Early Bird or Night Owl?

Sleep is one of the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle, with 6-8 hours being the recommended amount of sleep you should get per night. I am one who definitely needs at least 7-8 hours of sleep, or you do not want to talk to me. (Same goes if I am extra hungry: either don’t talk to me or get me a sandwich.) However, I sometimes have a problem actually going to sleep because I’m so wide awake at night. Night is when I flourish…when I’m productive and want to get work done. In the mornings, all I want to do is go back to sleep and I waste a lot of time being slow and as un-productive as possible. I try to go to the gym in the mornings because that always wakes me up and then I get more done during the day. (Another good reason to workout.)

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Needless to say, I’m a definite night owl. No in between. The problem with this is that my brain is so attentive and active at night that it’s hard for me to go to sleep sometimes. Then when I get up between 7 and 8… whenever Yannick (the child that I am an au pair for) wakes up, I’ve hardly slept, and there goes my routine for the week. It makes me wish I was one of those people, like Rachael Ray, that claims they only need 4 hours of sleep at night. Imagine how much you could get done! But even though they say they only need 4 hours… is that healthy? I wonder. Does their body really need more, but their brain doesn’t register that fact? I’m not exactly an expert so I have no idea.

I always try to make sure that I get a good amount of sleep. For one, I love sleeping. And two, it’s good for you. It resets all your buttons and helps your weight stay consistent. But if I could choose, I would choose to be an early bird rather than a night owl because that’s the way the world works. The world operates on an early bird schedule: schools, businesses…most open at 8. What I want to know is: who decided this? Are there more early birds in the world than night owls? Why can’t we operate on a night owl schedule where nothing starts until at least 10 in the morning and we go to bed at 1 in the morning? That would give early birds a nice, relaxing morning with a slow breakfast and maybe a morning run. More importantly, it would let us night owls get our proper amount of sleep.

Who’s with me?

Balanced Obsessions

I’m one of those people that finds something they like, and then eats/listens/watches/does said thing 348204 times until the obsession wears off and they either become bored or sick of it. When I find a new song I like, I play it for weeks and weeks until I can’t listen to it anymore. When I discovered how awesome Dexter is (for real, so.freaking.awesome.), I watched all 5 seasons in about 2 weeks. This sickness also applies to food, hence the “eat” in my first sentence.

Since moving to Germany and finding out that Kiwis are only about $0.19 here (!!!!!) compared to the roughly $0.99 in America, I cann’t get enough. I usually eat at least two a day. Not that I’m complaining, because they’re one of the healthiest and nutrient-dense fruits you can eat (click here to learn all about their nutrition). I could be eating much worse things. The bad part of this equation is that when I go back to America, I’m going to have to ration my kiwi intake by about half. Maybe that’s why I’m scarfing them down like they’re about to become extinct (if fruit could become extinct). Or go out of style (if fruit was a style…you know, for people other than Carmen Miranda). (Why do none of these cliches work for fruit?) Now, I’ve been eating a whole lot of kiwis since I’ve been in Germany since August, and haven’t started to get tired of them yet. Only when I decide to eat two in one sitting do I sometimes get tired of them. But they’re just so delicious; it’s hard to eat only one! Don’t you think? Plus, they’re so pretty. They have to be the prettiest fruit…although I might be biased since my favorite color is green. The exact color green of kiwis. Come to think of it… why is there no crayon or paint-chip  named Kiwi Green? I’ve never seen one, and if a fruit ever deserved a crayon or paint-chip named after it, it’s a kiwi. But I digress…

On to my current vegetable obsession: sweet potatoes! I’ve honestly just now started liking sweet potatoes. As a wee one, I never liked potatoes. My family swore there was no way I was a Campbell and didn’t like potatoes. My starch of choice was mac and cheese. But as I grew older, I started liking potatoes more. Sadly, sweet potatoes remained outside my repertoire, much to my mom’s disappointment, her being the designated sweet-potato-casserole-bringer to our Thanksgiving. As everyone knows, however, your taste buds change as you get older, and I now can not get enough of sweet potatoes. Unlike kiwis, they are actually a lot more expensive here in Germany than in the states. I don’t think they’re used much. In fact, the family I live with had never eaten them before until I made them for dinner one night. Crazy, right? I’ve been eating so many of them lately, especially since they’re so good for you, I’m kind of starting to get sick of them. I think they might be one of those things you can eat maybe once a week…for me, at least. So now I’ve decided to stop eating so many in the hopes that I don’t go off them completely before I have time to try my mom’s sweet potato casserole at next year’s Thanksgiving.

In other obsession news, right now…

I’m watching Sex & the City from season 1.

I can’t get enough of this guy’s movies.

I love listening to this soundtrack when I’m going to sleep.

I’m determined to have Michelle Obama’s arms this summer.

I have found the perfect shampoo/conditioner, which unfortunately can only be bought in Germany.

What are your current food (or other) obsessions?

Never Thought You Could Meet Them, Did You?

Who have you met recently?

A guy that grew up next to Rasputin?

Cause the guy that wrote this article did. He was just minding his own business, eating a sandwich with his girlfriend, and this old man starts talking to him about his neighbor while he was growing up in Russia: Rasputin. How is that for an interesting chat over lunch?

It makes you think about how we go through every day in life meeting all of these people, and you never know where they came from. Who they’ve met. Who their grandparents are. These days, most people my age write off older people as boring or lacking in the wits department. But they’re the ones that have stories. They have history and knowledge that people my age can’t even fathom. They remember segregation and Kennedy being shot. They knew what it was like for the TV to stop playing shows at midnight.

This article just blew my mind, being the history nerd that I am (Mom was a history teacher for a long time; I got the bug from her). There was a man still alive in the 1950’s who witnessed Abe Lincoln being shot. Civil War widows still alive into the 21st century. We learn about all of these great historic figures growing up, and learn of them through text books and our teachers. No one thinks there can possibly still be any living person to tell the stories firsthand. Because they happened years ago. Like years and years and years.

Puts things a little more into perspective for me. I need to be asking more questions. What was it like to listen to Roosevelt’s newscast firsthand when he made the speech announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Or what was it like to grow up without Fruit Loops? GASP! The horror! Yes, there might not be anyone NOW that is alive and witnessed Abe Lincoln being shot, but there are people that have witnessed many other parts of history, and before we know it, our chances of asking them will be gone. Then it will be our turn for kids to ask us where we were on September 11th, 2001. Or how we watched TV that wasn’t 3-D.

Point is, next time an old man sits down next to you, start asking questions before writing him off. Learn something.