  That’s down a full hour from Spring and over two hours from January.  It’s pretty similar to the amount I was sleeping at the end of last summer.  That might be fine, but I am a lot more active than I was last year.  A whole lot more.  I just don’t know that six hours cuts it at the moment.  But my brain doesn’t seem to know that and so I just hop up each morning.  I could attempt to solve the issue on the other end, going to bed an hour earlier.  I already get such a hard time for being in bed by 10:00pm.  If I’m already getting it, I might as well go for another hour.

I worked up quite a sweat during my morning walk today.  I have been trying to get my heart rate up, and some mornings I have only very limited success doing that.  Today was going better, and I was just drenched in sweat as a result.  My heart rate during walks is all over the place, but the number does look like it is trending upward.  The whole thing did make me think about workout clothes I would like to get.  I have been saying from the start of my weight loss plan that once I have gotten to 250, I need new clothes.  I’m 19 pounds from that goal, but my clothes being baggy is starting to feel like an issue.  Some mornings, my shirt feels absolutely in the way, billowing out, folding in and rubbing against me, becoming heavy with sweat.  I’ve been wearing my rattiest clothes for walking; they aren’t going with me into my future, so they might as well be of use right now.  The problem is that some of them are becoming a hinderance.  Even the pair of denim shorts I was so excited to be able to wear again after not being able to do so for 15 years have become so big that they just drop off if I stand still for too long.  I had been walking in them, but they cannot be trusted.  And my waist is in a weird transition period where I still can’t seem to find a decent belt that fits me, but my pants are all starting to require it.  I’m close on the fit, mind you, but it’s just not quite there.  Of course, I could just go ahead and get my gym clothes now, but I don’t intend to stop losing weight and I don’t want to waste money.  I’ll play around with a list on Amazon; just browsing my settle me down a little bit and let me pause and wait for that goal.

I did not take my phone on my walk this morning; I wanted to just enjoy the sounds around me, but the birds weren’t still singing as I walked later than usual and so the sounds of the morning were just the occasional car driving by.  It wasn’t the zen experience I would have hoped for, so tomorrow I will take my music!

[Walk #80]