Walk with me: Sleep & Swings

Sleep Progress

It’s almost two weeks of having successfully switched from being mostly nocturnal to being awake (and productive!) during the day. I’m not sure how big a factor sleep timing is to sleep quality, but I’m convinced it’s a huge factor. Which is pretty important for the overall health and weight loss journey.

Despite experiencing a bit of a slowdown as Winter has started, I’m very grateful to have made significant progress improving sleep. The sum total of the following strategies have made a huge difference:

I took the following steps to gradually shift my waking hours.

• Night light settings

  On both my phone and computer, I turned on the night light setting that turns the screen orange-ish to mimic sunset. I’ve set both to be sufficiently intense that it’s fairly uncomfortable to focus on for a long period of time. This has helped reduce night screen time.

• Sleep Cover

  Purchasing a cover for my eyes definitely helped me reduce night time light. Instead of worrying about eliminating every light source, this works fairly well to block out basically all light. It’s a good tool to resist the temptation to doomscroll all night.

• Natural Lighting

  Instead of keeping the blinds closed to regain some sleep in the mornings, I’ve opened them entirely to get what little sunlight there is in these Winter mornings. I can definitely say this seems to have been the single change that made the biggest difference. It made me wake up a couple of days with less sleep than I would like, but that really helps keep me tired at night time.

• Putting the time in

  Shifting the sleep schedule took time. Spending a couple of hours a day immersed in darkness at night time really did pay off. It was a frustrating time-sink but it absolutely made a serious difference. In the moment it felt pointless but in hindsight I think it really did have a massive impact on my ability to turn things around quickly.

• Electrolytes

  One of my biggest challenges in the morning was being able to get things done during the early mornings. It has come to my attention that I was merely dehydrated in the mornings. I noticed a radical shift when I tried having just a normal sports electrolyte mix before I go to sleep.

Kettlebell Swings

I’ve decided I’m going to try to take on lower weight kettlebell swings as a daily exercise. This is partially motivated my goal target of 100lbs down by 2025. I’m 20lbs away and have 20 days to go. It’s achievable, but I need to figure out how to be more active during these cold winter days. So the solution is to use a 15lb kettlebell to do a decent amount of swings.

I’m excited, because I believe this might be the thing that keeps me on track during this month. I’ve also purchased an exercise mat to do basic body-weight exercises that I can do from home. The more progress I can make without leaving the house, the better. I’m quite close to being able to do unmodified lunges, and bodyweight squats are something I’ve been able to do for some time.

Last night I did 65 kettlebell swings right before sleeping (maybe not the best idea) and this morning I did 100 (4 sets of 25). I’m hoping to continue to improve. In the short term I want to make sure I’m getting really comfortable with the form before I push much further. Of course, my impatience will absolutely see me pushing 150, 200 swings a day once I feel comfortable with the form.

More improvement

I still need to get better at documenting the hard times. Despite my positive updates, there are absolutely challenges in this process. It is incredibly difficult emotionally at times and I want to document it better if for no other reason to remind myself in the future. It’s incredibly hard to bear being in huge amounts of pain that’s inevitable when really making progress. In attempting a new body-weight exercise, I’ve definitely pushed the limits of my body as it is. Some of my back muscles were in extreme pain for a couple of days and unfortunately I tend to take pain and discomfort personally.

It’s very challenging to be in so much pain and still frustrated with the reality of being severely obese. It’s very difficult to sustain so much effort for what feels like so little at times. While I logically recognize that being 80lbs down is a huge accomplishment and a major improvement, having a lot left to do really dulls the feeling. I’m trying to get better at appreciating the milestones.

Thanks for tuning in!

Despite many people congratulating me for the courage in talking about my journey publicly, I’ve found it one of the few purely gratifying parts of this. I regularly get a great deal of encouragement from people finding me sharing this informative or helpful. I can definitely say that the kindness of others throughout this process has made much of what I’ve been doing a great deal easier. Not every day is fun or a new milestole, but I’m incredibly appreciative of those who take the time to share some thoughts.

• @masta0f1eave@shitpost.poridge.club wrote:

  Slowly reading through whole blog of Gabe, and it gives me joy. So much dedication, keep it up Gabriel!

  Post in question: https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/

• I got a kind message from another fellow techie who is beginning to lose weight himself. He’s at a much lower starting point, but it’s encouraging to see others make progress as well.