Weekly Challenge: Get At Least 8 Hours of Sleep Each Night

Can you believe it...

It's almost been two weeks since I wrote anything on here! You see, this always happens when I blog, and it's precisely why when I first made this blog, I added the caveat that I will post only when I feel like it. Because there invariably are times when I go almost a full two weeks--or two months--without even signing in. Terrible. But admitting it will happen helps me to feel a little less guilty. To some extent.

Anywho, part of the reason I haven't posted in a while is because last week, I adhered to a new regimen--I challenged myself to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. I discovered that it actually was quite a challenge, and I had to make sacrifices in other parts of my life in order to accommodate this new lifestyle change. I couldn't stay up as late, I rarely used an alarm, and I did NOT make it to the gym in the morning as often. Actually, I don't think I made it to the gym in the morning AT ALL last week!

In the past, I held firm to the convenient belief that I functioned optimally if I got exactly 6.5 hours of sleep each night. Then, after a week or so, I would treat myself to a thoroughly satisfying sleep binge. This conviction was further reinforced by the fact that whenever I got more than 8 hours of sleep, I awoke feeling groggy and lethargic. So why would I waste time sleeping when it could be spent doing other things... especially since that extra sleep seemed to make me LESS lively?

Most people know that studies advocating the importance of 8 hours of sleep a night are quite the ubiquity, and after this past week, I am totally sold. Not only did I sleep more soundly than I've slept in a while, but I awoke feeling invigorated and alert. And as an unexpected but welcome side effect, I dreamt every single night. And I never dream!

Really makes me wonder if there is a correlation between length of sleep and dream vividness, because my sister would hibernate for what seemed like 14 hours a night (and sometimes it didn't seem like 14 hours... it WAS 14 hours) and then would proceed to spend the next hour and a half recounting to the rest of our family every minute detail of the complex and elaborate dream she just had. So, I think I will label this discovery a veritable revelation.

As I mentioned earlier (and in the title of this post), my challenge was to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. This is part of this new thing I'm doing which for lack of a better, more creative term, I'll call a "Weekly Challenge." Basically, it entails doing something new or trying a new lifestyle for a week. The week before last was when I delved into pescetarianism. Last week was getting 8 hours of sleep a night. This week? Well, I guess I'll consider this week a hiatus week, primarily because I simply forgot to commit to a new challenge. Oops!

The idea of the Weekly Challenge is inspired by a number of sources, including the following two TED talks:

Try Something New for 30 Days

Weekday Vegetarian

The Weekly Challenge concept is pretty awesome because it allows me to live differently with relative impunity. The weekly pescetarian thing? Like Graham Hill says in the latter of the two above TED talks... the concept of my last hamburger is just too daunting a prospect to be even remotely appealing. So I get to "try on" pescetarianism for a week, and if you read the post two posts ago, you know that I really enjoyed it. Ended up having some of the best tofu I've ever had! And actually, at dinner tonight my pescetarian tendencies resulted in an absolutely delicious potato burger thingamajig. I honestly just don't remember what was in it and I definitely don't remember what it was called, but it was just amazing. And, consequently, probably more nutritious than the beef burger I would have normally ordered.

Yes, I know, it's a pretty pedestrian way of determining the relative nutrition value of different menu items, but in the absence of any real nutritional understanding, I adhere to the following formula:

red meat < poultry < fish < vegetables

Hey, it's a start, right?

So the Weekly Challenge is something that I've completed successfully twice at this point, and I look forward to many more Weekly Challenges in the weeks to come. Some ideas I've brainstormed include:

- drink at least 64 oz of water a day

- don't buy anything new

- actually manage to adhere to my schedule

- don't eat out (might not be possible, actually)

- journal every evening

- write a thank you card each day

- say hi to strangers

- call up a friend to catch up everyday

- be early for everything

- exercise every day

- speak negatively, never

- meditate every morning

- eat according to the food pyramid

- try one new thing everyday

So excited. The Weekly Challenge gives me the motivation and accountability to sample a new lifestyle each week... tell me that isn't such a perfect ambition for someone who keeps a blog called "Go Explore Life."

The Vibram Fivefingers, Image, and Authenticity

I'm a big fan of running, and recently (relatively) I purchased a $100 pair of Vibram Fivefingers. Quite pricey (or "spendy" if you're from the Pacific Northwest). Here's the thing: as much as I love running, I love it even MORE in the Vibram Fivefingers. If you're not familiar, here's a link:

http://www.rei.com/product/811202/vibram-fivefingers-komodosport-multisport-shoes-mens

Those are exactly the ones I have. I don't recall them being $110 when I bought mine at REI, but no matter.

So why do I like my Vibram Fivefingers? Here's the gist of it:

The Vibrams simulate barefoot running, which forces you to land on your forefoot when you run, rather than your heel. While for many people it might initially feel unnatural, it's actually more biomechanically efficient. Landing on your forefoot utilizes your joints for a springier running experience, which consequently absorbs more of the physical impact of running. Basically, it's the way we as a species evolved to run... or so the theory goes. Additionally, the most biomechanically efficient running cadence is 180 steps per minute, and running in "minimalist" footwear makes you take shorter, faster strides. This gets your cadence much closer to the 180 steps per minute that most people are WELL below when they run.

If you made it through that last relatively technical paragraph, I want you to know that the biomechanical efficiency of it all isn't the primary reason I am all about these shoes, however. I really just ENJOY running a lot more in them.

Tonight I ran 4 miles in them at Loyola's Fitness and Aquatic Center (FAC). Invariably, the weird shoes draw perturbed stares from many fashion-conscious strangers, but as long as you have the emotional fortitude and self-confidence to pull them off, they are fantastic. I lapped everybody on the 1/10 mile track. Granted, there were only 2 other people... but that's irrelevant to the fact that these shoes rock.

