WW and Sleep Numbers

My daughter and her kids (kids…HA…one starts college in the fall, one is a rising senior and her son has grown 4 inches since I saw him a Christmas and sounds like James Earl Jones when he speaks…sigh) came to visit this weekend and they were just what I needed to recharge my batteries and get in some much needed hugs. My daughter and I chatted about Weight Watchers which she joined in April and which I joined last March. Unlike me, who stopped my membership in late May, she has continued and to date has dropped 30 pounds. She looks phenomenal.

And I am totally jealous.

We laughed because I said that I had only lost 15 lbs. in approximately the same amount of time and that I hated her. To be fair I have kept it off since quitting amid my craziest work time of the year filled with catering and evening events so there’s that. (Lame, I know.) It was also serendipitous that she showed up looking so good because I was just telling the hubs last week that it was time for me to get back to meetings, eating well and tracking. So on Saturday night I signed up again.

Then I proceeded to eat my face off.

Saturday, Sunday and even Monday (I had the day off) consisted of nothing but sugar, sugar and more sugar in my belly. We had a vanilla pound cake brought home on Friday…breakfast, snack, lunch. There were chocolate chip cookies in the cabinet that the hubs keeps to nosh on (because HE can moderate)…snack and lunch and snack. And lest you think I didn’t eat ANYTHING healthy I had dinner on Saturday night which is this buffalo chicken pasta casserole that is to die for and I had seconds. I never have seconds. And come to think of it, it really isn’t THAT healthy since I used regular pasta and full fat cheese. Then yesterday I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry’s…all by myself.

I’m paying for all that poor eating.  I have felt like crap these last few days. Sluggish. Headachy. Aches and pains. Just plain yucky. It happens when I fill my body with poison. But when I eat well I feel…well…WELL. So off we go. We’ll see where it takes me but at least I’ll be eating well and have some accountability. Plus the app is really cool.

Any of you ever slept on a Sleep Number bed? I have – twice. Once I was drunk so who knows how I slept but once I was dead sober and I can honestly say it was the best night’s sleep I have ever had. It was about 5 or so years ago but I’ve never forgotten how good I felt the next morning. Now it’s time for the hubs and me to buy a new mattress. We’ve been nursing ours along for the last two years or so with toppers and sleeping on the actual hard side of the mattress but now my hips are killing me at night (side sleeper) and I’m just not sleeping well so we’ve begun shopping.

Before I move on, I’d like to say that I hate mattress shopping. I’d rather shop for bathing suits and jeans than shop for mattresses. They are ALL over priced. The industry is rigged so that it is impossible to comparison shop and there is no way that 30 seconds on a mattress is going to tell you whether or not you’ll be able to sleep. In a word or three?  It sucks ass.

Anyway, we’re looking at a couple of options.

Casper mattresses – These are foam mattresses that come in a box, delivered to your door. We’ve toyed with the idea of a memory foam mattress for years after enjoying a memory foam topper on our bed which neither of us thought we would since they can be hot and we sleep COLD. Casper has some cooling technology that is supposed to eliminate some of that. Bottom line is that they are affordable at $950 for a king size mattress and, and this is the best part, you can sleep on it for 120 days and if you don’t like it, they will come to your home and take it away and refund your money. No questions asked. That is a sweet deal. If any of you have any info on these mattresses I’d love to hear it.
The Original Mattress Company – Here in the Carolinas we have this mattress company that physically makes all their mattresses right here. Plus, most of their mattresses are two sided which means they can be flipped and rotated which, if you’re older than dirt like I am, you remember from back in the day. It prolongs the life of the mattress and keeps you sleeping like you did when it was new. They are also quite affordable. We purchased a set for each of our twins this year and the oldest at home purchased a set for himself in the spring. A king sized, mid-range set (box springs included) runs between $900 and $1200. Still very affordable in mattress land BUT, once you’ve taken delivery you own the mattress. They have an exchange policy but honestly it’s not really worth the paper on which it’s written. With this option, we’d better be sure we freaking LOVE this mattress before we leave the store.
The Sleep Number Bed – Like I said…best night’s sleep ever. We spent 90 minutes with this sales lady and I’m sure she thinks we’re coming back to buy this mattress but let me be clear here, while they have a semi-affordable version of a mattress at about $2200 for a king size, the version she wanted us to go home with was…wait for it…OVER $8000!!! And that wasn’t even top of the line! The best of the best was over $14,000! She kept stressing that this was a 25 year purchase and that we’d never have to buy another mattress. No kidding! In 25 years I’ll be 80 and the hubs will be 93! We’ll be lucky if we can FIND the bed much less sleep in it!

I’m not sure which option we’ll choose but you can bet your sweet ass it won’t be an $8000 bed.

Namaste