Exhaustion...

I recently re-learned the importance of sleeping!! See..a backstory to my work life. For almost a year now, I've been working the graveyard shift, 8pm - 4:30am. Because of that, I joined Planet Fitness, a 24 hour gym. Great idea, right?! I worked out a couple of times before going to work, o after. Unfortunately, as the months went by, I started to skip on my workouts, and slack off, until I literally just went to the gym like once a month. Wait, I got a little bit off track. Point is, I used to work the graveyard shift, yeah. Recently, I got bumped to a "normal people" shift, starting at 6am. On my night off, between my overnight shift and my new 6am shift, I decided to workout it with my BJJ and Coastie friends. We did cardio and core, and later we went to out BJJ practice. Btw, if my Polar watch is correct, we burned almost 500 calories in an hour's worth of exercise. That was the pre-BJJ workout. I don't wear my watch for BJJ.

I felt fine afterwords. Everything was burning (no pain, no gain, right?), and I even figured that I was tired early enough to go to bed and start my 6am shift well rested.

WRONG!

Since my sleeping pattern is still in graveyard shift mode, I couldn't go to sleep until 3am, only to wake up at 4:30am. And go to work.

That first day working at 6am wasn't too bad. I just felt tired. I got a little dizzy at the beginning of my shift. That was about it. So I still worked out that night. The next day was hell. I was gonna go train again with my friends, but I just couldn't bare to even stand on my own. I was weak, dizzy, walking all "drunken" like. I even cried after work cause I was just so damn tired. I was even falling asleep on the road. As soon as I got home, I decided I needed to go to bed.......at 7pm. Slept like a friggin' baby, until 4:30am!

Long story short, don't overkill yourself with your workouts. I'm so desperate to get back into the shape I was a couple of years ago, that I was skipping on my sleep. My own body kinda just shut down. It's also been on a lethargic stint, that it couldn't handle two back to back workouts like it used to. I'll be able to get back to that point. I'm starting right, again...

Oh, btw, here are some nice pics from the USCG here in Old San Juan. I loved training there!

Very Berry Overnight Oats

Ho-lee SHIT! Man, I've made overnight oats before, but they were always just kinda bland...until my most recent overnight oats experiment. I present to you my Very Berry Overnight Oats:

1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tsp. chia seeds
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
raspberries and blueberries*

*Berries of choice. I really didn't measure the berries. And notice how I didn't add any stevia, or agave nectar to my mix. Why? Because fruits already have sugar as it is.

Mix the oats, greek yogurt, almond milk, chia seeds, and cinnamon. If you want a more "liquidy", go ahead and pour some more almond milk into the mixture. Pour the mixture in an air tight container (glass or plastic). I layered my mixture as if it were a parfait. Refrigerated overnight. I left it for 12 hours. And, ta-da!! Devour it like there's no tomorrow!

Enjoy!!

Fat rage, instead of 'roid rage...

Man, I haven't updated this in ages. Why? Cause I got fat...I feel like one of those athletes who were caught cheating, or using steroids (no hate towards A-Rod), or even like a President after a scandal. I feel like I let, not only myself, a lot of people down. When I started my weight loss journey, I had inspired a few of my friends even. My friend Jen (http://theroadto100-jennifer.blogspot.com) had even started her own weight loss journey. I felt powerful, and not in the evil-power kinda way. I felt like I was an example, and proved that anyone could do it. I know there are NO EXCUSES, but I guess I'll throw my excuses for now: - work (different shifts. working overnight, switching to a normal shift, etc) - relationships (a few toxic guys in my life here and there) - money (no money to buy quality food to make quality meals) - sucky gym (lamest of the excuses, but I had switched from LA Boxing to Planet Fitness due to my overnight work schedule) - injuries (guess who messed up her shoulder again? and now I need surgery!) - etc.. Anyway, I need to rebuild myself. I need to be my own inspiration. If I did it once, I can do it again. And I need to do it again. It just sucks that I let myself, and everybody else down.