Thursday, October 24, 2013

Milestone Check In... More and Less...

So here was my list and my updates:

Drink less wine. I don’t want to stop altogether (I like it too much) but I’m cutting back.
 

I’ve been drinking less. Yeah! I still drink more than I should. I haven’t been as good as going Sunday through Thursday without drinking. It’s more like one night on, one night off. But given where I was before – for me to not be drinking 3 nights out of the week is progress. Sleepy Time tea is my new friend.  

Go to bed no later than 11:00 during the week. There is no reason on work nights to be up later than this.

Not coincidentally my success with this has been on the nights when I’m not drinking. So no wine, sleepy time tea and I’m ready for bed by 11:00. Staying up drinking wine… I must watch Jon Stewart and snort and giggle to everything he says.
 
Get up a little earlier in the morning. (see above) The key to getting up earlier is to fit in a few more tasks.
 

Total FAIL. Turns out it doesn’t matter if I drink wine or tea before going to bed, I still hate getting up in the morning. Especially in the fall when it’s darker, and the window is open and there is that crisp chill in the morning that makes you want to linger in bed. I simply am not a morning person.
 
Run 20 minutes a day a few times a week. Again – nothing crazy here. Baby steps. Easy things I know I can accomplish that are going to help get me in better shape.
 

This is mostly a fail. I have been getting in some long walks. I like to listen to the DBSA podcasts and again it’s been such a beautiful fall it seems wrong to be inside on a treadmill. But I haven’t been as consistent as I need to be.

Cook more.  I’m the opposite of most people. As a single person I cook on Saturdays and Sunday’s when I have time, but tend to eat out during the week. This leads to the wine and extra calories – so if I can find the energy to cook 1 more night a week at home this will help.
 

Success! I’ve been really good about making something on Sunday that gets me at least 2 meals out of the week. Not super healthy, not super bad. A lot of crock pot recipes! And I will say by the time I get to that third… sometimes fourth meal… it’s a little boring. But I’ve limited eating out to 2-3 times a week instead of 4-5 times a week.


So some success and some failure. I still need to drink less. I still need to exercise more. But here is what I’ve learned. If I don’t want to be a morning person – I have to find a way to get in exercise and writing after work. Usually I’m so mentally drained at the end of a day the thought of this is too onerous. But I can’t have it both ways. If I can’t make my mornings more productive – I have to make that 6-8 hour time slot in the evening more productive.

I’ll let you know how I make out next month. Anyone else following us out there? Want to let us know how you are doing?

4 comments:

Eileen said...

I feel your pain about the morning person business. I'm better about it in the summer, in part because it's the only time to run outdoors here. Even though I know how much smoother my day will go, it's still hard to lever my ass out of the cozy bed. I have one friend who is up and out the door every morning at 5:30 to run 5 to 6 miles before she goes to work. She says the key is not thinking. Hear the alarm. Get out of the bed. Go. Sounds simple when she says it, right? It's not so easy in practice.

She's also much thinner than me.

Anonymous said...

Steph, those are great steps forward. I'm with you, nothing, not a drill seargent yelling at me to get out of bed will work to get me up earlier than I have to, so I work out at night... but that's hard too..
The secret is not to sit on the couch till after the workout...

But it's all fricking hard. You deserve a pat on the back.

Maureen McGowan said...

I've tried my whole life to turn myself into a morning person to no avail. But one downside to being self-employed is that I can let it slip and slip and slip.

It's worse in the winter for me too. Not only because it's so cozy in bed, but because I get so few hours of daylight if I sleep in too long...

I've got a new goal. Bed by 1:00 am. Up by 9:00. I know, sounds easy. But both of those are typically hard for me. I was babysitting on the weekend -- up by 7:30 on Sat and Sunday, by 6:00 on Monday to get the kindergartener off to his bus, fed and with lunch... And yet I slept in Tuesday... sigh.

alicethomas said...

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