Result...........

Leading a healthy lifestyle is actually an easy job... However, not much people can follow the plan due to many factors such as work, stress and habits. From the start, I've set my goal in changing my lazy and decadent lifestyle into a healthy one. To me, healthy lifestyle means that I'm having a proper diet and enough sleep every day. Besides that, I've been hoping that the changing can in a way or another improves my sinus condition. According to my plan, I'll cut down having meals outside by cooing at home, try to monitor my sleeping time and have enough sleep, and do some exercise which is swimming. I chose swimming because swimming is good for asthma.

But then things did not really go by plan... The major problem I met is the sleeping problem. Due to the habit of sleeping late for quite a long time, it's hard for me to suddenly change my sleeping time. Plus all the stress I'm facing from the assignments and tests, it made things more difficult. Just as I re-timed by biological clock, something else turn up which is I tend to wake up in the middle of the night and even though I slept, I still feel very tired when I wake up.... I feel as if I've never slept that whole night. This had affected me a lot especially on my daily duty. I feel very sleepy in class and can't concentrate well, not to mention the headache and irritation of my eyes. Moreover, I got sick very easily and honestly, this is the worst semester I've ever had..... I've almost been sick for this whole semester and seem to be visiting the doctors and taking medicine non-stop.... Flu, cough, fever...... Even until now I was still coughing and most of the time I feel like coughing my lungs out....

Still...... there are some good results also..... I was able to cut down the amount of meals taken outside... Thanks to my housemates who are willing to join me with the plan.... It is good for them also anyway... haha... and also the swimming plan..... To fulfill my plan, the supports of my friends are really important to me... They are the source of my motivation and also my energy... A moderate amount of peer pressure can actually cause good result.. Throughout the plan, peers played a role in monitoring each other and reminding each other of our goal. When we feel down or have the thoughts of giving up, peers are important in cheering us up and give us the confident and hope to go on with our plan... Thus, really a million thanks to my housemates..... Thank you so much guys... ^^

Although the due date for this project has reached but my plan of leading a healthy lifestyle would not stop here... My ultimate goal of the plan had not been reached and I'm going to continue with it.... Cheers for me.... ^^

Sleep Test......

I found a webpage online where we could do a simple "sleep test" and guess what's my result???

Sleep Test Results

This test may help you recognize and detect symptoms of sleep disorders. The test is intended as a general source of educational information and does not contain medical advice. It should not be used for diagnosis or treatment. Getting an evaluation by your own personal physician is the best way to determine if you have a sleep/wake disorder.

Your Sleep Test Results

You show symptoms of insomnia, which is defined as a persistent inability to fall asleep or stay asleep.

You show symptoms of narcolepsy, a life-long disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks during normal waking hours.

T-T..... Pity me.....

Here's the webpage... You guys can try it also....
Sleepnet.com

I've even found some sleeping tips... Hope this could help....

• Sleep is as important as food and air. Quantity and quality are very important. Most adults need between 7.5 to 8.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. If you press the snooze button on the alarm in the morning you are not getting enough sleep. This could be due to not enough time in bed, external disturbances, or a sleep disorder.

• Keep regular hours. Try to go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time every day. Getting up at the same time is most important. Getting bright light, like the sun, when you get up will also help. Try to go to bed only when you are sleepy. Bright light in the morning at a regular time should help you feel sleepy at the same time every night.

• Stay away from stimulants like caffeine. This will help you get deep sleep which is most refreshing. If you take any caffeine, take it in the morning. Avoid all stimulants in the evening, including chocolate, caffeinated sodas, and caffeinated teas. They will delay sleep and increase arousals during the night.

• Use the bed for sleeping. Avoid watching TV or using laptop computers. Know that reading in bed can be a problem if the material is very stimulation and you read with a bright light. If it helps to read before sleep make sure you use a very small wattage bulb to read. A 15 watt bulb should be enough. Bright light from these activities may inhibit sleep.

• Avoid bright light around the house before bed. Using dimmer switches in living rooms and bathrooms before bed can be helpful. (Dimmer switches can be set to maximum brightness for morning routines.)
• Don't stress if you feel you are not getting enough sleep. It will just make matters worse. Know you will sleep eventually.

• Avoid exercise near bedtime. No exercise at least 3 hours before bed.

• Don't go to bed hungry. Have a light snack, avoid a heavy meal before bed.

• Bedtime routines are helpful for good sleep. Keep routines on your normal schedule. A cup of herbal tea an hour before bed can begin a routine.

• Avoid looking at the clock if you wake up in the middle of the night. It can cause anxiety. This is very difficult for most of us, so turn the clock away from your eyes so you would have to turn it to see the time. You may decide not to make the effort and go right back to sleep.

• If you can't get to sleep for over 30 minutes, get out of bed and do something boring in dim light till you are sleepy.

• Keep your bedroom at comfortable temperature. Not too warm and not too cold. Cooler is better than warmer.