So I think the essence of what I want to talk about here, going along with the theme of exploring life, isn't so much what I did today or what I was wearing while doing it. It's really more about WHY I enjoy these shoes. The fact that they are weird--and the fact that as the wearer I typically inherit that impression--doesn't at all prevent me from running in them. I really love running in them. I think the fact I wear these shoes also says a lot about me. Bear with me here...

We all do different things for different reasons. Someone might wear these weird looking shoes because they are into the latest trends. In fact, when I was in Los Angeles over Spring Break I was on Venice Beach and saw a woman running in them. But she was running in them totally wrong. She was heel striking, and landing heel first in these shoes is even WORSE than doing it in regular running shoes, because these have so little cushioning on these. What I deduced from that observation was that she was wearing them because they represented the newest trend in running--which they did and still do--and she delved into that trend without actually educating herself first. She wore them not because the style of running they are conducive to is more biomechanically efficient but because they were cool.

Okay, you might be reading this and be thinking, "Chris, that's a lot of assumptions to be making about a stranger you saw for a full 8 seconds," but given the details I just shared and the fact that this was taking place on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, I think my assumptions are sufficiently justified. We'll never know, and that's really not the point of what I'm trying to make, anyway.

The point I'm trying to make--after I point out right now that as evidenced by the previous two paragraphs I can very easily fall into unnecessarily intellectual tirades--is that I would never wear these shoes for that reason. I think that reason is entirely, purely, COMPLETELY about IMAGE, and I am NOT an image type of person. I would consider myself a SUBSTANCE type of person. This is what I think my reason for wearing the Vibrams says about me.

I don't wear these to look trendy. I don't wear these to look cool. I don't wear these to look fast. I DEFINITELY don't wear these to look stylish.

Those reasons are all about image.

I wear these because they increase my enjoyment of something I already enjoy. It's about the experience. It's about substance.

So, are you about IMAGE? Or are you about SUBSTANCE?

If I had asked myself that question a few years ago, I think I would have told you I was all about substance. I mean, who wouldn't? But the real answer was that I was all about image. I was all about what others thought of me. Being liked, making a positive impression, gaining approval--these were things that were at the forefront of my decision-making process each day. And who can blame me? Everyone wants to be liked, and everyone wants to be right. The approval of others makes you feel both of those.

But when I ask myself that question now--and I am confronted with that decision every day, all day--I can honestly say that it is substance that appeals to me, not image. I value integrity. I value authenticity. Image for me represents that mask we all wear when we want to look good. Image is cool. But substance is so much more than being cool. It's about being true. True to yourself. Extremely cliche, I know, but it's cliche for a reason. Substance represents authenticity and integrity. And that is what I am all about.

Wow, who would have thought a post about shoes would transform into a post about integrity. Not me when I started writing it, that's for sure!

My Weekday Pescetarianism

There's this new thing I started this week. I call it, "weekday pescetarianism." And it was inspired by this TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

I'd encourage you to click the link above and watch that if you have 4 minutes and 4 seconds to spare. It's good.

Anywho, so what is weekday pescetarianism? Basically, the premise is that during the work week, I abide by a pescetarian diet, and then on weekends I eat whatever I want. So I reap the health benefits of pescetarianism while still getting to enjoy a juicy turkey burger or chicken burrito on the weekend. The prospect of eating my LAST hamburger was just not an appealing thought.

If by this point you've made it this far into the blog post and still don't know what "pescetarian" means, I'm guessing you aren't planning on looking it up... and since knowing what it means is pretty integral to making any sense out of this post, I'll just tell you. A pescetarian diet is basically vegetarian, but you can eat seafood. It's a portmanteau of the words "pesce" (Italian for "fish") and "vegetarian." Hence, "pescetarian."

So on Monday I started my weekday pescetarianism. There have been two or three times throughout the week so far when I've had to consciously choose NOT to eat meat. Monday I ate at Thai One On in Towson, and instead of getting my usual Chicken Pad Thai, Chicken Panang Curry, or Chicken Mussaman Curry, I took a risk and ordered what turned out the be the most delicious TOFU Drunken Noodle dish ever. Simply fantastic. Then today I ate at Boulder (a dining area on Loyola's campus) and ordered a veggie burger which turned out to be just downright amazing. Who knew? Both tofu and veggie burgers have been hit or miss for me in the past but my thoroughly positive experiences with them this week are leading me to rethink my opinion of them.

I figure there are probably lots of benefits to a pescetarian diet over a meat diet, but honestly, I haven't done enough research to spout facts to you. A quick Google of "pescetarian diet benefits" yields this as the top result though:

http://www.pescetarianlife.com

I'm sure they have lots of great information on there, and I will put it in my "Reading List" folder in my bookmarks to be read at a future time. Feel free to read that though, if you feel so inclined and happen to be more curious than I am at the moment about the health benefits of a pescetarian diet.

Why am I not particularly interested in the health benefits? Don't get me wrong, I AM interested in the health benefits... I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel it would be beneficial. But really, for me the appeal of trying weekday pescetarianism isn't so much the health benefits, but the NEWNESS of the experience. This blog is about "exploring life," and that's what weekday pescetarianism is all about for me. It's new. And I'm trying it on. I'm exploring that experience, in a way. And I anticipate exploring many more things in the future. That's how I learn about life.

So weekday pescetarianism for me is a new thing, and we'll see how long it lasts. At the very least, it will last until I've tried it on long enough to decide it's not the thing for me. So far so good, and I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, give some thought to one of my favorite icebreaker questions:

When's the last time you did something for the first time?