I've been working on waking up 5 minutes earlier every morning to reach my goal of a 5:00 AM wake-up. I've been doing this for 3 days (started at 5:59 AM), and something I noticed is that when I set my mind to the task of 5 minutes, it's easier to get up even earlier. You sort of just say to yourself, "You know, it's only 9 more minutes, how much more sleep am I actually going to get in 9 minutes?" And then you get up. So each day I have woken up 7-10 minutes earlier than I had targeted. To keep the momentum going, I then tell myself, "Self, you woke up at 5:46, so tomorrow your task is to wake up at 5:41 AM." With the current track I'm on, it might even wind up being 5:30 AM! Overall, I'm ahead of schedule, and that makes me happy.
Waking up early has also led me to be more tired in the evenings. I usually have trouble sleeping as a result of a combination of two things, 1) I have a fear of someone breaking into the house/the door being left unlocked, or dying in a fire, and my father lives with us, and tends to come and go until about 11:00 PM (smoker), and 2) When I'm up due to anxiety, it can be really challenging to calm my mind enough to sleep. For just over 2 years now, I've been averaging 2-4 hours of sleep per night, and then grabbing 8-10 hours on weekends to catch up. However, that seems to be changing! Last night, we put on an episode of X-Files (I've loved this show since the early 90's, and it's one of those series that I enjoy re-watching), and before the episode was even over, my eyes were dropping, and I was falling asleep. I woke up to the wife turning the show off, and I asked, "Did the episode end?" She responded, "Yes, it did." I paused, then asked, "Did they get the bad guy, did they figure out what happened?" Her response, "Umm... no? I thought you were asleep. It's 'To Be Continued...' so we can see what happens tomorrow night." I promptly fell back asleep. I don't recall waking up at all during the night, and according to my Fitbit, I had a fabulous sleep!
Knowing that I'm already pretty drained by the time I get home, which I imagine is a result of my poor lifestyle prior to taking back the reins, factoring in the earlier wake-up, and I am beat! Last night I knew I had committed to yoga, but it was so challenging to get myself geared up to do it. I did it, but my heart wasn't in it, and I was cranky. I'm beginning to recognize what NF says, that motivation is finite, and I should choose wisely. Place less steps between myself and the things that will propel me forward, and more steps between myself and the things that derail me.
Knowing that the first thing I do every morning is pee and weigh myself, last night I put my tights, shirt, and sports bra on the bathroom counter (seeing the scale tends to make me want to move my butt, regardless of what it says), I placed my shoes in the kitchen where I turn on the coffee pot (it auto turns on at 6:00 AM, but I'm up earlier than that, and enjoy a good cup of coffee after my work out to ease into my morning routine) and fill up my water, and then head to the space I work out in. It worked seamlessly. I plan on doing it this evening, but adding a few things. I'm going to pre-fill my water and set the coffee pot to automatically start at 5:00 AM instead of 6:00 AM. Summer is here, and as it gets warmer, I would like to transition my body weight workouts to the backyard. Fresh air always wakes me up!
The strength workout that I've started doing is the NF Body Brigade Level 1. To further measure my progress, instead of doing x body squats, I'm going to see how many body squats I can do in a 30 second period, and so on. This will help me to measure how well I'm doing as the number I can do in a shorter period of time will improve. Once I've managed to hit my max with all the moves the 30 second window, then I'll know it's time to move onto Level 2. Our bodies are antifragile, and so we need to be creating chaos where we can :).
Lastly, the wife and I both agree that it would be best to disconnect our television service. We're going to have to pay out the contract term, but in the long run, it will be worth it. Besides, I didn't hesitate to drop that kind of money on tobacco, so why should it be a big deal to pay it out for bettering our bat cave? Besides, between Netflix, Shomi, and Crave, do I really need more television? Not really.
Overall, I feel great about this week. I still need to find a book to read on sales to up my game at work, and I commit to finding one tonight on Amazon. I'm rocking "Don't Break The Chain" for smoking, fitness goals, food logging, and waking up early. It really feeds into my need to see order and symmetry (OCD?) in objects. It feels almost as good as stacking things! Don't ask...
Remember, #nerdlove is the best love, and happy nerding!
P.S. I see you looking, don't be afraid to comment! I love feedback!
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