• If you have problems with noise in your environment you can use a white noise generator. A old fan will work or you can buy noise machies from many sources.

• Know that the "night cap" has a price. Alcohol may help you to get to sleep but it will cause you to wake up throughout the night. You may not notice it. (It is worse if you have sleep apnea because the alcohol makes the apnea worse.) Sometimes people snore only if they have had some alcohol or may snore worse if they already snore.)

• If you have a sleeping partner, ask them if they notice any snoring, leg movements and/or pauses in breathing . Take this information and try the sleep test. You may have a sleep disorder or you may just need to increase your awareness about your own sleep need. If you have any concerns see your doctor.

Ps: I'm not sure whether the test is accurate or not but it's worth trying...... ^^

still SLEEPING PROBLEM!!!!!

OMG!!!!! Is it because of stress or what, I don;t know.... cause my problem now is not that i can't sleep early but is the problem of waking up in the middle of my sleep.... This never happened before in my life (my friends call me sleeping pig.. =P)..... After waking up, I'll have to keep turning on my bed for quite sometimes to get back to sleep.... What's the matter with me????

Others activity in my "changing" plan are not that hard to follow up.. Just the sleeping behavior... With the help from my housemate, I now cook at home more than eating outside and they help to watch over my diet. With their motivation I can go along with my plan without dropping it halfway.... Thanks guys.......

Sleeping Problem!!!!!!

Habit is really a scary thing.... Once you are used to something, someone or a situation..... you are dead.... You'll be tied to it... Its so hard to change one's habit... My case now is...... I CAN"T SLEEP THE TIME I WANT TO SLEEP!!!!!! I tend to sleep quite late before I started my "changing" plan... now I'm trying to sleep early (as it is part of the healthy lifestyle) but I can't.... haiz.... Even though I made myself to be tired so that I can sleep early but my eyes just won't close...until the time I used to sleep before.... It seems like they got their own will...What to do??? Anyone got any idea??? TEACH ME!!!!!!

Hello~~~

Hi everyone.. Finally..... My blog finally settled down.... hehe... The title of my blog is Healthy Lifestyle~~~ Just as what my title stated, the ultimate goal of this blog is to guide me through a serial of steps into leading a healthy live.

As far as i know, many people nowadays are leading a very stressful and unhealthy live due to many causes, including lack of time or exhaustion after whole day work. For student, the most common thing is sleep late at night (include me, myself =p) and thus not having enough sleep. Sleeping hour and sleeping quality had been proven to be related in influencing people's working performance. The most recommended sleeping hours is in between 6 to 8 hrs per day. Sleeping too much or too little was both discouraged. However, I really wonder how many time did I really fulfill that criteria as most of the time I either sleep too much or not enough sleep.. hehe...

The second problem that a student face is imbalanced diet or imbalanced nutrition intake. This is because most of them are living outside, away from home, just like myself. Due to lack of time, exhaustion after all the works and also laziness, many off them are having their meals outside. The food out there are mostly full with ajinamoto and oily. Plus due to the price problem, we only eat a certain kind of food only such as either only meat or only vege. Even if we buy ingredient from Giant, the kind of food that we cook is also limited especially when we are eating alone. We can't really cook a lot of variety.

My current lifestyle is just one of the example of an un healthy lifestyle. I does not fulfill the sleeping criteria and eat outside too much. I think my biggest problem should be lack of exercise. Whenever I got the time, I'd rather hide in my room reading my novels or watch my animations. I can lock myself in the room for the whole week if I can, feeding just on maggie mee and bread... hehe..... Actually this is not good for my health especially for my nose. I've sinus problem and minor asthma, staying in a room with poor air ventilation will only worsen it's condition. Besides that, I actually got seven rabbits in my house. hehe.... I'm not allowed to rare pets due to my nose as their fur will just add on the trouble but they are soooooo cute.... (you guys should see them.. haha..)

So..... taking this assigment as an opportunity, I will try to change my lifestyle into a healthy lifestyle. The very first thing I wanna change is to fulfill the sleeping criteria. Basically all of my class will start on 9.30am and I'll need half n hour to prepare and another half n hour to walk to sch, I'll have to wake up at 8.30am. SO...... to fulfill the criteria, I have to sleep at least by 12.30am. haiz.... guess I just have to force myself to sleep... and starting from this week I'll try to cook every meal myself at home. Now that I got housemate to eat together with me, my selection of food is more.. Even if I can't cook myself, I'll try to eat more fruits and some other supplements to balance back my diet..

Moreover, I'll try to exercise more. My plan is to go swimming. By this, not only that I can exercise but I can also train my breath which is good for my asthma. For last few sem I've been feeling tired when I walk from home to class, so I hope by training my breath and energy, this symptom will turn better...

OK..... I'll stop here for now..... Please look forward for my progression in my plan.....

PS: dun forget to leave some comment for me ya..... =)