Elvis oatmeal.

I cleaned the cups out of my car this morning.  Pretty indicative of my life...one CF water bottle (um, Mel, we need some DCF bottles,yo), one coffee mug, one triathlon water bottle, one Jeff sippy cup and one child's sippy bottle.

I wanted to post last night but here's the thing: I passed out on the couch watching American Horror Story at around 10pm, maybe sooner.  And then I slept solidly until 7am.  That's 9 hours of great sleep there, folks.  And you know what...that is what is required to keep this shizzle up.  I am now remembering the last (ok, the only previous) time I did a challenge.  It was a paleo challenge through my old gym and, like this one, we got a point for working out.  So I was pretty rigorous about making it to the gym and also eating right.  (Of course, this challenge makes a paleo challenge look like a walk in the park...an apple with, like, 5 TB of almond butter sounds pretty awesome right about now.)  What I noticed then, and I am noticing now, is that my energy is super great throughout the day.  Evenly great.  Not highs and lows like it normally is.  But when it's time for sleep, well, it's lights OUT, baby.  I'm not sure if this is a result of the change in diet or the increase in exercise or a combination of both.

But I'll tell you what, it's a change I can live with just fine.  It actually forces a change I have been meaning to make for a while, which is to get ready for bed before bedtime.  I think we can all relate to this...I often delay getting into bed because I am too tired to get ready for bed.  That's just a dumb problem to have now, isn't it?  But it's true.  Before bed, I MUST: (1) wash my face; (2) brush my teeth; (3) take my "vitamins" (we'll go with that); and (4) pee. (Confession: one time in college I peed in the bed.  I may or may not have been alone.  And ever since then I have been convinced it will happen again unless I pee right before bed -- as in, if I read in bed for 10 minutes I need to go pee again -- or if I drink water during the night.  Jeff has assured me that I will not pee in bed and if I do it is ok and that I should drink water at night but, nope, I'm taking this one to my grave. If I die in bed, at least my sheets will be dry.)

With the knowledge that these "tasks" must be completed before getting in bed, I will often lay on the couch going in and out of crappy sleep rather than just going up and settling in.  And then I have to do all that stuff in a haze or, even worse, I come out of my haze and then I'm up for another 1/2 hour when really my body just wanted to go the f&%$ to sleep.  So, yeah, I am going to do all my crap early tonight, like right after the prison guards deliver my final meal for the night I eat my last blocks for the day.

Here's a positive note: I had Elvis oatmeal for breakfast today and it was a hunka hunka burning delicious.

Elvis oatmeal: 1/3 cups steel-cut oatmeal with 1/3 a banana and 2/3 tsp. raw peanut butter.  2 blocks carb, 2 blocks fat.  Oh and that's just my jerky (2 blocks protein) in the background because who doesn't love a little jerky for breakfast?