The Opposite of GAINZZZ Is Not Hate.
The Opposite of GAINZZZ is Stelter.

So here's something super-gay that a lot of you will make fun of me for forever. Whatever, at least it's blog-content.

I can't nap, just not an ability I have. Wish I did. Would make travel a lot easier.

For those who can't sleep. Andrew Huberman (a good health/neuroscience podcast on YouTube) says that you can get most of the benefits of a nap (a nap defined as a short bout of sleep, not longer than 45 minutes or so) through what he calls -- inventing a scientific-sounding specification to avoid using a non-scientific one -- a "Non-Sleep Deep Rest Protocol."

I used to get these Non-Sleep Deep Rest Protocols when I went to restorative yoga a few times after martial arts. (Just stretching and stuff for recovery.) I did find it very restful. I'd say it's about three-quarters of a short nap.

The non-scientific term Huberman is trying to avoid is yoga nidra, or "yoga dream," in English. It's a guided meditation taking about twenty minutes based on the idea that while you can't empty your brain of all thoughts, you can try to concentrate on just one or two minor, non-stressful, non-taxing thoughts, and thus empty your brain of most exertion, and thus mostly quiet your brain and give it a semi-nap.

This is often likened to putting a leash on the mad monkey running around in your brain dashing from this circuit that one, pushing buttons and flipping switches.

I think Huberman recommended this particular video for the NSDRP. It worked for me. But all yoga nidra scripts are essentially the same thing with very minor variations.

One thing, I think maybe Indians call the forefinger or index finger "the second finger" (I guess the thumb is their "first finger") so this guy refers to your thumb and then "your second finger." I note this because the whole point of this is to not be focused on any particular thing and if you hear "second finger" you, like me, might wind up going, "Wait, what about the forefinger? Are we just completely ignoring the index finger?"

If you prefer a female Australian voice, and who doesn't, try this one.

There are also variations of this intended to be played at bedtime to help insomniacs fall asleep. I've found this to be a 50/50 proposition. Sometimes I just wind up focusing on the script and that keeps me focused and thus not drifting into sleep for a while.

My own GAINZZZ are small but decent. I had a good walk-sprint sesh last Sunday and had my fastest sprint yet. I felt like the T-1000 chasing John Connor.

I've also got my Intermittent Fasting on lock. Most days it's 18:6 (only taking calories in a six hour window, from around 2pm to 8pm). Some days it's 20-4, from 4pm to 8pm.

Lost two (maybe closer to three) pounds and am sleeping better.

If you want to try this, remember, you're already fasting when you're asleep, so there's 6-8 hours of fasting right there. Make sure you don't eat three hours before bed (it disturbs your sleep anyway) and put off eating or drinking calories (you can have black coffee or tea without milk) for at least an hour after waking up and you've got 10-12 hours of fasting as a starting point.

Then just end eating an hour earlier and put off eating an hour later every few days until you start eating at around noon or 1pm, and finish eating at 7pm or 8pm. That puts you on an 8 hour eating window, with a sixteen hour window of fasting, which is a 16:8 intermittent daily fast.

There is a period of adjustment and yes your body's clock will tell you you need food when it's accustomed to having food. You don't actually need food at that time; that's just the time your body has been conditioned to expect it, so that's the time it pulses out hunger hormones to spur you into eating. Your body will retrain to adapt to a new eating schedule in a couple of weeks. Not gonna lie, though, those hunger signal will be distracting at first, which is why it's best to just expand your fasting period by an hour maybe every three or four days (or two hours per week, one hour after three days, another hour after four).

(Actually I think it's probably better to just do it all in one go and gut your way through it but everyone says do it slowly so I'll just repeat what the namby-pamby "experts" say.)

I had been on an IF schedule for years and it was automatic and effortless to keep it. But when I went off it, and tried to get back on it, it was a bitch. And I had to go through the nagging hunger pangs again.

It takes an upfront payment in willpower and self-denial. Then the body resets its expectations of its feeding times, and the hunger goes away (or, rather, comes at the new schedule you've set).

Sixteen hours of fasting is recommended because the body begins burning small amounts of fat at 11 hours of fasting and then ramps up to burn a significant amount of fat at fourteen hours of fasting. So at sixteen hours of fasting, you're getting two solid hours of fat burning daily. If you can extend that to an 18 hour window or 20 hour window, that's better, but 16 hours is good.

What about yo' GAINZZ? Have the cigarette-quitters quit the cigarettes? Or the booze-cutters cut the booze?

How are National Novel Writing Month writers doing? Personally, I had a good week before the start of NaNoWriMo and then completely stopped November 1. I'm going to restart this weekend.

And other PROJECTZZZ or PLANZZZ? Share with the group!

I love this great meme Oregon Muse posted in the Morning Rant:

Thanks for being Good Company.

We've shed many from our company. All of them were delicate men.

Some of them were Wine Aunts but I guess they couldn't fit that on the poster.

posted by Ace at 05:23 PM

| Access Comments