Hey there!
No audio today, as I took too long to write my post and flip-flopped all over about whether to tell you about my sweet tooth or not.
Without further ado, here are the 3 things for today.
My sweet tooth. My self-labelling. How it hurts. How it helps.
Fix your sleep posture and feel better, and get more out of your sleep.
3 quotes, as always, including being an idiot vs being idiotic.
My Sweet Tooth
I have a sweet tooth. I've always had one. As a kid, when I didn't find any sugary junk, I'd eat a handful of plain sugar.
Even today, I love sweets. And of course, a lot of this has to do with my behaviours and associated memories of eating sweets as a kid. Festival times, for example, would involve lots of family and lots and lots of sweets in the house. Even after the holidays ended, cue sad face, the sweets and bakshanams will remain.
And I would never stop at one. Any time I reached for something to eat, the bare minimum would be two pieces and almost always, a handful.
These are habits that continue to plague me today.
While I know and understand that eating too many sweets is not a great idea, nor does it make me feel good, I still occasionally do idiotic things. And when I step back and observe, the same patterns emerge.
It starts with having sweets and junk in the house. When I buy it, I am in a lot more control of it. But when someone sends something across, it feels like "I have to eat it." Which might sound stupid, but that's how it is.
And it gets out of control occasionally. Post dinner, I'd suddenly behave like how I would if I was 10 years old and go to bed eating a pile of sweets. And feel a bit bloated the next morning. And wonder why I did what I did.
Again, with the hat of sensible thinking the next day, I can again trace this pattern back to one, or a combination of,
not eating enough vegetables
not eating enough protein
not drinking enough water
stress
Always. It simply comes down to this. I know this. You know this.
But yet, there I am, yet again, with a tub of sweets, munching away to glory with my book.
What I continue to realise is it is not just about knowing what to do. For example, I know I should be eating more veggies. I know I should not be storing a lot of sweets in my house (and instead order when I'd like).
But I still do it. In defiance of what I'd like to do.
And to continue stating the obvious, there's a part of me that's clear about doing this. This self-sabotage. Pretending it is a surprise is the idiotic part.
Instead, what I think I can get better with, beyond eating like an adult and cleaning up my pantry, is to simply enjoy the days I do want to indulge. Rather than pretend that it came about my accident, I can design them better.
Instead of eating the random junk in my house, an act that is out of control and leaves me with a sub-par experience, I can simply order the junk I feel like eating and have a great evening. Requires a pause. Choosing not to pause is also a choice that I've made.
When I zoom out and see my patterns, it looks so silly and obvious. But when I am in the middle of it, I have a blind spot like all of us.
The only thing to do is to go back to basics. Eat more vegetables and drink more water. And clean out my pantry.
So, after a week of eating crap every evening, I've re-realised my own advice.
Begin again.
And maybe, it is time to question my identity/label as well of "I have a sweet tooth." Coz I was never a morning person, and yet, I love waking up early. I was never an "exercise person", and yet, here I am.
Fix your sleep posture. Is that even a thing?
Do you wake up with a stiff neck or a slight ache in your back? Or perhaps you feel a tightness in your hip?
It could be related to how you sleep.
I used to wake up with a stiff neck quite often. The solution to that issue was rather counter-intuitive. I stopped using a pillow. This is because my neck and the rest of my body was in a better posture without the pillow than with the pillow. If you are someone who's at 4 pillows, going to zero will only make your issue worse. So, don't take "remove pillows" as the takeaway here.
I also used to wake up with a weird niggle in my back. How stupid and awful is that? At least, the neck I can understand. Until I realised that I was sleeping on my belly with one leg semi-straight and the other leg bent quite a bit. This made my hips rather tight on one side and caused an issue for me.
I decided to fix it and learn to sleep in savasana. Once again, this might not work for you and I recommend you check out this article for how to modify savasana to suit you better.
The idea sounds simple. But the execution was not so simple.
I'd go to bed looking like this guy in the photo. I'd wake up looking like this.
So, I put obstructions around myself to make it uncomfortable if I shifted postures or positions while asleep. If I tried to turn to my side, I'd have an uncomfortably large pillow blocking me. If I tried to put my leg over it, it was distinctly uncomfortable. After a few shuffles, I'd go back to savasana. As stupid as the idea was, it worked!
The point is not to sleep in savasana but to determine if you are spending a third of your day worsening your posture, rather than recovering. Identifying the correct prop could make a huge change. For example, putting a pillow under my knee helped tremendously to settle my lower back down better. For you, it might be to elevate your upper back as well as the neck.
Take your time to do this and play around with what feels good.
And then slowly increase the amount of time you spend every night over there. Or you can be an impatient person like me and jump to the end. I got lucky, to be quite honest.
Improve the quality of your sleep and your posture. Find the best posture for you. And see what you are missing out on!
Note: The savasana modification images are from the article I mentioned earlier - accessibleyoga.blogspot.com
3 quotes for the week
There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid.
– Derek Sivers
We are quick to judge. That fellow is an idiot, or this person's a fool. Or most often, you are talking about yourself. All of which is unhelpful and inaccurate.
All of us do stupid things. All of us do idiotic things. That doesn't make us idiots. That just makes us humans who tend to occasionally do idiotic things.
The product is what your customer feels as he walks out of your business.
– Michael E Gerber
You are not selling a commodity. You are selling a feeling.
People don't come to The Quad to squat more weights, even though that is what I tell them they will be able to do at the end of the quarter. They come coz of the feeling that arises in them when they feel stronger or express their body's capability.
"The greatest illusion," said the mole, "is that life should be perfect."
– Charlie Mackesy
Have you bought this book yet?!?!
Thanks for reading! And if you have any feedback or thoughts, I’d love to hear them.