Weekend!
There are two things that I really should have seen coming, but totally didn’t.
The first is something that I am sure that tens of thousands of good Patriotic people have learned before me: The God Bless America Red White And Blue Cheesecake ends up being Pink, Cream, and Periwinkle. I mean, had I merely devoted five minutes of thought to it, I’d have easily concluded that it won’t be the colors of the flag but the colors of the food, plus or minus a shade here or there. Instead, I only devoted three minutes of thought to it and concluded that people would make fun of the God Bless America Red White And Blue Cheesecake because a layer cheesecake in a clear plastic bowl is recreating the flag of the Netherlands, not the flag of the United States.
As it turns out, the flag of the Netherlands is also not particularly Pink, Cream, or Periwinkle.
So I’m going to put a layer of cool whip on top and slice up some strawberries for stripes and put a field of blueberries in the upper left corner and call it good. And if people make fun of it, I will point them to the sugar-free popsicles in the fridge.
The second thing that I really should have seen coming, but totally didn’t is that exercise imposes costs on other parts of your life. I’ve started needing more sleep. Back when I didn’t exercise, like, at all, I only needed 6 hours of sleep a night. I’d wake up raring to go and was ready to fill another 18 hours with sedentary action. Jogging makes me go to bed an hour earlier and hit snooze for a half hour the next morning.
It’s not just the 16 minutes and change to jog a half mile and powerwalk a half mile. It’s an additional 90 minutes of sleep that it takes from me. This is a total rip-off.
As such, this weekend will be devoted to neither jogging nor making particularly patriotic cheesecakes. The former is something that can wait until Wednesday and the latter is something that I have gotten out of my system (though, this time last year, I had no idea that it was something that was in my system).
I’m lucky enough to have enough vacation time saved up to give up a day for Monday, so I’ve got a 4-day weekend before me. Leisurely chores, errands, and, perhaps, a savory cheesecake await (use BREAD CRUMBS for the crust! Of course!) and a lot of Diablo III Necromancing.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
A concert on Saturday. The National Orchestral Institute is a program that runs on the University of Maryland campus during June, and attracts some of the best students in the country. Tomorrow is their final concert of the season, Tchaikovsky and Elgar.
If I remember correctly, Richard is the OT local who loves chamber music. You should have been there last night. A great program. It opened with a medley of Lady Gaga songs performed by four bassoons. There was Mozart, Ravel, Britten, and a few others. It ended with Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet No.1, Op. 20. The encore was a piece by William Bolcom. He’s an interesting composer, influenced by atonality and ragtime. I know you said that you like modern music. You should look these pieces up on YouTube.Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w75givGydukReport
Definitely the same score. The presentation last night had better musicianship, but inferior choreography. They were dressed in t-shirts and shorts, with ties worn as headbands. No percussion. They get extra points because one of the performers was the director of the NOI.Report
I don’t know that I find exercise makes me require more sleep, but I do find I have a hard time falling asleep right after exercising – the rec league soccer games I was playing up till last week were great and fun and messing up my Monday night sleep something awful. It’s pretty unusual that I don’t get something like an hour’s moderate exercise in a day, but also fairly unusual that I get a lot more (commuting to an office job by bike, plus housework and gardening, basically), so maybe I’m just seeing the ‘increased’ amount of sleep you notice as the ‘regular’ amount of sleep I need. But if I have an extra physically active day, I don’t seem to need any extra sleep.
Canada day is tomorrow, we’ll very likely be going to the fireworks, as one does. Some friends have their housewarming also that evening, about which we were hemming and hawing last we talked (due to logistics of transportation and timing w.r.t. fireworks).
I have Monday off as a day in lieu of the stat, which is nice.Report
I am right there with you. Now I’m a fond of sleep creature by nature (I can sleep just about any time I want to) but on workout days there’s no comparing the commensurate deep intense timeless sleep I plunge into to awaken unhappily on work days or blissfully sleep until late morning on weekend.
Make sure you try and budget enough sleep time for yourself. It is when your body is in its sleep cycle that an enormous amount of the benefit of exercise is delivered so if you work out hard but shortchange yourself on sleep you’re basically sabotaging your results. If you awaken thirsty/with nature calling but feel tired still and have no other requirements for that morning attend to your needs, drink a bunch of water and go back to sleep if you can.Report
I think the “need more sleep” thing is worse when you’re starting (e.g., first year or so) an exercise program. I remember having big problems staying awake mid-morning the first few months I was doing exercise (at that point, I was getting up at 5 am to do it). I think it levels off because I find I don’t need as much sleep as I once did.
I’ve always needed a lot of sleep, though – I try to go to bed between 9 and 10 pm and I usually spontaneously wake up between 6 and 6:30 am. I have never been able to sleep particularly late (sleeping in until 7:15 is late for me) and I can’t nap during the day unless I am sick or suffering from a migraine.
I also find I need to eat more protein since I’ve been exercising regularly. Maybe protein helps keep a person alert?
I also find that now that I’ve been exercising regularly for about half my life:
– I don’t have as many insomniac nights as I formerly did
– If I can’t exercise for several days (e.g., injury or traveling in such a way that exercise is inconvenient) I get crabby and anxious.
– I do have to consciously drink enough water, especially in the summer.
– I can touch my toes again. I discovered that by accident – dropped something and bent right over to pick it up and was like “hey, I’m flexible again” (This only came after I added an exercise dvd with more core/flexibility training to it, in addition to the plain cardio I regularly do)
– Far, far fewer digestive issues. I actually started exercising b/c my doctor was worried about my gall bladder. (I still have it)
I think for me exercise helps to bleed off some “nervous energy” – I am naturally kind of an anxious, “high alertness” sort of person and to be “normal” I need to get regular exercise. (If I couldn’t exercise I’d probably have to be on some low level of anti-anxiety meds.)Report
I’m going to spend my weekend at the Liberty Swing Dance Championships in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey.Report
Wait, this means you’re back from Europe.
WE NEED A FULL REPORT!!!Report
I’m a sleep-aholic anyway so I don’t notice needing more when I exercise. I do have higher quality sleep when I exercise, so if I have to exercise in order to enjoy my favorite hobby a little more, so be it!
Now I really want to eat cheesecake. I’m at the really crappy part of pregnant where you experience all of the discomfort possible and the only cure is to give birth. Oh, but don’t worry because everyone around you clearly knows you’re uncomfortable and will offer the incredibly unhelpful advice that “it will all be over soon”. If you call four weeks “soon”…
My mom had both of her hips replaced Thursday so I’m bringing her home today. Maybe I can nurse her back to health with cheesecake. 😉Report
Co-worker is a week overdue. We’re all holding our breath.
The Kroger-brand no-bake cheesecake ain’t bad, if all you want to do is make a cheesecake in about 5 minutes (well, you have to chill it for an hour or so). If you use heavy whipping cream instead of 2%, it doesn’t even taste like it came from a box.Report
Great advice, thank you.
That poor woman! I hope she gets to hold her baby soon, if for no other reason than being able to get out of bed without looking/feeling like a beached whale.Report
My daughter and son-in-law are converting an old dog-ass yellow school bus into a camping vehicle for them, their daughters, and assorted friends. I am four machine screws and nuts short of having version 0.1 of the bus’s entertainment system ready to put in place. A 5-inch touch screen, 15×2-watt audio amp, 320 songs, 5 kid movies, a couple of little-kid apps, and a Raspberry Pi computer to tie it all together. Lord knows what the feedback will be and what the next version will have to include.Report