As I wrote earlier, I’m communicating with my Higher Self. A lot has happened since the last post. The most important one is that I’ve went from being a negative soul to a positive one, which means I get my energy from “source” instead of other people. That means a lot to me, since it was my primary motivation when I bought the book. My HS and I have also made a training plan that’s aligned with my goal of being healthy and fit.

The plan is part of my 30-day trial, starting in January 2010, as early as possible. Here it is:

Monday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Swimming; 7 minutes warm-up, then interval training (4 minutes, then 1 minute of slow swimming) for 25 minutes. Stretching.

Tuesday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running; same as the swimming, except I run (preferably barefoot, actually).

Wednesday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Weightlifting for 25 minutes – 9 for strength, and 16 for endurance. Stretching.
• Swimming.

Thursday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running.

Friday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Swimming.

Saturday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running.

Sunday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Weightlifting.
• Swimming.

We’ve also decided a sleep schedule for me. I will get up at 5:00 in the morning, and go to sleep when I’m tired. Talking to my HS is so much fun! I love her (my soul works primarily with feminine energies, thus she’s a “she”) very much. Actually, since she’s me, I love myself very much, and that’s awesome. :) Time to get to work on the Third Pillar of Health!

I’ve already started this somehow, but now I’m doing it publically. I will get up at 6:30 for 30 days. This means I’ll have to go to bed at around eleven, or even earlier, although I will simply go to bed when I’m tired. I don’t imagine it will be very hard – I’ve been an early riser before, and as early as at 5:00 for a long time.

This is the return of my old project, where I wanted to first fix my sleep, then my diet, and finally exercise. This time I’m back with my diet in order, and a fourth pillar of health. ;) I’m exercising as well, but it has the lowest priority at the moment. The love seems to be fine as well, but I will probably do some sort of 30-day trial on that too. So, right now I’d say that my diet project is successful – one down, three left. :)

The detailed rules for this 30-day trial are:

• I am allowed to take naps. However, I have to wait at least 1,5 hours between waking up and going back to bed, except between 10:30 pm and 6.30 am.
• No matter when I take naps, I have to be awake from 6:30 to 8:00.
• At 11:00 pm, I am not allowed to stay awake if I’m tired, except if I just woke up from a nap, in which case the limit is pushed back 1,5 hours at most.

I have conquered the second pillar of health. Now I’m going for the first one.

(Updated 20. September 2009 – added a fourth pillar.)

About three years ago, I actively started caring about my own health. I had almost no clue about health, so I started running three times a week. It made me better at running, but health isn’t measured by how well you run. However, this post isn’t about that. It’s about how I presently see health.

“Four Pillars of Health” have nothing to do with the pillars of the European Union, I simply think it’s a good way of putting it. :) All four need to be taken care of, because if you neglect even one, it might come back to haunt you. (Update 23.09.09:) Note that the pillars aren’t arranged in order of importance. They were, but I realized that they are simply important in different ways. I now view them as equally important.

The first pillar: Sleep

I see sleep as the most important pillar. I have done a lot of sleep experiments, and I find that sleep is the most important pillar regarding how I feel overall. There are different ways of sleeping, ranging from the most basic ones, like free running sleep, to the most complex ones, like uberman. I have tested some, but not all. Some are so difficult that I haven’t gotten to testing them properly yet. Perhaps I never will. The ones I have had luck with are varieties of monophasic and biphasic sleep. I haven’t been able to test anything really longterm, though.

The second pillar: Food

Food is incredibly important. To many, it’s only a matter of weight – I once heard from a sports guy that exercise was so great because you could eat what you want without getting fat. To me, food isn’t about being fat or not. It’s about quality of life for myself and others. The way I see it, what does the body good tend to also do the environment good, like organic food. Good food, like fruit and vegetables, is also sustainable. So, my rule of thumb is that if it’s not sustainable, I shouldn’t eat it. Sometimes I have no choice, though. The way things are organized right now doesn’t open for much organic agriculture – vote your local green party to fix it. ;)

Remember, when it comes to food, what’s important is definitely not only what you put in – equally important is what you leave out. If your goal is to eat healthier, leaving out milk products and refined sugars is where you should start, as well as red meat. My opinion is that our ability to digest meat is simply a survival technique – we don’t really need it, and it’s not very sustainable. And yes, fish is meat as well. Concerning taste, it’s something you get used to. It is possible to eat delicious, yet healthy food – and it is possible to live a great life without chocolate and potato chips.

