Today has been mostly a rest day.  

 

I had 4 miles marked on my plan for the Eat Drink & Be Skinny 100 Mile Month Challenge (http://eatdrinkandbeskinny.com/).  I only managed to walk 2.75 miles and logged 6,136 steps with Fitbit today.  I am fine with this.  I did more than the 25 miles a week average last week, and I am sure I will find time later in the week to make up my loss from today's plan and yesterday's plan.  

 

Today was a rest Day on the Fitbit Friends (check for this in Fitbit Friends group on www.facebook.com under events, or check my Squat Challenge photo in my Dietbet blog section).  So, I took it as such for that challenge.

 

Today was also a rest Day for the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans Lose the Love Handles Challenge (http://shrinkingjeans.net/).  I took that recommendation for thes exercises as well.

 

After my walking and a rest, I started with the challenge exercises that were up for me for today.  I did not start the Blogilates 30 Day Flat Abs Challenge (http://www.blogilates.com/) at the beginning of the month like I did with the other challenges.  I just started yesterday by doing days 1 & 2.  

 

Today I started my exercises with Day 3 which was 7 Roll Ups, 7 Ankle Reaches & 7 Double Leg Lifts

 

Day 10 on the Blogilates 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge (http://www.blogilates.com/)  was for 10 Squats, 10 Pointed Butt Lifts, 10 Fire Hyrdrants, and 8 Heel Kicks.

 

After doing day 10 of the Butt Lift Challenge, I went back to the Blogilates (http://www.blogilates.com/) Flat Abs Challenge for Day 4 also.  Day 4 of that was 8 Roll Ups, 8 Ankle Reaches, and 8 Double Leg Lifts.  

 

I then finished by doing some floor stretches for my hips and lower back, and I did a few cat/cow poses, a couple Down dog poses to stretch everything out.  Then I did tree pose for 10-15 second each side and some mountain poses, reaching up then coming back down into forward fold a few times.  

 

I wish I could describe the floor stretches and some of my other poses a little bit better, but I wasn't really going off anything in particular and I am not very accustomed to the pose or asana names yet.  I just made sure to get in some stretches since I have not been doing Yoga the past few days.

 

I have been very tired and haven't had much energy for exercising this week as my time of the month has hit me.  

 

However, when I lie down in bed, I have a bad habit of reading messages on my Dietbet games then and on Facebook in the groups I am in there.  I start responding and following other responses and spend so much time reading and posting hours and hours go by and I am not getting the sleep I need.  I did not end up going to sleep until almost 3:00 PM today.  I went to bed at 6:00 AM and tried all that time to get to sleep.  

 

What is worse is that my fitbit sleep charts always show more time awake ... me waking up and tossing and turning ... than me sleeping.  I slept a total of 3 hours and 26 minutes today and had 197 minutes of waking up whiile trying to sleep.  

 

This is a little bit worse than usual, but the majority of my days from the past month don't have much more than 5 hours of total actual sleep time no matter how long I was in bed trying to sleep.  A lot of them the past month even say 4 hours and XX minutes.  

 

I need to get better and putting the phone away and not reading messages when I go to bed.  I need to take the time to turn on my nightly guided meditations and just go to sleep.  I hope that eventually without stimulating my brain right before trying to go to bed, hopefully I will be able to stay asleep better too.  

 

I have been doing great at getting my exercises in these past few months since I joined Dietbet.  I have been doing great at meeting my calorie goals 98% of the time these past few months.  I even eat a lot more fresh healthier foods, and drink more water most days.  

 

Now, the last thing I need to tackle is the sleep.  My exercise and calories and food are starting to suffer from being so tired all the time now too.  That is where I draw the line.  

 

I feel like I am cheating myself not doing Yoga since last Thursdaynight/Friday morning.  I feel like I am cheating myself by not doing any more Blogilates videos since doing one last Friday night/Saturday morning.  However, the best way to approach being able to get back into the swing of doing those Yoga and Blogilates videos is to get my sleep situation under control first.