#ISleepTo Be Amazing

 

richie-sleeping2

Sleep. It is probably my favorite thing to do. Yeah, kids, wife, family, etc. They are all amazing and awesome to be around but sleep, oh sleep, it is quiet. It is relaxing. It is dreamy, literally.

Sleeping is how I reset and recharge my body as well as my mind. It’s important for everyone to get rest. Unfortunately for some it’s easier than others. My wife and I have had plenty of conversations about how “easy” it is for me to fall asleep, while she may lay restless for hours before finally getting just a fraction of sleep she feels like she could have gotten. Enter sleep monitoring.

SleeptrackerWe could wear a special bracelet or some other wearable device but for us, that just doesn’t work. Personally, I don’t think they are fashionable. I’m happy with my nice beautiful watch and don’t need another gadget that I have to charge on my wrist. Beautyrest to the rescue. Their Sleeptracker monitor was a great solution to a specific need. The Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor is super simple to setup. Just place the sensors under your mattress where you sleep (in-line with your pillows), plug the wires into the processor, sync up to the app, and you are ready to go. I was very curious how my data would come back. For forever I have always told my wife that it probably takes me about seven minutes to fall asleep. I never measured this so I was excited to learn that after the first night my “Time To Sleep” was six minutes. Six minutes! That’s awesome! After a few more days my “Time To Sleep” has averaged out to 18 minutes. I think I can get that average back down after using the product more.

The other data provided was incredible. Avg heart rate, breathing rate, efficiency, deep, light and REM sleep times, and more. Since I was already confident in how well I sleep I wasn’t surprised to see good percentages with just about everything. What I was surprised to see is that I don’t sleep as much I as I think I should. On a day when my wife let me “sleep-in,” my data was awesome. I need more days like that.

IMG_8494Because I already feel like I sleep pretty good I wasn’t sure how I could use Beautyrest’s Sleeptracker monitor to improve my sleep but then it happened. So when the unit came in the mail and I got it setup it was a work week, so I wasn’t sure about using the Sleep Cycle Alarm feature. I didn’t want to be late. Typically, I have my alarm clock set for 5:30A.M. and 5:50A.M. (just in case). Most of the time I am hitting snooze from 5:30 all the way to 5:50. This has two repercussions; 1) doesn’t make my wife happy and 2) I sometimes wake up groggy, even though I knew I got plenty of sleep I wasn’t sure why. So I started looking at the graphs in the app. I noticed that a lot of times I am in REM sleep right before I wake up. I read that it is best to wake up when you are in light sleep, so I decided to try out the Sleep Cycle Alarm. Instead of setting an alarm to go off at specifically 5:30, you give it a range of say 5:30-6:00, the Sleep Cycle Alarm will work with the senors and determine when you are at your lightest sleep and sound the alarm at that time. If you are not in a light sleep stage by the end of the range then the alarm will sound regardless.

So with this data I was able to use the Sleep Cycle Alarm to start waking me up during my lightest sleep. In turn I have actually been waking up just a little bit earlier than usual but I feel pretty good when I wake up too. Even though I know I can hit snooze, I don’t and I start my day. I feel so much better because of this change.

As I said earlier, sleeping is how I reset and recharge my body as well as my mind. It’s how I become amazing. If I am tired and groggy, I’m not amazing. Beautyrest’s Sleeptracker monitor is proving how getting a little bit of data can make a difference. When at home I can’t be in a bad mood because I didn’t sleep great or having an alarm go off at the wrong time. The same goes for work. Being as amazing as me just doesn’t happen overnight. It takes precision planning and sleep monitoring.  Oh and that photo at the top. That’s me monitoring my sleep. It’s as easy as that. Credit to my wife for taking the photo. I’m glad she highlighted my nose. Look at the size of that thing. Yikes! #ISleepTo be amazing.

I have partnered with Life of Dad and Beautyrest for this campaign, but my opinions are my own.