The third pillar: Exercise

Exercise is nice, but it’s a pillar I have little experience with. The best exercise is to keep relatively active most of the time you spend awake. That’s better than spend your time sitting on a chair and exercise occasionally, but many of us don’t really have that option. Going for walks is a nice thing to do instead – most people can do it, too. “Real” exercise is nice as well – especially if you have fun while doing it.

The fourth pillar: Love

After I first wrote this post, my dear Rose reminded me that physical health is affected by mental health as well. I have only lately come to realize what a wonderful thing love really is, but it certainly makes sense to give it its own pillar. With love, I mean all kinds of love: physically expressed love (touching, sexual…), friendship, self-love, loving what you do, emotional balance, etc. – I guess you can think of even more. :) One of the most important reasons I can think of for including the pillar of love, is because my goal is quality of life. Love improves the quality of life, as well as health. :)

Why I’m interested in health:

People often assume that my interest in health is for longevity. I even hear “I’d rather die young and happy than die old and ascetic”. This is not the case. I pursue health for quality of life (and I’ve gotten some unexpected bonuses along the way, like less body odour and a girlfriend). :) In my experience, people who say this seem to assume that I am denying myself happiness, and that, say, eating pizza, not exercise, or wake up in the morning feeling like crap will make them happy, but make them die earlier. However, eating a standard western diet won’t necessarily make you happy – maybe you’ll enjoy each meal (which I do too, even though I’m raw!), but you’ll also open the doors for all kinds of diseases as you grow older. Why go for temporary happiness when you can make it last? :)

OK, two days, and I suddenly oversleep… I think my whole body is tired by the idea of knowingly getting so tired, and just gives up. I have decided to go biphasic for a while, and try polyphasic again when my life is more polyphasic friendly.

After all of my attempts at polyphasic sleep, I’ve gained quite a bit of experience regarding how to avoid oversleeping. In this post, I’ll share some of the methods I’ve tried, and a few ideas for new ones.

The Methods That Just Work

Have a friend wake you up. This is, in my experience, the ultimate way to go. The reasons for this are many:

• You will wake up.
• You are probably going to be like a zombie for 5–10 minutes.
• You might feel more motivated.

Note that a friend can keep you awake too, which is an added bonus.

Methods That Might Work:

Putting on several alarms. This also comes with added bonuses:

• You might wake up someone else to come and wake you up.
• You won’t want that second/third/etc. alarm to go off.

I did well when I used one regular alarm and one incredibly loud one. The reason was that the loud one would wake up the whole house. (It never got the chance.)

Sleep in a chair (NOT in a couch!). This one is quite good. I never overslept in a chair. The drawback was that the zombie me would walk over to the couch once the alarm shut up. Better than sleeping in a bed, though.

Methods That Haven’t Been Tested Yet:

Have some fruit waiting for you. I think this one sounds promising. Eating passes the time, and the sugar in fruit should kick you awake – great for passing the zombie state. I think grapes would work well, as well as (peeled) oranges – easy to eat, and full of carbs.

Put an alarm under a box. I kinda tried this out, but I never got to test it in a zombie state. I think the logic required to turn off the alarm should force you to become more awake. At least you’d pass the time a little.

Have someone call you right after you’ve woken up. It can be irritating to talk to a zombie, or to talk as a zombie. You should be forced awake, nonetheless.

I think the best would be a combination of all of the above. That’s what I plan on trying.

Please submit your own suggestions! They shouldn’t be too complex, considering the state of tiredness associated with a polyphasic attempt.

OK, I’ve ended the experiment for now. It was a pain in the ass to go to school and stay awake in those classes, I failed virtually every night because of some stupid mistake, and I ended up doing a horrible history test (at least I think so – I’ve yet to see the results).

Tonight, I decided to play it safe and go to sleep at 3:40, so I would wake up with Joar. I went to sleep in a chair – and woke up in the couch around 5:30, with the cell phone (which I’d hidden behind an exercise bike) lying on the table, and both my alarms on the computer turned off.

So – where was Joar? I checked his room, and he was asleep. He’d forgotten to set the alarm. He even asked why I hadn’t woken him up! This made my motivation disappear. When I try again in the easter holiday, I’ll make a checklist to make sure I take care of things like these.

Today, I’ve been sleeping like this for two weeks. I had a the worst night ever tonight – great timing. I’ve decided to stick to polyphasic if I don’t fail this week-end. If I do fail, I’ll try again in the next holidays.

Night (am):

I checked the sound, put on three alarms, and went to sleep in the usual chair. When I woke up in the couch (!) three hours later, and noticed my computer was muted. This is the last time (in quite some time, at least) I go to sleep just after midnight. I’ll wait until 3:40am, so Joar will wake up with me.

Morning:

As if the night wasn’t bad enough, I slept for about an hour after Joar went to Vatland. >.< The next time I feel that tired, I will go out and over to grandma’s. She’s up pretty early, and drives me to the bus anyway.

At the bus, I was way too demotivated to stay awake, so I slept for at least ten minutes. For the first time ever, I managed to (unconsciously) fall asleep in the aula at school:

slept for ~10 min, and woke up just in time for class. The others should have woken me up, though.

A note on my clothes, by the way: I am a pacifist, so why do I wear a military uniform? Five reasons:

1. I like the colours.
2. My clothes don’t make me who I am.
3. They’re comfortable.
4. They’re used and cheap.
5. Why not?

Day:

Nothing to note, other than the fact that I slept in both buses on the way home, too.

Evening:

Nothing to note, but I’ve eaten the same kind of meal as yesterday.

I’m going to try a (dangerous) reward tactic instead of the failed punishment. I’m going to allow myself to have rice and beans – ONCE! Rice (brown) and beans are an addiction of mine, and I have impressed myself in staying away from them in the past – that was the hardest part of going raw. Now I’ll use it as a tactic to keep me going for five consecutive nights and days, and then allow myself to taste it again.

Night (am):

I wrote the wrong file path, and thus didn’t wake up. :( Now I’ve made an alias. It’s tested and works. Why didn’t I do that before?

Morning:

I slept ~5 min. at the “wake” bus, but it wasn’t continually, so I don’t know if it even matters.

Day:

I had nothing to do, and I was all alone, so I slept for ~5–10 min. in the study area at school. Sleeping at school sucks because it’s so uncomfortable. As usually I slept wonderfully at both buses.

Evening:

I had my best raw meal ever! Mashed avocado, salad, and mushrooms with olive oil and salt, everything mixed well together.

I’m going to try a (dangerous) reward tactic instead of the failed punishment. I’m going to allow myself to have rice and beans - ONCE! Rice (brown) and beans are an addiction of mine, and I have impressed myself in staying away from them in the past - that was the hardest part of going raw. Now I’ll use it as a tactic to keep me going for five consecutive nights and days, and then allow myself to taste it again.

Night (am):

I wrote the wrong file path, and thus didn’t wake up. :( Now I’ve made an alias. It’s tested and and works. Why didn’t I do that before?

Morning:

I slept for ~5 min. at the “wake” bus, but it wasn’t continually, so I don’t know if it even matters.

Day:

I had nothing to do, and I was all alone, so I slept for ~5-10 min. in the study area at school. Sleeping at school sucks because it’s so uncomfortable. As usual, I slept wonderfully on both buses.

Evening:

I had my best raw meal ever! Mashed avocado, salad, and mushroom with olive oil and salt, everything mixed well together.

Night (am):

As mentioned, I fell asleep, but woke up after only two hours. The rest of the night went great, as I had Rosine to talk to and Joar woke up at 4.

Morning:

I ate some fruit on the bus, so I stayed awake today as well. I slept very heavily on the second bus.

Day:

During the first period, Norwegian, I felt very tired for a while, but it passed. I slept heavily on the bus home.

Evening:

All is well. :) When I’m alone, I’ll sit on the stool, but for now, the couch will do.

Morning:

Today I’m happy Joar was there for me! I was so tired this morning, I wouldn’t stand a chance alone. I managed to stay awake at the first bus by playing with the “mkdir” and “rmdir”. I slept at the other one, as planned.

Day:

At school, I tried to sleep during study period, but it lasted five minutes at most. I had an uncomfortable position.

Night:

Everything went fine until between 1 and 2 am. I slept for ~2 hours. :(