BeautyrestSleeptrackerLogo

 

Bouncing Off The Walls Again

IMG_8437Whoa, it’s not just a popular Sugarcult song, it’s my life right now. After a few rounds fighting off the bugs going around it appears as though the kids and myself have started to bounce off the walls. It’s great to feel back to normal and not coughing at the most inconvenient times, (like when you have food in your mouth, or talking to someone)…

I am happy that my family seems to be getting back on track and pushing these bugs out of our house. It had been a rough couple of weeks, getting woken up in the middle of the night to clean up a mess. It wasn’t fun and probably never will be, but you do what you have to do for your kids and you don’t complain.

Seeing my kids out for the count is heartbreaking. Cuddles are in high demand when the kids are sick. So my wife and I soak it up as much as we can. When the kids are feeling fine they never want to cuddle. They want to play and break free. But with sickness, it’s like cuddles are a requirement. So I will take as many as I can get.

A few of those days were pretty rough. Even me and my wife caught a little bit of something. We pushed through and managed to get better quickly but the kids, they took it the hardest this time around.

All in all I am happy everyone is on the mend and things are seemingly getting back to normal. Spring has brought some nice weather with it so I think it’s time to grab the skateboards and get outside to expel some of that pent up energy.

After a battle against sickness, what does your family do to rise back up? Comment below or hit tweet at me!

Accomplishing My #LawnGoals

LawnGoals-Alex

Ah, spring is here and that means it is time to put on my yard pants and get to work on my lawn goals. Each year before winter my wife and I get all of our kids’ toys and put them up so the yard is clear of anything that could damage it during the cold months. We put up houses, cars, sandboxes, slides, and more. It’s a lot of work preparing for winter, but it’s even more work afterwards.

This year I am attempting to crush my lawn goals by getting rid of our bare spots. This requires some prep work and tools and other materials, like grass seed and some straw. I could go the sod route but I chose to grow my own. You could use something like a Cub Cadet Garden Tiller to get your ground ready for your seed. I’m trying to grow some grass, but you could use a tiller to get a veggie or flower garden ready as well. It’s all about what your own lawn goals are.

lawngoals

So after I get my ground worked up I enlist the help of the kids to start spreading some seed. We hopefully got it spread all over so that when it’s time for it to sprout I’m not left with some bare spots. Using a rake I sort of spread the dirt to smooth it out and get the kids to help start spreading straw. They are the best helpers and they did a pretty good job as well. It was fun listening to them point out spots they missed and wanting to make sure they did a good job.

With the seed and straw down it’s time to start getting the toys out and cleaned up along with getting the lawn ready for it’s first mow. We like to use Cub Cadet leaf blower to get the remaining leaves up and off the grass. Because of our large backyard it can take a little bit of extra time. The Cub Cadet helps speed up that process but sometimes we still don’t get them all but we do our best and once the leaves and sticks are all picked up it’s time to fire up the mower and get that fresh cut grass smell going.

LawnGoals-AbbySo now that we have the debris cleared I am ready to get things fresh. Like I said, my backyard is pretty big, so I’m not a fan of push mowing. It takes longer and I just don’t do as good of a job as when I’m using a zero-turn. I am really impressed with Cub Cadet’s RZT L/LX Series. I have tried one out and the comfort and ease of use really makes maneuvering around obstacles as efficient as possible.

Our backyard is our stay-cation. It is where we go to hang out when we want to go outside and just get out of the house. We can run around, let loose, and just have fun back there. Keeping the lawn ready for any sort of family adventure is at the top of my lawn goals list.

 

CubCadet-Logo

#LawnGoals Sweepstakes

Do you have your own #LawnGoals? Enter to win one Cub Cadet RZT L 42 KH Lap Bar Zero-Turn Rider (ARV $2,399.99), hotel accomodations for two, and two tickets to attend an NHRA event this summer 2017! Click here to learn more!

  • To enter capture a photo or video of your yard, tell us how you bring your lawn to life and why your yard is #LawnGoals. Share the post on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #LawnGoals #Sweepstakes or visit www.cubcadet.votigo.com/lawngoals and upload a photo.
  • If your entry is approved, you’ll be entered for a chance to win one Cub Cadet RZT L 42 KH Lap Bar Zero-Turn Rider (ARV $2,399.99), hotel accommodations for two, and two tickets to attend an NHRA event in the summer of 2017.

Show us your #LawnGoals!

Be sure to follow @CubCadet_USA on social media!